Golf lessons?

[Rerun]

I thought I'd post this here rather than the sports lounge to catch golf enthusiasts who don't follow professional sports.

Wondering if anyone knows where I might be able to get golf lessons in the GTA at a reasonable cost. I began playing just last summer and I'm pretty bad, so beginner lessons would be appropriate. I'm fine with either group lessons or one-on-one instruction.

I'm a grad student, so I can't stress the 'reasonable cost' criterion enough! LOL Price range? Let's say no higher than $250.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions folks might share.

 

[poorboy]

Try Greg Dixon at Golftown Woodbridge.

 

[dragondick]

For $250. you should have no problem finding an instructor on a one-on-one basis for a set of 5 lessons.
Mind you, good insturctors are hard to come by. Some are just out to squeeze money out of your pocket.
If you are close to the Markham Golf Dome, try Carl Foreman.
PM me if you need more info.

 

[galt]

Rerun:

As an avid golfer (some would call me harcore as I play about 4 times a week during the summer and most of those tee offs are the first tee off in the morning so I can get to work before 10am). I'll give you a couple of pointers on the type of instruction that you may want to consider. Take or leave them as you see fit.

As a beginner, the big trick is to not get frustrated and to learn the basics. With this having been said, instead of a private lesson you're probably better off signing up to a good beginner clinic. A good clinick will get you making solid contact with the ball and teach you the fundementals of your grip, stance, alignment and swing plane.

Private lesssons are good but my experience has been that they are much better for more experienced golfers who need some fine tuning.

I've only moved to the GTA recently and most of my golfing in the area is confined to the east end. One of the best beginner clinics in the area is at Royal Ashburn Golf Club. Last I checked it was about $200 for 6 sessions (one day a week for 6 weeks) These sessions cover everything from putting to short game to long and medium games as well as sand play and course management. The sessions are usually 6-10 people and range from beginner clinics to more advanced ones.

Deer Creek also has one of the primiere practice facilities in the area. a little more expensive but you might want to check them out.

 

[Rerun]

Thanks for the tips, everyone!

Galt - I greatly appreciate your thoughtful advice. Thanks so much. It makes sense that a group clinic would be best for someone like me.

Cheers.

 

[galt]

just as a followup...

The clinics at royal ashburn this year are $160 for six weeks. all info can be found at

www.royalashburngolfclub.com

 

[Rerun]

galt....

Out of curiosity, galt, how long did it take you to become a competent golfer (say, shooting around 100 or slightly more) and how much practice did you put in when you first started?

 

[galt]

Wow...there's the million dollar question. Let's put it this way. I'm 36 and have been golfing for 27 years so my fear is that I'll set your expectations in such a way that you get frustrated. In my early years I would usually score in th 120s to 130s and that was being very liberal with the rules. I started to come into a groove around 15 (the first year I broke 100 legitimately) when I was 16 I was in the low 80s mid 70s but during that summer I was playing 36 holes a day 5 days a week (the joys of junior memberships)

However, now I'm typically in the mid 80s.

Rerun, my suggestion to you would actually be to not even pick up a score card for the first two years of golfing. Measure your successes by how well you're hitting the ball not how much you score. Get to enjoy the game without scoring well so that when you have a bad round you don't get frustrated. It's important to remember that, unless there's money on the game, the only person you're playing against is yourself. This is especially important if you are playing with people who have golfed. I had a friend who I tried to teach this lesson to. He decided to take the game up and I'd take him golfing. I'd make sure that we'd go to courses that he was comfortable with. No matter how much I would try to tell him that he shouldn't, he would continually base his performance on mine and the result was that he would get frustrated. He has since quit golf.

When you go to the driving range pay far more attention to your short game than to your driver. You only use your driver a miximum of 14 times in a round of golf. You're better to spend hours on the practice green with your putter than with a driver (in a regulation round of golf putting accounts for half of your strokes. One putt greens will make you score much better than 250 yrd drives and 3 putt greens will kill you)

Make sure when you go to a course that it is well within your capabilities. If you go and play a deer creek, an angus glen or a lion head you'll just get upset and it will cost you a lot more money.

Never play the tournament tees. Many golfers do when they are not qualified to. In fact, people should only play the back tees if they have a 15 handicap or better.

Now here's a bit of info that may help you to set your expectations. If golfers play 100% by the rules only about 18% can honestly break 100.

 

[Rerun]

Wow...there's the million dollar question. Let's put it this way. I'm 36 and have been golfing for 27 years so my fear is that I'll set your expectations in such a way that you get frustrated.

Okay... so you could be the worst possible benchmark against which to measure myself! LOL

Thank you for the further advice. I agree about throwing out the score card at this stage in my learning. I don't have any ambitions to become the next Mike Weir. I just want to become a competent enough golfer so I can enjoy a nice summer afternoon of on a course with my friends who golf. I've found the golf swing to be the toughest thing to lean... to me it seems to require more skill than any athletic endeavor I've ever attempted!

Thanks again!

 

[Minx]

That's a really good question as I began going to the driving range last year and I could use a few good lessons and/or a good teacher(behave on that comment boyz)lol..I really find it stressfull when out of a bucket of balls I can only hit a few,any volunteers to teach a girl how to swing a club and drive some balls?lol.....It's just coming out all wrong,but I'm being serious.....Kassi

 

[kumamake]

how to break 90

hello rerun, first get the basic lessons ( grip, stance , posture, etc)
because once you get used to the bad habits it will be very difficult to get out of them, secondly you got to know your limits of what you can do depending on your body type. my advise to you is put away the driver, most of my friends that golf tell me they their 3 woods as far as the drivers. practise more of the short game, chipping , putting ETC as thats were the higher scores come from.

BREAKING 90?
as most of the golf course are par 72, if were to add 1 stroke to every hole, i.e make all par 3's into par 4, par 4's into 5 and par 5's into 6, then play a round with great decipline and course managment, if you hit pars on all the holes you just broke 90

have fun

 

[Rerun]

Thanks to everyone for the great advice.

Kumamake - I'm afraid I'm not going to be breaking 90 for a VERY long time.... if ever! (Unless, of course, I can find the cash to set NSM up with SPs!!)

 

[blitz]

If you're a lefty I can teach you how to slice LOL