00:00Most people think it's dodgy technique costing them all those shots over par and whilst that
00:05may be true to an extent there's another big reason that could be hurting you and that's
00:10knowing your yardages. With the help of ShotScope we've put together five brilliant tips to show
00:16you how and why you need to know your yardages to shave shots off of your scores. I'm here at
00:22the amazing Blackmoor Golf Club and Adam Hartnett is going to show us how.
00:37The most obvious way that knowing your yardages is going to help your game is with club selection
00:42of course whether it be on a par three like this beautiful one behind us or on second shots
00:47into the greens. Now the first part of that is of course Adam knowing what your yardages are
00:53so how do you work out what your yardages are for each club? So I think the first thing is
00:59having a
00:59distance measuring device okay so if you're using a rangefinder or a GPS watch that's going to be the
01:03most straightforward way for most golfers to do it. What I like to do is something that Tommy Fleetwood
01:09actually spoke about which is keep a little notebook in my back pocket and every time I hit my say
01:14seven
01:14iron I'll make a note of how far it goes and that way then I've got a range of seven
01:19irons and I'll
01:20know that my shortest seven iron goes x my longest seven iron goes y and then that gives me a
01:25real nice
01:26kind of area to work through when I've got a seven iron shot to the green. Of course you can
01:31also do it
01:32with all the modern technology out there we've got the LM1 little launch monitor down there a brilliant
01:36bit of kit you can use that indoors outdoors and it will tell you those numbers on a variety of
01:41shots.
01:41Shot scopes data tracking as well will do that with all of its shot tracking and its GPS and actually
01:47a
01:47really little handy thing there is that it will give you the P average which is essentially how far
01:52you're hitting that club with any really dodgy ones taken out so if you're chipping out of the trees or
01:57anything like that so it gives you that true representation as Adam said on how far each club
02:02goes. Now once you've got those numbers you're stood on the tee here you know where the flag is you
02:07know
02:07where the edges of the green are how are you then choosing the right club? Well again I think
02:12it comes down to knowing your shortest and your longest and then taking into consideration the
02:17wind uphill downhill. In my notebook I also make note of if I'm going uphill or downhill into wind
02:24so when I'm playing on the round I'll look at my notebook and I'll see okay I hit this similar
02:28shot a few holes ago now I know what to hit so that's my little bible. Right well you've chosen
02:33your
02:34club there yep we're going to see if you've got the right one in hand let's have a go
02:47well the line is very good
02:51and that's beautiful below the hole putting uphill for birdie what more do you want so there you go
02:56a great shot from Adam understand what your yardages are and use the technology available to find them
03:01and then factor that in appropriately when choosing your club on approach shots.
03:08When it comes to knowing the yardages of each of your clubs it's important to know that you want
03:13to be thinking really about two yardages and that's your carry distance and your total distance because
03:20what those two are and how they relate to each other is really going to aid you with your shot
03:24selection and making sure you're taking any hazards out of play whether that be running into them
03:29or flying over them so what is the difference between these two yardages in terms of how you're
03:34putting your strategy together and how do you use them? Yeah so I like to think that carry is for
03:40flying total is for dying and what I mean by that is carry is for flying obstacles bunkers ditches hazards
03:47anything you've got to get over that number that carry number is crucial for those scenarios and total for
03:54dying so when your ball comes to a rest okay so how far is the ball going to run out
03:59that's my total
04:00distance so that's going to be more for things like getting to the end of dog legs running into bunkers
04:05those kind of things off the tee. Now we've got a lovely shot in here but that bunker on the
04:09right
04:09hand side is just coming into play if we're just right of the pin now when it comes to working
04:15out
04:15exactly what club to hit here obviously you've got the back edge to worry about but the bigger danger
04:20is that front and the bunker so how do you equate it especially if you're a little bit between clubs
04:24in terms of your carry and where that pin is? Absolutely most holes the danger is at the front
04:29right so here's a really good example of that so I want to know the back yardage and the yardage
04:34to
04:34the flag it's nice to obviously know the yardage to that bunker but I'm not going to flirt with it
04:39at
04:39all I'm going to completely take it out of play most of the time you've got a good amount of
04:44room
04:44between the front bunker and the back of the green so we're going to be aggressive here. Brilliant and of
04:49course
04:49ShotScope and all of its technologies if you use it to track your shots out on the course and the
04:54LM1 launch monitor that will give you both of those numbers so you can know exactly where you are
04:59I know you know what yours are Adam and now you're going to put it into practice and fly that
05:03bunker
05:04with ease onto the green. Let's give it a go
05:18An absolutely beautiful shot the carry distance was there it soared well over the bunker even if it
05:23had gone a little bit right but it didn't and that final distance that total was spot on as well
05:28birdie putt upcoming
05:33Under clubbing is an absolute epidemic amongst handicap golfers and the stats bear that out
05:40Everyone over a 10 handicap is actually more likely to miss it short than hit the green from 150 yards
05:49and when you move to a 20 handicap you will hit half short so that is an incredibly high number
05:56which shows
05:56we are doing something wrong Adam why is that the case and what can we do to fix it?
