8 Beginner Golfer Mistakes And How To Fix Them

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In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by John Howells, head professional at JCB Golf and Country Club to look at 8 beginner golfer mistakes and how to fix them.
Transcript
00:00 Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the beautiful JCB Golf and Country
00:05 Club and this video in which we're going to take a look at the eight biggest beginner golfer mistakes
00:10 and how to fix them. These are either all traps that you might be falling into when you're out
00:14 on the golf course or simple swing mistakes that might be costing you. Now the advice in this video
00:19 comes courtesy of John Howes, he's the head pro here at JCB and he offers some really simple and
00:24 effective ways to get yourself back in the game if you are making a few of these mistakes. Right,
00:28 let's head out into the golf course and get started. So one of the things you are going to
00:36 need to do if you're getting into golf is figuring out how far you hit the ball with every club in
00:41 the bag and John I think the key bit of advice here is that it's not your best shot with every
00:45 club in the bag, it's your, it's a sort of true reflection of how far you hit the ball isn't it?
00:50 Yeah absolutely, I think all too often we have players and students that will know they hit a
00:55 shot once upon a time, they might have hit that 7-iron 185 yards but it was downhill, downwind,
01:02 maybe caught a little bit of a flyer for example and the shot is going to go an awful lot further
01:06 in that situation but what we need to do is really have a, I would call like a normalised shot which
01:12 is just a shot that is on a calm flat day with no extra help from certain conditions. Okay so that
01:19 begs the question, how can people go out and get that yardage? Well the best thing to do is to do
01:23 it away from the golf course, you should do it either at your practice area or at the driving
01:27 range. A practice area is ideal because you could actually hit a shot out onto the range with maybe
01:32 your 7-iron, a series of 20 shots, put your bag in the middle of that grouping of shots and then
01:38 laser that yardage from where you hit from. Okay yeah really simple, really effective, what if you
01:42 can't go out to the range, what if it's a sort of normal driving range setup? Obviously it's going
01:46 to be a little bit more challenging, probably going to have to do it on the golf course late
01:49 in an evening, something like that, go out there onto a golf course, maybe even just hitting to
01:53 the fairway in a flat situation where you've almost kind of controlled some of those variables.
01:58 Okay so let's say then you have your yardages for your clubs, when you get out onto the golf course
02:04 then you need to add in all the different factors that might be going on and this is a really good
02:08 example of that. So this is the 17th hole at JCB, it's the signature hole of the golf course,
02:12 plays slightly downhill, over water, trouble everywhere, how do you figure out your yardage
02:17 on a hole like this John? Absolutely, so first of all I've taken the Bushnell Laser and I've
02:21 lasered the flag at 195. Now I know my 6-iron in normal conditions will go about 182 but I've got
02:29 a situation here where I'm downhill, a good sort of 5-6 degrees so that's going to take some yardage
02:34 off and I've also got a little breath of downwind which is also going to help me. So I'm factoring
02:40 in the fact that I'm downhill using a little bit of educated guesswork and I know that 6-iron is
02:46 going to be about the right number. Right okay and if you're playing uphill the opposite sort
02:49 of rules would apply right? Yeah absolutely, you're going to have to use again a bit of educated
02:53 guesswork, you can use your Bushnell to sort of train yourself, there are certain Bushnells that
02:58 will allow you to you know factor in how much degrees uphill or downhill and how much that's
03:03 going to add on to the actual number that you're playing but for most people it's going to be a
03:08 bit of educated guesswork. Okay so the moment has arrived John, I think it's time for you to hit
03:13 this one for us. Absolutely let's give it a try. So I'm just thinking middle of the green here Neil.
03:19 I should think so too.
03:20 Lovely, starting at the centre of the green and pretty much staying there.
03:32 So there you have it, some really handy advice on how to pick the right club.
