Have you seen the latest Rick Shiels review? Maybe you watched a recent golf vlog from Golfholics? If you’re a tech nerd and love crunching launch monitor data, I’m sure you’ve seen TXG.
The quality and amount of information we can find on the internet is mind-numbing. You can find at least five different driver reviews per YouTuber per year. That could be over 50 reviews if you dive into the time-suck that is the internet.
If you’re not an avid golfer, you may wonder why someone would spend 5+ hours watching reviews on a golf club. You may not realize that it’s a $500 investment for most modern drivers. To me, you should spend as much time as possible to research the expenditure of that kind of money.
If you are fortunate enough to find a fitter you trust, and that fitter is brand agnostic, in my opinion, that is the better way to spend time. Assuming that you find the best equipment possible for you, what can you expect as far as a game improvement? How many strokes can properly fit clubs give you?
As a professional fitter, I will never promise a stokes-gained number. As a golf equipment salesperson, I am going to betray my cause. Whatever you spent on the new equipment, however good your fitter is that money is better spent with proper instruction.
My only caveat to that statement is woefully fit clubs. If you swing 105+ mph with your driver and have a Soft Regular shaft, no instruction is going to make that mix consistent.
If you don’t have the extra funds for new equipment or a professional instructor, the most common fallback is YouTube personalities. For me, the best instruction personalities are Peter Finch, Chris Ryan, and Me and My Golf.
The question at hand is whether or not watching these fantastic golfers will help improve your scores because that is what matters. The old maxim “Practice makes perfect” is complete garbage. The concept is reliable, but in reality, “Practice makes permanent.” Practicing the wrong move just ingrains bad habits.
If you practice a new drill that Peter Finch says will fix your issue, and you implement an adverse change, you are now practicing to get worse. The more tech-savvy golfer can video themselves and make sure that “feel” matches “real.”
That is the advantage of a professional instructor. They are there to prevent you from poor practice, and to provide drills that correct your issue. We all need to practice, but it should be the best possible practice.
A simple way to answer the lead question is this; It depends. If you can learn visually, which I can not, then YouTube golfers are a fantastic resource. If you are like me and need to be physically corrected when you find a flaw, don’t buy a $500 driver, buy possibly ten lessons.