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In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA professional and Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Katie Dawkins. They discuss some of those simple lessons we all get taught when we first pick up the game but that we all forget! These are the simple and effective tips that can make a huge difference to your scoring potential. Katie's advice should help you from tee-to-green!
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to West Hill Golf Club
00:03and this video in which we're going to take a look at the seven tips that every golfer forgets.
00:09Now these are all things that you'll pick up as you play golf over the years. The really simple
00:13stuff that can actually make a big difference to your scoring but that from time to time we all
00:19forget. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Katie Dawkins. She's a PGA pro,
00:24she's one of the Golf Monthly top 50 coaches and she's going to talk you through everything
00:28you need to know and it should help you in all areas of the game from tee to green.
00:32Right, let's get started.
00:38Right, so for our first one we're going to talk about the speed of your swing and in particular
00:42the tempo of your golf swing. Katie, what do people forget here? I think people tend to forget that
00:49this is a golf swing, it's not a golf hit and I think that's probably the key thought for a
00:55lot
00:55of people to kind of bank in the memory banks because actually the fact, the act of the golf swing
01:00suggests that there's a natural flow to it, there's a natural swing back and swing through.
01:05The problem people tend to find is that they've got lots of swing thoughts going on in there in
01:10their minds and that tends to stunt this nice natural rhythm that we're looking for in the golf
01:15swing. So you tend to find people thinking about stuff too much and therefore even if you're a decent
01:20sports person, you've got a good ability to hit a ball with a racket, a club, a bat, whatever you
01:26happen to be using, that can sometimes disappear just because you're overthinking it and you're
01:31trying to hit it and trying to force the ball to do what you want it to do.
01:34It's such a good point. I think my specific issue on this, I think, is that I tend to start
01:39getting
01:40too aggressive when I'm on the golf course, under pressure, start snatching at it a little bit too much.
01:45So most people watching this will know, tempo, really important. So how do people practice it?
01:52How do you make sure that you don't go too far wrong?
01:54I think it's important to have something that you can take out on the golf course with
01:58you because like you said, there's situations out there where you need a little bit of restraining
02:03perhaps. So you actually need just to calm things down a bit. So a really good drill to do that
02:11is
02:11to actually maybe do one of your practice swings or just your sole practicing with your feet
02:15together because what that does is it starts to create this lovely freewheeling chilled out tempo.
02:22If you go at it like a bat out of hell with your feet together, guess what? You fall over.
02:27So you're throwing yourself, throwing yourself off balance.
02:30Okay. So if you are somebody like me who has a tendency to snatch at their shots a little bit
02:34too much,
02:34that feeling that you're hitting and not swinging, try to incorporate that into your pre-shot routine.
02:44Okay. So we have reached the inevitable part of this video, which we're going to talk about alignment.
02:48And most golfers watching this will know how important it is. And yet there'll be a lot of
02:52people watching this that don't do it correctly every time. And that's because they're forgetting
02:57something. What is it that golfers tend to forget about aiming properly?
03:01I think the biggest thing golfers tend to forget with alignment is they forget that it's not their body
03:05that's lined up to the target. They're on those old train tracks. So the ball and the target are on
03:11one
03:11train track. Your feet, knees, hips and shoulders are on the other. So in theory, you're running
03:15parallel to your target. But the problem is when a lot of people set up to the ball is they
03:20look down
03:21their shoulder and they tend to kind of shuffle themselves and aim themselves at. So they've skewed
03:26themselves across the line. Yes. So what's the process? How do you get it right time and time again?
03:32So you need to build it into your pre-shot routine. So you need to stand behind the ball,
03:36use your club almost like a ruler, point it at your target, pull the club down and pick yourself a
03:41mini
03:41target just in front of the ball. It's so much easier to get yourself lined up on those train tracks
03:46because you can see the tracks down there. When we're looking up at the target, it's much easier
03:51to have a little shuffle, do a little dance and immediately you've pushed yourself offline. So having
03:57a mini target is probably my biggest tip for this and being able to aim yourself to that is much,
04:02much easier than the longer one. Yeah. And it's so important. So if you can just do what Katie said
04:07and get it right more often, chances are you'll also start making better swings, better contacts
04:12and just generally playing golf a little bit better.