03:35 Okay so the first one on our list is something that costs players and it can cost them in terms
03:45 of accuracy and the quality of their strike John and it's about the way in which you turn your body
03:51 in the backswing or whether you sway in the backswing right? Yeah exactly, so all too often
03:56 with amateur golfers we see a lot of hip sway, this kind of lateral movement which I think
04:01 people with the best intentions they're trying to make a nice weight shift but they probably
04:05 overdo it. Right okay so what does it look like then, what's the wrong position look like? From
04:09 this kind of camera angle basically as we do our backswing what we see is people kind of doing this
04:15 weight shift where their right hip kind of laterally moves away from the target, they get
04:20 this big weight shift but they haven't really made much turn in their hips. Right fine so what's the
04:24 best way to think about it to get yourself out of that mode and get yourself into a better rotation?
04:29 So we've got to replace that hip sway with rotation, so if I put the alignment stick just
04:34 through my front two belt loops I'll just have to breathe in a little bit but basically what I'm
04:39 trying to do is get this feeling that as I do my backswing I'm turning and trying to match this 45
04:47 degree angle that I've put on the ground here so I'm getting the hips to match that white stick
04:52 that's on the ground so I'm making a nice big turn you could see that if I drew a line from my right
04:56 hip down to my right ankle I'm turning within that line as I do that backswing, it's going to help me
05:02 on multiple fronts. Okay and you've got another drill as well? Absolutely yeah so we can try and
05:06 then once we've got this feeling of a hip turn we can just slide in a little blocker maybe just pop
05:11 it on the outside of my right hip and do exactly the same thing now I'm going to get a bit of
05:17 feedback from a touch if I'm swaying into that yellow stick then obviously I'm going to feel
05:22 that during my golf swing you can see I've done it incorrectly there and I'm trying to basically
05:27 give myself very very narrow margin for error here and just turn inside of that right hip line
05:35 and you should see through the camera there that as John turns there is still a weight shift but
05:39 it's kind of a more of a natural shift that happens as the rotation of the body takes place
05:43 as opposed to really thinking about I've got to get my weight onto my right side of the top which
05:48 is a good thought in some ways but can lead to the wrong kind of action. I think people overdo it
05:53 don't they they're good at doing it but they overdo it. Yeah so if you tend to hit slices or
05:57 you're catching shots a lot of the time thin or fat give these two drills a go.
06:02 Right so we have some strategy advice for you and if you are looking to try and get your handicap
06:10 down there are a few things you can do to get your ball safely around the golf course which
06:15 is absolutely crucial. John what's the advice here for people? Yeah absolutely so I think all too
06:20 often people take dead aim at the flagstick and I think what's a lot more realistic is if you can
06:24 think about the shot pattern that you hit it's kind of probably the size of a football center
06:29 circle the middle of that is obviously where you're trying to hit it but if you think about
06:33 your right most miss and your left most miss that's going to give you quite a big shot pattern.
06:38 Now what we need to try and do is sort of center that shot pattern so that all potential shots that
06:43 you might hit are in a safe location i.e. not in the bunker not in a water hazard we want them all
06:49 to be pretty much on the green. Yeah it's a really simple way of looking at it and actually the
06:52 scenario that we faced with here on 17 is a good example of that because the the flag is over there
06:58 on the right hand side of the green it's a bit of a sucker pin isn't it? Yep so if you're playing
07:01 away from the flag have a very positive mindset pick a spot be really positive with it and then
07:06 go for it. Absolutely. Okay so John I think one of the mistakes I think we all make when we start
07:14 playing golf is sort of trying to help the ball up into the air it can lead to really inconsistent
07:19 strikes can you tell us what people should and shouldn't be trying to do when it comes to impact?
