Interesting or Crazy Lessons that you've had

[Santiago Golf]

Hi All 

 

So its PGA Championship week

 

Thought it would be fun to hear some the crazy stories people have from their lessons

 

I'm an Instructor and have given my fair share of lessons where what ever I did this person

isn't getting better and I will be honest I have gotten frustrated on the lesson tee a few times

 

Im honest enough to say it and happy to hear any stories from golfers taking lessons or instructors giving crazy lessons

 

lets have fun with this ... judgement free zone 

[Chazb]

I have had a few lessons but for the most part which helped me some and they were only around $50.I find I can find most of what I’m am doing differently than when I could play halfway differently.

My latest eye opener was I used to stand a little bit open and I went back to that which has helped me greatly and I don’t think any instructor would have had me stand open.

[Sp4zRX]

My first golf lesson I had after about 2-3 years of playing in about 2005. The guy had me hit a some balls for a bit to get warmed up as he sat back and took mental notes on me. Then he asked what I was struggling with. I told him left with irons, right with driver. He said, “Ok, try to hit one half as far as you hit the others”. So I took a half swing and hit the ball half as far. He said, “Hmm… that’s weird, normally people hit it further when I ask them to hit half as far.” 
 

The rest of the lesson he just watched me hit balls. No other instruction. Needless to say, I gave up on the idea of a golf instructor. 
 

I never get angry on the course but about 1 year later, I had a meltdown on the course that included cussing and club throwing. I said I QUIT! I didn’t pickup a club for another 15 years. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Sp4zRX

[golfer07840]

Saw a pro once and he says "I'm just going to watch you hit and see where you're thinking is" ok fine. 

 

After hitting a few thin toe hooks he asks me what I thought. So I tell him "well on video, to my untrained eye, I look too far away from the ball." His response? "You think so? Because I'm not sure " 🤦‍♂️

 

Fast forward 10 months to one of Monte's clinics. 

"You need more knee flex and you stand way too far away from the ball..." 

 

Obviously, I wasn't shocked by this. I wanted my 60$ back from 10 months prior. 

[Elkhair]

"swing to right field." I put  my clubs away and left without paying.  These old school idiot coaches who spew the same crap and have no idea about modern coaching. Retire or learn something new.

[otto6457]

Well, I thought I had an interesting lesson back in 2005.

 

I was working with a coach at the time that was part of Hank Haney's staff at the "Golf Ranch" in McKinney, TX.  He was a good guy and he did my game some good. 

 

So I drive up to the place and go to check in.  I am approached by a gentleman that stops me from going in the door.  He asks me my name and why I'm there.  Obviously, this seems a bit unusual to me, but I give him my name and that I have a 3:00pm lesson with my coach.  He opens the door and follows me to the counter where I check in.  My coach came out and took me aside and told me that Tiger was there and that there are some rules for the day that I MUST follow.

 

1. Do not speak to, or engage with Tiger.  No cameras, recording devices, or phones.

2. Do not go down to the west end of the range where all the curtains are erected.  That is completely off limits as that is reserved ONLY for Tiger.

3. Do not speak to, or engage with Tiger.  If in doubt...refer to rule 1 and rule 3.

 

OK, no worries. 

 

We go out on the range for the lesson and the sky is a bit threatening.  I'm warming up and then a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder.  My coach say's we are going indoors.  No worries.

 

The lesson is in full swing and I'm focused and working.  I look up and Tiger is standing at the end of the indoor studio talking with Haney.  Now the stress just went up about 100%.  I try my best to block it out, but I can't help glancing over to see what's going on.  Tiger makes eye contact with me.  Holy crap.  I'm convinced Tiger is watching me take a lesson.  Likely he paid zero attention to my lesson, but "I'm" sure he is grading my swing.  It was very difficult to NOT glance over to see if he's watching.  But I did my best to not look and to try and stay focused.  But my focus was most assuredly diluted.  The lesson was winding down and I looked over and Tiger and Haney were gone.  My coach finalized the video, and we discussed what I need to work on until our next lesson  He told me it was a good session, and he headed out.  I started getting my stuff together and I heard some laughing just outside of the studio.  When I walked out Tiger and several coaches were just chillin' on the deck having a grand time.

 

As I was passing by on my way out, he nodded at me and smiled.  I stayed cool, smiled and nodded back.

 

No doubt that was the most interesting lesson I ever got.

