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.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the beautiful JCB Golf
00:05and Country Club and this video in which we're going to take a look at the eight biggest
00:09beginner golfer mistakes and how to fix them. These are either all traps that you might
00:13be falling into when you're out on the golf course or simple swing mistakes that might
00:17be costing you. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of John Howes, he's the head
00:21pro here at JCB and he offers some really simple and effective ways to get yourself
00:26back in the game if you are making a few of these mistakes. Right, let's head on to the
00:29golf course and get started.
00:35So one of the things you are going to need to do if you're getting into golf is figuring
00:38out how far you hit the ball with every club in the bag. And John, I think the key bit of
00:43advice here is that it's not your best shot with every club in the bag, it's your, it's
00:47a sort of true reflection of how far you hit the ball, isn't it?
00:50Yeah, absolutely. I think all too often we have players and students that will know they
00:55hit a shot once upon a time, they might have hit that seven iron 185 yards but it was downhill,
01:01downwind, maybe caught a little bit of a flyer for example, and the shot is going to go an
01:06awful lot further in that situation. But what we need to do is really have a, I would call
01:10like a normalised shot, which is just a shot that is on a calm, flat day, with no extra
01:17help from certain conditions.
01:19Okay, so that begs the question, how can people go out and get that yardage?
01:22Well, the best thing to do is to do away from the golf course, you should do it either at
01:26your practice area or at the driving range. A practice area is ideal because you could
01:30actually hit a shot out onto the range with maybe your seven iron, a series of 20 shots,
01:35put your bag in the middle of that grouping of shots and then laser that yardage from
01:39where you hit from.
01:40Okay, yeah, really simple, really effective. What if you can't go out to the range? What if
01:43it's a sort of normal driving range set up?
01:45Obviously, it's going to be a little bit more challenging, probably going to have to do it on the golf
01:49course late in an evening, something like that, go out there onto a golf course, maybe even
01:52just hitting to the fairway in a flat situation where it's, you've almost kind of controlled
01:57some of those variables.
01:58Okay, so let's say then you have your yardages for your clubs. When you get out onto the golf
02:03course, then you need to add in all the different factors that might be going on. And this is
02:08a really good example of that. So this is the 17th hole at JCB, it's the signature hole of
02:12the golf course, plays slightly downhill, over water, trouble everywhere. How do you figure
02:17out your yardage on a hole like this, Jon?
02:19Absolutely. So first of all, I've taken the Bushnell laser and I've lasered the flag at
02:23195. Now I know my six iron in normal conditions will go about 182, but I've got a situation
02:30here where I'm downhill, a good sort of five, six degrees. So that's going to take some yardage
02:34off. And I've also got a little breath of downwind, which is also going to help me. So I'm
02:40factoring in the fact that I'm downhill using a little bit of educated guesswork. And I
02:45know that six iron is going to be about the right number.
02:47Right. Okay. And if you were playing uphill, the opposite sort of rules would apply, right?
02:51Yeah, absolutely. You're going to have to use, again, a bit of educated guesswork. You can
02:55use your Bushnell to sort of train yourself. There are certain Bushnells that will allow
02:58you to factor in how much degrees uphill or downhill and how much that's going to add on
03:04to the actual number that you're playing. But for most people, it's going to be a bit
03:08of educated guesswork. Okay. So the moment has arrived. John, I think it's time for you
03:13to hit this one for us. Absolutely. Let's give it a try. So I'm just thinking middle of the
03:17green here, Neil. I should think so too.
03:27Lovely. Starting at the centre of the green and pretty much staying there. So there you have
03:33some really handy advice on how to pick the right club.
03:38Okay. So the first one on our list is something that costs players and it can cost them in
03:45terms of accuracy and the quality of their strike, John. And it's about the way in which
03:49you turn your body in the backswing or whether you sway in the backswing, right?
03:55Yeah, exactly. So all too often with amateur golfers, we see a lot of hip sway, this kind of lateral
04:00movement, which I think people with the best intentions, they're trying to make a nice
04:03weight shift, but they probably overdo it.
