"Golf Pro, Friend or Foe?"
Jim McLellan
Thinking about taking a lesson to improve your game? Confused about where to start your search for "Mr. Right" THE teaching pro? Will the high profile instructor have more to offer? What if you can actually get a lesson from an award winning pro recently featured on the cover of a golf mag? Better yet, how about a "coach" of one of the top tournament players?
In case you are not a recent lottery winner, you may have to keep your search close to home. Are you a member of a swanky country club in your area? Should you sign up with the aloof instructor with the alligator shoes, alpaca sweater, silver “toup” courtesy of The Men's Hair Club, gold neck chain, and yellow Palm Beach slacks. You know the guy - parks his red Lamborghini in that spot marked for the "head golf professional" ten paces from the pro shop door. Some "dope" accidentally parked there last year and no one has seen him since.
If not among the "country club set" you may have to settle for an instructor at a semi-private course or a muni or an "open to the public" track. Where does your "perfect" golf pro reside or hide? You have heard of golf pros anointed by Saint PGA? Perchance these gifted individuals can wave their magic wand over your troubled swing. Some golf pro who is not a member of this fine organization who teaches at a run down driving range couldn't be worth his salt or yours either for that matter...Or could he/she? The driving range. You know the one that is family owned where you drive off rubber mats. Sure, the place "or joint" surrounded by tall "chicken wire" fences protecting the neighborhood from dimpled missiles. Mom or Pop sells you a bucket of balls, if they are not in the back room unloading a batch of freshly scrubbed balls from their vintage Maytag washing machine. And, get this, because no real golf pro would get caught dead associating with this dump, Mom and Pop double as the friendly instructors.
To keep you from dozing lets jump to other venues of instruction information. Why not a Wonderful Golf School in some palm tree infested paradise? Spend a week, and your children's college education "green," and sign up for a series of lessons. Boy will the boys back home be surprised when you show up with your new swing!!! And your wife?....happy as a little kid eating paste...with all her shopping bargains crammed in your 4-door Jalopy.
Let's see, where else? Yeah, the Internet....Is this the lowest of the low? Can't these so called golf pros get a "real job"....as Mom used to say. So you scoot your swivel close to the computer and peer. Pitch after pitch. Book after book. Video after video. Going mad yet? What should you do? Tennis? Nope, same problems or worse. More phony instructors while you run around making a fool of yourself on hot pavement. And your knees? . . can't take it. Worse yet, no carts.
Back to square one. What to do? What should be the criteria? How do YOU limit your search so you can get better before spending time at the “Gate” tryin' to convince Saint Peter that swearing on the golf course is no reason to keep you out.
OK, all right already. This author may be running out of ink and here the last paragraph is approaching at warp speed....So. Your "perfect" golf pro can teach you all you need to know about the golf swing in: NOT a series of costly, take out a second mortgage, lessons…. Not 3 or 4 eye openers to reveal secrets known only to the Aztec Indians, BUT ....here it comes and you are not programmed to believe this, a GOOD golf instructor can teach you all you need to know about YOUR golf swing in approximately, .......drum roll please.......15 minutes. So where is the right scoop?
Not at the CC, or in a golf magazine, or on the Goof Channel, or from 95% Of the PGA pros, or from your playing partner who can't break an egg with his swing. 95% of this mis-advice will set your swing in a tail spin .
"Holy verboseness Red Ryder" another paragraph. The "boys' on the cover of a golf magazine, the coach of a tour star, Mr. Big shot at the CC, or the instructor nominated by the Red Cross as Teacher of the Year, are most likely better at marketing than helping you find your swing. How about Mom or Pop at the range?. .Most probably…An excellent choice. What about Uncle Harry the scratch player? How about saving your coin, play a LOT of golf with Uncle Hank copy his swing, his rhythm, his way of taking that five mile hike with low numbers recorded on the score card?
This phenomenon we call the golf swing takes less than two seconds. There are a few “KEY FACTORS” involved in a great golf swing. From there, loyal reader, 95% of perfecting your perfect swing is practicing those Key Factors.
To learn more about Jim's simple approach to learning your best golf swing in the shortest period of time visit his site at www.mcgolf.com.
The Anti-Pro is NOT saying... "I know what I'm doing and NO one else does." The Anti-Pro articles are the effect of a 50 year study on what works and what does NOT work regarding improving ones golf game. In essence, MOST golf instruction will do more harm than good. How much is MOST??... It is likely that over 90% of golfers/students trade substantial money for ridiculous "tips" that are practiced and then become "bad" habits. Eventually students become frustrated, confused and quit golf thinking they are NOT smart enough or talented enough for the game. The golf instructor must understand how to activate the motor skill part of the students brain to reach the potential of that students capabilities. Less than 5% of all golf "instructors" are gifted enough to impact positive benefits for the student, the remaining 95% should be flipping burgers at some fast food diner.
About the author: Introduced to golf in 1948 At age 15, students came to him at his family owned golf course from four surrounding states for lessons.
Jim attended Arizona State University at Tempe on a golf scholarship and graduated from the PGA Golf School in Long Beach California in 1960.
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