Edited May 23, 2023 by otto6457

[wagolfer7]

2 hours ago, Elkhair said:

"swing to right field." I put  my clubs away and left without paying.  These old school idiot coaches who spew the same crap and have no idea about modern coaching. Retire or learn something new.

 

Wow.  I'd say the teacher got lucky. I'd hate being a teaching pro these days. 

[DLiver]

Most interesting lesson: I had a pro talking to me about grip pressure, and how he didn't know anyone who was a good ball striker that had a grip pressure that was more than 5 on a scale of 10. I worked on this, and just killed the ball. Always in the middle of the club and dead straight. Wow. But it was so hard for me to do. I would inevitably revert to "grip it and rip it," with predictably bad results.

 

This pro also had me practice throwing the club downrange. He would tell me to make a swing (no ball) and throw the club toward the target. It sounded silly, but when I tried it the club would go WAAY left. Once I was able to throw the club down the target line, he had me hit some balls, and I just killed it.

 

Unfortunately, this pro decided to play the Senior Tour. He managed to qualify, and had several very successful years.

[DLiver]

2 hours ago, Elkhair said:

"swing to right field." I put  my clubs away and left without paying.  These old school idiot coaches who spew the same crap and have no idea about modern coaching. Retire or learn something new.

Kinda harsh, IMO. There are a ton of people who come OTT that are helped by that swing thought. But perhaps that wasn't right for you. No worries.

[Elkhair]

25 minutes ago, DLiver said:

Kinda harsh, IMO. There are a ton of people who come OTT that are helped by that swing thought. But perhaps that wasn't right for you. No worries.

you dont solve OTT by swinging to right field.

[iacas]

23 minutes ago, Elkhair said:

you dont solve OTT by swinging to right field.

Are you a lefty? 🤣

[ezra76]

The most interesting was this guy pushing 90 who hung around Triggs here in RI. He'd walk the areas between holes pitching with an old blade iron, sparking up a conversation with anyone who'd listen, several times it was me and he'd tag along our group for hole or 2. 

 

He was there when Snead played there. "You'd never heard a sound like that (Snead striking the ball) but he was a miserable *****"

 

So after a while I asked him what he thought of my swing and agreed to give him a $20 for a little critique. 

 

He had me do a couple practice swings. Obviously he'd seen me hit dozens of shots on the course, and had something in mind already. He literall took my club at the top of my backswing and pushed it what felt like 2feet forward in front of my chest. "Not here... here" ,he said. 

 

The next day I concentrated on a little pause with that club in front of my body. I hit nothing but 2yd. fades all day all over the stick and made 5 birdies. I had 2 really bad holes in row on 14 and 15 and shot 81.

 

I've never bested that day ballstriking, not even close since. I didn't birdie easy holes either. #2 is a dogleg left over 400 and I hit a 5iron to 2 feet there. #17 is uphill 415 and I hit a 4iron to a foot there. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by ezra76

[RichieHunt]

One of my buddies was a helluva stick.  More or less self taught but he used to read the golf magazines all of the time and pick up on them. He was so good that I never saw him hit a shank and I think once for about 2 weeks he had a case of the hooks.  He ended up smashing most of our area's junior golf records and played D-I golf.

 

Anyway, he had been doing something with his swing and it was about the worst golf I had seen him play and I finally got him to admit that he had been going to this one notorious instructor in the area for lessons (for whatever reason I still don't know).

So one time I decided to go with him just to see what was going on.  Before his lesson my friend starts warming up and the teacher comes out of nowhere fast walking to him and yelling 'THAT'S THE WRONG CLUB! THAT'S THE WRONG F#@%*$ CLUB FOR YOU!' and grabs my friends driver (I think it was something like a Founders Club driver and chucks across the range.  I had no clue what the hell was going on.  From there, he would just cuss my friend out every time he hit a bad shot.  I was about to knock the guy out myself.

 

I remember having a lesson with Ted Fort as I was getting back into the game after a long layoff.  I was scheduling lessons about 1x per month but usually making the reservation about a week or so in advance when I started to struggle.  One time I was desperate to get a lesson as I was struggling bad, so he made an emergency case for me and got me in with just 2 days notice.  The night before the lesson I figured it out and then I show up to the lesson, claiming that my game was on life support only to stripe shot after shot.  I kinda felt funny about it, but he said no problem and didn't even charge me.  He just said 'let's take a look at your putting stroke.'

