00:00Now you may have already noticed that temperatures are dropping and golf courses are getting a little
00:03bit wetter and that can only mean one thing, winter is coming. Well in this video we've
00:09been joined by Golf Monthly Top 50 coach Adam Hahn who's going to talk us through seven shots that
00:13you need to save your game this winter. We've also partnered up with Ping in this video,
00:18kitted myself and Adam out in their latest autumn and winter apparel to keep us nice and warm
00:23and nice and dry out on the golf course. We're at West Hill today, let's get started.
00:33Right Adam, so we're going to look at a couple of shots here that you're going to need in the
00:36winter
00:36and that is out of some differing lies. Now before we get into the shot itself, let's talk about
00:42identifying a lie, how important that is and how not a lot of golfers actually identify the lie
00:47before they go and hit their shot. I see that so often, it's probably the biggest mistake amateurs
00:51make is not looking at their lie before they pull their club, so they might get their yardage,
00:56they'll pull their club and then they'll hit the shot and they won't actually look at how the ball's
00:59sitting. It's probably the most important thing to do. You'll never see a good player not look at
01:04their lie before they hit it. Listen, I'm criminal of this as well, so we're not alone. We've pulled
01:09out two lies here that we're going to get a lot in the winter. Let's start with this one on
01:13the left
01:13hand side, a flyer lie. Now let's talk about how to identify a flyer lie first and what it actually
01:19means. Okay, so a flying lie is when the ball's kind of sat in the semi-rough and it's sitting
01:24up
01:24slightly. It's almost like it's on a tee and what that does, that reduces the spin on the ball. So
01:29when you strike the ball, it's going to actually fly a little bit further. So in the winter, that's
01:33actually quite a favorable lie to have. Where the ball's sitting up a little bit, we've got to be a
01:36little bit careful that we don't go underneath it. Okay. So, you know, we're not necessarily trying
01:40to change too many things here, but one thing we can't do is be too steep and kind of chop
01:45down on this
01:45flying lie. So we'll be a little bit careful with the ball position. We may have the ball position even
01:50slightly forward of normal. Okay. Imagine the ball's on the tee, we kind of can sweep it up a little
01:55bit. So on this kind of lie, that's really helpful. Right. So I'm going to get you to hit that
01:58in just
01:59a second. Let's talk about this lie on the right and you'll get this a lot in the winter. It's
02:03not
02:03as wet at the minute, but it's sort of a bare lie. One of the key things with this different
02:08to the
02:08flying lie is this one we actually need to hit a little bit more down on. We want to definitely
02:12get
02:12ball turf strike with this one. So two things I see golfers do that really you need to avoid. Number
02:18one
02:18is trying to kind of help the ball up off the ground just through fear of hitting the ground
02:24and fatting it. So there's kind of a bit of a, we call it a miss radius where the radius
02:28of the
02:28swing shortens and then we end up thinning and topping it. The other one is kind of a bit on
02:32our
02:33back foot. Again, trying to help the ball up in the air and kind of avoiding that muddy lie and
02:38avoiding
02:38the fat shot. Both of them actually cause problems more than they help. So certainly this one here
02:44where it's slightly muddy underneath, making sure that we're moving forward aggressively onto our
02:49front foot is really, really key. I'd say that's the most important thing to focus on when you
02:53swing through these shots. Let's give it a go.
03:04I nearly had him. You can see how little spin that came out with and how much that sort of
03:08dug in. It comes out really hot again in the winter. That's brilliant. We want our ball flying
03:12further. So this lie is actually quite a nice thing to have.
03:19Okay, Adam, fairway woods and hybrids are really important to use well over the winter. Can you
03:24explain why a bit more carry distance through the air is so much more helpful? And then how to use
03:28these clubs more efficiently at this time of year? Yeah. So, you know, when we're faced with a situation
03:33where we've got a long iron in our hand or a long iron yardage in the winter, when the ground's
03:38a bit
03:39softer, one of the great things that the hybrids and fairway woods have is a much kind of wider,
03:45flatter sole to the club. Okay. So that helps with that softer ground. It glides through the ground
03:50much easier. So where we might normally take a four or five iron in the winter months, we know the
03:55ball isn't flying quite so far. So it's a good idea to take out your hybrid or your fairway wood.
04:00And we
04:08think that's the key thing. The first thing I would say is it's actually not a bad idea to slightly
04:13grip
04:13down the club. So we might slightly grip down our hybrid or fairway wood just for a little bit more
04:20control. Now, it also takes a little bit of yardage off. Yeah. So if we're not trying to hit, let's
04:26say,
04:26our four iron normal distance and our hybrid normally goes further than that, just gripping down gives us
04:31a little bit more control and also just helps it not fly too far through the air.
