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In this video, Neil Tappin runs down the 7 biggest strategy mistakes golfers are making.
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00:04Hello 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
00:28butt end of your golf clubs that allows you to track all the shots you hit during a round of
00:33golf.
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
00:54like
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 onto the golf course here at the London Club and look at the seven biggest strategy mistakes
01:06the golfers are making. 80% of missed greens are missed short so 47% are short right and 33
01:24% are short left and if
01:26you fall into the category of missing short of pin high more than you think you should then there are
01:32a
01:33few different things to consider within your own game. The first is how consistent is your ball
01:37striking. Now it will depend on your handicap as you improve your ball striking of course gets better
01:43but if you feel like your ball striking isn't quite at the level that your handicap is it can be
01:48a 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's a really powerful
01:59strike 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
02:17set of irons might just help you out. And thirdly how far do you hit each club in the bag?
02:23Obviously
02:24this is where performance tracking technology like the Shotscope V2 can prove really handy. Finding
02:30out how far you hit the golf ball on the course when you're faced with different lies and different
02:34weather conditions and you're under pressure is really useful and it can be very different to how
02:39far you hit the ball on the range hitting shot after shot from the perfect lie. The other thing is
02:44it's also worth finding out how far you carry each club in the bag because your total distance will
02:50largely depend on ground conditions whereas knowing your average carry yardages will make a big
02:55difference to knowing what club you should hit in what situation. So for instance this is the third
03:00hole here at the London club. We have water short left. You really don't want to be coming up short.
03:04The
03:05pin is sort of just beyond halfway up the green. The front of the green is 127. Middle of the
03:09green is
03:10142. So you really need to make sure that whatever you do on this hole you pick a club that
03:15you know
03:16carries past 127 and if all you know is that you hit your 9-iron around about 135 yards well
03:23you don't
03:24know whether you carry your 9-iron over 127 yards. So it's something to think about. So if you fall
03:31into that category do some work on the range in practice find out how far you carry each club in
03:37the bag and use those as your go-to numbers going forward. It could make a really big difference to
03:42your game.
03:47Right so the next one on my list relates to which club you should be using off the tee and
03:53what you're
03:54looking at here are the average distances players are able to achieve with their driver versus their
03:59three-wood and usually players are giving up around about 30 yards between driver and three-wood which
04:05is roughly what we would expect. What we didn't expect to see however was that players were off the
04:10tee using a three-wood were only one percent more accurate. Now that's something that's well worth
04:16considering because and it's something that we've said in some of our videos in the past fairway woods
04:21are the hardest golf clubs in the bag to get right. Obviously small head long shaft you're standing a
04:27long way away from it you've got to hit the ball a long way so you've got to make a
04:29big full athletic
04:30swing. Fairway woods are hard to get right and it is difficult to find something that you can really
04:35rely on so that you end up using it well when you need to most when you're competing out on
04:39the golf
04:39course 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.
04:48If it's not
04:49then perhaps you go down a different route. Perhaps you leave the three-wood behind carry a five-wood
04:54use something 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 you can hit straight then make sure that you
05:08take a club that you do know you can hit straight so you would expect to be far more accurate
05:13with
05:13your fairway wood off the tee than just one percent over your driver. Guys there's real food for thought
05:19there in terms of your strategy off the tee. What do you do when there are bunkers in play like
05:24there
05:24are here when there's trouble up there that you need to avoid? Do you just stick with hitting driver and
05:30take your chances or do you try and hit the fairway with a more of a safety option? If you
05:35go for the
05:35latter make sure that you choose something that you are going to hit the fairway with more often
05:41and 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
06:16it's roughly one birdie per round and then once you get above a handicap of about 12 really golfers are
06:23not
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 very quickly
06:42again so the point here for a lot of players the fastest way to improve is not to make more
06:48birdies but
06:48to make fewer double bogeys and in the situation that i'm in here this is a real a really good
06:54highlight of exactly where players go wrong so the flag here on the 18th green on the heritage course at
06:59the london club is perched way over on the right hand side it's a real sucker pin and by going
07:04for it
07:05you really are bringing bogeys and double bogeys into play no matter what your handicap and i think for
07:10a lot of golfers out there especially higher handicap players it is worth thinking about playing golf to the
07:16center of the green more often so what i would suggest to you to do is next time you go
07:22and play
07:22golf try and play to the center of every single green whenever you're faced with an approach shot
07:28to the green doesn't matter if you've got 100 yards or 200 yards in aim for a point on the
07:32middle of the
07:32green that's where the gps watch comes in really handy it gives you yardages to the very center of
07:38every green work to those yardages try and hit the middle of every green and then take a look at
07:43your
07:43scoring averages take a look and see what's happening to your birdie percentages versus your
07:48bogey and double bogey percentages because i think that for a lot of players taking the flag completely
