Inside the mind of a PGA professional – The art of golf coaching

There are many top-quality golf courses in the North East of England, but one that always stands out is Close House, Located in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Which hosts a state-of-the-art driving range academy with multiple PGA teaching professionals with over 50 years of combined experience, they were also the hosts of the 2017 and 2020 British Masters. 

With the summer coming up, more golfers are getting their lessons booked so they can be prepared for the upcoming season. However, with every golfer swinging the club differently, it is up to the coach to only change things in the swing that are necessary, and with most beginner golfers having the same issues, PGA professional and PGA female coach of the year 2023 Sally Hinton from Close House said: 

“I think the main thing with beginners is this really big misunderstanding of how the ball goes up in the air. They pretty much all believe, if asked, that you need to get under the ball to help it up. One of the first things I think is important in a lesson is to explain the scienece on what is happening, the club needs to be on a descending motion to spin the ball up into the air.” 

Chasing low scores. (Photo credit – Sally Hinton) 

Sally grew up in the Midlands before moving up to Newcastle to coach at Close House. She has been involved in golf pretty much all her life, with her Dad, Uncle and Grandad all being professionals and she started taking it seriously when she was 12. In terms of teaching, she has been at Close House for 16 years after doing her training in Toronto. 

As well as identifying common mistakes in a beginner’s golf swing, it is important to understand some things in the swing that are believed to be “myths” and should not be practiced too much to the point where it starts to become a problem from the player, Sally believes that one of these myths are “keeping your head down” when she explained it in more detail, she said: 

“I would prefer to see the club hit the ball. Once you see the club, then you don’t need to feel like you must keep your head down. Another myth would be that you play golf with your upper body – your arms. Players stand there – someone quite tall and strong – and they’re just trying to thrash it with their arms. But I can take the club and hit it just as far because I’m using my lower body, so a big misconception is that it is all in the arms.” 

From a young age, Sally had always wanted to play golf professionally as it was her family who got her into golf, in terms of her career as a junior, she said:  

“I was decent as a junior, but when I went to America for university, it was a real eye opener, there were lots of players better than me, but I don’t see that as a negative” 

And now that she’s older, she is seeing lots of players wanting to follow the same steps she took to get into professional golf, and she hopes to see more coming through in the future. 

In terms of Sallys actual coaching technique and how she approaches each student, she believes that there are aspects of the golf swing that require a small change to make a big difference. She said that every player swings the club differently and she prefers a coaching method of not trying to make every student swing the club the same way, as that won’t work for everybody. 

She tries to bring positivity to every lesson, espically for players who are struggling mentally with the game, anybody who has played golf before knows how frustrating and mentally challenging it can be sometimes, so Sally aims to get her students to tell her positive things about their golf, rather than always focussing on the negatives which can make or break a player’s game. 

Coaching in paradise (Photo credit – Sally Hinton) 

 Now understanding how Sally approaches coaching, it is also important to know how a player’s approach on getting golf lessons, Thomas Robson, a single figure player from the North East said: 

“I personally believe getting frequent golf lessons is vital for my development as a player, if I leave it for too long between lessons it is easy for me to slip back into bad habits which can have a huge effect on my game. I usually go for a check-up every fortnight or so to keep me connected.” 

Thomas’s reasoning for getting lessons every couple of weeks is so he can stay switched on and motivated to practice and improve, he believes that the pointers that his coach gives him allows him to have a sense of belief and trust in what he is doing which leads to great commitment to erase all of his bad habits and improve his mental game, which he believe is one of the biggest factors for improving his game. 

Before he goes for a lesson, he always has an idea in his mind of what he is looking to improve on, which is something all good players do, Thomas said: 

“When I go for a lesson, as much as I like to improve my game, I also believe it is vital to improve your understanding of the golf swing, this understanding comes from your coaches knowledge, but I feel it is important for me to understand why these changes are being made, what they will fix? How will they fix it? These aspects separate the best coaches from your everyday coach. 

Chasing the sunset – (Photo credit – Josh Hindmarch) 

Overall, Sally Hinton’s coaching technique is perfect for players from beginners up to professionals, even more so with the facilities at the Close House academy being up there with the best in the region.