Is it customary to tip your pro after a lesson?

[Borthwick]

Thread title says it all.

[Pondy]

I don't think so.

[HoosierGolfer]

[quote name='Pondude' post='1998734' date='Oct 10 2009, 08:59 PM']I don't think so.[/quote]
+2

[lasher]

No he charges enough as it is

[funkyfedora]

I tip my barber and I try and tip my pro but he doesn't want it. (FREE LESSONS) He just wants me to do good. So buying him a pop or candybar in the proshop is a small way to pay him.

[OpusX20]

I was a club pro for 10 years, and never accepted or expected a tip (although only a few offered).

[jak_bot]

I usually give the pro a free sleeve of Pro-V1's after a lesson.

[Tmiller72]

No decent PGA Professional would accept a tip if offered.

[wehttam13]

They are there to give you tips, not the other way round. oj

[j-rob]

[quote name='jak_bot' post='1998797' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:28 PM']I usually give the pro a free sleeve of Pro-V1's after a lesson.[/quote]

Wouldn't that be like giving the guy who changes your tires a set of lug nuts as a tip?

I'm just joking of course.

[jak_bot]

[quote name='j-rob' post='1998834' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:51 PM'][quote name='jak_bot' post='1998797' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:28 PM']I usually give the pro a free sleeve of Pro-V1's after a lesson.[/quote]

Wouldn't that be like giving the guy who changes your tires a set of lug nuts as a tip?

I'm just joking of course.
[/quote]


As was I

[j-rob]

[quote name='jak_bot' post='1998839' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:54 PM'][quote name='j-rob' post='1998834' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:51 PM'][quote name='jak_bot' post='1998797' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:28 PM']I usually give the pro a free sleeve of Pro-V1's after a lesson.[/quote]

Wouldn't that be like giving the guy who changes your tires a set of lug nuts as a tip?

I'm just joking of course.
[/quote]


As was I
[/quote]

Well then...

[mont86]

[quote name='jak_bot' post='1998839' date='Oct 10 2009, 08:54 PM'][quote name='j-rob' post='1998834' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:51 PM'][quote name='jak_bot' post='1998797' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:28 PM']I usually give the pro a free sleeve of Pro-V1's after a lesson.[/quote]

Wouldn't that be like giving the guy who changes your tires a set of lug nuts as a tip?

I'm just joking of course.
[/quote]


As was I
[/quote]

lol..I was going to add that giving a pro a sleeve of balls is like buying a pimp a piece of a@@.LOL

[wholeinwon]

I've received one tip. It was a family of 4, I spent a lot of extra time with them, a lot of juggling schedules, making time, etc. They ended up tipping me $100 after the 12 hours of lessons I gave them.

I said no to the tip, I explained to them how I got paid for the lessons, etc. yet they insisted I take it so I did.

I NEVER ever expect a tip after a lesson, or lesson pack or anything. I also have rejected a few tips where I politely said no thank you, usually these people don't realize that the $60-$100 they spend on one lesson goes mainly in my pocket.

[Jack aMMo]

at £25/half hour, he is earning more than me.

[Openwater22]

I've tipped and will continue to tip. I feel it's customary when recieving a personal service and a golf lesson is a personal service IMO. Last year visiting my sister in the Charlotte, N.C. area I took a 4hr. series from a nationally recognized teaching pro. I tipped him a "beaner" after the first 2 hr session. The next day after the second session he asked if I wanted a 9 hole playing lesson. Well worth the "beaner".

[Sawgrass]

[quote name='openwater32' post='1999374' date='Oct 11 2009, 09:04 AM']I've tipped and will continue to tip. I feel it's customary when recieving a personal service and a golf lesson is a personal service IMO.[/quote]

I'll poke at you on this by asking if you tip your doctor.

I think this is a fascinating question. Is a tip appropriate for all personal services? Is it only when you presume the income of the person providing the service is below yours? Doesn't the wait staff in high-end restaruants make big money, possibly more than some of the people eating?

What's customary seems to me to be the key, and while I know that a tip is customary in a restaurant, I never had a perspective on what others do with their pros. I'm not sure that enough people have posted yet to get any real sense of what's customary, but so far it does seem like it's rare for a golf lesson.

I had an odd experience with golf tipping several years ago at a big-name 3-day golf seminar. The (rather expensive) package price was advertised as including "all tips". At the end of the three days the two teaching pros asked my group to provide tips in a hat for their assistant who was helping them set up balls and such throughout the three days. While I suppose the pros were trying to be nice to their assistant, it turned me off to have to decide to either debate the "tips included" clause or pay the guy who was standing there staring at us.

[Bombn]

PGA "Professional"

Professionals (no matter what the industry, like your doctor, lawyer, accountant) don't require tips.

[CHRIS509]

[quote name='Borthwick' post='1998828' date='Oct 11 2009, 02:50 AM']Thanks for the responses, guys. Between my wife and I, we've received quite a few lessons over the past couple of months and I wanted to ensure we weren't committing a faux paux. The pro must be the only guy at the club that doesn't take tips.[/quote]



When I was teaching I never accepted tips. But,

I like to think that I had a very good and personal connection / relationship with all my students and yes we shared a coffee or a sandwich sometimes (time depending) and sometimes they paid? Call this a tip if you like?

