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In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Pro and YouTuber Alex Elliott. They discuss the 7 ways to play better golf without changing your swing. These are all the things you can do that will make a big difference out on the course and in practice. You needn't make any major technical swing changes to play better, instead a smarter all-round approach could help improve your handicap far quicker. Try putting some of Alex's ideas into play and you should notice an improvement!
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00:04Hello everyone Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video which we are looking at
00:08the seven ways to play better golf without changing your swing. This is all about how to
00:15practice and how to think on the golf course so that you have a smarter approach so that you don't
00:20have to go through the whole process of rebuilding your swing and making major technical changes.
00:25The advice in this video comes from Alex Elliott, he's our PGA Pro and he offers some really simple
00:30and effective ways for you to play better without changing your swing. Right let's head
00:34out onto the golf course here at West Hill and find out what number seven on the list is.
00:42Okay so the first one on the list Alex is no flag golf. Now you may have noticed the 16th
00:48green behind
00:48us here at West Hill there's no flag on it there's no flag on it for a reason Alex. What's
00:52the thinking
00:52here? I think a lot of us when we get down to kind of like our seven, eight, nine iron
00:57or even six iron
00:58depending on the level of player we get that kind of green light in our head where we go right
01:02we've
01:03got to go for that flag and it could bring in trouble like say for example on this hole here
01:07if it was
01:07tight against the right then straight away we're bringing in those bunkers we're gonna have to miss
01:12it a little bit. Yeah and you're also going slightly uphill and if you're leaking it a bit right it's
01:16going to come up a little bit short as well so all of those things are going to count against
01:19you.
01:19All I would say is if we could hit one more green around that's going to have a massive effect
01:24on our
01:24handicap over the season. I have one more green around strokes gain tells us we've got more chance
01:28of hole in the putt yeah so we look at the knock-on effect of this in confidence I just
01:33really believe
01:33that if you could go right okay I've got a green it's 15 yards either side of that flag and
01:38my virtual
01:39flag's now in the middle then our margin for error is so much bigger. This does take quite a lot
01:44of
01:44discipline I'll warn you because there are times when you just can't help it can you but if you
01:49do play towards the middle of the green and if you can hit the ball where you want to which
01:53is
01:53the other thing isn't it yeah but if you can do that then you're never going to be left with
01:55that long apart I guess. No and I say it's amazing a lot of the time when I've tried this
02:00with people
02:00like in the lesson they actually even if they hit and miss it and these cut slightly leak it to
02:05the
02:05right and the flag's on the right they sometimes hit it closer yeah so it's it's I think it's just
02:09measuring your expectations and measuring where your strengths and weaknesses are and realising that okay
02:14well if I'm a slight fade of the golf ball slight draw the golf ball even if I am at
02:18the middle
02:18I'm never going to be too far away from the flag. Go on then Alex it's I'll let you into
02:23a little
02:23trade secret here it's very early in the morning Alex hasn't warmed up he hasn't hit a ball we're
02:27going to put him under pressure and see how good he is. No pressure no. So one thing I would
02:31mention
02:31you know when you're going to do this because we've taken the flag out here if there was a flag
02:35when
02:35you were playing I would pick out a target in the far ground okay and use that as kind of
02:40my focus point
02:40okay otherwise it just becomes a little bit too wide. Okay so what are you looking at here? Well
02:44there's a silver birch I think it's a silver birch. Yep yeah straight through onto the middle of the
02:49green that is exactly what I'm trying to hone my targeting on so if the flag was either side of
02:54that I would focus on the tree all right. That's gone straight at the silver, I'll tell you what it's
03:05about
03:05three yards left of the silver birch do you know what Alex it's a tad long you've taken maybe half
03:10a club
03:10too much but from wherever that's finished it's not far away you haven't got much work to do to
03:14make sure that you walk off with a par and if you can keep your score ticking over if you
03:18can keep
03:19making cars ultimately your handicap your scores are definitely going to improve.