04:05Right. Okay. So what does it look like then? What's the wrong position look like?
04:08From this kind of camera angle, basically, as we do our backswing, what we see is people
04:14kind of doing this weight shift where their right hip kind of laterally moves away from
04:19the target. They get this big weight shift, but they haven't really made much turn in
04:22their hips. Right. Fine. So what's the best way to think about it to get yourself out of that
04:27mode and get yourself into a better rotation? So we've got to replace that hip sway with
04:32rotation. So if I put the alignment stick just through my front two belt loops, I'll
04:36just have to breathe in a little bit. But basically what I'm trying to do is get this feeling that
04:42as I do my backswing, I'm turning and trying to match this 45 degree angle that I've put
04:48on the ground here. So I'm getting the hips to match that white stick that's on the ground.
04:53So I'm making a nice big turn. You could see that if I drew a line from my right hip
04:57down to my right ankle, I'm turning within that line as I do that backswing. It's going
05:01to help me on multiple fronts. Okay. And you've got another drill as well.
05:04Absolutely. Yeah. So we can try and then once we've got this feeling of a hip turn,
05:09we could just slide in a little blocker, maybe just pop it on the outside of my right hip
05:15and do exactly the same thing. Now I'm going to get a bit of feedback from a touch. If I'm swaying into
05:20that yellow stick, then obviously I'm going to feel that during my golf swing. You can see I've
05:25done it incorrectly there and I'm trying to basically give myself very, very narrow margin
05:30for error here and just turn inside of that right hip line. And you should see through the camera there
05:37that as John turns, there is still a weight shift, but it's kind of a more of a natural shift that
05:41happens as the rotation of the body takes place, as opposed to really thinking about I've got to get my
05:46weight onto my right side at the top, which is a good thought in some ways, but can lead to the
05:51wrong kind of action. Yeah. I think people overdo it, don't they? They're good at doing it, but they
05:55overdo it. Yeah. So if you tend to hit slices or you're catching shots, a lot of the time thin or fat,
06:01give these two drills a go.
06:06Right. So we have some strategy advice for you. And if you are looking to try and get your handicap down,
06:11there are a few things you can do to get your ball safely around the golf course, which is absolutely
06:16crucial. John, what's the advice here for people? Yeah, absolutely. So I think all too often people
06:20take dead aim at the flagstick. And I think what's a lot more realistic is if you can think about the
06:25shot pattern that you hit, it's kind of probably the size of a football centre circle. The middle
06:31of that is obviously where you're trying to hit it. But if you think about your rightmost miss
06:34and your leftmost miss, that's going to give you quite a big shot pattern. Now what we need to try and
06:39do is sort of centre that shot pattern so that all potential shots that you might hit are in a safe
06:45location, i.e. not in the bunker, not in a water hazard. We want them all to be pretty much on the
06:50green. Yeah, it's a really simple way of looking at it. And actually the scenario that we faced with
06:54here on 17 is a good example of that because the flag is over there on the right hand side of the
06:59green. It's a bit of a sucker pin, isn't it? Yep. So if you're playing away from the flag,
07:02have a very positive mindset, pick a spot, be really positive with it and then go for it. Absolutely.
07:07Okay, so John, I think one of the mistakes I think we all make when we start playing golf is
07:15sort of trying to help the ball up into the air. It can lead to really inconsistent strikes. Can you
07:20tell us what people should and shouldn't be trying to do when it comes to impact? You're absolutely
07:25right. I see it a lot and I think it often comes down to the concept that people think that they're
07:30trying to give it all this lofted impact. The setup position and the impact position should actually be
07:36different, as you can see me demonstrating there. The setup should have the shaft pretty well
07:40neutral or, you know, 90 degrees to the ground as you look at it here. But as I approach impact,
07:46I'm looking to get that shaft leaning forwards a little bit so that I can hit down on the golf ball
07:50and get that nice compressed strike. Yeah, because it's that combination of the speed in your swing
07:54and the angle of the tack down into the ball creates the backspin that you need to get the ball up
07:58in the air. It's not actually hanging back and delivering lots of loft to the club. Exactly right.
