00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club, and
00:04this video in which we are going to offer some advice to help you search for and find
00:09golf balls that you've hit into a little bit of trouble. Now, we all do it from time to
00:13time where we hit tee shots or other shots into difficult areas of the golf course to
00:17find your ball in, and actually there are some really good practical tips that will
00:21help you find your ball more often than not. And that's what we're going to go through
00:25in this video. Guys, if you're new to the Golf Monthly channel, please do hit the subscribe
00:28button to make sure you don't miss any of our videos. Hit the like button if you like
00:32what you're watching, but let's take a look at the seven best tips to help you search for
00:36and find your golf ball.
00:51Now, this tip relates to keeping a very close eye on your ball whenever you hit it into trouble. Now,
00:55it sounds incredibly obvious, doesn't it? But the truth is, whenever you hit a bad shot,
01:00the temptation is to look away in frustration or to think about what you've just done wrong in your
01:05swing that's caused you to hit such a bad shot, but that's not going to help you find the golf
01:09ball.
01:09The only way you're going to find your golf ball is to keep a very close eye on exactly where
01:14it's
01:14gone. In this scenario, I've just hit a bit of a slice here off the 15th tee at the London
01:19Club.
01:19I know it's up the right, but because I turned away in disgust, I have absolutely no idea where
01:24it's finished. So keep watching your ball very closely until it lands so you get all the information
01:29that you need. If you need to, walk over to the side to get a better view of exactly where
01:33the ball's
01:34gone. In this scenario, it's gone over a little mound on the right-hand side. I can probably see a
01:38bit
01:38more of its flight if I walk over to this side of the tee. All of those things, they might
01:42seem small,
01:43they might seem obvious, but they will make a big difference if you've hit your ball into trouble.
01:51Whenever you've hit your ball into trouble, you will of course need to get a good idea of how
01:55far you've hit it. I think the big mistake I see in this scenario is that people tend to
02:00overestimate how far they've hit the ball. Often you'll find yourself searching for somebody's ball
02:05in the group and they're looking in an adjacent area to where the other players are who've hit them
02:10straight down the fairway, when in fact they've hit a slice. Chances are, if you've hit a slice,
02:14the ball will not go as far. So just be realistic about how far you've hit the ball. If you're
02:20looking for a pushed shot or a sliced shot, take a bit of yardage off. That's always a sensible idea.
02:25Alternatively, if you have hit a hook, then perhaps it might have gone a little bit further.
02:29But do remember also that if the ball's gone into an area like this with some really thick,
02:32long grass, there's not going to be any run on it either. So as you can see here,
02:36my playing partner's hit a really good drive that's just ended up in the right-hand semi on this hole.
02:41My ball, which was further right than that, was a bit of a slice. There's some thick grass in here.
02:45It's never going to have gone as far as that drive there. So just having a sort of a sensible
02:51approach,
02:52a common sense approach to how far you've hit the ball, whenever you've hit it into trouble,
02:56might well help you identify a better area to search for your ball in,
03:01and it might just yield the results you're looking for.
03:16Now, whenever you've hit your ball into trouble, it is really important that you get a very good line
03:21on where that ball has gone. Now, I'm on the 16th hole here on the international course at the London
03:25Club, and I've hit a hook off the tee. My ball has gone just over the left-hand edge of
03:31the bunker
03:32that I think you can probably see there at the end of the fairway. Now, by having a really,
03:35really good line on it, and by knowing that the ball's gone over just that left-hand edge,
03:39I've got a much better chance of finding it. Now, it might well be that you pick out a spot
03:43on the
03:43horizon, whether that's an electricity pylon, a church spire, a tree, whatever it is. Pick something
03:49out that's really easily identifiable and as specific as possible, so that when you get into
03:55the area to search for your golf ball, you can pick out that spot once again, and you should be
04:00able to have a much better idea of where your ball has come to finish.
