- 8 minutes ago
Are you hitting the right shots at the wrong time or making some silly mental errors that are costing you shots? Well some of the scenarios in this video, presented by Golf Monthly Deputy Editor Joel Tadman, may well be familiar! He runs through the seven biggest strategy mistakes golfers make and suggest ways in which you can make better decisions to ensure your good swings are rewarded with good results!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Now golfers can save a surprising amount of shots
00:02by eliminating some basic strategic mistakes
00:05which we are going to highlight in this video.
00:07We've come to the amazing Peter Vermilton Golf Club
00:10and teamed up with GolfShot,
00:12makers of one of the leading golf GPS apps
00:14that has tracked over 57 million shots last year
00:17from thousands of golfers to provide you
00:20with the crucial data insights
00:21that should help frame a golfer's decision making
00:24in order to shoot lower scores.
00:26So let's head on to the course
00:27and explain exactly what they are.
00:32Looking at the GolfShot data,
00:34it tells us that three out of the four ability levels
00:37in terms of categories of handicap
00:39miss more to the right than they do the left.
00:41So that's an important distinction.
00:43What's also interesting is that higher handicappers
00:45miss more to the right than any other ability level.
00:47So if you are a higher handicapper,
00:48you're probably going to be missing more to the right.
00:50And also when you factor in that scratch golfers
00:52are only hitting around 50% of fairways,
00:55I think what we can deduce from this data
00:57is that as amateur golfers,
00:58we're going to miss fairways, right?
01:00So it's important that we allow for that
01:02with our strategy and our aim
01:03to make sure we're going to miss it
01:05in the right spot accordingly.
01:08So on this particular hole,
01:09it's clear that the 13th hole at Peterham Milton,
01:12there is a little bit more room down the right
01:14than there is down the left.
01:15So it's important to allow for that in terms of your aim.
01:18Aim a little bit further to the right
01:20to give you a wider margin for error.
01:23And then the other thing you can do
01:24when it comes to strategy on your tee shots
01:27is make sure you're teeing the ball in the right part of the tee.
01:30So this hole in particular,
01:31you can see there's a lot of trouble down the left-hand side.
01:33And if you are someone who moves it from left to right,
01:36you need to give yourself the most amount of room possible.
01:38So this is a great example where teeing it up
01:40right on the right-hand side of the tee
01:42is going to really open up the hole,
01:43especially if you hit a left-to-right shot.
01:46It's going to give you a lot more room to play with
01:48and hopefully you can execute the shot more successfully.
01:51So I'm going to aim just on the right edge
01:54of those left-hand bunkers and allow for my slight fade.
01:57It's going to really open up the hole
01:58and give me a bit more room.
02:05Perfect.
02:08So follow those tee shot tips
02:10and hopefully you'll find more fairways,
02:12but more importantly, miss it in the right spot.
02:19So as you can see, I've hit a cracking drive down this par five,
02:22left myself in a perfect position.
02:23And most golfers would view par fives
02:25as a scoring opportunity,
02:27but the big strategic mistake golfers make
02:29is not thinking about the importance
02:31of the second shot on a par five.
02:33It's the crucial shot to get right
02:34to set you up for making a par or maybe even a birdie.
02:38If you look at the stats from golf shot,
02:39it's really interesting to see that
02:40the three ability levels of categories of golfer,
02:43they all average over par on par fives.
02:46And high handicappers in particular
02:47average over six and a half on a par five.
02:51So clearly you could deduce that those,
02:53every golfer isn't really making the most
02:55of the opportunities that par fives present them.
02:57And especially on the second shot,
02:58it's a crucial thing to get right.
03:00And the kind of consensus among teaching pros,
03:02and the data would suggest that the thing
03:05that you need to do is try and get as close
03:06to the green as you can on your approach shot.
03:09There's some golfers out there that might think,
03:11oh, actually I'd rather be a hundred yards out
03:13and have a full shot in with my sandwich
03:15than I would be say 40 or 50 yards.
03:17Oh, I'm not really comfortable in those particular shots.
03:19But actually for the vast majority of golfers,
03:21trying to get as close to the green as possible
03:23is the best thing to do.
03:24Obviously you want to avoid hazards
03:26or any scenario where you're gonna get penalty shots.
03:29So if there's out of bounds or penalty areas,
03:32you need to make sure you choose a club that avoids those.
03:35And on particular holes, obviously you're better off
03:37leaving yourself with a 40 yard pitch from the fairway
03:39than you are a 40 yard bunker shot.
03:41Cause that's when you can really rack up a big score.
03:43So in this particular situation,
03:44I can see there's a bunker short left on this par five.
03:47So I want to make sure I avoid that with my second shot.
03:51I've got the three wood, it's the perfect club for me.