07:53out of their mindset might improve all of those numbers it might help them make more birdies but
07:58it will definitely help them keep bogeys and double bogeys off the card more often so in this situation
08:05really i need to be avoiding that flag on the right hand side aiming for the middle of the green
08:09trying to
08:10make par taking double bogey certainly out of play entirely right let's give it a go
08:22well my miss is definitely a miss to the right i've aimed for the center of the green i've pushed
08:26it a fraction but i'm still left of the flag i'm definitely not in any bother and it's that
08:31sort of thinking that can really save your shots out on 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
08:59and it's something well worth thinking about in your own game now dave peltz did a bit of research
09:04a few years ago that said that the ideal pace at which you should be hitting your putts is to
09:08get
09:08the ball rolling about 18 inches past the hole that's where i've got the t-peg here that means
09:15the ball will be rolling fast enough to roll over any imperfections on the green without being bumped
09:18offline without going too fast and putting you in danger of three putting or lipping out if you hit the
09:23putt on a good line so pace control is a really crucial factor when it comes to your success on
09:30the greens now there are a whole host of really great drills that you can do to hone your putting
09:37speed so placing tees around the hole in a box to make sure that you get that ball rolling just
09:42past
09:42the hole the more work you can do on your speed control the more likely you will be to putt
09:48the ball
09:48just past the hole and if you can do that more often chances are you might just hole a few
09:53more 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 that you can make a full swing the idea being that if you make a full swing
10:07you can
10:08make a more committed swing and the results ultimately will be slightly better but the shot scope
10:14data doesn't actually back this theory up what you're looking at here is the average proximity
10:19to the hole data for shots hit from 50 yards versus shots hit from 80 yards and both from the
10:25fairway
10:25and the rough players are hitting the ball closer to the hole from closer to the green it's something
10:33well worth thinking about in your own game if you've always tended to lay up to a further yardage well
10:38perhaps just consider it perhaps keep some stats of your own to find out if you are hitting it closer
10:43from further away because it might be that you aren't and if you aren't then a little bit more
10:48of an aggressive strategy off the tee or from the fairway with your layup shot might pay off might pay
10:53dividends so the shot that i've got here this is just around about the 62 yard mark this would be
10:59a
10:59fiddly shot for me but perhaps i'm better off hitting a shot from here than i am from 30 yards
11:04further back
11:04let's give it a go
11:05a 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
11:27needs to ask themselves and as far as the shot scope data goes it's fairly inconclusive for lower
11:33handicappers 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 with
11:50handicaps of 13 and over tend to be more successful with hybrids for a 20 handicapper facing the sort of
11:57shot that i'm facing here of around about 180 to 200 yards a 20 handicapper is almost twice as likely
12:04to hit the green with a hybrid as they are with a long iron it really is food for thought
12:09and i'm sure
12:10it's something that a lot of you out there have considered and thought about in your game if you
12:14are a high handicapper carrying long irons just be wary think about it keep some stats of your own
12:20find out how successful you are from further out from the green if you find out that you're coming
12:25up short a lot a lot of the time from further out with your longer irons perhaps it's worth swapping
12:30out your three and four irons for hybrids instead
12:38and finally are you more likely to miss right or left off the tee it's really invaluable information to
12:45know so the shot scope data reveals that for the majority of golfers out there they are more likely
12:50to miss right it's 58 right versus 42 left and it's really about knowing your game and understanding
12:58your shot patterns understanding where you are most likely to miss now the best players in the world they
13:04don't always hit great shots but what they do understand is where not to miss and they understand
13:09what they're most likely to do you could bring that into your game so a hole like this this is
13:14the 10th hole
13:14here on the heritage course of the london club you cannot go left off the tee and if you are
13:19a
13:19player that is more likely to miss left you can build your strategy based on that knowledge you
13:25can say to yourself okay the mistake i'm not going to make is i'm not going to snap and hook
13:29one into
13:30the water that's where the card wrecking score comes from for me that water on the left here is a
13:35huge
13:35danger whereas if you're somebody that misses more often to the right you'll know that water on the left
13:40hand side is not such a big danger and you can take a more aggressive strategy i know that in
13:45my game
13:46i'm much more likely to miss right than i am to miss left so i'm confident and happy with driver
13:52that's
13:52what i'm going to hit here and having a simple strategy based on what you are most likely to do
13:58can really help your game it's about managing your misses and going from there it can make a huge difference
14:13as predicted i've missed it slightly to the right hand side but i'm fine i'm in play
14:17and i can attack the green from there so there you have it those are the seven biggest strategy
14:22mistakes that golfers make based on the shot scope data and there are some really fascinating insights
14:27in there i don't think it matters whether you're a category one player or if you're just starting out
14:32on your golfing journey there are some really simple findings in there that could help give you
14:37some guidance on the best and quickest way to possibly improve your game guys please do leave
14:42comments below is there anything that you want clarification on is there any more information
14:46you want from the stats we'd be more than happy to help out wherever we can please also hit the
14:51like
14:51button if you like the video but for now from the london club is goodbye
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