08:03So John, you've got a drill for us. Can you just talk us through what the drill is and how people
08:09should be doing it? Yeah, for sure. So what we're going to do in this drill is get yourself into that
08:14adjusted impact position where basically we turn our hips a little bit, we put a little bit more
08:19pressure onto our left foot. My right heel for a right-handed golfer might just come up in the air
08:24a little bit and I'm going to start the swing here, do a tiny little backswing and then try and return
08:29back to that impact fix that I had at the start. So let's give it a try.
08:37Yeah, lovely and you can see the strike is just perfect there. It's the ball and then the ground
08:42which is exactly what you're looking for and then I think if you can I guess build up the swing from
08:47there keeping that impact position in mind that will really help. Yeah, build it up over time, try
08:52and try to start with small swings like I did there and then build it up into a three-quarter length
08:57backswing and then eventually up into a full shot but it's about getting that concept correct first
09:02of all. Yeah, so if you're looking for more consistency of strike you're looking to eradicate
09:06fat shots or thin shots from your game this drill is a great one to use.
09:14Right, so chipping. John, what's the biggest mistake that you see when people will start out with the
09:19chipping that's costing them? Well typically people will set up in a way that doesn't really give them
09:24a chance of success so what we often see is a situation where the club is de-lofted like this
09:30where I've got the handle way in front of the the golf ball and I've got the ball way back in my
09:35stance almost opposite my right foot. The problem with that Neil is obviously I'm going to now
09:39chop down and I'm going to get that leading edge of the club to dig into the ground which isn't really
09:44going to be an effective way to chip. Yeah, you need to catch the ball absolutely perfectly otherwise
09:49you're going to hit it you're going to duff it really aren't you or you're going to pin it over the back.
09:52You've got a very small landing area to land that club on the ground in that situation.
09:56So then John how do people get to use the right part of the club in order to strike their chips
10:01more effectively? Yeah so what we need to do is use the bounce on the bottom of the club on every
10:05wedge there's a a little bit of bounce at the bottom that's the difference between the trailing
10:09edge and the leading edge and if we present that in the correct way at setup i.e. not having the shaft
10:14leaning super far forward let's get it a little bit more neutral as you look at it from this
10:19perspective and we're trying to actually return it very simply to that position that we started in
10:24we can now start to utilize a bit of that bounce on the bottom of the club and our landing area
10:29is a lot bigger to actually get the club to land on the ground. So do you have any drills that you
10:34can show us? Absolutely, let's try this one so what I want you to do first of all is just set up to
10:42the grass just here and I'm going to put these two sticks in perfect vertical alignment okay okay
10:48now if you do the one the incorrect one first of all just to show people what that's like so
10:52typically what we're going to do there is we're going to hit the yellow stick
10:55before the white stick that means that we've got an awful lot of shaft lean
10:59and we're going to dig the club into the ground then if if someone was struggling with that what I
11:03would try and get them to do is almost hit the sticks simultaneously so let's try that now trying to
11:08hit the white stick maybe even a fraction before the yellow stick so now we're starting to see
11:13that the club is interacting with the ground in a much more efficient way right yeah sort of surfing
11:17the turf I like to call it yeah it's that feeling that I get when I'm doing that is that my sort of
11:22the club head's sort of almost overtaking the hands it's certainly catching up with the hands
11:26through impact it's the one area that's very different to long game isn't it it's one area where
11:30we do want to throw that club a little bit and try and get the bounce being used so you've got a couple of
11:36balls on tees here John what's that for so what I would do if someone was struggling with their
11:40chipping I would start with them up on on a high tee and just get them to do this sort of action
11:44just nipping the ball off the top of the tee so why don't you set up to that big tall tee first of all
11:49and yeah you've got a nice setup there we've got a nice vertical sort of shaft alignment and your job
11:54now is to imagine those two sticks there and almost try and hit the bottom stick before the top stick
12:00very nice that was a really nicely nipped chip shot over time we would progress to bring in that