03:53I'm okay with hitting this on the fairway.
03:55Let's see if we can get down there
03:56and maybe even on the greener,
03:57give myself a chance at an eagle.
04:14So I'm pretty happy with that one.
04:15So don't underestimate the importance
04:17of the second shot on the par five.
04:18Leave yourself as close to the green as possible
04:20in a favorable lie,
04:22and you should help your scores come down.
04:27Now, one of the big things that separates good golfers
04:30from average ones is the ability to keep those big numbers
04:33off the scorecard.
04:34Double bogeys, triple bogeys or worse,
04:36those are the scores that you don't want to have
04:38on your scorecard.
04:39If you look at tour pros, elite pros,
04:40rarely do they follow a bad shot up with another.
04:44And if you look at the stats from golf shot,
04:45you can see that actually high handicappers are making
04:48double bogeys 59% of the time and mid-handicappers are making
04:52double bogeys or worse 35% of the time,
04:55which I think is quite high.
04:56And with a few strategic tweaks in terms of how you approach
04:59certain shots, I think we can see those numbers come down
05:02significantly.
05:02So the really crucial point here is to not follow up one bad shot
05:07with another.
05:08In this particular hole, you can see I've pushed my drive down
05:10the right-hand side and there's trees in my way,
05:13there's a bunker in the way.
05:14Yes, I do have a gap, but there's overhanging branches.
05:17There's a lot of stuff in the way that could go wrong.
05:19So it's important to make the sensible decision.
05:22As I said, don't follow one mistake up with another.
05:24Take your medicine, give yourself the best chance of keeping
05:27off those double bogeys off your card.
05:29And if you're chipping out sideways like I'm going to do here,
05:32you should be able to make worse the bogey, move on,
05:36take your medicine, and it's not going to ruin your round.
05:38So rather than going for this hero shot through the trees,
05:41there's too much danger there.
05:42I'm going to adjust my aim to the left.
05:44You can see I've got a lovely clear shot here to the left
05:47of the tree.
05:48Get it back in play.
05:49Give yourself a chance to get on the green for your next shot.
05:56And that's in perfect position.
05:58Just stop short of the heavy rough there.
06:00Open up the hole.
06:01I can hit the green and hopefully make a bogey and move on.
06:08Now the next strategic machete comes down to approach shots
06:10and specifically missing greens or chasing tight flags.
06:14I think most golfers have unrealistic expectations about
06:17how close they should be hitting their irons and their wedge
06:21shots.
06:21If you look at the data, it's really interesting.
06:23You'll see that every ability of golfer is missing more greens
06:27than they're hitting, even those single digit golfers as well,
06:30which then feeds into the scramble percentage.
06:33So you look at those numbers, which I'll flash up on the screen here,
06:35you can see even the best ability of golfer are only getting up
06:39and down from around the green when they miss the green up to 33%
06:42of the time.
06:43So clearly missing greens is a problem if you want to shoot
06:46lower scores.
06:47And there are a few things you could do with your strategic
06:49kind of decision making to help improve the, put the odds
06:53into your favour.
06:54I think the first thing on an approach shot is really just to aim
06:57at the middle of the green.
06:59So ignore where the flag is.
07:00If it's on the left, on the right, don't go chasing those flags.
07:03It's going to give you more chance of missing the green,
07:05not getting up and down leading to a bogey.
07:08I actually think most golfers, regardless of your ability,
07:11would probably score better if there were no flags on the green
07:13and you just had to hit to the middle of the green.
07:15So that would be my kind of one option.
07:18My second option would be to think about where the trouble is
07:21on that particular green.
07:23And if you're going to miss it, make sure you're missing it
07:25on the appropriate side or the side that's going to give you the best
07:27chance of getting up and down.
07:28So for example, if there was a flag at the back and there was a big
07:32runoff behind the green, obviously going long is an absolute no-go.
07:35So make sure you're choosing a club that's going to leave you short
07:38of that pin and therefore it's going to eliminate that trouble
07:41and give you the best chance of making a pard,
07:43hopefully keeping those bogeys off your card.
07:45So those are the two ways you can approach it.
07:48I'm going to, you can see here on this particular hole,
07:49there's a tree on the right, a bunker on the right.
07:51So I'm going to favour the left-hand side here.
07:53That's clearly a much easier up and down if I am going to miss the green.
07:56So really be specific with your aim and zone in on that spot.
08:02Just left with the pin.
08:03The safer side should give you the better chance of making a good score.
08:12I'm happy with that one.
08:13It's just left with the pin, cutting back nicely.
08:18Well, I'm happy with that one.
08:19I've got a makeable birdie chance there.
08:20One thing to also think about with the Golf Shot GPS app in particular
08:24is it does offer club recommendations based on your real-time data.