03:28Okay Alex so you found yourself in a spot of bother here and as I'm sure that most people watching
03:33this will be thinking to themselves you're going to tell them to chip out but it's not quite as simple
03:37as that. No I like to use the word smart golf so every time you've got a situation it could
03:43be from
03:43the fairway to a tight flag or predominantly like we have here I've got to fade it around keep it
03:48low
03:49get it towards the green or I could chip it out. Ask yourself the question how many times out of
03:5410
03:55could I pull this shot off and keep me being able to advance towards the green? I like to use
04:00the 8 out of
04:0110 rule yes so anything less than 8 out of 10 I would take the smarter safer option possibly
04:07if it's a question where you go yeah I can pull that shot off then it's a risk worth taking.
04:12So let
04:13me ask you this question then Alex what quantifies a successful outcome from here being on the green
04:19being around the green being in a bunker short of the green what would you say I'll take that over
04:23a chip out? I think what I would say here is if I could advance this inside 100 yards then
04:29I've got a
04:29better opportunity of getting this ball closer to the flag versus chipping it outside. I'll leave
04:34myself 200, 180 yards say I'm less likely to hit it closer to the green whereas if I could get
04:39this
04:40out here on this par 5 inside 100 or around 100 yards no matter what level of player we are
04:45we'll
04:45probably feel a little bit more comfortable with a wedge than we do say a 4 iron or 3 iron.
04:49Now see
04:508 out of 10 threshold to me sounds quite high yeah I'd probably you know I wouldn't describe myself
04:56as naturally the most aggressive golfer but I'd probably be working to about a 5 out of 10 which
05:00I think illustrates the problem yeah and but I mean I think it could be a sliding scale depending on
05:05your
05:05level of player if you feel like you're less likely to be more repeatable under pressure in this
05:12situation then possibly it might be like a 6 5 out of 10 or maybe it's saying what okay well
05:17maybe I
05:17need to take a little bit more of potentially a risk because we look at all the top guys on
05:21total
05:22and they are the elite of the elite but they take on some of the shots that we wouldn't dream
05:27of and
05:27I know they're probably thinking because they can control their ball a little bit better than us
05:30yes but I believe that we've got to be smart aggressive sometimes okay yes okay so that begs
05:37the question what out of 10 would you rank this shot I've got to say 8 haven't I no I
05:43would
05:43probably give this an 8 out of 10 but just because I'm quite comfortable fading the golf ball okay
05:47and I also carry a 3 iron which I know I can hit relatively low low and it suits my
05:53eye if it
05:53was a hook around the tree right then it probably might be a shot yeah so even though this looks
05:58like
05:58a really difficult golf shot you're about an 8 so you would go for this versus the chip out yeah
06:03well
06:03then that unfortunately you can have to do it for us then Alex okay I feel a little bit in
06:10danger
06:10here Alex I'm not going to lie you've got to trust me
06:18that's an absolutely amazing shot
06:22that's probably going to get about 20 yards short yeah if it wasn't quite so wet that would be on
06:27the
06:27green I think it goes to show you've got to know your game you've got to know as Alex said
06:30what your
06:31strengths and weaknesses are if you're happier hitting a fade than a draw there are going to be
06:34certain circumstances where you will be able to pull shots off where otherwise you wouldn't so
06:38understand your own game be realistic and then come up with a plan if it's 8 out of 10 whether
06:43you go for it or not it might just make a big difference to your scores
06:51okay so the next one is a great way of practicing if you're out on the golf course on your
06:55own a bit of
06:56performance practice that's really going to sharpen you up Alex talk about a tip here
07:00deliberate miss it's going to sound a bit contradictory of terms we don't want to ever
07:04try and miss the green but this element of this game really kind of tunes you into where is a
07:10good
07:10miss your short game skills and also makes it a little bit more fun and interesting okay over say
07:16three holes okay it's easy just to go out and mundanely hit shots and not really take anything in
07:21okay fine so in a situation like this you've got about 150 yards into the green you're looking to miss
07:26the green yep where are you looking to miss it so for this flag here where it would be a
07:30nice simple
07:31chip if i could miss it front left i've then got a simple chip and run up so i'd get
