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In this video Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Professional and Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Alex Elliott to discuss the 5 best on course swing tips. As we head into the competitive part of the season, these tips are about having just the right level of technical thought to play your best. These tee-to-green tips should help you find a swing that delivers good shots under pressure.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video in which we're going to
00:03look at the five best on-course swing tips. Now these are all things that will help you as we head
00:09into the competitive part of the season. Nothing too technical but they're all designed to help
00:13you think clearly on things that are really going to help you swing the club better and score better
00:18as well. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Alex Elliott. He's one of the Golf
00:23Monthly top 50 coaches and as I say his advice is really simple and really effective. Right we're
00:28here at the London Club. Let's get started. Right so the first one on our list relates to how you prepare
00:40for golf shots. Now Alex you've got a line on the ground here. You've put an alignment stick on the
00:45ground. Why have you done that? I want you to think about this in every single shot. A thinking zone
00:49and a playing zone. Like golf's one of those sports isn't it where some advice is don't think about
00:55anything. Think about this. Think about that. Whereas I want you to think about two zones where
01:00you can be a little bit more swing aware. You can think about what swing thoughts or what you've
01:05been working on with your PJ Pro and then once you step across this line you sort of let the shot
01:11dictate the swing a little bit more. Okay so tell us then. So if this was you in this scenario and
01:17you're trying to hit the shot that we're facing here it's a tricky par five. You need to hit a good
01:22drive down here. What's the first part of the thought process for you and then what's the second
01:26part? So I'm selecting my club. So in this case it does require a driver on this par five. I would
01:32then be stood behind my golf ball because I'm taking into account one the shot that I'm about to play
01:36straight down target. That's going to help my alignment. But I'm also thinking about my two swing
01:41thoughts right now. So for me I get a little bit slidey. So I'm making two practice swings exaggerating
01:48almost no slide and just a lot of turn. So I'm thinking about my swing but I'm actually practically
01:55putting it into play as well. Right so this is stuff that you would have that you're working on at
01:59the range and you're focusing on that here. 100%. And then you step over that line and how does it change?
02:03So once I've stepped over that line what I like to do Neil this is a really good point actually
02:07is stand directly behind my ball though. Okay. Because then I'm actually getting a view of what my
02:12ball to target line is. Yep. So I'm stepping across this line I'm leaving that baggage behind
02:16and all I want you to look at is what shot am I going to play. Now for many of us if we're a higher
02:23handicapper that might seem a little bit unrealistic but how I'd bring this to life for you is imagine
02:28you're in the trees and you had to hit a low shot. Your environment would dictate what shot you're
02:33about to hit. Yeah yeah yeah. So I want that to be as best you can. Picture it almost play a bit of a
02:37shot tracer out in your mind and then when you're pulling the trigger you've got a better chance of
02:41playing the shot. Beautiful. Slight fade straight down the middle. Yeah and I think if you can employ
02:50this tactic it means that you don't have to be without any technical thoughts on the golf course
02:55because a lot of people struggle with having either too many technical thoughts or too few. This just
03:00gives you the structure that you need to be able to put it into play in the best way possible and if
03:04you do that you should be able to hit shots a little bit like Alex has just hit there. Okay so for this
03:09one we're talking about the longest shots that you need to hit from the fairway. Shots that so many
03:13golfers myself included really struggle with you know your sort of 200 yard plus shots and Alex
03:19what's the advice to help people get a bit more performance out of their clubs in a scenario like
03:24this? I think first off I would say for higher handicapped golfers have more hybrids in your bag
03:30than long irons. Just a little bit easier a little bit more forgiving and they help you get it in the air.
03:34Yeah and I think for most people watching this they probably a lot of people will already
03:38follow that tactic so how do you get the most out of them? How do you make sure that you get the
03:42strike that you're looking for? Well I think the misconception with these is we see it look a bit
03:46like a wood with a hybrid or with our longer irons maybe they get a bit chunkier and we put the ball
03:52a bit too far forward but then we feel the need to help it up in the air. Now actually in golf it's a bit
03:58counterintuitive to do that I want you to think about it the opposite way. I want you to move the ball
04:03half a ball further back than you would naturally. Okay. And focus on making a little bit of a divot
04:09target side. Yep. So a nice little analogy here Neil I've got this tee down on the ground is think
04:14about you've got an out of bounds side behind the golf ball an inbound side on the target side of the
04:19golf ball and to start with just try and make a bit of a bruising divot on that target side. Yes.
04:26And then take that same swing thought of the ball a little bit further back and making that divot on
04:30target side into your shot. Now this requires a little bit of trust. Trust in the fact that the
04:34technology at work within the hybrid is going to help get the ball up in the air. So I recommend you
04:38do this at the range because the more shots that you hit where you feel that you're you're sort of
04:42slightly hitting down on it the more comfortable you'll be in a scenario like this on the golf course.
