[GPStyles]

well said Kuma.

Teachers need to realise that word of mouth works both ways and there is an old saying that a happy customer will tell 2 or 3 people about their good experience but an unhappy customer tells 10 or more people! It amazes me how many teachers tell their pupils exactly what they think they want to hear. I would much rather an instructor tells me the brutal truth but clarifies that with time and hard work it can be fixed.

My own story is this:

As a young golfer I had no real interest in the game until around 1984 when I was 11 and Seve won the Open. I tried imitating his straight left arm and all of a sudden my play improved dramatically. My handicap plummeted but I was till a young hacker. I still didn't take lessons but managed to get down to single figures by hitting lots of balls and have always had a good touch around the greens.

After I turned 17 I started wanting to improve, my idol at that time was Faldo and a local pro had spent time with Leadbetter. Around this time I received the worst lesson in my life, I couldn't believe it at the time and can't now to this day understand how the guy made a living teaching. I was hitting it pretty good at the time but wanted to get better, the guy I went to was a failed touring pro. He was young and taught only so he could get enough money together to keep him going and then go back on tour. Anyway, the lesson (that I paid him for!) basically consisted of him telling me that I hit it pretty good but had a big lateral slide that mean't I would always miss greens. His advice was to work on my short game!

Anyway, after that I went to my local pro who had been involved with medicus in its earliest days and he had me hitting it better and I got down to 4. I wasn't happy though and after some searching found a guy who had a great reputation. I was hitting it better with him but after a year was out to 6. I rang him to tell him I wasn't coming any more but he convinced me to stay with him. I then had my best ever season. I had never broken par in competition before but started doing it regularly, I ended up at a career low of 1.6

The guy I was going to then had personal issues and his marriage broke up, he developed a nasty drug habit and ultimately lost his job and last I heard he was out of golf altogether and is selling insurance or something.

I ended up going to his assistant but it didn't take me long to realise that he was out of his depth with a 'good' player. He was great for beginners, juniors and ladies but was simply not experienced enough to teach a category one golfer anything.

It was back to the drawing board and I started searching again and ended up with two pros to choose from. One is the guy who taught Rory McIlroy, the other an Ireland coach and very respected - Niclas Fasth has been to him. The Ireland guy was closer to me so for handiness I went with him. We had a great relationship and I began improving again and shooting sub par. I could never make the big breakthrough though and the beginning of the end was when a friend who played off 15 started tellling me about his lesson (with the same guy) and I realised he was giving my hacker friend the same lesson I was getting.

I have always been very interested in the mental game (mainly because I was a lunatic as a kid) and was eventually led to taking a course on mental skills in late 2007. This in turn led me to discovering the web site 'Iseekgolf' and TGMand from there I discovered LBG. I started experimenting and immediately realised that by applying TGM principals my ball striking improved. After several emails and chats I decided to try coaching by golfguru. This works ok but hands on is the best method in my opinion. I felt I made more steps in 5 days when guru visited me in October than in all the time we corresponded. With him in Perth and me in Ireland another hands on lesson is along way away.

At the minute I am working on drills to improve my ball striking. I know my bad shot and am striving to eliminate it - interestingly it is the same bad shot that blighted Hogan's formative years. I don't know what the future holds, I am hoping to work with Lynn at some stage but again, in these credit crunch times, it is less likely now than it once was. We shall see. Right now I am converting to hitting a move that should eliminate the hook. There is a TGM guy in northern ireland near me now, but he got his qualification in October and I am not convinced he is experienced enough to help me.

I think I have a big season ahead of me though, I am happy with what I am doing.