If you were to search for golf schools you'd find hundreds and they all promise to help you improve your golf game. Then if you were to search for someone to give you a golf lesson you'd find thousands of golf professionals who would all claim they can help you improve your golf game. So what would be best for you to choose...a Golf School or Golf Lessons from a pro?

Well to help you decide here's a quick comparison of going to a school compared with getting personal lessons from a golf professional.

Personal Golf Lessons:

*You decide what you want to work on and when.

* The average price for an hour long personal lesson with a pro is $75.

* The professionals attention is solely on you so you're the star.

* Generally your lesson is in the same place where you can hit balls before you play.

* If something is going wrong you simply arrange another lesson to help fix it.

* Top instructors are very busy and it's tough to get into their schedules so you may have to settle for a teacher that is not as good.

Golf Schools:

* You can practice everything but you're generally told what you must practice and when.

* Average price for a Top 25 School in the US is $1,108.

* The professional's attention is not solely on you.

* At a golf school generally you have access to a large practice facility that is used just for the golf school you're attending.

* After your golf school there is generally limited support and if you need a lot of further help you'll probably have to pay again to attend the school.

* School instructors run golf schools for a living, i.e. that's all they do.

Now if you make the decision to go to a golf school here's what you should expect from the experience:

* 1 to 4 student ratio: If the school you're interested in doesn't have at least a 1 to 4 student/teacher ratio then you should seriously consider another golf school.

* Playing lessons: The school you attend should include at least one playing lesson. Because it's one thing to practice golf but another to play the course and put things into practice in real life situations.

* Video analysis: The school should offer video analysis of your golf game as part of the service, not as an extra. Video analysis is very, very common these days and an accepted part of modern golf coaching.

* Game time: In the times where you're free to do what you wish you should be able to play a golf course for free or for a very small cost.

So now you know what you should expect from a golf school how much can you expect to improve from a school?

Well, do not expect to massively cut your handicap from say 20 to 15 after attending a 3 day school. Because this is an unrealistic goal after such a short period of instruction.

If every golfer slashed 5 strokes from a 3 day golf school then everyone would go to them.

Instead you should see the school as the start of your improvement and when you leave the school you should know your game's strengths and weaknesses. And you should be given a comprehensive plan so you keep on improving and know exactly what you must work on to fix your bad habits.

Remember, the golf school is just a starting place to improve your golf game not the complete solution. And here's a word of advice.

If you're going to attend a school make sure you get in some reasonable physical shape before you go, because you'll be standing around a lot and hitting a lot of balls. Also take...

* Sun block

* Sunhat

* A couple of golf gloves

* Band-Aids

* At least a dozen golf balls

* Sunglasses

* Insect repellent

* Umbrella

* Comfortable golf shoes

If you're not used to hitting a lot of balls then you'll get very sore and won't get as much benefit from the golf school experience.