07:35a point if i
07:36missed the green yeah two point two more points if i then got it up and down from there okay
07:40and
07:41minus two if i actually hit the green okay fine so over the three holes say if you played it
07:46when you
07:46were on your own there's nine points available so you can measure your score out of nine yeah i think
07:51if we could really go and say well imagine i was now hitting it towards this small bunker and that
07:55was my good miss on this hole you could use the same theory and say well if i can hit
07:59it into a
08:00five yard wide bunker i can hit it onto a 45 for sure but wide green yeah so it's actually
08:06harder to
08:07do yeah the deliberate mess come on let's do it okay so i'm gonna go for short left here just
08:12on line
08:12with this big tree oh get down don't get on the green oh just short just just just short uh
08:30you're
08:30in danger of losing two points there but you haven't uh so you're one point up uh now quick
08:35question for you do you have to chip it or can you putt it completely up to you aim of
08:39the game now is
08:40to get it up and down okay fine and i guess the idea here is the more you get it
08:44up and down the
08:44more you're growing your confidence you're testing your short game skills it's good for a whole host
08:48of different reasons exactly and this becomes less pressure on hitting greens then so you're probably
08:52going to hit more greens just because you feel a bit more relaxed more relaxed okay fine let's see if
08:56you can i would usually put this here but just for this bit of mud on the front of the
09:00green here i'm
09:01just going to try and lift it over it yeah it's wet it's a bit dewy isn't it so rolling
09:05out towards the hole
09:13start ready hurry hurry oh
09:22yes safe to two points two points there you go so put this into play whenever you get the chance
09:26to
09:26play golf on your own give this a go it will build your confidence from the fairway and around the
09:32greens
09:32and it could make a big difference to your scoring so neil we've got 177 into the last tier yes
09:42what
09:42would be your usual approach to hitting a shot one that potentially not very comfortable with
09:48uh good question well i have learned over the years that i'm better off having a very clear
09:53picture in my mind okay for the sort of shot i'm trying to play so i would definitely be trying
09:58to
09:58work out whether i wanted to hit a fade or a draw now i'm not the best golfer in the
10:02world but i can
10:02hit you know i can try and do that so you're more away from a technical swing thought then yes
10:09although
10:09i will have one swing okay and that's important i think having one kind of gives you a feeling what
10:13you're trying to achieve what i want to get you into here is i think a lot of people have
10:17too much
10:18going on in their head yes so potentially some means sometimes people got five swing thoughts yes and
10:23that's clutter yes in your head so this is all about asking good questions what i want you to
10:30do is before every single shot whether that be a tee shot chip shot iron shot we've got here or
10:35even a
10:35putt i still have a question what shot do i see fine even if you ask it in your head
10:40stand behind the
10:41golf ball i think straight away it's a lot easier for you to paint that picture in your mind and
10:45if
10:46you're not something that's very visual i always think of you know the shot tracer yes thing you see
10:50on tv yeah almost trying to imagine one of those i think that's a really good way to go about
10:54this
10:54fine and a question i've got for you then alex is you don't want to be negative with any shot
10:59you
11:00want to hit we all understand how important it is to stay positive and yet it's also really important
11:05to know where you can't miss so how do you stay positive whilst also paying attention to where you
11:09can't hit it i think the thing you've got to realize is all these top players they they will have
11:13negative thoughts i think it's just about how you deal with them and it's it's realizing that if i have
11:18a
11:18negative thought don't let that become so much of an objective in your shots okay fine i think it's
11:24been realistic for us to go right okay you'll never think negative even though we want to try and think
11:29as positive as we can i would really try and hone myself on a really clear detailed image said you
11:34like to fade it you like to draw it i know we hit a few shots before draws probably your
11:39go-to shot yeah
11:40so i'll be really detailed in the shot that i see towards the green okay fine and in a shot
11:45like this
11:47where you know it's one of my least i'll be honest one of my least favorite shots here at west
