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Professional golfers who have never had a lesson

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“Swing your swing. Not some idea of a swing, not a swing you saw on TV, or swing you wish you had. No, swing your swing.”

Arnold Palmer’s words have been quoted for years, and over time, it’s been proved that distinctive swings can more than get the job done in the professional sphere of golf.

But what about those who take it that one step further and not only swing their own swing but reach the upper echelons of the game without even taking lessons? While it is rare, some players are entirely self-taught and have had major success in the sport.

Here we’ll take a look at some tour pros that have used the swing they were blessed with to forge both a living and a legacy in the game.

Professional golfers who have never had a lesson

Lee Trevino won six major championships. Here he is after winning the 1972 Open Championship, his second Claret Jug.

Bubba Watson

The most-well know self-taught genius is Bubba Watson.

Watson taught himself to play as a kid by hitting whiffle balls in loops around his house, and his journey has taken him right to the very top, with 12 PGA Tour wins to his name, including two Masters titles.

The American taught himself to swing harder and harder as he progressed and invented his own version of golf: ‘Bubba Golf’, which involves Bubba often hitting either a giant cut or draw. 

His rope hook shot during the 2012 Masters playoff was the perfect example of a self-taught genius at work. No other player on tour would have seen the shot, let alone pull it off.

Lee Trevino

Lee Trevino’s career is highlighted by 6 major triumphs, and another perfect example of how your unique and individual swing can’t be taught but only learned.

After being discharged from the Marines, Trevino took a job as a club pro in El Paso, Texas and made side money gambling on himself in head to head matchups.

He would famously say about his swing: “No one who ever had lessons would have a swing like mine.”

Moe Norman

The Canadian, Moe Norman, is considered one of the best ball strikers of all time and was given the nickname “Pipeline Moe” out of respect for how pure he hit the ball.

The stories regarding Norman’s self-taught swing are legendary, with tales of how he could hit hundreds of balls without touching a blade of grass. 

Vijay Singh called him a genius, while Tiger Woods once said that Moe Norman and Ben Hogan were the only two golfers to “own their swings.”

Jim Herman

Another current pro who has never had a lesson is Jim Herman. Herman started at the age of 9 and learned the game by playing daily at Shawnee Lookout Golf Course in North Bend. The American plied his trade as an assistant pro and ironically an instructor before making it onto the PGA Tour.

Since then, Herman, who says “things like course management and strategy get ignored in the beginning stages of instruction”, has gone on to win three times on the PGA Tour.

As far as owning your own swing, Jim Furyk is another excellent example, whose only ever coach has been his father. While Luke Donald  throughout his career would only occasionally seek the council of his college golf coach, Pat Goss at Northwestern.

To succeed in a sport like golf is hard enough, but to do it without any lessons is almost miraculous. Are there any self-taught professionals we’ve missed? Let us know if so!

Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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