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In this video, Neil Tappin runs down the 7 biggest strategy mistakes golfers are making.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club where today we're
00:08looking at the seven biggest strategy mistakes that golfers make. Now the information we've got
00:13for you in this video comes courtesy of the guys at ShotScope. ShotScope have a unit called the
00:19V2 which consists of a GPS watch that I've got on my wrist here that gives you all the distances
00:23you'll need while you're out on the golf course, plus a load of tags that you can put into the
00:27butt end of your golf clubs that allows you to track all the shots you hit during a round of golf.
00:33Now ShotScope have aggregated all of their data from all of their users to provide us with some
00:39really interesting findings and in particular in this video we're going to focus on some of those
00:44really simple mistakes that you might be making that could save you shots going forward. So guys
00:49if you're new to the Golf Monthly channel please do hit the subscribe button, give us a like if you like
00:54what you're watching and do leave comments below where do you think you're throwing away shots,
00:58how do you think you can improve, we'd be really interested to hear your thoughts. But let's head
01:02out now to the golf course here at the London Club and look at the seven biggest strategy mistakes that
01:06golfers are making.
01:1880% of missed greens are missed short so 47% are short right and 33% are short left and if you
01:26fall into the category of missing short of pin high more than you think you should then there are a few
01:33different things to consider within your own game. The first is how consistent is your ball striking.
01:38Now it will depend on your handicap as you improve your ball striking of course gets better but if
01:43you feel like your ball striking isn't quite at the level that your handicap is it can be a really
01:48quick and easy way to improve. There are a whole host of free online tutorials out there that will
01:54help you strike the ball better, will help you catch the ball and then turf and that sort of really
01:59powerful strike through impact that could make a big difference. The next point relates to your
02:05equipment. Is your equipment forgiving those slight heel and toe strikes that might be causing you to
02:11come up short of the green? If the answer to that is I'm not sure then perhaps a more forgiving
02:16modern set of irons might just help you out. And thirdly, how far do you hit each club in the bag?
02:23Obviously this is where performance tracking technology like the ShotScope V2 can prove really
02:28handy. Finding out how far you hit the golf ball on the course when you're faced with different lies
02:33and different weather conditions and you're under pressure is really useful and it can be very
02:38different to how far you hit the ball on the range hitting shot after shot from the perfect lie.
02:43The other thing is it's also worth finding out how far you carry each club in the bag because your total
02:49distance will largely depend on ground conditions whereas knowing your average carry yardages will
02:54make a big difference to knowing what club you should hit in what situation. So for instance,
02:59this is the third hole here at the London club. We have water short left, you really don't want to
03:03be coming up short. The pin is sort of just beyond halfway up the green. The front of the green is
03:081-2-7, middle of the green is 1-4-2 so you really need to make sure that whatever you do
03:13on this hole you pick a club that you know carries past 1-2-7 and if all you know is that you hit your
03:20nine iron around about 135 yards well you don't know whether you carry your nine iron over 127 yards
03:28so it's something to think about so if that if you fall into that category do some work on the range
03:34in practice find out how far you carry each club in the bag and use those as your go-to numbers going
03:40forward it could make a really big difference to your game.