11:51hill i
11:52always worry that i'm going to hit it into the clubhouse um so should i be just sticking with
11:56my normal shot shape which would be a slight draw or should for instance i feels like naturally to me
12:02this favors a slight fade but would you suggest i should stick with the draw you've answered the
12:06question there don't you you've said what shot do i see yeah this this this shot now favors a natural
12:10fade so that's where i would go well the picture's telling you the story if it was really where when
12:16you're super super not comfortable with and it was potentially a little bit further away i would
12:20potentially revert to type so your draw yes but where you've come out to me there and you said this
12:24shot prefers a fade you're telling yourself what you see okay fine good okay fine so i'll try and hit
12:30a
12:30little fade in here then trying to draw a very clear picture in my mind for what to do see
12:36if i can do it
12:44beautiful start line was a bit off i pushed it a bit but i faded it it's over the bunker
12:50it's okay
12:51isn't it i'll take it okay so the next one on our list relates to the way in which you
13:01build a strategy
13:02for the holes that you're playing out and got on the golf course in particular alex the difficult holes
13:07that you yeah and what's the thinking here um ultimately i think it's just highlighting the way
13:12the course designer wanted you to play it rather than getting into your own routine i think we're
13:17all probably guilty of this we get to say the fifth the sixth the sixteenth oh i always hit driving
13:22here
13:22or i always hit three wood here and we just get into a routine of doing that bringing in trouble
13:26probably making the same mistakes every single time so if we take the 16th here at west hills if we
13:31look at it back towards a tee and we said right okay if we wanted to hit to the middle
13:35of the green here
13:35well we'd probably want to be down the right hand side as we look at it so the left hand
13:39side from
13:40the tee and it really opens up the green takes away the trouble on the right side which you can't
13:45see
13:45here there's some bunkers there and for me i really believe that it doesn't highlight the trouble it
13:49really highlights the positions you want to be and it's interesting you should say that because
13:53actually it's the first time i've really looked at this hole from this angle and certainly the left hand
13:58side as you play it is a much better place to miss it as well because the trouble's not as
14:03severe on
14:03that left side you can get away with hitting a bit of a hook whereas if you leak it out
14:07to the right
14:08you're in a lot more trouble and it's the sort of thing that you'll only really notice i think
14:12when you look at the hole from the green back towards the exactly i think you don't look at it
14:16subjectively as well because if you're looking at from the tee to the green you know you've got to then
14:20play a shot there and it might influence you that way whereas if you stood here now you know you've
14:25played the hole it could be in a practice round it could just be walking that hole and it just
14:29gives
14:29you that impression of right okay well if i put it there put it here and put it there i
14:32know golf's
14:33not as simple as that but i think if we can start to plan our rounds better we take the
14:37trouble out
14:37of play so there you have it think about it slightly differently pick the three hardest holes the three
14:42holes on your local course that you play the worst think about them from the green back to the tee
14:47maybe come up with a slightly different strategy you might just shoot those scores
14:55right neil i'm now your caddy roles reversed yes we've got a flag here we've got 120 yards it's
15:01quite tight on the right i want you to give me what color you think this flag is on a
15:05traffic light
15:06system so red amber or green um well i would say it's a green light flag it's 120 yards i'm
15:14a five
15:14handicapper so um i definitely would be going for this put it that way yeah it's for me because
15:20it's quite close to that bunker and because there's a little bit of danger there it's i would
15:25kind of classify this as an amber okay fine just because i think it's one of those sucker pins where
15:31you could potentially bring in a lot of danger i would think about flags and scenarios and wind
15:37and conditions and that would give me an overall opinion on what i would classify okay so so you're
15:42saying to me that before you hit every shot into a green you're kind of having a simple traffic light
15:48system and green being absolutely go for it amber being play away from it a bit what's what's red red