 

Not so much of a lesson story, but after a lesson with George Gankas...me, him and the rest of his guys went to a Mexican Restaurant down the road for lunch.  I rode with George and let me tell you...that's the last time I'll get in a car with that guy.  Probably a 1/4 mile drive to the restaurant and I saw my life flash before my eyes.  Probably shouldn't have expected anything else from him as I couldn't imagine somebody with his personality being a slow, steady driver.

 

The only other one is that I took lessons from one instructor (who won't be named) that was highly respected and was basically teaching me the exact opposite of what really goes on in the swing.  For instance, he wanted me to get my lead wrist into extension in the downswing, particularly in transition, so the face would be open and I could hit a draw.  It was nothing but shanks and huge sweeping hooks with no power from then on in.  Thankfully I saw Brendan Kennedy and he got me straightened out right away.  But even he couldn't believe what I was telling him that I was being taught.  

 

 

 

 

RH

[Tanner25]

Had purchased a three lesson pack from Golf Galaxy. It went well with the first instructor. But, after two lessons, I found out Top Golf recruited him away. Then the next lesson the next pro asked what did the previous guy recommend. At the time, it seemed to bother me. But, then realized it was just a curious question. But, it was interesting that each instructor from the same place had totally different approaches to my swing issues. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Tanner25

[Santiago Golf]

4 minutes ago, Tanner25 said:

Had purchased a three lesson pack from Golf Galaxy. It went well with the first instructor. But, after two lessons, I found out Top Golf recruited him away. Then the next lesson the next pro asked what did the previous guy recommend. At the time, it seemed to bother me. But, then realized it was just a curious question. But, it was interesting that each instructor from the same place had totally different approaches to my swing issues. 

 

Well Golf Galaxy isn't really training instructors how to teach besides showing them how to use the technology available 

[parmark]

Was having trouble with my short game. Lob wedge off tight lies specifically.  My buddy could hit that shot all day.

 

So go to the lesson, and let's say I was having my usual issues  - blading it all over the place.

 

After 20 minutes, he looks at me with a shrug, he's plain out of answers. So he puts his hand on my shoulder and offers up two things:

 

1.  Why don't you just take that club out of your bag.

2. There won't be any charge for my time today!

[Rumzdizzle]

Purchased a package from an older middle aged dude. Nice guy but kinda old school in his methodology. 
 

Couple things I didn’t like… he was teaching me to move my head back (away from target) to start my backswing. I already had issues hitting behind the ball so I needed to really shift my weight forward to get proper contact. Second, when we did a chipping lesson. He taught me to let the club fall into the ball and stop it on the ground. Like no swing after contact, just come to a dead stop… this didn’t make any sense to me, but what do I know I’ve only been playing a couple years.

 

Didn’t sign up for more lessons, prob will look for a new instructor. He did have some nice simulators though but I feel like that’s the only reason I kept going in haha.

 

 

[NewToGolf19]

I took an hour lesson with a guy who didn’t let me swing a club one time. He  talked about his philosophy the whole time. Half way through the lesson I asked if I could hit a couple balls to show him where I was with my swing. He said he could tell the way I held a club that I needed a lot of work and wasn’t ready to swing a club. Interestingly, he felt that I would have a great swing if I signed up for a package of 3 lessons with him. It was a total waste of time, and I still feel taken advantage of that I paid him for the lesson. Needless to say, I didn’t return. 

[Nels55]

I had lessons 40 years ago that got from a 18 to around a 10.  Anyway, the pro taught a swing with a lot of bend from the hips and my back would be killing after a lesson.  The last lesson that I had with him he told me that he wanted my back to be parallel to the ground like I had a bucket of water sitting on it.   

[KD1]

On 5/20/2023 at 5:39 PM, otto6457 said:

 

I was working with a coach at the time that was part of Hank Haney's staff at the "Golf Ranch" in McKinney, TX.

 

 

Do you happen to remember the guy's name?

[betarhoalphadelta]

My wife (at the time, now my ex, for unrelated reasons lol) bought me a lesson pack with a coach. Might have even been via Groupon back then. 

 

Anyway, the coach was a Moe Norman guy. So I spent a bunch of lessons being told I need to swing like Moe. 

 

It didn't stick. 