03:48Right so the next one on my list relates to which club you should be using off the tee and what
03:54you're looking at here are the average distances players are able to achieve with their driver
03:58versus their three wood and usually players are giving up around about 30 yards between driver and
04:04three wood which is roughly what we would expect. What we didn't expect to see however was that players
04:09were off the tee using a three wood were only one percent more accurate now that's something that's
04:15well worth considering because and it's something that we've said in some of our videos in the past
04:20fairway woods are the hardest golf clubs in the bag to get right obviously small head long shaft you're
04:26standing a long way away from it you've got to hit the ball a long way so you've got to make a big full
04:29athletic swing fairway woods are hard to get right and it is difficult to find something that you can
04:34really rely on so that you end up using it well when you need to most when you're competing out on
04:39the golf course under pressure so there are a couple of things to consider here firstly is your fairway
04:44wood a golf club that you really can rely on if it is then fine keep it in the bag if it's not then
04:49perhaps you go down a different route perhaps you leave the three wood behind carry a five wood use
04:54something that doesn't quite go as far but you do feel confident using and confident using under
04:58pressure and the other point about the data that we've seen here is that if you're going to
05:02not go for driver in order to use something you know can hit you can hit straight then make sure
05:08that you take a club that you do know you can hit straight so you would expect to be far more accurate
05:13with your fairway wood off the tee than just one percent over your driver guys there's real food for
05:19thought there in terms of your strategy off the tee what do you do when there are bunkers in play like
05:24there are here when there's trouble up there that you need to avoid do you go with do you just stick
05:29with hitting driver and take your chances or do you try and hit the fairway with a more of a safety
05:34option if you go for the latter make sure that you choose something that you are going to hit the
05:39fairway with more often and for the majority of people out there it might not be their fairway wood
05:50okay so the next point relates to how aggressive your strategy is when playing into the greens and what
05:56we're going to do here is we're going to take a look at the number of birdies players are making
06:00on average versus the number of double bogeys players are making on average and we're going to
06:04split the numbers up based on different handicap categories so what you're looking at here is the
06:10average number of birdies per round so for category one player two birdies per round category two
06:17it's roughly one birdie per round and then once you get above a handicap of about 12 really golfers are not
06:23making very many birdies at all but conversely take a look at the double bogey numbers so handicapped
06:30zero to five roughly making one double bogey per round category two golfers are making two double
06:36bogeys per round and then above category two again the double bogey numbers really increase
06:41very quickly again so the point here for a lot of players the fastest way to improve is not to make
06:47more birdies but to make fewer double bogeys and in the situation that i'm in here this is a real
06:53a really good highlight of exactly where players go wrong so the flag here on the 18th green on the
06:58heritage course at the london club is perched way over on the right hand side it's a real sucker pin
07:03and by going for it you really are bringing bogeys and double bogeys into play no matter what your
07:08handicap and i think for a lot of golfers out there especially higher handicap players
07:14it is worth thinking about playing golf to the center of the green more often so what i would
07:20suggest to you to do is next time you go and play golf try and play to the center of every single
07:25green whenever you're faced with an approach shot to the green doesn't matter if you've got 100 yards
07:29or 200 yards in aim for a point on the middle of the green that's where the gps watch comes in
07:34really handy it gives you yardages to the very center of every green work to those yardages try and hit the
07:41middle of every green and then take a look at your scoring averages take a look and see what's
07:45happening to your birdie percentages versus your bogey and double bogey percentages because i think
07:50that for a lot of players taking the flag completely out of their mindset might improve all of those
07:56numbers it might help them make more birdies but it will definitely help them keep bogeys and double
08:00bogeys off the card more often so in this situation really i need to be avoiding that flag on the right
08:07hand side aiming for the middle of the green trying to make par taking double bogey certainly out of
08:12play entirely right let's give it a go well my miss is definitely a miss to the right i've aimed for the
08:25center of the green i've pushed it a fraction but i'm still left of the flag i'm definitely not in any
08:30bother and it's that sort of thinking that can really save your shots out of the golf course
08:4682 of putts hit from outside five feet are left short it's an incredible stat from the shot scope
08:54data that we've been given and it is based on what people are doing whilst they're competing for real and
08:59it's something well worth thinking about in your own game now dave peltz did a bit of research a few
09:04years ago that said that the ideal pace at which you should be hitting your putts is to get the ball
09:09rolling about 18 inches past the hole that's where i've got the t-peg here that means the ball will be