04:41Right. So the next shot, Adam, is going to save golfers out there this winter. This might sound
04:46really obvious. We're not reinventing the wheel here. It is quality of strike. Yeah. Now from this
04:50range, we're 150 yards and in, this is a really important scoring area. So how do we have better
04:57strike in the winter? And can you give us a drill that people can go away with and practice at
05:00home
05:01on the range and on the course? Absolutely. I mean, when the ground's wet, one of the things golfers
05:05don't like doing is hitting the ground, right? Because their relationship with the ground normally
05:08isn't a good one. So we need to make sure that we're hitting the ground in the right place. Okay.
05:14We kind of, we all know that we're supposed to be hitting the ball and then the ground. Okay. Ball,
05:17turf, contact is what we're looking for. So a really simple drill for this would be making some
05:22practice swings before you hit the ball, which enough, you know, many golfers don't do anyway. Yeah.
05:27But focusing on where you're making contact with the ground. So as I'm making my practice swing,
05:32I'm trying to make contact with the ground forwards of the golf ball. Any particular distance in front?
05:37Do you pick a spot in the turf? Not particularly. I'm just making sure that my contact is anywhere
05:42from the golf ball up. That's going to ensure, you know, that the downward hit we're looking for
05:46and it will really stop golfers kind of backing up or lifting or trying to scoop the ball off the
05:50wet
05:50ground. Sometimes I might lay a towel down on the range. Yeah. You know, you might lay just a towel
05:55behind
05:56here and swing through and try to miss the towel effectively. Yeah. Hitting the ground forwards.
06:02And then, yeah, you can, you know, bring that into your practice swings on the golf course and then
06:05you can bring it into your real shots when you're actually playing. That's a really good tip. And,
06:08you know, we've said this already, but quality of strike is so important in the winter. You can get
06:13away with a scabby one in the summer, can't you? Yeah. It might run. Yeah. But, you know, like in
06:16this
06:17whole uphill, bunkers in front. Yeah. You're going to need that quality of strike. So think about that when you're
06:21on the
06:21course and when you're practicing at the driving range.
06:29Okay, Adam, so we're working our way up the hole now and an important shot to save you this winter
06:33is that 60, 70, 80 yard pitch shot that when the ground gets really soft, it's actually really hard
06:39to hit. A lot of people start fatting them. So can we talk about how to avoid the fat shot
06:43and to get
06:44these scoring shots as tight as possible? Absolutely. The most common thing I see with this type of shot,
06:48with a wedge in our hand, is golfers that get kind of very, very narrow, meaning the club sort of
06:54comes
06:54in towards them. The shaft gets quite vertical and then they kind of come down too steep and chunk.
07:00That's where that fat, especially with the ground soft and wet and horrible. Absolutely.
07:03It's going nowhere. So we want to try and create more width with this shot. One thing I would always
07:07say is never make a full swing, an absolute full swing with a really lofted club. And the reason
07:13being is when we're making a real full swing, it's easy for the club to come in too narrow,
07:18you come down too steep. So I always think a three-quarter swing is absolutely a must when
07:23we're playing these shots. If that means you've got to change wedge, then do so. But the way I
07:26really like a nice feeling or a drill, if you like, or a nice feel, is that when we make
07:31our back swing,
07:32we should have enough width in the club head here that if we take our right hand off,
07:38we can't reach the club head. To me, that shows we've got a nice amount of width. So from there,
07:42we can come in kind of shallower and kind of pick the ball off nicely using the bounce on the
07:47club
07:48and avoid that kind of leading edge digging into the ground.
07:57Right then, Adam, we found ourselves in a bunker, which you might do in the winter and the summer,
08:01but a difference in the winter is the lie. A lot more compact, a lot less sand most of the
08:06time when
08:06it's wet. Let's talk about identifying the lie and how to play out of it when there's not a
08:10lot of sand in the ball. When it's compact and hard like this, it's very different to when it's
08:14sitting fluffy. When it's sitting fluffy, we want to use the bounce of the club, which is the sole,
08:20kind of the rounded bottom of the sole is the bounce. And that stops the club from digging into
08:24the sand. Now, of course, when it's hard like this, if we have too much of a bounce angle on
08:29the club,
08:30we're going to bounce up off that hard pan into the middle of the ball and it's going to thin.
08:35Yes. That's the common shot I have in these sort of situations.
08:38So the things we need to change, first of all, we need to make sure we've got a wedge in
08:41our bag
08:42that has a low bounce. So that's going to be a number like a six or an eight degree of
08:46bounce.
08:46And that's going to keep the leading edge down in the sand. It's going to stop it from coming
08:51up too high to prevent those sort of thin shots. In this scenario, we actually want to encourage
08:56the leading edge to dig a bit. Any setup changes for when it's compact?
09:00Yeah, absolutely. So with a normal bunker shot, we would normally set ourselves up
09:04and have the ball a bit forwards, the face a little bit open. And of course,
09:09when we open the face, we expose more bounce. Sure.
09:12We definitely don't want to do that in this scenario. Interesting.