04:46But as Alex says have this as a swing thought on the course it could help. Alex the stage is set
04:52you've got 225 yards over water to a tight flag. I can't imagine what could possibly go wrong.
04:57I'm going to try him at the bunker here. Okay. Good idea. Here we go. So again I moved it a little
05:03bit further back and I'm just focusing on where I'm contacting that ground.
05:11Safe. Pushed. Not much of a divot but I mean I was taking a good look and as you'd expect Alex is a PGA
05:17pro the divot is slightly after where that T-peg is and if you can have that image in mind before
05:23hitting shots like this it gives you a really positive outlook that could really make a difference.
05:28Okay so if you want to shoot better scores this year then hitting the ball onto the green from
05:34scenarios like this is I'd say a bit of a must. 100%. Yeah and I think Alex what would be great
05:41here is if you could come up with some advice for me to help me become a bit more consistent from
05:46this sort of yardage so avoiding hitting those kind of bad shots that end up costing you a bogey when
05:50you're in actually really a good position. Yeah I think it's probably the most frustrating thing in
05:54golf. You feel like you've done the hard work from the tee and you get here. Okay so a nice rule of
05:58thumb anytime you've got a club that's seven iron and below I want you to go and commit to a round of
06:04doing this and see what results you get of playing a three-quarter shot. Okay right. So this example
06:10here is 144 yards would actually be a comfortable maybe quite a hard nine iron for me. I'm going to
06:16go one club more. Okay I'm going to use my A-sign and I'm going to follow this process so I'm going
06:22to firstly grip down and I would have even amount of grip at the top of the bottom of the club. Okay
06:27rather than being gripped right at the top. How much is that taking off the shot you think? For me
06:31probably about five yards but I don't want you to think about it as sort of in detail as that just
06:36think about it it's giving you more control. More control so you've clubbed up but giving yourself
06:39more control. Exactly. The next thing I want you to think about is just moving that ball a position
06:44back so my A-time would roughly be around let's say just left in my zip. I'm going to move it just
06:50to sort of on my zip for an example and then when you're in the shot just make that shoulder height
06:56swing through to shoulder height swing and pose that finish for three seconds. As simple as that.
07:01It is simple. I think it's something that we could all do or we could certainly all at least
07:05give it a go. As you say in a practice round see how well you score. It could become one of those
07:10things that becomes absolutely crucial to you when you're competing with a card in hand.
07:14100%. Go on then Alex have a go for this. Okay so here we go. So I've already gripped down
07:20I'm moving that ball position back and I'm making that tail swing.
07:25Lovely. Nice draw back towards the flag and it just looks controlled doesn't it? I think you can
07:34just see from Alex's swing there that it's not rushing into the ball it's controlled it's easy
07:39and that's where consistently good strikes come from. Okay so we're on the 12th hole here at the
07:44international. Par 3 as you can see stretched out behind me and I suspect you already know where
07:48we're going with this but there's some really important points that we need to make. Now obviously
07:53we're going to tell you to aim at the middle of the green in a scenario like this and take the flag
07:56out of play. The question is Alex how do you commit to doing that because a lot of mistakes come into
08:01play even when people have the right intention in mind. 100%. I think straight away nice and simple
08:06it's picking something out in the far ground. So for example we've got these alignment sticks aimed at
08:11just on the end tree here and that becomes a real good focus point. Anytime we just aim at the middle
08:17of the green we can sort of maybe get drawn into the flag. Yes. So having that discipline aiming
08:22to think about something in the far ground is where I go with this. Gives you a bit more focus
08:25and then you're saying in practice you would actually lay some alignment sticks down on the
08:29golf course would you? Yes. If I'm going out on my own which sometimes I do in the late summer
08:33evenings I would pick out hard shots like this at my golf course and firstly put my yellow line down.
08:39So this would be my ball to target line. Really key that we put this one down first because
08:43then we can build our stance around with the blue alignment stick our ball to target line. Not the other way
08:50around because what I see for most golfers we tend to do a bit of a bad mistake here is aim our body.
08:56This would then translate to our ball to target line being a little bit right at that. And as you
09:00can see from this shot that's not going to end well. No. Let's say you're playing in a competition
09:04you don't have your alignment sticks with you. How are you focusing on this process in that scenario?
09:10So I think we can thank Bernard Langer for this one. I like to stand behind the golf ball
09:14pick out my objective in the far distance. So we've said this tree. But I would go to the extreme
09:19of picking out a leaf on that tree or a branch. So aim small, miss small, have a better chance of
09:26actually getting the green and achieving our objective of having hopefully a two putt par.