12:05tee height down a little bit lower and still trying to just interact with the tee peg only
12:11oh nice just it's hard isn't it challenging you now because your yeah your depth perception of
12:16where that tee peg is is obviously a little bit more tricky over time we could start to raise the
12:21level of that tee peg down and down and down until you eventually you don't need it at all
12:24yeah well there you have it if you are struggling with your chipping use John's technique there should
12:28really help you out right so the next one on our list is about clubface control obviously if you
12:37want to hit the ball straight you've got to have control of where the clubface is pointing through
12:40impact and I guess John the key mistake the key fault here that people make when they're starting out
12:46tends to be a slice doesn't it yeah it tends to be most people have a poor understanding of what causes
12:51that open clubface that we see with a slice and I often see it first and foremost with the the basics of a
12:56grip okay typically people who grip the club in what we would call a weak position so that means
13:03the left hand the v of this left hand pointing up towards my lead shoulder or also the right hand
13:09sometimes the right hand can be weak Neil and and that points up towards the lead shoulder that will
13:13typically mean that the clubface is going to be open during the backswing and probably into the downswing
13:18so where should those two v's be pointing ideally so what we would want to see is basically a neutral
13:23grip where the v of this left hand and probably the v of the right hand are pointing up towards
13:28that right collarbone anywhere in and around the right ear or the right collarbone you can probably
13:32see it here on screen yeah and then the clubface has got is what it's going to want to square up
13:39through impact and that's exactly what you're looking for but John I would say I've seen people
13:43with good grips who've obviously seen videos like this and they understand what they're trying to do
13:47they're holding the club in a pretty good position and they're still hitting a slice what's going on
13:52then yeah so you're absolutely right and that comes down to people's intent and their understanding
13:57of what happens when the club gets moving so typically if we have a position in the backswing
14:03I'll turn to the camera here if we have a position where that left wrist gets into a very
14:07cupped position in the backswing or maybe even a cut position at the top and also even on the way
14:12down if that left wrist is in a really cupped position you can see just how open the clubface is
14:17there and how the clubface is going to be pointing right at target yeah at impact okay John so you've
14:22shown us the cupped left wrist how do people get control of that so it's in a better position at
14:26the top yeah absolutely so what we want to try and see from from a backswing perspective if we've got a
14:30neutral grip we would like to see a pretty flat left wrist i.e there's no real cup or no real bow
14:37a pretty flat left wrist even all the way up to the top of the backswing we'd want to see that pretty
14:42well flat at the top now if you're really struggling with this i would suggest even go in full john
14:48rahm you can see his golf swing he gets the the left wrist and the logo on his glove actually pointing
14:54away from his chest and that gives a really strong look to the clubface which is going to be an
14:58exaggeration but it'll probably help golfers out there yeah so if you are someone if you're struggling
15:03with a bit of a slice there's a couple of different ways you can fix it either focus your attention on
15:07your grip get that right and then make sure that your left wrist is in the right place at the top
15:12you should start hitting the ball a bit straighter
15:18so when it comes to playing from the bunker i think a lot of golfers know that they need to use
15:22the loft on the face they need to open up the face to get the ball out but the way there's a way to do
15:27it and there's a way not to do it and can you just talk about that for us john because this can be
15:32where some of the problems occur can't it yeah all too often i see players setting up with their
15:37normal full swing grip they basically take this this grip to begin with and then they try and open
15:42the club face from a position where they've already gripped the club and ultimately if we do that when
15:48we swing down and hit the shot we're just going to return the club face back to a square position
15:52and obviously for hitting a high lofted bunker shot that's no use no and you're not going to be
15:56using the bounces we've already talked about with with chipping so how do you open the face
16:00correctly then to use it from sand absolutely it's really simple all you need to do is just twist the
16:04club open before you're taking your grip so pop it out in front of you give it a little twist about
