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10 Clever Winter Golf Gear Hacks.
Golf Monthly deputy editor Joel Tadman runs through the 10 winter golf gear hacks you should think about if you want to improve your scores this off season. These genius tweaks are easy to make and may well save you a shot or two the next time you tee it up this winter.
Golf Monthly deputy editor Joel Tadman runs through the 10 winter golf gear hacks you should think about if you want to improve your scores this off season. These genius tweaks are easy to make and may well save you a shot or two the next time you tee it up this winter.
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00:00Now for many of us, the idea of playing golf when it's freezing cold outside or raining
00:04or both isn't overly appealing. But perhaps it's been your equipment that's been letting
00:09you down and tarnishing your enjoyment of these winter rounds. So why don't you try
00:13one, some, or maybe all of the winter golf gear hacks I'm about to show you in this video
00:18filmed at the incredible Elsa course at Trump Turnberry. Make sure you stick around for
00:22number seven. It's an absolute game changer. Let's face it, apart from the feeling in your
00:27fingers, what have you got to lose?
00:31Now golf is increasingly becoming a power game and that's something you need to cash in on
00:39in the winter by playing a golf ball that's going to give you the most amount of carry
00:42distance through the air. We know the fairways are soft, the ball's not going to be running
00:46very much after it lands. So you need a golf ball that's going to give you the most amount
00:49of carry. There's a few different changes you can make potentially to the ball that you play.
00:53So for example, if you typically play the tightest probe you want, you might want to think about
00:57switching into the tightest Proview 1X. That is a slightly higher launching, high flying
01:01golf ball within the premium range. You could take it a step further. It's something I would
01:05definitely recommend is switching to a more distance-orientated golf ball, a firmer golf
01:10ball like the tightest Velocity that I've got here, for example. It's going to give you more
01:14ball speed. It's going to definitely give you a few more yards through the air. And because
01:17the greens are soft, you don't necessarily need that spin control that you get from a premium
01:22cover. The ball's not going to be releasing out when you're chipping and hitting iron shots into the
01:25greens. So you can afford to make that switch into a distance golf ball and not suffer that
01:30trade-off that you would typically get during the summer months. So it would be remiss of
01:34me to not have a go with this tightest Velocity golf ball here, the beautiful tenth hole on
01:38the Elsa course at Trump Turnberry. Obviously, when you're making a stroke, you can definitely
01:45afford to tee it a little bit higher in the winter. Get that ball up in your stance. That's
01:48going to encourage a little bit more height off the tee to give you the most amount of carry
01:53distance. Don't overdo it, but those are some changes you can also make to your setup. Let's
01:58see if we can get this one flying high and straight down the fairway.
02:02Oh, it's a little bit left. Just hugging the edge of that ocean there. Not ideal. But those
02:13are some simple changes to your golf ball you can make to give you more carry distance and
02:18therefore get further down the fairway and get lower scores in the winter.
02:21Now, in the winter, when the ground's soft, it can make chipping around the green a more
02:25of a difficult task because the leading edge just wants to dig a little bit more into the
02:29ground. The margin for error is quite small, maybe less so on a Lynx course like we have
02:34here on the Elsa course at Trump Turnberry. But generally speaking, you want to try and
02:37increase the margin for error when you're chipping around the green. And one way you can do that
02:41with your equipment is to switch to a higher bounce wedge when you're chipping, something I definitely
02:45do in the winter. I've got a 12 degrees of bounce wedge here. That's a lot higher than
02:49I would typically play. Obviously bounce being the distance between the leading edge and the
02:53bottom of the sole. So if you have a little bit more bounce there, that's going to encourage
02:56the club to dig a little bit less and just skid across the turf rather than dig down into
03:01it with that leading edge. You can see here, you don't want to be taking divots when you're
03:03chipping if you can avoid them. So a little bit more bounce. Should increase the margin for error
03:08when you're chipping on these soft conditions that you get in the winter. See here how the
03:16club just skimmed along the top, not much divot there. That's what you want when you're chipping.
03:21But if you haven't got a higher bounce wedge, you don't want to switch the wedge in your
03:25equipment in terms of investing in a new wedge, one way you can add more bounce is to open
03:30the club face. So another thing I like to do in the winter is because the greens are soft,
03:34you can afford to play a slightly lower trajectory shot. So what I tend to do is I tend to get
03:38a slightly lower lofty wedge like a pitching wedge and just open the face of it and opening
03:42the face of your wedge will expose a bit more bounce. So you still get the sort of same
03:46effect without having to buy a new wedge, you still get that sort of skidding motion and
03:50obviously with a pitching wedge, it's going to come out a little bit flatter, you still
03:54get a little bit of spin, but because the greens are softer, it's still hopefully not going
03:58to run away from you as much. I've hit that a little bit too hard, but you get the idea.
04:03You can see here, again, similar divot, nice skidding motion through the turf.
