The True Cost of Bad Instruction: Why Cheap Lessons Are Expensive
Mark had been playing golf for over 40 years. Four decades of rounds, practice sessions, and the occasional tips from better players. But he’d never had a proper lesson. When he finally attended Bird Golf Academy and worked with instructor David Chong, Mark said something revealing: “I never realized how little I knew about the game of golf.”
Forty years. And he was just now learning what he should have known from the beginning.
Joan’s story was different but equally frustrating. She’d been playing golf for about 25 years and had taken instruction during that time. Various professionals, scattered lessons, well-intentioned advice. Twenty-five years of investment in her game.
Yet when Joan arrived for her golf school in Florida with Amy Benz, she still struggled with fundamental issues. “If Amy had to say something 50 different ways for me to catch on, she figured it out,” Joan wrote. “I left Miami with a solid grasp on golf fundamentals.”
After 25 years of playing and taking lessons, Joan was finally learning actual fundamentals.
These aren’t unusual stories. They represent something tragically common in golf: players spending years and thousands of dollars on instruction that doesn’t work, practicing habits that don’t improve their game, and accepting mediocrity because they don’t know there’s a better way.
The real cost of bad instruction isn’t just wasted money. It’s the years of your golfing life you’ll never get back.
The Hidden Cost: Your Time
Let’s be honest about what Mark lost. Forty years of golf without proper instruction. Thousands of rounds played with a swing built on guesswork. Countless practice sessions that may have been reinforcing the wrong movements.
You can earn more money. You can’t earn more time.
If you’re 50 years old and you spend the next five years with instruction that doesn’t actually help you improve, those aren’t just five wasted years. They might be five of the last 20 good golf years you have left.
Susan understood this after attending Bird Golf Academy with Greg McFee. She’d taken “a lot of lessons over the roughly 25 years of playing.” She even had a theory that spreading money over many lessons would be better than attending a golf school.
But after three intensive days with Greg, her perspective changed completely. “I think Greg’s concentrated focus on the basics, reinforced so much over the three days, actually was better than spread out lessons,” Susan wrote. “I have recommended the Bird school to several friends.”
Twenty-five years of scattered lessons hadn’t accomplished what three focused days with proper instruction did.
Why Most Instruction Fails
These aren’t lazy students. Mark practiced for 40 years. Joan sought out instruction in her 25 years of playing. Susan took lesson after lesson from various instructors.
They did everything they were supposed to do. The instruction failed them, not the other way around.
Warren experienced this firsthand. Before attending Bird Golf Academy, he went to another school. The difference was stark.
“After leaving the other school I went home trying to remember all the angles and the lines of my terrible posture etc., very confused,” Warren wrote. With Bird Golf Academy, Warren felt that he had a real chance of improving his game.
One school left him confused with technical jargon. The other gave him clear understanding he could actually use.
Jack had a similar experience. At age 60, he decided to take up golf after 45 years away from the game. He arranged lessons with several local instructors.
“Unfortunately, I found that after each lesson (separated by several weeks), my game seemed to worsen,” Jack wrote. “Lots of attention to different aspects of my strokes, without an overall perspective, which left me confused, and way ‘in my head’ when it came to my golf swing.”
After two years of deteriorating play, Jack was ready to quit. Then he attended Bird Golf Academy. “The concentrated 3 days of instruction did more for me than 10 years of intermittent lessons could ever accomplish,” Jack said.
The Multiplication Effect of Wasted Practice
Bad instruction doesn’t just waste the hour you spend with an instructor. It multiplies through all your practice.
Philip discovered this when he sought instruction after 10 years of playing. “The last person I took lessons from wanted to do just that, start over after forgetting what I did for 10 years!” He wrote.
Imagine: a decade of practice, potentially building the wrong habits. Then an instructor who wanted to scrap everything and start from scratch.
