Why intensive residential golf tuition could make you a better golfer

By Joe Queen

I would hazard a guess that anyone reading this isn’t playing golf the way they want to or to the standard they are capable of.

If you are happy with the way you are playing… amazing!  You are one of a very small group indeed. But feel free to read on anyway as this might interest you.

For everyone else who isn’t 100% happy with their game there is no shame in admitting that you need help!

Now it is important to know where to get the help from. Everyone has a that mate in their golfing group, who may be extremely well intentioned, but they don’t have the answers they promise they do. And you are very unlikely to find it on YouTube or Instagram either – although there is a huge amount of potentially helpful information out there, none of it is tailored to you.

We have all been there – coming off the course after a competition, frustrated with the round you have just played. So, you think, I am going to bite the bullet and have some lessons!

The hope is during these lessons, which might only be half an hour to an hour long, your PGA Professional will give you a couple of tweaks and some drills to work on and you will find yourself hitting the ball better, straighter and maybe even further. However, this initial improvement does not amount to exponential growth in your golfing ability, and you will likely start to regress back into bad habits, and suddenly you are back to square one.

This is no fault of your PGA Professional as they can see you again in a month or so and the process starts all over again. Yet the end result is no meaningful improvement, just a cycle of initial improvement then slipping back into the same bad habits.

At James Andrews Golf School we have seen this pattern emerge when we discuss lesson history with our golfers. The information these lessons have given golfers is in no way bad or wrong, in our experience there is one key reason why a traditional lesson structure fails to deliver…

Not enough time!

Traditional lesson structures simply don’t have the time to:

• analyse the swing in sufficient depth to gain a full understanding as to why the swing is not functioning optimally
• make meaningful changes and allowing them to embed properly resulting in patch work and quick fixes
• discuss and understand practice structures required, so in the time spent away from the coach, the golfer struggles stick to the changes or loses the sense of what they are working on

In addition, I hope that it is common knowledge that simply standing on a range smashing ball after ball isn’t the way to improve your golf. Very often this is a hindrance to improving your golf as it ingrains flaws and bad habits.

Given all the doom and gloom we’ve gone over. What practical steps do we suggest to improve your golf and sustain it in the long run?

A different type of lesson which gives you the time you need – At James Andrews Golf School we offer 2-day golf schools and 3-day intensive golf tuition courses accessible to beginner, intermediate and advanced Each course delivers a minimum of 4.5 hours coaching per day providing the perfect opportunity to work on every aspect of the game in its required detail.

Working with highly qualified and experienced PGA Professionals you will be able to focus on everything from the technical to tactical with tuition tailored exactly to the individuals’ requirements.

Our dynamic approach ensures your path to improvement is easy to follow and tailored precisely to you.

• Practice, Practice, Practice … in the right way – Understanding how to practice is key to continued and long-term improvement. It is very much a case of quality over quantity and the structure we introduce during the intensive tuition courses sets you up for this perfectly.
• A large part of the coaches’ job during the intensive tuition courses is to ensure you are equipped with the knowledge of the ‘how’s’ and the ‘whys’ of your practice.
• Regular review – Regular top up lessons, online video analysis and regular contact with your coach are all facilities James Andrews Golf School is set up to offer. Although we don’t have the regular face to face contact that you may get in a Professional Shop environment, our coaches are always on the end of a phone, text, email or video chat ready to help you continue you golfing improvement.

This is key in enabling you to refresh the feeling of practice structures and drills, avoiding the dangers of losing sight of what you are working on.

Get in touch to discuss your individual golfing needs, we are always happy to hear from golfers wishing to start their journey to a consistently better game.