07:24 You're absolutely right I see it a lot and I think it often comes down to the concept that people
07:28 think that they're trying to give it all this lofted impact the setup position and the impact
07:34 position should actually be different as you can see me demonstrating there the setup should have
07:39 the shaft pretty well neutral or you know 90 degrees to the ground as you look at it here
07:44 but as I approach impact I'm looking to get that shaft leaning forwards a little bit so that I can
07:49 hit down on the golf ball and get that nice compressed strike. Yeah because it's that
07:52 combination of the speed in your swing and the angle of attack down into the ball creates the
07:56 backspin that you need to get the ball up in the air it's not actually hanging back and delivering
08:01 lots of loft to the club. Exactly right. So John you've got a drill for us can you just talk us
08:05 through what the drill is and how people should should be doing it? Yeah for sure so what we're
08:11 going to do in this drill is get yourself into that adjusted impact position where basically
08:16 we turn our hips a little bit we put a little bit more pressure onto our left foot
08:20 my right heel for a right-handed golfer might just come up in the air a little bit and I'm going to
08:25 start the swing here do a tiny little backswing and then try and return back to that impact fix
08:30 that I had at the start so let's give it a try. Yeah lovely and you can see the strike is just
08:39 perfect there it's the ball and then the ground which is exactly what you're looking for and then
08:44 I think if you can I guess build up the swing from there keeping that impact position in mind
08:50 that will really help. Yeah build it up over time try and try to start with small swings like I did
08:54 there and then build it up into a three-quarter length backswing and then eventually up into a
08:59 full shot but it's about getting that concept correct first of all. Yeah so if you're looking
09:03 for more consistency of strike you're looking to eradicate fat shots or thin shots from your game
09:08 this drill is a great one to use.
09:10 Right so chipping, Jon what's the biggest mistake that you see when people will start out with the
09:19 chipping that's costing them? Well typically people will set up in a way that doesn't really
09:23 give them a chance of success so what we often see is a situation where the club is de-lofted
09:29 like this where I've got the handle way in front of the golf ball and I've got the ball way back
09:34 in my stance almost opposite my right foot the problem with that Neil is obviously I'm going to
09:38 now chop down and I'm going to get that leading edge of the club to dig into the ground which
09:43 isn't really going to be an effective way to chip. Yeah you need to catch the ball absolutely
09:47 perfectly otherwise you're going to hit it you're going to duff it really aren't you or you're going
09:50 to pin it over the back you've got a very small landing area to land that club on the ground
09:55 in that situation. So then Jon how do people get to use the right part of the club in order to
10:00 strike their chips more effectively? Yeah so what we need to do is use the bounce on the bottom of
10:04 the club on every wedge there's a a little bit of bounce at the bottom that's the difference between
10:08 the trailing edge and the leading edge and if we present that in the correct way at setup i.e.
10:13 not having the shaft leaning super far forward let's get it a little bit more neutral as you
10:18 look at it from this perspective and we're trying to actually return it very simply to that position
10:23 that we started in we can now start to utilize a bit of that bounce on the bottom of the club
10:28 and our landing area is a lot bigger to actually get the club to land on the ground. So do you
10:33 have any drills that you can show us for the absolutely help us with that? Let's try this one
10:37 so what I want you to do first of all just set up to the grass just here and I'm going to put
10:44 these two sticks in perfect vertical alignment okay okay now if you do the one that could be
10:49 incorrect one first of all just to show people what that's like so typically what we're going
10:53 to do there is we're going to hit the yellow stick before the white stick that means that
10:57 we've got an awful lot of shaft lean and we're going to dig the club into the ground then if
11:02 someone was struggling with that what I would try and get them to do is almost hit the sticks
11:05 simultaneously so let's try that now trying to hit the white stick maybe even a fraction before the
11:10 yellow stick so now we're starting to see that the club is interacting with the ground in a much
11:15 more efficient way right yeah sort of surfing the turf I like to call it yeah it's that feeling that
11:20 I get when I'm doing that is that my sort of the club head's sort of almost overtaking the hands
11:24 it's certainly catching up with the hands through impact it's the one area that's very different to
11:28 long game isn't it one area where we do want to throw that club a little bit and try and get the
11:33 bounce being used. So you've got a couple of balls on tees here John what's that for? So what I would
11:38 do if someone was struggling with their chipping I would start with them up on a high tee and just
11:42 get them to do this sort of action just nipping the ball off the top of the tee so why don't you
11:46 set up to that big tall tee first of all and yeah you've got a nice setup there we've got a nice
11:51 vertical sort of shaft alignment and your job now is to imagine those two sticks there