08:27So what shots you've actually been hitting on the course.
08:29It knows how far you hit each club and that should help you hit the right shot,
08:34the right club at the right time and make sure you don't miss those greens.
08:41Now we've all done this, haven't we?
08:42We make a bogey and the red miss sets in.
08:44We storm to the next tee, pull driver and hit your ball in trouble.
08:48You're compounding one error with another.
08:50And it's really important in terms of not making that strategic mistake
08:53of ignoring what lies ahead on a particular hole after you've made a bad score.
08:58You look at the stats from world number one, Scotty Scheffler.
09:01He's one of the best in the world because he doesn't follow up a bogey
09:04with another bogey or worse.
09:06If you look at the data from Golf Shot, it's interesting that high handicappers,
09:09they're making around 12 bogeys around, but more importantly,
09:12they're making consecutive bogeys 70% of the time, which is quite a lot, I would say.
09:16Actually, high handicappers are making consecutive bogeys 59% of the time.
09:20So clearly, there is a problem with amateur golfers compounding one error with another.
09:25And that's why it's important to not make that strategic mistake
09:27and really try and reset your mindset when it comes to arriving on a tee.
09:31If you have made a bad score, try to start again in your head.
09:34And you can see it here now.
09:35This is a classic example of a golfer.
09:37He's clearly annoyed about what's gone on the previous hole.
09:39He's not looking and assessing what lies ahead on this particular hole.
09:43He's got his head down, he's reaching for the driver straight away.
09:46He wants to release that pent-up frustration and anger of what's gone on previously.
09:50But that's going to cost him on this particular hole
09:52because there's some bunkers in play for him off the tee with driver.
09:56And lo and behold, hits the driver and he's found those bunkers.
10:01So I think what the strategic advice in this particular situation is,
10:05try and start again when you get to a tee.
10:07Obviously, you know, accept that bogey can be a good score on certain holes
10:11if they're, you know, difficult holes and you get a shot.
10:14Accept that bogey can be an okay score.
10:16Don't compound a bad score with another strategic error off the tee
10:21in terms of club selection.
10:22And hopefully, you should see your scores get a little bit lower.
10:29Now, the next strategic mistake golfers make is ignoring the skill of lag putting
10:33and how that directly correlates to the number of three putts you have during a round of golf.
10:38If you look at the stats from Golf Shot,
10:39it's clear that every ability of golf is three putting at least some point during the round.
10:44It's especially prolific with high handicap golfers.
10:47And those three putts can really kill the momentum of a round.
10:49They're incredibly frustrating.
10:50And obviously, they're going to hurt your score.
10:52So it would be really important, especially in your practice,
10:55to come up with some sort of system where you can judge the pace
10:59and control the speed of your putts from long distance.
11:02We know that the stats say that actually golfers are not hitting it that close
11:06on their approach shot.
11:07And as the ability level or handicap goes up,
11:10your proximity to the hole is really going to get quite wide.
11:12And you're going to be left with a lot of long putts from 40, 50 feet.
11:16So it's important to have some sort of system that kind of is able to judge the distance
11:20that you're hitting those putts.
11:21So for example, you could have some sort of system where you're looking at the backswing length,
11:27kind of where the club goes back to your toes, just outside your toes.
11:31And that's going to help you work out how far the putts are rolling at those different
11:35backswing lengths.
11:36That's a good starting point, I think, to be able to judge the distance and change the
11:41distance based on the distance you have to the hole.
11:43So for example, on this particular putt, this is about a 35 footer.
11:49I know I need to swing it just outside by toe to get it to the hole.
11:59And would you look at that, oh, it nearly went in, just slipped out, but it's got about
12:03two foot past, perfect pace.
12:04So incorporate some sort of system into your practice to get a better control of distance
12:10and judge the pace a little bit better, and that should help reduce the number of three
12:14pass.
12:18Now, the final strategic mistake golfers make is not tracking their shots using technology
12:23or benchmarking their performance against golfers of a similar ability.
12:28There's an awful lot of technology out there that allows golfers to gain really crucial insights
12:32into their play, especially ones that utilize strokes gained.
12:36Strokes gained is the metric that all the leading tour players really use to understand
12:41exactly where their strengths and weaknesses lie, and that allows them to dedicate practice
12:45time to the right areas of the game to ensure they're proving on their weaknesses and making
12:50progress on their performance.
12:51And golf shot is an example of an app that offers auto shot recognition and auto strokes
12:57gained so you can seamlessly track your shots, get some really crucial insights into your
13:02play, it's broken down into different areas of the game, and you can see how you compare
13:05with golfers of a similar ability to you to really understand where you need to improve.
13:11So if you go through that process, invest in some technology like golf shot, it should really
13:15give you a much clearer window into where you need to improve.
Comments