04:08So definitely one to practice. If you don't want to buy a new wedge, chip with a lower
04:11lofty wedge, open the face a little bit, expose more bounce, and that should increase your
04:14margin of error when you're chipping around the green.
04:17Don't underestimate the importance of the humble golf tee in the winter. Now luckily here
04:22on the Elves, of course, at Trump Turnberry, we're still off grass, but the majority of golf
04:26courses in the winter will be off mats, and that's where the castle tee or egg timer tee can
04:31really come in handy. I've got a couple here. The benefits of using egg timer tee is that you get a consistent
04:37tee height every time, so that should help you contact the ball on the driver face in
04:40a similar position and just give you a consistent launch and flight and make it a bit more predictable.
04:45You can get them in different heights, which is really useful. For example, I would use a purple
04:50tee for a driver if I just want to hit a normal driver that's going to keep the ball in play,
04:54but then you've got the option of switching to an orange one, which is a little bit higher.
04:57If you want a bit more distance, if the fairway's a bit more open, you want to really open your shoulders,
05:02switch to a higher egg timer tee in this orange one. You've got that flexibility to absolutely
05:06bomb one when you want to. Definitely recommend switching to castle
05:09tees in the winter, more consistency, and you've got that flexibility of altering the trajectory
05:14depending on the hole. Just a quick break to remind you, if you are enjoying this video,
05:18do click the like button. It really helps us out, and don't forget to subscribe to the
05:22Golf Monthly YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our videos. Have you done it? Good. Right, let's move on.
05:29Now, in the winter, the air is colder. The greens are definitely softer, which means the ball,
05:34when you're hitting into greens, when it lands, it's not releasing forwards like it would be in
05:37the summer, and often it's spinning back a lot more, especially if you're hitting off a mat into
05:41a par three. So one change you could definitely make would be to hit an extra club when you're hitting
05:46into greens. If you look at the ARCOS data, it tells us that every ability of golfer hits the ball
05:50shorter in the winter versus the summer. For a scratch golfer, they're around about 4% shorter on average,
05:56so off the tee, they're losing about 11 yards, which is a pretty significant difference. That
06:00difference does come down as the handicap ability goes up and the swing speed comes down, but
06:05definitely something to think about. You're generally going to be a lot shorter in the
06:09winter than you would be in your summer yardages. For example, on this particular shot here,
06:14I know in the summer, if I absolutely flush a 9-9, I could probably get it to pin high, but we're in
06:19the winter. It's a little bit colder, a little bit of wind around, and we know that we're going to hit this
06:23a little bit shorter. Maybe I'm not swinging it as far because I've got a few layers on, so
06:27going an extra club is always a good idea. So I'd go from my 9-9 to my 8-9. Obviously, when you think
06:32about most holes, the trouble on most holes, generally speaking, tends to be short of the
06:37green on that front portion of the green. So if we can get our approach shots to the middle of the
06:41green, even maybe the back half of the green, we're going to take the trouble out of play as well.
06:44So club up, make a committed swing, and hopefully you take the trouble out of play,
06:49and that will help your scores come down.
07:03So there you go. I've got it to the middle of the green there, taking the trouble out of play.
07:07Definitely something to think about in the winter. Clubbing up should help you lower your scores.
07:11Now generally speaking, when we play in the winter, maybe not in the case of a Lynx golf course like
07:23this, but typically fairways in the winter are quite muddy, and when you hit approach shots, iron shots,
07:29wedge shots, the faces on your clubs can get very dirty. If you get dirt and moisture on your club
07:34base and you leave that on there, that's going to provide issues with inconsistent spin, maybe even the
07:40start line of your golf shot as well. So it's really important in the winter, if you want as much
07:44consistency as possible, make sure after every approach shot, you give your iron a good clean
07:50with a dry towel, just to get all the moisture and the loose dirt off. But also, another good tip is to
07:55invest in a groove cleaner like I've got here. Just give those grooves a clean. You can see the amount of
08:00dirt that comes out there, and that's just going to make sure you get that consistent spin on every shot.
