- 14 hours ago
In this video, Neil Tappin and Katie Dawkins discus how to take your game from the range to the golf course.
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00:00Now one of the biggest areas that golfers often struggle with is how do you take your golf game
00:07from the range with you out onto the golf course. We've all been there before where you've hit it
00:12well on the range preparing for a big round of golf and then you get onto the golf course and
00:17suddenly all those good shots suddenly elude you and you play really poorly and it's very
00:21demoralizing. So that's what this video is all about and we're going to offer some really simple
00:26and effective advice. Now the tips come from Katie Dawkins, she's one of the Golf Monthly Top 50
00:32coaches and she'll offer you a framework for practice and a way in which you can put that
00:36practice into play when you're on the golf course. Now a lot of this is about information gathering
00:42and so that's why in this video we've partnered up with Garmin. They've got a whole host of different
00:46technologies you can use both when you're on the range and also when you're out on the golf course
00:50to help you gather all that information you need to make smarter choices while you're on the golf
00:55course. Right we've split this video up into three sections off the tee, ball striking and pitching
01:02and we're going to start right here on the range.
01:14Okay so we are going to start with the game off the tee and I guess the biggest difference between
01:19the range and the golf course is consequence. So when you're hitting balls on the range you've got this big
01:23expanse to hit at. Yeah. There's no consequence. It doesn't matter if you don't get it right does it?
01:28So how do you make sure that your range session then is as valuable to you as possible when
01:33you're working through it? So you have to keep it more in line with how you would play on the course
01:37and the way that I do that is I go through my pre-shot routine every single time. So every shot I hit
01:43I'll walk behind the ball and I'll prepare myself and rehearse the swing. Right. And then I'll come in
01:48and hit the shot exactly how I do in the course. And that so when you're on the golf course that puts
01:52you in a more positive state of mind does it? Yeah because I trust it I trust my routine it's
01:57almost like having a safety blanket. That's interesting because I think a lot of people
02:00know they have to have a pre-shot routine and it's something they use on the golf course but how many
02:04of you watching this use it on the range as well and Katie's talking about doing it on every single
02:09shot requires real discipline. Okay Katie why don't you hit one for us? Okay. We have the Garmin Approach
02:15R10. A portable launch monitor on the ground so that will give me some feedback on the app about
02:20where it's going. You've got nowhere to hide. Sorry about that. That's fine.
02:28Lovely shot. Slight fade straight down the middle and that has gone it's carried 195 it's gone 212. So
02:36a good shot a nice shot but the one of the first shots that we've actually hit this morning I think as
02:42you you know as you warm up you'll probably start to hit it a bit further but the question is how do
02:46you then prepare specifically for the game off the tee with the different clubs that you'd be
02:50looking to hit what would be the way you'd do it? So I'd be wanting to make sure I know my average carry
02:55with the driver then perhaps with a fairway wood. Yeah. So maybe my five wood I would pick just in case
03:01there's holes where this is just going to go too far. Yeah. But also a rescue club as well off the tee.
03:05Right. I think it's important to have those three options in your bag for when you come across a hole that's got a lot of trouble.
03:11Halfway down it perhaps. Yeah. Now that's a good question then is you hit that one fairly well.