When Philip worked with Tim Peightal at Bird Golf Academy, the approach was completely different. “Tim retained the ‘good’ parts of my swing and had me working within my physical abilities,” Philip explained. “I was pleased to see the results.”
This is why cheap lessons are so expensive. A $50 lesson that teaches you the wrong thing will cost you hundreds of hours of misdirected practice. A $75 group clinic that doesn’t diagnose your real issues will send you down a path that wastes months or years.
The Cost of Conflicting Advice
One of the most damaging aspects of scattered instruction is conflicting advice from different teachers. Different instructors teaching different methods. One approach contradicting another. No consistent philosophy or progression.
Michael was worried about exactly this problem before attending Bird Golf Academy. “I was nervous that a ‘semi-experienced golfer’ like myself would be overwhelmed with a lot of information about what I have been doing wrong,” Michael wrote.
But his instructor took a completely different approach. “He ensured that wasn’t his objective and basically spent time learning my swing, understanding my tendencies and then using that information to tweak and modify so as to correct and not just change for the sake of change.”
This is the fundamental difference between scattered instruction and systematic teaching. One leaves you confused with conflicting information. The other gives you a clear, consistent framework you can build on.
What Proper Instruction Actually Costs
Let’s talk honestly about investment versus return.
A Bird Golf school typically involves three to five days of intensive instruction with a master professional. The cost varies by location but represents a significant investment.
That sounds expensive. Until you compare it to the alternative.
Mark spent 40 years playing golf without proper instruction. Joan spent 25 years taking scattered lessons. Susan took lessons for 25 years. What did that cost? Not just in dollars, but in frustration, wasted practice time, and rounds played without the knowledge they needed to succeed?
The question isn’t whether you can afford proper instruction. The question is whether you can afford to keep wasting money on instruction that doesn’t work.
The Elements of Instruction That Actually Work
What separates effective instruction from lessons that leave students confused and frustrated?
Deep expertise from decades of teaching. An instructor who has taught tens of thousands of lessons has seen your exact swing flaw hundreds of times. They know instantly what’s wrong and exactly how to fix it.
Personalized attention that addresses your specific issues. Real instruction means working one-on-one with a professional who can focus entirely on you. Greg McFee demonstrated this when he worked with a couple where one was an absolute beginner and the other had been golfing most of his life. “His instruction was seamless,” they wrote. “Attentive to us both without any lag in attention.”
On-course playing lessons that build real confidence. Byron, who came in as “a 100+ hacker,” experienced transformation with Mike Ellis. “While playing, he taught strategy, course management, club selection, green reading,” Byron wrote. “By day three I was beyond all my goals, my highest hopes, and even many beliefs about what was possible.”
A systematic approach that builds on fundamentals. Mary appreciated this about her instructor Jeff Raymond. “I especially appreciated his understandable teaching techniques that reinforced each day’s knowledge by building on the previous day’s instruction,” she wrote.
The Real Question
Right now, you’re at a decision point.
You can continue with the approach you’ve been taking. Maybe after a few more years of occasional lessons and hopeful practice, something will click.
Or you can recognize that your time is valuable, your golf years are finite, and there’s a proven path to improvement that actually works.
Mark spent 40 years before he discovered how little he knew. Joan spent 25 years taking lessons that didn’t give her solid fundamentals. Susan spent 25 years with scattered instruction before finding focused teaching that actually worked.
How much time do you want to spend struggling before you invest in instruction that delivers results?
Your Golf Future
Every day you delay proper instruction is another day of your golfing life spent playing worse than you could be playing.
The rounds you’re playing right now with your current swing are rounds you’ll never get to replay once you learn to play better. Time is the only resource you truly can’t replace.
Cheap lessons aren’t saving you money. They’re costing you years. Years of frustration instead of enjoyment. Years of mediocrity instead of improvement. Years of accepting less than your potential.
Your golf future is waiting. The only question is whether you’ll claim it now or waste more years wishing you had.