15:55would be one where i would kind of take middle of the green so we sort of spoke about on
15:58a previous tip
15:59where we would just say no flag golf and that would be where if i missed that green at all
16:04costs then
16:04it was going to be bogey say for example water island green bunker short-sided that would be where it
16:10would be a red flag but that could also be on the situation as well like say this is howling
16:15into the
16:16wind yes this then may change or downwind vice versa it may change more towards the green yeah so it
16:22all
16:22depends on the situation that's why i want you to think of it as like a fluid system okay depending
16:26on the day depending on the weather but having a category of flags definitely allows you a bit more
16:30of a game plan so where shall i aim okay so what i would do here because i'm i think
16:36from a caddy's
16:37point of view i'll be saying right okay five handicapper it's 120 yards into a little bit wind but
16:41it's a tight flag i'll be saying this is an amber flag so if we could aim roughly five ten
16:47yards left
16:47of it okay see the fence in the background that would be where i'd concentrate in my aim because
16:51if we could still get pin high we're still gonna have a chance of a birdie right i'm going to
16:55take
16:55one more club okay because it's as you say it is getting into the wind a bit and i will
16:59do my best
17:01i will do my best to aim away from the flag even though my natural instinct is to be aggressive
17:06from
17:07here i'll aim a little bit left of it well i've pulled it a bit it's very safe but it's
17:22on the green
17:27okay so number one on our list is something that every single golfer no matter what your ability
17:33can do alex what is it consistent alignment routine from the tee i think it's just worth
17:38noting that i think people get into bad habits with alignment i think notoriously people will aim
17:44a little bit to the right swing a little bit left and it can really bring in bad swing habits
17:50and bad
17:51swing habits can lead to bad shots out on the golf course so i kind of think of it as
17:55like a three
17:56stage process that is really simple to follow you know i'll put this alignment stick down on the ground
18:01here this is going to be our ball to target line so if we look directly down this this is
18:07just
18:07pointing just right at that second bunker on the left yep so for me there i've got my ball target
18:12line
18:13and i would go trace that from the target to an intermediate target so we've got an alignment
18:18stick down here but i appreciate if you're playing your competition on a saturday or a sunday
18:22this can't be down i would just pick out a diva a leaf and an impression on the ground that
18:27will form
18:28your intermediate target between the bunker we've got here and the ground i always then place my
18:33club down try and make like a right angle with my driver between the crown and that imaginary line
18:39and then try and build my stance around that so point number two i would really try and feel that
18:45i've got parallel lines with my yeah like you're stood on a train tracks exactly that and people may
18:50argue slight for draw slight for fade but i really believe if you can get consistently aiming towards a
18:56certain target it's going to make you feel a little bit more comfortable a little bit more of a better
19:00routine yeah and i think any routine your golf swing especially like on the first tee coming
19:05down the last with a good score it's it's a good place it's definitely going to help you handle
19:08pressure that little bit better exactly so so go on then alex just run through the process don't
19:12don't necessarily need to sort of slow it down just talk us through kind of exactly what you're
19:17doing and then hit one trace my ball target line picking my intermediate target out club down
19:24feet parallel waggle the shoulders one look towards the target and pull the trigger
19:32and you flush one straight down the middle very good now how many of you out there do what alex
19:38has
19:38just done take the time just to make sure that you're focused on getting the right alignment if
19:43you don't be sure to put that into your game this year it might just make a big difference
19:48so there you have it that was our list of the seven ways to play better golf without changing
19:53your swing guys if you've liked the video please do hit the like button and also comment below what
19:57have you done in your game that's made a big difference leave some comments below share the
20:02ideas around we'd be really interested to hear your thoughts and that's all from west hill for now
20:07thank you for watching we'll see you next time
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