03:16I reckon you could probably hit them a bit better but what are you looking to gain as the yardage that
03:21you have in mind? Is it your absolute best or is it somewhere in the middle? No and I think this is
03:25the thing that people come a cropper with is that out on the golf course they're clubbing themselves with
03:30the very best shot they've ever hit with that club and of course that gets them into trouble because
03:34eight times out of ten they'll come up a bit short. Right. So it's important to have the average yardages and it's
03:39important to perhaps write them down in a little notebook to have that in your bag so you can go
03:44oh it's that far and if I hit it that far I won't go in the heather let's have a look and see what
03:49club does that for me. The other question I was going to ask you was about your dispersion so this
03:54one has gone a little bit left it's gone 14 yards left of the centre line we would all of us have a
04:01tendency to miss either right or left what would be yours Kate? Mine would be I would miss to the right so
04:07I'm aware of what trouble is up on the right hand side on a hole and I will pick the safest route
04:12away from that so I'll often aim left up a hole to allow for that. Okay so there's some really good
04:18advice there about how to practice the question is how do you then put that into play on the golf course
04:23let's go and find out. Okay so you've done your homework on the range you know your carry distances
04:28for your driver and your fairway woods the other key driving clubs that you have in your bag plus you've
04:34done some work on your pre-shot routine and that this is where all of that should should come to
04:39fruition and help you hit a good shot but there's some more important thinking to do Katie isn't there
04:44tell us what do you need to do? So I think the fact that we've been on the range and we've done a bit
04:48of homework our confidence should be much higher if you haven't prepared on the range so you haven't
04:55had a good practice you haven't seen yourself hit those good shots then chances are you can't visualize
05:00them yes so it's really important to have that in the bank before you then expect yourself to do well
05:05out here yes exactly and then once you are stood here a lot of it is about information gathering
05:10because you need to develop a picture for exactly where you need to hit the ball don't you absolutely
05:14and you need to know how far your clubs carry because we know that that bunker on the right is
05:19about 140 and the bunker on the left about 174 and I know that my five wood for example is going to carry
05:26both of those quite happily and I've suddenly devised myself a lovely safe plateau to land my
05:31ball on yes the heather's about 200 isn't it well the heather is actually 210 it's 210 we know that
05:38because the yeah because the laser has told us that it's 210 but importantly you don't have to hit it 209
05:44do you no you don't and I think it's important to hit a club that you like and that this is the thing
05:49you look at your distances and go well my three wood goes this far so I must hit that well you don't
05:54have to you could be 10 15 yards further back than that and probably be more likely to hit a good
05:59shot because you like your five wood right more than your three wood you've had more success rate
06:04with it therefore you're more likely to commit to the swing and finish it and be way more confident
06:08with the way you hit the shot this is it and this is where katie your concept of having a personal par
06:13really comes into play isn't it it's something that we've talked about before but explain to us what
06:17is a personal par and how does it work in a scenario like this it's very easy for a golfer to stand on
06:22the tee look at the scorecard and go wow this is a par five i've got to get down the hole in five
06:27shots that's not the case you have a handicap for a reason that's the wonderful thing about golf is
06:32you're on a kind of fairly even keel with the people you're playing because of your handicap
06:36so if you were playing off a handicap of 18 your personal par on this hole isn't five it's six
06:41because you get an extra shot in each hole so you would stand here thinking well actually
06:46i've got another shot to play with so you can then start to devise yourself the safest
06:50route up that hole yes taking into account the shots the shots you love to hit and the clubs that
06:55your favorites and i think you can sort of start to make a picture almost especially using the course
07:01planner on your watch yes you can almost plot yourself a nice little safe route so the bunker
07:07on the right is one four five to carry the bunker on the left is one seven four to carry the heather
07:12to reach it is two ten so this is a club that should deal with all of that really isn't it
07:16it should do and i'm looking in the distance at that white post okay so although that's in line
07:21with my lovely little safe zone it's way further than this is going to go yes but it's important
07:26to pick a target beyond your landing area why is that that's because you're visualizing then a good
07:31shot also by focusing on something in the distance it helps all the hazards and all the