16:09the shaft and then take your grip as if you haven't done anything at all different and that's really
16:14how you do it correctly go on then let's have a look all right so i've twisted it there just open
16:20ball position just forward in my stance a little bit more squatted than normal
16:24and you can see how much loft there is there without john trying to do anything particularly
16:34out of the ordinary he's created an awful lot of loft and yet kept the motion as simple as possible
16:40okay so hopefully you now know how to grip the club in order to open the face but john one of the
16:46keys to playing bunker shots consistently well is taking the right amount of sand every time it's
16:51something that so many golfers struggle with how i can see you've got a drill here what is it and
16:55how does it help so we've got two little scoops of sand here one with ball one without and what i
16:59want you to understand is that really we're trying to control the depth of this divot neil so if i
17:05set up just to the side i want to make a swing where i don't actually break the ground i don't want
17:10to see a divot being taking place because if i do that i've gone way too low right so by setting up to
17:15this little bit of sand same bunker sort of technique i'm going to just look to hit the
17:22sand only yeah hear that really nice sound that you hear on great bunker plates yeah and there's
17:26no divot there it's just a sort of light bruising of the ground isn't it yeah just nipping that sand
17:31getting plenty of spin plenty of height on the shot and you can try that with a golf ball as well
17:35yeah it's a really nice way of thinking about it it's a drill i've not seen before actually john
17:47hopefully if you try it will help you get that consistency that you need with your splashes in
17:52the sand to get the ball out every time okay john so uh green reading what have we got going on down
18:01here so we've got this funny looking contraption it's a perfect putter it's a device that can
18:06actually guarantee that we're starting the ball on the same line every time but we've got different
18:10speed markers on the on the device here so we can roll the ball at different speeds and see whether
18:16or not it goes in yeah because there is a direct correlation between your line and the pace that you
18:21hit the ball if you don't get both right you're likely to miss aren't you absolutely a speed uh and
18:26line match up is what we need the line is only as good as the speed that you're trying to hit it into
18:30the hole show us how it works okay so what we've got basically we've uh we figured out this this putt
18:35here and we're going to roll it from the little marker on two here and we know that if we do that
18:40we're going to be very very close to to holding it and it's gone in nicely there if i was to roll it
18:46at a slightly slower speed than that so i'm going to go down to zero just two little clicks lower on
18:51this little speed device you can see that it breaks that little bit more and it ends up missing on
18:56the low edge and if i now do it differently i'll go up to a four on the little speed marking
19:03you can see that extra bit of speed it just kind of grabs that top edge of the hole it probably would
19:08have gone in if the flag was flag was out but it caught more of the right edge of the hole if i
19:12maybe go even quicker than that maybe up towards a five on this little device you can see that's on an
19:17awful lot higher line and then as a result it doesn't actually go in yes it's a really good
19:21visualization even though each putt each ball is going down on exactly the same line the pace that
19:26you hit your putts will have a direct impact on whether you're able to make them or not
19:32what's interesting about this though as i look at it i guess the temptation i guess the mistake here
19:38that people make is that they they miss on what's often called as the amateur side which would be the
19:43low side you'd end up hitting more more times that you miss you'd miss low than missing high
19:48absolutely why is that why do people tend to miss low more than they miss high well i think people
19:52often see and visualize what we've laid out here but they end up aiming at the apex ball which would
19:57probably be about this ball here which obviously as you can see in this demonstration is actually way
20:03lower than the start line which is this white string line so we need to start the ball a lot higher
20:09than the apex that we visualized i think the apex is a a worthy picture to draw yourself but you've
20:15got to make sure you're aiming it higher than that on this right to left breaking putt yeah it's
20:19a really interesting subject and these small things it's just a one of those things that if
20:24you can take it out with you onto the golf course get used to hitting your putts high enough when
20:28you're faced with some break like this you should should be able to hold a few more