09:31But then creating sort of an intermediate target of a divot. Yeah. So essentially everything goes
09:37back to this yellow line. Yeah. And you can see in the foreground much easier to align yourself
09:41with something that's right here than it is something in the distance. 100%. Right. This shot is
09:45tricky. I know. It's 175 odd yards, isn't it, Alex? It's windy. You're going to have to do it for us.
09:49I'm going to try. So here we go. Being disciplined. And like we said, if you're on your own,
09:55put these down. It's really good for you.
10:02Beautiful. Looks pretty good. Beautiful. It's actually finishing
10:06just to the right of that branch. I'll take it. That's perfect. Couldn't be better. So I think
10:12that that shows if you can have the discipline around how to aim in tricky scenarios around the
10:17golf course, that will build that positive mindset that you need to hit good shots. Okay. So the last
10:22tip on our list is about shot selection. Really important, especially when it comes to the short
10:27game, because there's so many different options. Yeah. Alex, we've got three golf balls set out in front
10:31of us here to explain the thinking. What is that thinking? So I use this little mantra and it's
10:36something that I do every time I play. If I can put it, put it, which we can here because we've only
10:41got a little bit of fringe to go through. If I can chip it, run it. Okay. And then last resort,
10:47get it in the air. And now a few things you've got to take into account when going through that mantra
10:51is obviously the lie, the obstacle in front of you. But in this situation, we've got nothing in front of
10:56us and we've just graded what club we're going to use with a difference in the lies. Okay.
11:01Fine. So what's then the sort of thought process, the swing thought for each of these shots?
11:06So putting here, I mean, it's a little bit hard. A lot of people would go with,
11:11take it back this far, go through this far to have a gauge of distance. How I do it,
11:16I make maybe three or four more practice swings, but looking towards target.
11:20Right. Okay. That just gives you a feel for that distance.
11:22Exactly that. Just trying to see what I think I've got to put into the shot in order to get it to go
11:28with that distance. What I like about that also is that it keeps you quite loose in your grip
11:32pressure. So it stops you getting too tense while you stood over the ball. And that's what you're
11:35going to need if you're going to judge the distance, right? Exactly. Especially on long
11:38puts like this, if you start tensing up, you'll find it hard to get there. We actually need a little
11:42bit of a lighter grip pressure to help us get it that way. Go on then, hit this one for us.
11:46So it's going to move a little bit left to right as it goes over that brow.
11:49It's tricky. I think you judged that. I think that could be pretty good. Really well. Get
11:57out of it. Go on. Very good. Nicely played. Okay. So then now you're faced with the chip
12:04and run shot. What's the swing thought, the technical approach to the chip and run?
12:09So I'm going to play this in my nine iron. I use my nine as my chip and run club. Seven
12:13iron for me, I just feel it comes off a bit too hot. Fast. Yeah. Yeah. And I like the fact
12:17that nine gives you a bit of loft as well. So how I play this, I grip right down towards
12:23the bottom of the grip. I walk in a little bit closer, trying to encourage that shaft
12:28angle to get a little bit steeper. Pull my left foot back, put my weight on my left with
12:32the ball back and just keep the triangle back and through. And through. Simple as that.
12:43And again, trying to get it to roll out like a putt. Yeah. Very good. Simple. And I think
12:47that's the key there. If you keep it as simple as that, what can go wrong? I know what can
12:51go wrong. I'm sure you do too, but fewer things can go wrong. Okay. So this is the higher tariff
12:56shot. Then this is the wedge shot. How are you thinking about this one?
12:58So I've gone with my 50 degree. Many of us might carry three or four different wedges
13:03in our bag. And this is sort of my lower lofted specialist wedge. How I play this one is very
13:08similar to the last one, to be honest with you. I wouldn't change too much apart from ball
13:13position. Okay. I'm just going to move it a little bit more towards the middle. Still keep
13:17my weight on my left and still keep this triangle in this sense because I don't really need
13:21to play it too high. You don't need to have loads of height, but you want that little bit
13:24more loft. You want that little bit more check control. Exactly. Okay. So I'm in, picturing
13:29the same. That's really well played. Hopefully you can see just how simple Alex has made those.
13:37Is that going to go in? Not quite. Hopefully you can see how simple Alex has made those three
13:43shots. And that's I think the key here. If you can make these shots as simple as possible,
13:49then you're giving yourself the best possible chance of getting it close and getting away
13:52with a par. So there you have it. That's our look at the five best on course swing tips.
13:57Hopefully you found that useful and a couple of nuggets in there that you can take with you
14:01onto the golf course the next time you play and it should help your scoring. If you've enjoyed
14:05the video, please do hit the like button. But that's it for now from The London Club.
14:08Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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