Have you ever heard one of your golfing buddies mumble, "I wonder if I should take a few golf lessons?" Perhaps you have mumbled that question yourself. As for me, I am of the opinion that there are three times in a golfer's career where taking lessons from a knowledgable professional can be extremely rewarding and valuable.

Those three setpoints are:

When a person is first learning the game of golf.

When the average player notices a decrease in his game and simply cannot put his finger on the problem.

And third, when an above average player wants to refine or hone his skills to the next higher level.

The first and third groups of players are fairly self-explanatory. A brand new player needs to learn the basics and a professional golf instructor can instill the proper techniques in that new player faster than the player can learn by himself.

The third group, the more advanced player, can hone his skills more quickly with a seasoned instructor than with his buddies, who may not even know what to look for or know how to articulate the next skill level techniques that this type of player is looking for. So, it is that second group that I would like to write about today.

This group, in my opinion, is the largest group of players who could benefit from a few lessons by a golfing instructor. Now the two important parts of the above statement that I made are: "notices a decrease in his game" and "cannot put his finger on the problem".

Let's make an assumption here that we are not talking about the occasional bad day. We all have bad days on the course, and those days happen regardless of what our level of play may be. Instead, we are talking about the player who over the course of a few weeks, perhaps a few months, has noticed that no matter what he or she does the scorecard result keeps creeping up and up and up for no apparent reason.

Well, apparent or not, there "is" a reason for this decrease in ability and it might take the trained eye of a reliable and knowledable instructor to pick it out and help you overcome it. In fact, there is a good argument that some players will ONLY improve if they spend some time with an instructor. For these players, the underlying fault will only get worse or at best stay the same until somone knowledgable comes along and points a finger and says: "There's the problem right there."

Some people might ask if lessons aren't expensive. Well, they can be. The price per lesson would, of course, depend on the instructor. But as with most things in life, you can shop around until you find an instructor who fits your budget. Also, keep in mind, that you may only need two or three lessons to identify your problem and get it fixed. And wouldn't that be worth the cost?