07:37trouble you're trying to get over to sort of merge and blur away if you like okay katie so run through
07:42the routine that we've already talked about and uh and hit it for us so really important we're going
07:46to do one rehearsal make sure we make decent contact with the turf i always do it looking down the hole
07:52so nice back and through tickle of the turf point my club at my target in the distance the white post in
07:59this pick a mini target and just try and recreate what i did on the range
08:06oh oh straight is that on that white post it is it's very good and it's in a really it's in that
08:16safe spot it's in a perfect yeah you're then able to go and attack the green you don't have to play
08:21perfect golf to get the ball around in a lower score but what you do need to do is you really need
08:25to think smart and if you can employ what katie said there it should make a big difference
08:35okay so for the second part of our video we're gonna focus on one of the areas that i think a lot
08:40of players really struggle with when it comes to taking their game from the range to the course and
08:44that's ball striking particularly with your irons when the golf ball's on the ground okay i'm going
08:48to start by asking you for just a straight up tip give us a drill give us a tip that people can use
08:53while they're on the range to really help them with their ball striking so i think first of all
08:58starting with what people don't do a lot of time when they're not striking it well right they're not
09:03getting the ground under the ball whether that's the grass the t-peg whatever the ball sat on they're
09:07not making contact with it because they're almost trying to lift the ball in the air right okay so
09:11that's the first reason that sometimes it doesn't work so that's what we want to focus on on the range
09:16by placing something down just in front of the ball whether it be a little t-peg
09:20a leaf a feather whatever you can find you've got something that you're just aware of that's after
09:25the ball what that's going to help you to do is going to help you hit the ball first and be aware
09:29you've got to collect that little mini target just after the ball as well okay so it helps you stay
09:34lower for longer so seven iron shot we've got the r10 running again very nice okay so katie the carry
09:45distance for that was 140 total distance 148 uh five yards left to the center line looked perfect
09:50to me it felt good yeah a really good shot now obviously you want to spend some time on your
09:55ball striking to make sure that you're you feel comfortable running through your routine as we've
10:00already talked about but you also need to gather some information in this session so what information
10:06are you trying to gather about your irons you're trying to gather your average carry with them right so
10:11it's very similar way we did with oh absolutely 100 so that you know when you're out on the golf
10:16course that your seven iron will carry over the bunker just short of the green that that kind of
10:21information why is the total distance less important well because the conditions are going to vary so
10:28sometimes you're going to be landing the ball in the summer on quite hard ground sometimes you're
10:32going to be landing the ball in the winter on soft ground the ball's not going to get any roll at
10:36all so it's important to know you're going to carry any trouble and this is also
10:41really important to say this is about developing your confidence so that when you get to the golf
10:45course you know what it feels like to have the ball come in flush out the middle of the golf club
10:49time after time by using that drill and then gathering the data it can really help you okay so
10:55with your iron play this is all about good quality ball striking when you're on the golf course katie
10:59you've given us a really good drill to use on the range to make sure you're getting that ball first
11:05ground second contact that we all need but you're still on the golf course here you've got trouble all in
11:09front of you you still need to focus on that good quality contact how do you do it when you're on
11:14the course so on the range we put a little something rather a little mini target ahead of the ball
11:20just to encourage ourselves to stay lower for longer out on the course it's very easy to suddenly
11:25get result orientated you suddenly worry about the water the bunkers what happens if it goes wrong what
11:33happens with that then is you come up on the ball therefore you don't get the grass underneath it
11:38right you don't get so just having an awareness of what's ahead of the ball helps you just to keep
11:43the club a little bit lower therefore get little ball then the big ball see the last thing you all
11:47need to be doing during a medal at your golf clubs is go hang on everyone i'm just going to stick a
11:51little something or other just in front of the ball because you can't touch your line of play
11:55so you can just have a look we're on the golf course it's a natural surface it's grass there's some
12:00little bits and pieces on the ground we've actually got a little twig just in front of our ball so when
12:05i stand behind my ball and go through that really important pre-shot routine and i point the club at