11:56 and almost try and hit the bottom stick before the top stick. Very nice that was a really nicely
12:01 nipped chip shot over time we would progress to bringing that tee height down a little bit lower
12:08 and still trying to just interact with the tee peg only. Nope. Nice just it's hard isn't it
12:13 challenging you now because your depth perception of where that tee peg is is obviously a little bit
12:18 more tricky over time we could start to raise the level of that tee peg down and down and down until
12:22 you eventually you don't need it at all. Yeah well there you have it if you are struggling with your
12:26 chipping use John's technique there should really help you out. Right so the next one on our list
12:35 is about clubface control obviously if you want to hit the ball straight you've got to have control
12:39 of where the clubface is pointing through impact and I guess John the key mistake the key fault
12:44 here that people make when they're starting out tends to be a slice doesn't it? Yeah it tends to
12:48 be most people have a poor understanding of what causes that open clubface that we see with a slice
12:53 and I often see it first and foremost with the basics of a grip. Okay. Typically people who grip
12:59 the club in what we would call a weak position so that means the left hand the v of this left hand
13:06 pointing up towards my lead shoulder or also the right hand sometimes the right hand can be weak
13:10 Neil and that points up towards the lead shoulder that will typically mean that the clubface is
13:15 going to be open during the backswing and probably into the downswing. So where should those two v's
13:19 be pointing ideally? So what we would want to see is basically a neutral grip where the v of this
13:24 left hand and probably the v of the right hand are pointing up towards that right collarbone
13:29 anywhere in and around the right ear or the right collarbone you can probably see it here on screen.
13:33 Yeah and then the clubface is going to want to square up through impact and that's exactly what
13:40 you're looking for but John I would say I've seen people with good grips who've obviously seen
13:44 videos like this and they understand what they're trying to do they're holding the club
13:48 in a pretty good position and they're still hitting a slice what's going on then? Yeah so
13:54 you're absolutely right and that comes down to people's intent and their understanding of what
13:58 happens when the club gets moving. So typically if we have a position in the backswing I'll turn to
14:03 the camera here if we have a position where that left wrist gets into a very cupped position in
14:08 the backswing or maybe even a cup position at the top and also even on the way down if that left
14:12 wrist is in a really cupped position you can see just how open the clubface is there and how the
14:17 clubface is going to be pointing right at target yeah at impact. Okay John so you've shown us the
14:22 cupped left wrist how do people get control of that so it's in a better position at the top?
14:26 Yeah absolutely so what we want to try and see from from a backswing perspective if we've got
14:30 a neutral grip we would like to see a pretty flat left wrist i.e. there's no real cup or no real bow
14:37 a pretty flat left wrist even all the way up to the top of the backswing we'd want to see that
14:42 pretty well flat at the top. Now if you're really struggling with this I would suggest even going
14:47 full John Rahm you can see his golf swing he gets the the left wrist and the logo on his glove
14:53 actually pointing away from his chest and that gives a really strong look to the clubface which
14:58 is going to be an exaggeration but it'll probably help all the golfers out there. Yeah so if you are
15:02 someone if you're struggling with a bit of a slice there's a couple of different ways you can fix it
15:05 either focus your attention on your grip get that right and then make sure that your left wrist is
15:10 in the right place at the top you should start hitting the ball a bit straighter.
15:13 So when it comes to playing from the bunker I think a lot of golfers know that they need to use
15:22 the loft on the face they need to open up the face to get the ball out but there's a way to do it
15:27 and there's a way not to do it and can you just talk about that for us John because this can be
15:32 where some of the problems occur can't it? Yeah all too often I see players setting up with their
15:36 normal full swing grip they basically take this this grip to begin with and then they try and
15:42 open the clubface from a position where they've already gripped the club and ultimately if we do
15:47 that when we swing down and hit the shot we're just going to return the clubface back to a square
15:51 position and obviously for hitting a high lofted bunker shot that's no use. No and you're not going
15:56 to be using the bouncers we've already talked about with with chipping so how do you open the
16:00 face correctly then to use it from sound? Absolutely it's really simple all you need to do is just twist
16:04 the club open before you're taking your grip so pop it out in front of you give it a little twist
16:09 about the shaft and then take your grip as if you haven't done anything at all different and that's
16:14 really how you do it correctly. Go on then let's have a look. All right so I've twisted it there
16:20 just open ball position just forward in my stance a little bit more squatted than normal
16:24 and you can see how much loft there is there without John trying to do anything particularly
16:34 out of the ordinary he's created an awful lot of loft and yet kept the motion as simple as possible.