04:08Now, it's not essential under the rules of golf that you do this, but we would always advise that
04:12you put an identification mark on your golf ball. This is my Titleist Pro V1X number two, and I put
04:19two green dots above the Titleist on both sides of the golf ball. That means that if I do hit
04:23the ball
04:24into an iffy area, and chances are there are going to be other Titleist twos over in that area, I
04:29know
04:30exactly which ball is mine. It can be one of those things that can really help sort of clear up
04:35any
04:35unwanted confusion. Whenever it comes to the rules of golf, you really want to avoid any confusion. So when it
04:40comes to searching for and finding your golf ball, I'd say it's always a good idea to put a unique
04:45identification mark on your ball.
04:51Okay, so the next one is a really important one, and it relates to how you go about searching for
04:56your golf ball. Now, this is the 13th hole on the international golf course here at the London Club,
05:00and I've hit a slight pull off the tee, and I know that my golf ball is somewhere behind me
05:06in amongst
05:06these trees and the long grass. Now, having got a good line on my tee shot, I know it's in
05:12line with
05:12that tree that you can see behind me, but where exactly, I don't know. Now, if I'm carrying my golf
05:17clubs, which I am today, then I would walk from the tee into the area that I think I've hit
05:22my ball
05:22on the line of the shot. Effectively, at some point, I should sort of run into my golf ball, I
05:28should see
05:28it as I walk in on that line. Now, that's not always going to be possible, of course, because sometimes
05:33you're going to be playing in a buggy or you're going to be using a trolley, and in those scenarios,
05:37what I'd say is a good idea is to pull up roughly adjacent to the area you think your ball
05:42might be
05:43in, walk into the rough, and by looking back towards the tee and looking forward towards the tree,
05:48I'm effectively retracing the line of the shot. I can then walk forwards and hopefully I should be
05:55able to find my ball. Some really simple stuff there, but when it comes to searching for golf balls
05:59in difficult areas, that's the sort of stuff that can make all the difference.
06:07So, if the sun was out for this shot, which I appreciate, it's a bit in and out of the
06:10clouds,
06:11then I'd be hitting directly into the sun, and it can be really, really difficult to see where the ball
06:15goes. You make a swing at the ball, you look up to see where it's gone, and suddenly you're blinded
06:19by
06:19the sun, you can't see where it's gone. In this situation, it always makes sense just to have a word
06:24with your playing partner and say, do you mind just keeping an eye on this one, just to make sure
06:28that
06:29your playing partner isn't, you know, practicing his grip or checking his sort of backswing while
06:34you're hitting, because if that does happen and you lose sight of it and your playing partner hasn't
06:39seen it at all, you could end up losing a ball that actually was perfectly findable in the first place.
07:00In the latest set of revisions to the rules of golf that were released by the RNA and USGA at
07:05the
07:05beginning of 2019, they decided to remove the penalty for accidentally moving your ball while
07:11searching for it. So, if you're somebody that's played golf for many years, you might think to
07:14yourself, oh, if I accidentally step on my ball or hit my ball with my club while I'm searching for
07:20it,
07:20I'm going to get a penalty shot. That is now not the case. So, my advice to you would be
07:24get in there,
07:25have a good look for it. Feel, you know, move the grass around with your feet. That will really help
07:29you uncover the ball in difficult areas, especially if you're playing in the autumn when leaves are
07:33coming down off the trees. The ball can go underneath those leaves. It can be very annoying. You can lose
07:38a ball in some really sort of findable areas. Now, if you do happen to accidentally move your ball,
07:45so my ball's just here and if I'm searching for it, I accidentally move it like that. I don't get
07:50a penalty, but I must replace the ball to its original position. So, I'd simply pick it up
07:56and then I know exactly where it was, but if I didn't know exactly where it was, then I'd have
08:00to
08:00sort of guess to the best of my knowledge where it was originally situated, which was just in there,
08:07and now I can carry on knowing that I've not broken the rule. So, the advice here is very simple.
08:11If you're searching for your ball, search for it. Get in there, move the grass around,
08:15try and find it, and if you move it, simply put it back to its original position.
08:18So, there you have it. That's our list of seven tips for how to search for and find your golf
08:24ball
08:24whenever you hit it into a spot of bother on the golf course. I hope you found that useful.
08:28Guys, before you go, hit the pause button and let us know if you have any tips for searching for
08:33golf balls that you think might be helpful to other people. I think it's always useful to share
08:36those ideas around. But that's it for now from The London Club.
08:40Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
08:48Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
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