12:10the target line draw a line down i'm going to pick something just ahead of the ball on that that's
12:14simple it's effective it's something we can all do the other part that we can all get do and get right
12:18is figuring out the yardages the work that we've done on the range to work out our carry yardages you
12:23need to now apply it so the shot that we've got here the second shot into 16 here at west hill the back of
12:29the green the laser is telling me is 164 flag is 160 to cover the bunker on the right is 152 that's
12:36to carry that yeah so what club are you going to play what's the key yardage of all of that that
12:41you're trying to take into account so i want to carry the bunker but at the same time it's a really
12:46good idea when you're going for your approach shots to actually focus on hitting the middle of
12:49the green and my watch says 153 to the center so i'm going to hit something i'm confident
12:54on average and it's really important that part on average goes 150 yards right katie so you're
13:00going to have to hit this for us now it is quite dewy this morning you just gave me a very good tip
13:04in this scenario what is it so when there is dew on the ground you can actually see where your
13:10club hits the world and that's important that gives you immediate feedback and for us immediate
13:14feedback if you've done a good swing is really real confidence booster so you would have picked
13:20your little mini target just ahead of the ball but then so we know where we're aiming because we've
13:24got that spot then you're going to set up level with the ball and you're going to do your practice
13:29swing back and through yeah and you can see where you can really see so i can see that my first point
13:35of contact would have been the ball after that i've made a nice little neat divot mark ahead of that
13:41so i know that i'm collecting that mini target that we were using on the range i'm ticking that box i've
13:47committed to the shot and i've hit one under the ball yes and the dew really highlights go for it
13:57lovely great strike now where's that going middle of the green that's fine very good decent two-part
14:06i'd be happy with that yes indeed and it's just a really good way to think it doesn't need to take
14:10you an awful lot of time but just having the awareness to think about some of these factors while
14:14you're on the golf course should really help you shoot lower scores okay so for the final part of
14:25our video we're looking at pitching now pitching katie is one of those areas that coaches like you
14:29will tell amateurs like me you need to focus on this because it's the fastest way to save your shots
14:33out on the golf course but you've got to practice it right and so the first question is how do you
14:38practice your pitching well i think like you say it is this is like your score zone so if you can get
14:44your wedges actually hitting the greens you are going to save shots it's quite simple but a lot
14:49of people don't like doing the half shots three quarters shots so you need to know your wedge
14:54distances with the full swing first and foremost that's your first port of call right and we can
14:58do that on the range yes you can and it helps to have a laser to identify how far the flags are so
15:04i've already done it the first flag is 71 second flag is uh 83 and the third flag is 109 so katie
15:10why don't you hit a full shot with your which club is this this is my sand register it's 54 degrees
15:16right fine and we've got the uh approach r10 on the floor as well so i'll be able to get some feedback
15:21okay right good shot katie now that's carried 74 and again the carry yardages are what you're looking
15:28for you're looking at average carry yardages and i guess having a good understanding for how far a full
15:33you know wedge shot goes for each of your wedges maybe your nine iron etc it's going to be really
15:37useful to you but if you really want to get good at pitching you need to add an extra dimension to
15:42everything what is that so the extra dimension that you need is to be able to control the length of
15:48your swing because it's all very well knowing how far you hit a full shot but we're not always going
15:52to have a full shot out there no and people try and manufacture that less length by slowing down and
15:58accelerating we all know what that yeah fat shots yeah lovely big old fat shots and you think that
16:02was a lovely drive what a waste yeah and so it's just a point of frustration yeah for everybody okay
16:08so you can practice this and how so how do what's the way that you think about so one of the best
16:11visuals that i tend to use when i'm coaching is that your head is 12 o'clock and you're doing a
16:16length of swing that's almost nine bang through to three okay so it's like a half swing yeah and you
16:22would work on your averages like we talked about before so the average distance that say you'd hit
16:27between seven and ten balls doing that length swing with each of your clubs yes now you can get more
16:32in depth in this you can do sort of ten o'clock swings you can but we're suggesting in this instance
16:37just to get a foothold in all of this that nine till three swing with each of your clubs through to
16:43i guess even up to seven iron yeah even up to a seven or a six sign if imagine you're playing
