Golf in NC

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North Carolina Golf Schools

Making the commitment to putt with the same precision as Tiger Woods in 365 days or less might be an impractical goal, but becoming a better player is definitely within reach.

One of the fastest – and most proven – routes to game improvement is professional coaching. Individual lessons can work wonders with time and patience. But for those who hate to wait, total immersion in a golf school is the most gratifying path to rapid advancement.

North Carolina is a leader in multi-day golf schools that promise a lifetime of better golf. Some of the best-known options are the Dana Rader Golf School in Charlotte, the Learning Center and “Golfaris” at Peggy Kirk Bell’s Pine Needles Resort in Southern Pines and the Precision Golf School in Greensboro.

“I think we have some of the finest golf teaching professionals in the country here,” says Rader, a Morganton, N.C., native who earned the prestigious ranking as one of the Top 50 Teachers in the U.S. by Golf Magazine. Her Dana Rader Golf School has been based at The Golf Club at Ballantyne since 1997. “North Carolina is synonymous with golf.”

Rader says the biggest advantage of a multi-day golf school is that it provides golfers with “a curriculum to follow as opposed to a fix-it lesson.” Many golfers can relate to rushing in to a pro for an hour-long session expecting to cure a lifetime of ills.

“(With a golf school) you go through a proven model,” says Rader. “It will bring about the greatest changes in your swing. You have more time to groom it and understand it and own it.”

Rader and her staff offer programs year-round, including two-day and three-day programs that focus on every aspect of the game.

Pine Needles offers similar programs with the addition of “Golfaris” that run six days and five nights for golfers with the utmost commitment. The resort is owned by Peggy Kirk Bell, one of the founding members of the LPGA Tour and one of Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Teachers (Emeritus).

Robert Linville’s Precision Golf School in the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point) features a Three-Day Weekend School that includes 17.5 hours of instruction and two nine-hole playing lessons.

Those three brush the surface of professional golf schools to choose from in North Carolina. That should come as no surprise in a state that boasts more than 500 golf courses from the mountains to the sea, and regularly hosts some of the game’s most prestigious amateur and professional tournaments.

By Patrick Jones

added: December 19, 2008

updated: April 17, 2009