I Used To Think Group Lessons Were Only For Beginners. Here Are 5 Things I Learned That Proved Me Wrong

If you’re new to golf, taking a lesson alone might seem intimidating. Having all that focus on you is great for your golf game, but for a beginner, it could feel too intense or uncomfortable. I get it, we’ve all been there!

Now that I’m a few years into golf, and have specific things I need help with, I know how valuable that one-on-one attention is. But when a friend set up a group lesson for four of us, who all play different amounts of golf, ranging from once a year to multiple times a week, I wasn’t sure where we would start.

The lesson was broken up into two parts: We started with short game drills, chipping to different locations, focusing on landing spot and how the clubface is affected by different lies. I struggle with downhill chips and hearing a thorough explanation from a beginner’s perspective was an a-ha moment for me in terms of understanding how clubface and body angle affect ball flight, even for the the shortest chips.

Then we moved onto the playing lesson. To keep up pace, the four of us scrambled against the pro. If you haven’t taken a playing lesson on the golf course, I highly recommend it. There’s so much critical thinking involved when you’re on uneven lies, up against trees blocking your path to the pin or faced with a difficult pin placement.

Even though we are all working on different aspects of our game, we benefited from seeing each other’s misses and how to recover from them. Here are 5 of the most helpful things we worked on:

Experiment With Different Clubs Off the Tee

From the forward tees, the first hole at my course is 220 yards – a relatively easy par-4. But, there’s a lot of trouble you can get into along the way. There’s water on the left side of the fairway, woods to the right, and a bunker in front of the green. Depending on your distance and accuracy, the right club choice isn’t always the club that gets you the closest to the pin.

“Think about a comfortable distance you want to leave yourself for your second shot,” says Meredith Lobeck, head of player development at Granite Bay Golf Club. I decided to try my new 5 hybrid, which tends to be more accurate than my driver. It was perfect. I left myself with a very comfortable wedge shot in. That was the right club for me, but my friends tried different clubs (drivers, woods, irons) to see what put them in a safe landing spot.

Check Alignment For Each Shot

During my pre-shot routine, I made a habit of aligning myself while standing behind the ball, but Lobeck had us all check our alignment while standing over the ball by placing the golf club across our legs, the clubhead pointing toward the target.

A couple of my friends were just learning the importance of aiming and having that visual comparing where you think you’re aiming versus where you are actually aiming was really eye opening for all of us. It showed me that I was often opening my stance too much on my tee shots.

Try Different Punch-Out Shots

I use a 7 or 8-iron for my go-to punch shot; those are safe clubs for me to get my ball back into the fairway. I really don’t consider using other clubs because I’ve gotten so used to punching out with these two.

When one of our tee shots went far left into the rough, Lobeck used a hybrid to punch it out, not only getting her back into a safe spot, but also making up a lot of distance down the fairway.

It was a good reminder that there is no one right club choice for any shot. “Get creative with your shots and your golf club choice,” she said. Punching out with a hybrid is definitely something I’ll add to my practice time.

Knowing When To Lay Up

Hearing this term makes some golfers cringe, but in certain situations, it can save your hole. There’s a par-5 on my golf course that wraps around to the left. The goal for me is to set myself up for a doable third shot that reaches the green. My course has so many uneven lies and trees that on a hole like this it’s important to set yourself for a clear path to the green, which is toward the right side of the fairway.

Lobeck had us choose a club that would safely get us to that ideal landing spot. It was good course management. The key takeaway: The smartest decision isn’t always about getting the most distance, but about setting yourself up for a manageable next shot.

Consider Pin Placement When Choosing Your Club Around The Green

I talked about how helpful the chipping clinic was before we went out to play, but Lobeck advised us to use our putters, specifically if the chip is landing downhill, or the pin is close to the fringe.

I gave a little pushback because I always choose chipping over putting, but on one hole Lobeck had us all walk up to the green and read it, like we would if we were putting. It was much more downhill then we all had thought from our stance back on the fairway. We put our wedges away and tried the putt. It was definitely the right choice to get the ball closest to the hole.

During this lesson, I realized I had gotten comfortable playing many shots a certain way, but to improve and lower my scores, I need to keep experimenting with different clubs.

This was easy to do when I had a pro walking me through my decisions, but now I have a new practice plan to work on alone – and a group of friends who can refer to that lesson and help each other out as we play.