16:38 Okay so hopefully you now know how to grip the club in order to open the face but John one of
16:45 the keys to playing bunker shots consistently well is taking the right amount of sand every time it's
16:50 something that so many golfers struggle with how I can see you've got a drill here what is it and
16:55 how does it help? So we've got two little scoops of sand here one with ball one without and what I
16:59 want you to understand is that really we're trying to control the depth of this divot Neil so if I
17:04 set up just to the side I want to make a swing where I don't actually break the ground I don't
17:09 want to see a divot being taking place because if I do that I've gone way too low. Right yes. So by
17:15 setting up to this little bit of sand same bunker sort of technique I'm going to just look to hit
17:20 the sand only yeah hear that really nice sound that you hear on great bunker plays.
17:26 Yeah and there's no divot there it's just a sort of light bruising of the ground isn't it? Yeah
17:30 just nipping that sand getting plenty of spin plenty of height on the shot and you can try
17:34 that with a golf ball as well. Yeah it's a really nice way of thinking about it's a drill I've not
17:46 seen before actually Jon hopefully if you try it will help you get that consistency that you
17:50 need with your splashes in the sand to get the ball out every time. Okay Jon so green reading
18:00 what have we got going on down here? So we've got this funny looking contraption it's a perfect
18:04 putter it's a device that can actually guarantee that we're starting the ball on the same line
18:08 every time but we've got different speed markers on the on the device here so we can roll the ball
18:13 at different speeds and see whether or not it goes in. Yeah because there is a direct correlation
18:18 between your line and the pace that you hit the ball if you don't get both right you're likely
18:23 to miss aren't you? Absolutely a speed and line matchup is what we need the line is only as good
18:28 as the speed that you're trying to hit it into the hole. Okay show us how it works. Okay so what
18:32 we've got basically we've we've figured out this this putt here and we're going to roll it from
18:36 the little marker on two here and we know that if we do that we're going to be very very close to
18:42 to holing it and it's gone in nicely there if I was to roll it at a slightly slower speed than
18:47 that so I'm going to go down to zero just two little clicks lower on this little speed device
18:52 you can see that it breaks that little bit more and it ends up missing on the low edge
18:57 and if I now do it differently I'll go up to a four on the little speed marking
19:01 you can see that extra bit of speed it just kind of grabs that top edge of the hole it probably
19:07 would have gone in if the flag was flag was out but it caught more of the right edge of the hole
19:12 if I maybe go even quicker than that maybe up towards a five on this little device you can
19:16 see that's on an awful lot higher line and then as a result it doesn't actually go in. Yes it's a
19:20 really good visualization even though each putt each ball is going down on exactly the same line
19:26 the pace that you hit your putts will have a direct impact on whether you're able to make
19:30 them or not. What's interesting about this though as I look at it I guess the temptation I guess the
19:37 mistake here that people make is that they they miss on what's often called as the amateur side
19:42 which would be the low side you'd end up hitting more more times that you miss you'd miss low than
19:46 missing high. Absolutely. Why is that why do people tend to miss low more than they miss high? Well I
19:51 think people often see and visualize what we've laid out here but they end up aiming at the apex
19:56 ball which would probably be about this ball here which obviously as you can see in this demonstration
20:02 is actually way lower than the start line which is this white string line so we need to start the
20:07 ball a lot higher than the apex that we visualized. I think the apex is a worthy picture to draw
20:14 yourself but you've got to make sure you're aiming it higher than that on this right to left breaking
20:18 putt. Yeah it's a really interesting subject and these small things it's just a one of those things
20:23 that if you can take it out with you onto the golf course get used to hitting your putts high
20:27 enough when you're faced with some break like this you should should be able to hold a few more.