08:05You know, with an iron shot, we're trying to hit the ball a specific distance and trying to
08:08encourage as much predictability as possible. Having clean grooves for every shot is going to
08:13increase the chances that are happening. So invest in the groove cleaner, give your iron
08:17faces a good clean after every approach shot, wedge shot, chip shot, and that should help your results
08:23around the green or the shots into greens become a bit more predictable. Right, unless your driver is
08:29made of wood and is older than old Tom Morris, it should have some loft adjustability on it, and that's
08:34something to really take advantage of in the winter because adding a bit of loft to your driver can
08:38definitely help increase your carry distance in the winter, something that's really important. So
08:43make sure you've obviously got a wrench at home, you can adjust the settings on your driver,
08:48but make sure you do some research online in terms of making sure you get the loft adjustment just right,
08:53and be careful because when you're tweaking loft, it can also alter the face angle depending on the
08:58manufacturer of driver you've got. So maybe consult with a PGA Pro, do some research online, but there's
09:03definitely going to be a setting on your hosel that you can take advantage of to give you a bit more
09:07loft, and that should therefore give you a little bit more carry distance. With cold outside, the
09:11temptation is to add lots of layers to keep you warm, but obviously the more layers you add,
09:17the more restriction you're going to be potentially adding to your swing. It's going to reduce the speed,
09:21and that's something that you don't want to do in the winter. The ball's already not going as far
09:24as it was in the summer, so adding lots of bulky layers could reduce distance even further, and that's going
09:29to add complications to your round. So one tactic I like to go for, if I can get away with it if it's
09:35not ridiculously cold, is to go for the base layer, vest, or gilet combination. So this is a really
09:40good way of keeping yourself warm, but also giving your arms as much range of motion to swing completely
09:47freely. So if you can get away with it in the winter, base layer, warm, gilet, or vest combination
09:52is going to allow you to swing completely freely, and hopefully you won't lose as much distance, and
09:56therefore you haven't got to make any sort of complicated calculations in terms of adjusting
10:00your club distances depending on the shot in hand. So if you can, make some smart choices
10:04around the clothing that you wear, and that should help your winter round be a bit more enjoyable.
10:10I've come here, I've got a great tip for you to take advantage of preferred lies in the winter. We
10:14know in the winter, most golf courses give you preferred lies when you're in the fairway, so you can
10:19really use that to your advantage, especially if you play a golf ball that has a line on it or some alignment
10:23help like I've got here in the TP5X Stripe Golf Ball. So obviously you pick it up, mark the ball,
10:29pick it up, you're allowed to clean it, and then if you've got those visual lines on there, you can use
10:34it to align the line onto your target. So whether that's the flag or if there's some wind around,
10:39maybe slightly left or right of the flag, just use it to give you a little bit more visual assistance
10:44for your club face, because I think I'm certainly someone who doesn't hit their wedge shots as close
10:48as I would like. So it's going to give you a really good visual on your start line, your alignment,
10:52it's going to give you a lot of help, just allows you to be a bit more freer, just swing on the line
10:56of the ball, and obviously you can use it not just on your approach shots, you can use it off the tee,
11:01you can use it on the green, of course, when you're putting as well. Let's face it, in the winter,
11:05when the tees are forward, you're probably going to have quite a lot of wedge shots into the green,
11:08so if someone who doesn't hit your wedge shots as close as you want, use this when you're preferring
11:12the lie, it might well help you hit your approach shots a little bit closer.
11:16Now in the winter, we know the ground conditions can get very wet and slippery,
11:22which can obviously increase the risk of injury if you're slipping over, but also when you're playing
11:26from sloping lies, you don't want your feet moving around, that's going to produce inconsistent strikes
11:31and generally bad shots. So one way you can negate that and often increase the longevity of your golf
11:36shoes is to replace the cleats. If you've got an old pair of spike shoes, they're looking a bit worse
11:41for where you could add some new spikes to your shoes. I've got some soft spikes Torflex Pro
11:47cleats here. I haven't got the wrench to insert them into my shoes at the moment, but obviously your
11:52Pro should have a wrench that you can therefore replace the cleats on your shoes. They're pretty
11:56inexpensive to do that and they can really add a year or so to your golf shoes. If they're still
12:01waterproof, adding some fresh cleats will give you a lot more grip. It'll give you that confidence that
12:06you can swing with complete freedom, knowing that your feet aren't going to slip out from under you when
12:10you're making your shot in the winter. Extra grip's really invaluable, a little bit safer as well,
12:15so definitely recommend in the winter investing in a new set of cleats. It will definitely add a
12:20year or two to your golf shoes. Now while there's little evidence to show that hot golf balls tend
12:26to go further than sort of normal temperature golf ball, there is a little bit of evidence out there
12:29that suggests that cold golf balls don't go as far as a normal temperature golf ball. So where you can,
12:35I would recommend putting your golf ball in your pocket to keep them sort of as close to your
12:40body temperature as possible. I'll even pop them in your mittens. That's another good idea which
12:43I could do here. You can also get those sort of strap-on hand warmers that sort of rest on your belly.
12:49They're a good way to keep your hands warm. Pop your ball in there as well. That should hopefully
12:53stop the temperature of the golf ball reducing and therefore reducing the risk of the ball potentially
12:59not going as far off the tee or into greens. That should hopefully give you a little bit more
13:02consistency in your distances. There you have it. That concludes our look at the 10 winter golf gear hacks.
13:08You could try to hopefully save a shot or two off your scores this off-season. Big thank you to the
13:13Els of course here at Tramp Turnberry for hosting us. Some big changes happening here coming next year.
13:17Really exciting. But that's all from me. I'll see you next time.
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