So yeah, Amateur golfer to PGA Teacher - Can it be done?

Thinking about the future tonight and I would love to do this at some stage in the future.  The only experience I have is being a Teacher - ha ha, I know.

What route should I be looking into, what time span, what handicap do I need to get to?

Any advice would be welcome.

I don't feel that the PGA level of teaching is good enough to be taken  seriously and that is why those in golf pro shops trying to make a living at teaching are finding it very difficult. Why? well first of all one needs to see some benefit for the £25 one is handing over and as we have read on this forum, there are many dissatisified customers.

It should not be called teaching but coaching as my experience tells me it is impossible to change a swing of the average player and why should you, after all a swing is personal. All that most players need is a little prompting and tweaking once one is capable of diagnosing the fault that needs correcting.

Our own Wayne Santorini is now a qualified coach having taken some course that gives accredited confirmation of coaching ability, but even with this, one does need to know far more and have the ability to spot the problems.

Google PGA coaching. You don't have to be going down the pro golfer route to assist a PGA coach, and can achieve thisby doing the pga level 1 coaching course... 5 weeks of reading followed by a 2day assessment. You can then do the level 2 course... 25 weeks reading followed by a 4 day assessment, which allows you to coach directly rather than assist. There are other aspects that you would be expected to take on-board.

As to whether or not the PGA pro's are good teachers; some are excellent and some aren't, just like school teachers. I had a few lessons in the early 80's from an old pro and he was fantastic, and tried a top teaching pro in the mid 90's and we just didn't gel. I don't doubt he was a good teacher but sometimes its also about being able to communicate.

I see no reason why a rank amatuer couldn't become an outstanding coach, although whether or not being acredited as PGA would be of much use I don't know.  Sport is littered with examples - take David Leadbetter as an example.  Journeyman pro on the old European Tour with little success but is credited with rebuilding Faldo's swing which earned him 6 majors.  Possibly the only advantage he had over the rest of us was access to the pro golfers, nothing more.

Even I can claim some success (although in a totally unrelated field).  I tried motorcycle racing but wasn't particularly good, my brother, however was seriously good at it.  So, as well as being his chief mechanic I became his mentor - I could often knock seconds off his lap times just by talking to him, finding problems and tweaking the bike and his riding style.

Understanding the problems and getting the best out of what is available is the key to a good coach, not qualifications.