18/09/2026
SHOULD YOUR GOLF COACH BE A BETTER GOLFER THAN YOU? 🤔
It’s something I hear quite often:
“Surely a golf coach should be an excellent golfer themselves?”
And I understand the thinking.
If someone is going to help you improve, surely they need to be able to do it themselves?
But here’s where it gets interesting…
Is being a great golfer the same as being a great coach?
A great player has exceptional skill.
A great coach needs exceptional knowledge, communication and problem-solving ability.
They need to understand why a player is struggling.
They need to recognise what the player is actually doing.
They need to understand how that particular golfer learns.
And most importantly…
They need to be able to help the player find a solution that works for THEM.
Think about it another way.
Who coaches the best players in the world?
The world’s best golfers already have an incredible amount of playing skill. Their coaches don’t necessarily need to be better golfers than them.
They need to understand golf, movement, technique, strategy, psychology, practice and — crucially — the individual in front of them.
That said…
I do think it helps enormously for a coach to play.
You need to have experienced the game.
You need to understand what it’s like to hit the shots, play under pressure, make decisions, deal with poor shots and actually get around a golf course.
But does your coach need to be shooting 65 every week?
I’m not convinced.
I’d rather have a coach who can explain why something is happening and help me understand how to change it…
…than someone who can shoot 65 but can’t explain how they got there.
So here’s the question:
Would you choose a golf coach based on how good THEY are at playing?
Or does their ability to coach YOU matter more?
👇 Genuinely interested — what do you think?