I must say that their was one client that found out that I liked my wine, and one day, not after a lesson, found me practicing and presented me with a very nice bottle of Rioca saying thanks for all the work we had put in. I did return the gesture a few mouths later, and now it’s a bit of a recurring thing.

I was very humbled by this gesture.

[skizix]

[quote name='Bombn ' post='1999855' date='Oct 11 2009, 12:54 PM']PGA "Professional"

Professionals (no matter what the industry, like your doctor, lawyer, accountant) don't require tips.[/quote]

That is a bunk blanket statement. I used to be a "professional" rock climbing guide. All the guides accepted tips (like every climbing guide everywhere), but precious few clients offered them. Our shop also had "professional" fly fishing guides. They accepted and almost always got generous tips. Not sure what the disconnect was there -- maybe client demographics.

Is teaching golf somehow more "professional" than teaching rock climbing? I seriously doubt it -- at least if you teach golf poorly...the client is not likely to later get killed as a result!

I don't accept tips as a "professional" software consultant. Duh. Comparing a doctor or lawyer to a golf pro, re: tips, is asinine. Among other things, you normally don't seek their services unless you have no choice (it may feel like that sometimes with golf, but it is not the case). I did once buy a lawyer a very nice bottle of wine though, because she did a great job for next to nothing.

It's not a matter of "professional" or not. It's purely a cultural thing, arbitrarily dictated by tradition. Tips for instruction in sports/hobbies is common (private ski lessons, etc.). The OP's question is a wise one to ask, if you're not sure. I will say that if a golf pro turned my game around enough in a few lessons...I'd insist on tipping, even if it were just a few beers in the clubhouse or so.

[Smack Daddy]

My policy....I never tip anyone who gets to set their own price.

My pro is self employed, sets his rate and, therefore, no tip.

[bermuda]

[quote name='wehttam13' post='1998817' date='Oct 10 2009, 09:42 PM']They are there to give you tips, not the other way round. oj[/quote]

My pro quickly corrected me when I referred to "tips" from a previous lesson. He doesn't give tips, he said; he gives instruction.

[Asleep]

In lieu of a tip ..... if you like how he goes about his business, give him a [i]referral[/i].

[retep]

hum...
i can go both way s on this..

Scenario 1 - a bunch of lessons with the same pro...
i take a series of lessons so i picked up the pro's greens fees at a course when we played 18 one day/ friendly not a lesson.
I would buy him dinner/ take him and his wife out and pick up the check, they are definitely not getting rich teaching golf.

Scenario 2 - a single one-off lesson somewhere at a resort or elsewhere/etc...
I would tip the pro out if it was a really good lesson, how much i don't know i guess 20 $ usd if the lesson was a 100 or so...

When i taught tennis the regulars use to tip for christmas and take me out to dinner, etc... Different sport i guess...

[Togatown22]

Would love to get more dialog on this topic. I recently started taking the occasional lesson at a local club. It's a semi-private club where I am not a member, and I take lessons from one of the "Assistant Golf Directors", not the head pro.
He's probably 55 yrs old or so, but I gather that this is his only "working" gig. He spends his winters in Florida, and spring/summer/fall in the Northeast, where I work with him.
It's $75/hour, which I think is reasonable.
I am conflicted on how to handle the tipping subject. Last summer I took 2 lessons with him and didn't tip him (they were my first 2 lessons ever, even though I've been playing for 20 years, so I didn't know if there was an accepted tipping protocol), but yesterday I tipped him $10 after my lesson because that's what I had in my pocket. He accepted it, and was very gracious about it. I felt cheap for only giving him $10, but now I'm reading that many of us apparantly don't tip at all.

Hmmmmm...

[Skaffa77]

It's as others have said, it's based on what's customary for the service provided.

Hair stylists, waiters/waitresses, massage therapist, bag boy at grocery stores, car wash employees, hotel concierge, door man, cab driver/hotel shuttle, bartender, guides, caddies, valet, etc...get tips. It's customary in their line of work.

Fast food employees (includes resturants where meal is brought out, but you order at a counter), doctors, lawyers, physical therapists, cashier, golf professionals, security guards, medical staff generally do not get tips.

[Togatown22]

Fair enough.
I'm a financial advisor and I certainly don't receive tips from clients. I guess I just feel like a golf instructor is in the service industry; a generally "tippable" field, like a fishing guide.

[putt4_66]

I buy a package of 4 lessons for a discounted price from my pro. Occasionally, one of the lessons will be 9 holes together where he can see me on the course. That takes much longer than the lesson I pre-paid for at a discount. After one of those extended, on course, lessons I will give my pro some extra cash for the time. That's the only time I do it.

[broth518]

It all depends on the club if they are taking part of the lesson money then yes you should tip.

[RJRJRJ]

I dont tip anybody who gets all, or the bulk of the money that I am being charged.