09:15rolling fast enough to roll over any imperfections on the green without being bumped off line without
09:19going too fast and putting you in danger of three putting or lipping out if you hit the putt
09:24on a good line so pace control is a really crucial factor when it comes to your success on the greens
09:31now there are a whole host of really great drills that you can do to hone your putting speed so
09:38placing tees around the hole in a box to make sure that you get that ball rolling just past the hole
09:43the more work you can do on your speed control the more likely you will be to putt the ball just past the
09:49hole and if you can do that more often chances are you might just hole a few more putts
09:59it's often said that when it comes to pitching you're better off leaving yourself a little bit
10:03further back so you can make a full swing the idea being that if you make a full swing you can make
10:08a more committed swing and the results ultimately will be slightly better but the shot scope data
10:14doesn't actually back this theory up what you're looking at here is the average proximity to the
10:20hole data for shots hit from 50 yards versus shots hit from 80 yards and both from the fairway and the
10:26rough players are hitting the ball closer to the hole from closer to the green it's something well worth
10:33thinking about in your own game if you've always tended to lay up to a further yardage well perhaps just
10:39consider it perhaps keep some stats of your own to find out if you are hitting it closer from further
10:44away because it might be that you aren't and if you aren't then a little bit more of an aggressive
10:49strategy off the tee or from the fairway with your layup shot might pay off might pay dividends so the
10:54shot that i've got here this is just around about the 62 yard mark this would be a fiddly shot for me
11:00but perhaps i'm better off hitting a shot from here than i am from 30 yards further back let's give it a go
11:09a little bit long but i'll take it
11:22should you be carrying hybrids or long irons at the top end of your bag it's a question that every
11:27golfer needs to ask themselves and as far as the shot scope data goes it's fairly inconclusive for
11:33lower handicappers so for category one and category two golfers it really does depend on the individual
11:38and the individual's game but as the handicaps increase so hybrids tend to be far more successful
11:45and i'd say the cutoff point seems to really around about the handicap of a 13 mark golfers
11:50with handicaps of 13 and over tend to be more successful with hybrids for a 20 handicapper
11:56facing the sort of shot that i'm facing here of around about 180 to 200 yards a 20 handicapper is almost
12:03twice as likely to hit the green with a hybrid as they are with a long iron it really is food for
12:09thought and i'm sure it's something that a lot of you out there have considered and thought about in
12:13your game if you are a high handicapper carrying long irons just be wary think about it keep some
12:19stats of your own find out how successful you are from further out from the green if you find out that
12:24you're coming up short a lot a lot of the time from further out with your longer irons perhaps it's
12:29worth swapping out your three and four irons for hybrids instead and finally are you more likely to
12:40miss right or left off the tee it's really invaluable information to know so the shot scope data reveals
12:47that for the majority of golfers out there they are more likely to miss right it's 58 right versus 42
12:54left and it's really about knowing your game and understanding your shot patterns understanding
13:00where you are most likely to miss now the best players in the world they don't always hit great
13:05shots but what they do understand is where not to miss and they understand what they're most likely to
13:11do you can bring that into your game so a hole like this this is the 10th hole here on the heritage
13:16course of the london club you cannot go left off the tee and if you are a player that is more likely to
13:21miss left you can build your strategy based on that knowledge you can say to yourself okay
13:26the mistake i'm not going to make is i'm not going to snap hook one into the water that's where the
13:30card wrecking score comes from for me that water on the left here is a huge danger whereas if you're
13:36somebody that misses more often to the right you'll know that water on the left hand side is not such a
13:42big danger and you can take a more aggressive strategy i know that in my game i'm much more likely to
13:47miss right than i am to miss left so i'm confident and happy with driver that's what i'm going to hit
13:53here and having a simple strategy based on what you are most likely to do can really help your game
14:00it's about managing your misses and going from there it can make a huge difference
14:03as predicted i've missed it slightly to the right hand side but i'm fine i'm in play and i can attack
14:18the green from there so there you have it those are the seven biggest strategy mistakes that golfers make
14:24based on the shot scope data and there are some really fascinating insights in there i don't think
14:28it matters whether you're a category one player or if you're just starting out on your golfing journey
14:33there are some really simple findings in there that could help give you some guidance on the best
14:38and quickest way to possibly improve your game guys please do leave comments below is there anything
14:43that you want clarification on is there any more information you want from the stats we'd be more
14:47than happy to help out wherever we can please also hit the like button if you like the video but
14:52for now from the london club it's goodbye
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