[otto6457]

7 hours ago, KD1 said:

 

Do you happen to remember the guy's name?

IIRC he was an Australian gentleman named Mark Murphy. 

[cardoustie]

I’ve had lessons from maybe 15 guys, top guys included

 

guy runs a golf lab out of my club, watches me hit 1 shot and tells me what was wrong.  Double looping.  I don’t believe him, puts a Trackman behind me and there it is, 14* inside out with an 8i

[KD1]

59 minutes ago, otto6457 said:

IIRC he was an Australian gentleman named Mark Murphy. 

Ah, okay. I saw a different Haney allum in McKinney a few years ago. Was not impressed...

[larrybud]

On 5/20/2023 at 7:03 PM, DLiver said:

Kinda harsh, IMO. There are a ton of people who come OTT that are helped by that swing thought. But perhaps that wasn't right for you. No worries.

 

It's a bandaid at best. Great way to develop a way big-time miss.

[larrybud]

I've had good and bad lessons. I don't know any were more "interesting" than the others, nothing crazy. Couple of the bad ones had one guy drawing lines on a screen for my setup vs Tiger and wanting me to match Tiger's angles (this is like 2008). Dude, I'm 5'7", with short arms, no way I'm matching Tiger's angles. That was a one and done. He wanted me standing a mile from the ball.

 

Very next guy wanted me to stand so close that I s**** a bunch of balls in a row. Sorry, not doing that, that's not in my shot library almost ever.

 

[golfer07840]

On 5/22/2023 at 5:20 PM, Santiago Golf said:

 

Well Golf Galaxy isn't really training instructors how to teach besides showing them how to use the technology available 

I had a 3 pack of lessons from Golf Galaxy several years ago. In fact I've had 2 of them. 1st one: I was hooking the ball... Badly. He says"swing to right field" -- many years later I stumble upon Monte's video on YouTube talking about how swinging to right field makes the hook worse. 😂

 

2nd 3 pack was about 7 years later. This guy kept telling me "if you want more distance, you need to turn your hips faster." I kept doing that. Got to a point where I was hitting 7i 110 yards. "Don't worry, the distance will come" I was told. 

 

Good Lord 🤦‍♂️

Edited May 29, 2023 by golfer07840

[PedronNiall]

Got a pack of lessons from an instructor a few years back now. One of those who walk the range introducing themselves. Not normally my thing but seemed chill enough and word around the course was he'd spent time with a number of the internationally known coaches picking their brains and watching them work so I gave it a shot. I was also just returning to playing after quite a bit of time off so all the better. 

 

It was nightmare fuel when it comes to producing good results. Grip was adjusted differently pretty much every single lesson. Stance was adjusted multiple times. Plane/hand position at the top of the swing was adjusted differently across lessons. Early wrist set was the only way to go. Grip position was always strengthened despite draws already being my tendency and a left miss being my default when all didn't go well. And on all that is holy, don't ask for the least bit of insight between lessons to make sure you're where you need to be. Guy encouraged players to come in and use the mirrors to check positions, etc., but ask him for more than one bit of confirmation and that was all she wrote, you need to come in for another lesson if you want anymore feedback. 

 

Guy was also huge on contraptions. Had all the buzzworthy speed trainers of the moment and peddled a number of swing aids. Grabbed one that I still think is useful, but he was trying to move gear like it was weight he had a week to get out before he paid the cartels back. 

 

Did my best to take some good from it all but all that did was serve to make me ingrain issues that I had to compensate for and that a later instructor finally helped fix. Solidified for me than the Teacher of the Year accolades are nothing but smoke like the Hot List and that the biggest difference in players emerging with sound swings is their ability to understand what is or isn't working and walk away until they find someone worth their salt. 

 

It's a bit strange how much variance there is in instruction when there are certain relevant keys that should be the foundation for the majority of golfers. I don't get how people get PGA teaching credentials yet do the things discussed in this thread and elsewhere that fail entirely in assuring fundamentals are in place and that lessons produce positive results when the direction shared is followed. It's unfortunately not uncommon to see golfers discussing that they've taken a number of lessons from someone or several someone's yet don't even have so much as a grip that will maintain control over the club. 

 

While golf is a different beast than other sports in many ways, I don't understand the lack of consistency in golf instruction that's present in teaching for soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball, and so on when it comes to imparting fundamentals or assessing what needs to be done to correct basic faults.