04:19Okay. So we've come down to the green here and Katie, we're talking about chipping. What do people
04:24forget to do in a situation like this? I think the biggest problem people have when it comes to
04:30shots out on the course around the green is they choose the wrong club. Right. So I think there's
04:35that idea that because I'm chipping, I need to look good and they want that savvy-esque sort of high
04:40floaty shot that's going to land right by the flag and zip back and stop. That's not reality. Reality
04:45would be if I was to give you a ball and throw it to the flag. Go on then. Yeah,
04:50right. I'm not going to
04:51go up and over like that because I've got no control over it. The bounce is going to be more
04:55unpredictable. Everything's just a little bit more dangerous. My safest possible option would be to
05:00almost play lawn bowls, basically. So I'd roll it on the first available bit of green and it would run
05:06into the flag. Yeah. So then what I'd want you to do out on the golf course is kind of
05:11put into your
05:12hand the club that best fits that carry and roll. Right. So for me, that went low and rolled out,
05:18so it'd probably be something like an A time. Yeah. The majority of people would not be choosing
05:22an A time from here. Well, I think that they possibly just automatically grab the lob wedge
05:26or the sand wedge. Yeah. Whatever shot they're facing around the green. I know that I'd probably
05:31have a tendency to do that a bit from time to time, just immediately pick the club. You just want
05:34to
05:35look the best you can possibly look and for a lot of people that's the ball in the air. But
05:39what's
05:39interesting about this, Katie, is that you're saying work backwards, figure out what the shot looks like,
05:43the best, most reliable looking shot, what it looks like, and then pick your club. So with
05:48this little short chip, this almost tick-tock action, I can afford to miss hit it a little
05:53bit and still get away with it. I think that's the important bit. Go on then. Miss hit it for
05:57us
05:57and get away with it. Miss hit it and get away with it. Oh, great. So all I'm going to
06:02do is just
06:02that little tick-tock, bounce it on that top bit and let it roll around. This is good. You told
06:09me to
06:09miss hit it and I said no. No, you did it perfectly. But I think the point remains,
06:14keep it simple is the best way to do it.
06:21Posture. It's something that I think most golfers understand how important it is to have a nice
06:24athletic posture, yet the amount of golfers that you see out on the course who have stood over the
06:29ball, not looking particularly athletic. Why is it so important to get right firstly, Katie?
06:35It's so important to get right because good posture gives you good balance,
06:39which in turn gives you control in your golf swing. And we want control in our golf swing,
06:45right? We don't want to stand there in a position where we're rocking about the place. And this is
06:49what happens when the position that you're setting up in is poor. You're setting up in a state of almost
06:55sitting down or sometimes tipped over too much. But the one we see the most is the fat bag,
07:01kind of slightly lazy posture almost. What you've got there is you've got the weight on the heels.
07:06So you're going to swing the club back and you're going to be rocking around, rocking all over the
07:10place. What we want to see is a more of a planted onto the balls of the feet and the
07:16ability to actually
07:17be in balance as you come back to the ball. Good posture to begin with is usually going to mean
07:22better posture as you hit the shot. Yeah. Poor posture. You're just not going to introduce any
07:27of the bigger muscles. So you're not going to get that lovely rotation and that lovely weight
07:31transfer through the ball. So what's a good tip? What's a good checkpoint to make sure you're in
07:35the right posture? You could stand in front of a mirror at home and actually take your posture
07:39if the mirror is there, take your posture, set yourself up, have a look, go, yeah, all right,
07:43that's great. But we want something we can take onto the golf course. You do see people out there
07:48going tippy over, flexing knees and going through almost a little routine in their heads, but that
07:52can introduce tension. Okay. In good posture, you should be able to, a bit like you're about to
07:57return to serve in tennis, you should be able to give your heels a little tap. That tells us we're
08:02ready to run somewhere, tells us we're athletic. If you're setting up to the ball and you try and do
08:07that and you think, oh, blimey, I'm rocking back already because I can tap my toes. If you're a toe
08:12tapper, your posture's lacking athleticism. It's a really simple tip and if you do have issues with
08:18your posture over the ball, then maybe introduce that into your pre-shot routine. It could make all
08:23the difference. Okay, so we're going to talk about bunker play and obviously the two biggest mistakes
08:32are either leaving it in the bunker or thinning it over the back. The lesson that people forget here
08:38is that the bunker shot, the green side bunker shot, is the only one in which you're not trying
08:43to make contact with the ball first, right? Exactly. And I think this is the thing, is that
08:48we don't want to hit the ball first. We want to hit the sand behind the ball so it floats
08:52out on that
08:53lovely cushion. So it's really important here that we address the part we want to hit. So we're actually
08:58addressing the sand behind the ball. Okay, so talk us through how you do it. So it's important to almost
09:03think of the ball as being sat on a fried egg. So the ball is the yoke, essentially. Just
09:08draw a couple of little circles, obviously not allowed to do this in real play for obvious
09:13reasons. But draw a couple of circles around the ball and you can even give yourself three circles
09:18in a row, almost like traffic lights. Practice hitting the right bit of sand. So if I was to
09:23have a little practice traffic light, if you like, so I'm going to set myself up, swing back, swing
09:29through and take the whole thing out. What I'm then going to do is set myself up to the back
09:34of the egg
09:34where the ball is. And again, almost try and repeat it. So I'm just letting the ball get in the
09:39way,
09:39but I'm aiming to hit the back of that egg. Perfect. Great shot. And you'll notice, I mean,
09:47that description there that Katie's given is so simple. It's something that every golfer can do,
09:50but you do need to practice these things. Trust it and practice it. It should help.