09:14So having the ball maybe a little bit more central and squaring the face up,
09:20squaring the face up helps the leading edge kind of get into the sand much easier.
09:24Yeah. You know, an opening club is always going to expose more.
09:27A closing club is almost like a bit of a digging tool.
09:30Yeah. It's actually useful in this situation.
09:32Absolutely. And we want to get the bounce going down or the leading edge,
09:35sorry, going down into the sand. Brilliant. So really useful tips there.
09:44Okay. We were in the bunker. I didn't talk about bounce. We're now out of it.
09:47We'll talk about it again with these two different chip shots here. So we've got a buried lie in the
09:52wet rough. Yes. And a tight lie, but the ground is still pretty wet. Yeah.
09:57So let's talk about, again, how we identify what bounce to use and what situation.
10:00So what I'd say is, you know, whenever we're out now, we're on the grass, we're on soft ground,
10:05right? So we no longer need to dig. We don't want to dig. No.
10:08So we're trying to avoid using a wedge with low bounce. Very different to when we're on that hard
10:13pan bunker shot out there. Especially out of this lie we've picked here,
10:16which is a bit buried down in some wet rough. Yep.
10:18You do want to interact with the ground. Yes.
10:21But going through it and not digging into it, right? Exactly. So we still need a little bit
10:25of a downward angle because the ball sat down in the grass, right? So we've got to get down to
10:29the bottom of the ball, but we don't want low bounce at the same time because as coming down,
10:34we're just going to dig. Brilliant.
10:36Right? So with a bit of bounce on that club at a steeper angle, we won't dig in,
10:41but we will pop the ball out. Okay. So that's the shot you're going to need in your bag.
10:43Definitely over the wind. So let's move to this lie here. You know, we're not far off here.
10:47Yep. But it's almost a different shot entirely, right? Yes.
10:50A tighter lie, but we've still got some wet ground. Yes.
10:53How would you say people go about this one? So again, again, high bounce. We want to use
10:57the bounce of the club, but one thing I like golfers to try and get comfortable doing on these sort
11:01of
11:01shots is getting comfortable hitting the ground and feeling how it's going to interact. Okay.
11:07All right. So I've just made a little swing there. I've hit the ground, but because I've hit with the
11:11back or the underneath of the club, it hasn't dug in. So if you're comfortable hitting the ground,
11:17knowing that it's not going to dig, then the bounce will work for you. You'll slide through and you'll be
11:21able to hit decent shots in the wet condition. Okay. Now I like, especially on this shot here,
11:26it's a decent way away, but nothing to go over off a thin lie. Yeah. Maybe getting something like an
11:29eight iron out, but can you just chat about the bounce if there is any on here and how that
11:33might
11:33interact differently with this? Yeah, sure. So with a flatter face club on this kind of lie,
11:38we really want the club working very much shallow, like almost like a putting stroke in a way. We want
11:43to
11:43get away from any steep angle that's going to potentially dig that into the ground. Now,
11:47our irons, typically we want to take a bit of a divot in a full swing, right? Right. But when
11:52we're around the greens like this, we don't really want that. So keeping that moving nice and level
11:57with the ground, if you catch it slightly thin, that's better than catching it slightly fat.
12:02Definitely. Okay. Because we're trying to get the ball out low and rolling.
12:10Right. Then last but not least, Adam, we made it to the green, finally. Yeah. And come winter,
12:15and especially coming out of the summer, the greens are really quick. It can be tough
12:18on these long putts to get yourself to hit it hard enough or get the pace right when they're a
12:23bit
12:23slower, a bit wetter, less firm. Absolutely. So what kind of tips can you give us to get better at
12:27these
12:28sort of lag putts in the winter? Yeah. So what I see a lot of golfers do when the greens
12:32start to get a
12:33bit slower and they've got longer putts uphill in the winter is they tend to try to accelerate really
12:38fast and kind of add a hitting motion. Okay. Okay. Now to be a good putter and control your distance,
12:45we want the putter moving at a nice constant speed, right? So we don't want the club coming back
12:49and then suddenly accelerating. Right. And that's a real temptation when the greens are a bit slower,
12:53right? So to combat that, I want golfers to be a little bit more aware of the length of their
12:58stroke.
12:58Okay. So we want the backswing and the downswing to kind of be the same tempo, the same speed.
13:04We don't want to be going back slow and then really accelerating. It's really easy to over egg it then
13:11with that sudden rate of acceleration. So we want a nice constant speed. And the way we're going to do
13:16that is matching up the backswing length with the length of putt we've got effectively.
13:29Oh, cozied up nicely. Have a look for us. Just missed, but I'd say that's a givey on the way
13:36back.
13:36So a great tip there for Madden to really think about that putting stroke even more in the winter
13:40on these long putts on wet greens. Massive thanks to Adam for joining us in this video,
13:44some really, really useful advice there. But for now from West Hill, we'll see you next time.
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