I'm a combination of the two.  I think it's important to have "your own swing."  But it's very easy to go down the wrong path and spend hours replicating a flaw.  I like to find teachers who don't want to change my swing, but improve on what I do.  And then I go from there and work on perfecting it.

I agree with tdogg21.  I'm a combination as well.  Finding the right instructor is key.  My first tried to change pretty much everything about my swing.  While it worked at first, it was neither consistent, nor sustainable. 

My new instructor is a follower of Mike Adams' methods and is a big believe of "your own swing".  It's taken a lot of work and time to get me back to my natural motion, but it's yielded far better results. 

If you're curious about MA, check out some of the videos on Golf Channel.  There is a really good one with him HS.

I was a DIY type of guy my whole life.  I like the self taught, swing your own swing, mentality.  I'd had some good rounds and some bad rounds, and made some improvements, but I had been in the 11-9 cap for a long time.

Since I started doing TPI and mixed in a couple of lessons (4 over the winter and 1 refresher so far this year) my cap is down from 9.7 to 6.2 and I've shot the best rounds of my life this summer.  Lessons are the way to go.  Once you know what you're doing wrong and how to fix it, you can figure the rest out on your own.

I have a pro that I go to sometimes to solve a problem and  sometimes just to have him watch me go thru the bag hitting each club and making recommendations.  Recently I was having problems with my driver, loss of distance, and I had acquired a slice when all of my life I had hit fairly long and right to left.  He told me that he'd have me back to normal after a couple shots.  Went thru my setup drill for a drive and he said freeze, you're hitting a double cross, rotate your shoulders and you'll be ok.  He also had me tee up higher to catch the sweet spot better, and I was playing the ball way too far forward.  My wrist action was way late for the draw as well.  Three drives later and I was hitting the ball out to the end of the range with a slight draw.  He hung in with me for an entire hour making sure that I had no relapses.  $40 for the lesson.  I may not have ever figured out what all was going wrong especially since I was playing my irons and fairway wood pretty well.  He also convinced me that I should play my normal daily round with alignment sticks on driver holes for a couple days to burn in proper setup which was also good advice.  Next week we are going to work on long irons, he thinks that I can improve some with them.  Me and this pro work well together and he teaches so that things make good sense and he sees things I'm just not aware of.  If you can hook up with a pro and you and him or her have a positive connect, they can help you a lot.  For me its money well spent.

Sometimes I do try and figure things out as well.  Recently I saw a photo of myself about to hit a ball.  I was bent over way too far, really bad posture at address.  Went to a range with my son who videoed my swing and worked through getting more upright in my stance.  By bending over, my head was not staying steady I was swaying back and forward during the swing.  That problem I was able to correct on my own.

So for me its a combination.  I do enjoy my lessons from a pro and figuring out some solutions on my own.

$40 for an entire hour?  sounds like more than money well spent. 

-fred

I agree that a combination is best as well.  A second opinion (and opportunity to have your swing videotaped the right way) is always very helpful!

CH

I find it more gratifying to try and figure it out myself.

I've told myself that when I hit  serious wall then I will seek professional help, but so far, YouTube has been pretty good to me. It's been 2 years, and I have had a steady improvement in all aspects of my game. Right now, I feel the best way to improve my game is to improve my physical health so I don't burn out around the 12 hole while walking up and down hills in 99*F weather. If I pay for anything anytime soon, it will be for a gym membership, not lessons.

I had been trying to figure it out myself for a long time. I took a lesson this week from a good friend who was up visting(I live in Upstate NY and he is now in Tampa). 3 swings in he could already see where I needed some help and we started to correct it wi th some good drills he recommended. I went out with the new swing 2 days later and shot 82 with 3 double bogeys. I now would be on the side of taking lessons and working with a pro you trust. I was hitting irons so much more solid after 1 lesson. I think you can practice a ton but if you are not working on the correct things it may not help as much as you think.

There are some volunteers at allexperts.com  One of them I perused so much that he gave me his personal email address and I sent a video.  Instagram works too.  If you do the right hashtags a teaching pro or two will give feedback.  John Brott picked up on a tiny flaw (straigthening the right leg on the backswing and an overly strong grip) and that helped.

I haven't paid for a lesson yet but have managed to get some pointers along the way.

The Swing Surgeon (www.swingsurgeon.com) offers what I would consider the ideal swing for a tall person.

The big issue is people try to complicate the game too much.  The basic golf swing doesn't change much, regardless of whether you chip or hit a driver; what changes is the swing length.  There are also fallacies:

1.  The big 90 degree backswing sometimes causes more faults than you can imagine.  Pros are even going to a more compact backswing.

2.  The rotational swing is not for everybody.  Taller people tend to fare better with a 2 plane swing.   There was a simple test in Golf Digest about swing plane (touching your shoulder with your fingertip with the upper arm tucked in to your side).

3. See too many people getting "fancy" with short game by flipping their wrists. after contact. 

I agree with a lot of the comments here and personally am a "combination" type player.  I have developed my own swing, but also use the help of a PGA professional at times throughout the year to keep me on track.  I have found that my swing tends to migrate away from it's path where I am playing best.  Whether it is a grip that keeps getting a little weaker or stronger or my shoulders being open or closed, I often don't realize that I am doing these things.  This is where my coach comes in for a quick tune up.  On the driving range, he can watch me hit a few balls and can tell almost immediately what is a little bit off and we can make the corrections.  I have found it is generally something small with my setup and the second set of wyes from a professional can help to diagnose these things.  Once the swing is in place, it is up to me to be aware of the potential issues and then spend the time practicing to get the swing working consistently.  Practice + guidance = success!