10:00OK, so our next one is about grip pressure. And this is starting to feel actually a bit like a
10:05personal counselling session for me because I know that under pressure, I have a tendency to really
10:10squeeze the grip and strangle the grip. And I know that's not good. But can you explain to everyone
10:16why it's not good? So the first thing is you're not alone. Probably 90% of the people that I
10:21teach
10:21are strangling the club. Now, the effect that this has on your ability to get back to that ball is
10:27huge. The reason being, if you're holding the club in an appropriate manner, an appropriate amount of
10:33pressure is being applied, you're holding it almost like a tube of toothpaste with the lid off. So that
10:37would be quite a good way of remembering it. What people tend to do is they tend to go from
10:42setting
10:42themselves up, holding it all right, and then suddenly the squeeze comes in. So you've got a nice relaxed
10:48hold where the club's on the ground. Check out what my club face does when I squeeze it. That's
10:53literally down to me strengthening my grip. My forearms are contracting and therefore shortening.
11:00And lo and behold, you can imagine the shots that you're going to get from that.
11:03Yeah, if you've got an iron in the hand, you're likely to hit, I would think, you're likely to hit
11:06thins, maybe tops. Absolutely, yeah, you are. But also it's the impact that it has on your rhythm,
11:13which we've talked about before. You want that free, easy swing. You want that lovely flow to your golf
11:20swing. Yeah, so as Katie said, a nice, light grip pressure. It'll help your rhythm. It'll help all
11:25sorts of different things in your golf swing.
11:32Okay, so the number one tip on our list that golfers forget is they forget to aim at the middle
11:38of the
11:38green, in particular when the flag is cut tight to one side or another. So imagine for a second
11:45that the green behind Katie and I here, imagine that flag is tucked just over the bunkers on the
11:50right-hand side. I appreciate it's not today, but imagine that it is. That's a really dangerous flag.
11:55Yeah. Especially when you consider, Katie, you've got so much room to aim at on this green, haven't you?
12:00And we've all said it. We've all got up there and gone, damn it, I'm in the bunker. Look how
12:04much room
12:05there is on the left. Yes. And for some reason, we tend to go at tiger line at the flag
12:11stick.
12:12Something that will really help you to avoid this and remind you that actually the middle of the
12:16green, you want to be on the middle of the green because you're never going to get a really long
12:20putt. You're never going to be too far from the flag, are you? No. But it's just a safe place
12:25to be.
12:25But a way that you can do that is actually pay attention to what's behind the green. So for example,
12:31here we've got two tall fir trees just to the right of where our flag is, but that's the centre
12:36of the
12:36green. I'd be thinking about aiming at those and use that as my marker, as part of my pre-shot
12:41routine. Just draw my attention to what's at the back. It lifts you up body language-wise, so you're
12:46looking up. You're visualising a decent shot because you're going at something that's beyond the green.
12:52Yeah. And it just takes your attention away from any trouble that might be sneaking around in the
12:57foreground. Come on Katie, let's finish off with a good shot, shall we? So that flag, let's be honest,
13:02is in a pretty good spot. I'm not giving you any excuses here. Oh right, no pressure.
13:11Lovely shot. Nice, high, soft draw, very easy. And I think it goes to show that if you're out on
13:17the
13:17golf course and you're thinking about how to compile a score, maybe just have one round of golf where you
13:21just aim at the middle of the green. Forget about where the flag is, see what it does to your
13:25score.
13:25It might just help. Okay, so there you have it. That's our look at the seven tips that every
13:31golfer forgets. If you've enjoyed the video, please do hit the like button. If you have any questions
13:35or any comments, leave them below. But that's it for now from West Hill.
13:39Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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