16:47links golf out by the seaside you need to bump and run that ball in you need to be able to control
16:53how far you carry it yeah and obviously the result there on in yeah so it's important to go all the
16:59way through your clubs but initially just your sort of four wedges or so would be sufficient would be
17:03a good start so i'm now interested to find out how much a nine to three swing takes off your normal
17:09full pitching swing shot which was as we know carry distance 74 so yeah uh yeah hit full
17:15uh sorry hit a nine to three uh sandwich shot for us lovely okay
17:26and now that's interesting katie because that's uh carried 60. yeah so there's a 14 yard uh carry
17:32distance gap between those two shots and i hit that pretty well you hit that okay probably one of my
17:38better wedge shots right so i probably wouldn't take that probably more than i'd normally hit my nine to
17:44three okay on average yeah so that's an important point it's not to take that's why it's so important
17:49to do the sort of seven to ten shots shots yes okay fine so once you've got that um that average for
17:55each of the shots then you can do that with each of the different clubs yeah and i guess a key point
17:59here is practice just the repetition of being comfortable hitting those half shots yeah and when
18:04you're going through your routine on the course you're rehearsing you've got a definite place to go
18:08that nine o'clock is a really good kind of band of distance to swing that club back and through
18:14and obviously if you've written it down you look at you look at the yardage on the course and you
18:18go what's that oh that's my nine o'clock pitching wedge yeah my nine o'clock and the other great thing
18:24about this is that when you get to the golf course this process gives you options as you're about
18:28to find out okay so you've done all of that work on your pitching you should have some confidence
18:34in hitting the numbers that you're trying to hit but again you need to be smart while you're out on
18:38the golf course now katie the the flag i've lasered the flag it's 80 to the flag what is it to the
18:44back what is it to the middle so you've got 71 to the middle of the green and like we mentioned
18:48we've mentioned before the middle of the green is just safe place yes safe option so 71 to the middle
18:54uphill a little bit so we're going to take that into account but it's 83 to the back so hit one for us
18:58then katie so this is a this will be a full sand wedge shot for you but we've got two clubs because
19:03we're going to i'm going to ask you to play it in two different ways because this is the beauty
19:06of really getting to know your pitching distances you can play these shots in different ways yeah
19:11so i'm going to hit my full sandwich first of all
19:18lovely that's good you know that's actually i think that's pin high what did you say yeah that's
19:26pretty good literally my full sandwich will go about 75 80 yards perfect so my watch you know said 72
19:33and actually we went to the backyard just said it's perfect yeah so we're going to play the same
19:37shot again but with an eye nine using that nine to three action and hopefully the ball will go sort
19:44of a similar sort of distance yeah and the reason this is quite a good idea as well is there's no
19:48trouble in between us and the flag so you can bump and run it in if you like and a shorter swing
19:54is a lot safer yeah a lot of golfers would stand there with a full sand wedge that's a lot of golf swing
20:00if you catch it skinny yeah and you can hit it's gonna go a long way pulls or pushes as with any
20:04other part of your game so maybe this is the most consistent way of doing it absolutely it's the
20:08safest way of doing it yeah and i'm from where i'm stood it's so interesting because it's a lot more
20:18of a driven ball flight it's a lot lower and it's half a swing it's run once it's gone onto the green
20:24it's run probably a yard or two further than the first one but not a huge amount no and and probably the
20:29most important thing is if i hadn't quite caught that say i had caught it a little bit skinny
20:34there's not enough swing there to send me into a lot of trouble i may be at the back of the green
20:38but i'm not going to be really in a pickle yeah so as i said before this might feel like a really kind
20:43of advanced technique but you can see from katie's the way that katie's played it it's actually really
20:48simple but it does require that time on the range to make sure that you know what you're doing because
20:53once you become comfortable with shots like this they can really really help you out on the course
20:58so there you have it that's our look at how you take your game from the range to the golf course
21:04yeah and i think it's it's not just about what you do on the golf course it's about building good
21:10habits when you're practicing so that you are in fact practicing the same game here as you play out
21:16there yeah it's a simple piece of advice but it requires real discipline and real thought to make
21:22sure that you get it right hopefully katie's tips today will make a big difference but that's it for
21:26now thanks very much for watching we'll see you next time
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