06:01Yeah I think it's a case of you know golfers not truly knowing their yardages so you know really
06:05knowing your yardage is so key for that reason most people think they hit it further than they do
06:10so what I like to do is get a yardage not only to the flag but to the back of
06:16the green when I get
06:18yardage to the back of the green I know what I'm really working with so here I've got 150 yards
06:22to
06:22the flag I've got 165 to the back of the green so I'm going to choose a club that I
06:27know goes a
06:27minimum of 150 and a maximum of 165 rather than a lot of golfers are choosing a club that goes
06:33the maximum distance for the yardage that's why they come up short and also here we look you can
06:38see there's a bunker short typically there is more danger short than long so if you are going to miss
06:44to be honest favoring long a lot of the time is actually a bit better yeah and I think it's
06:50great you
06:50I played a game as a kid and this is a really great way of doing it I gave myself
06:54a point every
06:55time I got past the flag and that way I kind of changed the instead of thinking about trying to
07:00get it just on the green or near I was making sure I got it passed all the time and
07:05in reality
07:05I actually was getting it much closer great stuff let's see you hit one into this flag
07:09and past it hopefully let's go past it yeah
07:21looks good and there you go on the green but just past the flag brilliant stuff there you go
07:28know your yardages and make sure you know that back edge of the green and play just short of it
07:38knowing your yardages is also absolutely essential when it comes to building an effective strategy that
07:44is going to take as much danger out of play as possible you can see we've got a big old
07:49fairway
07:49bunker lurking down there behind us and statistically the average 15 handicapper is going to drop half a
07:55shot by going in that fairway bunker as opposed to finding the short grass so it really matters
08:01so when it comes to deciding whether you're going to take driver or anything else here and build a
08:07strategy how are you approaching it yeah so for me I'm looking at the I know my total distance for
08:13my driver this particular hole is a little bit into wind I'm not going to carry that bunker today with
08:17my driver so I need to know the distance I've got to roll up to it and choose an applicable
08:23club
08:23so that even if I hit it solid I'm not going to reach it I'm taking the bunker completely out
08:28of play
08:28yeah the bottom line is get it in play off the tee avoid those big bunkers any penalty areas any
08:34water
08:34take clubs that are going to keep you out of it you've made your decision
08:38yep let's see you commit to it and find that fairway all right
08:51so there we go good strategy the right club in hand takes all of the trouble out of play and
08:56now
08:56we're in the fairway and able to attack with our second
09:03one important thing that knowing all of your yardages can do as well is help you build a full
09:08picture of the gapping through your bag with your clubs now Adam what is gapping and why is it important
09:14yeah gapping effectively is the difference in yardage between the clubs so as you go through the bag each club
09:20we want to have a nice consistent gap between each club as we move through the bag what sort of
09:26gap
09:26are you looking for I guess a lot of people would think 10 yards kind of range makes sense yeah
09:31I
09:31would say so it varies on the golfer's ability you know so a lot of time golfers will go and
09:36get fitted
09:37for clubs and the fitters you know part of the fitters job is to make sure that they've got a
09:41sensible gap between clubs so it's not uncommon actually to not have certain clubs in the bag
09:46because maybe we're lacking a bit of speed and you know we miss out certain clubs so we get a
09:51nice
09:51range through the bag knowing how far you're hitting them might throw up some issues whereby
09:56the gapping isn't where you want it to be either you've got a massive gap that you've not got a
10:01club
10:01that you can fit into that yardage or equally you've got a couple of clubs that are almost doing
10:05the same thing how do you approach that situation yeah I mean if you've got clubs that are going the
10:10same
10:10distance quite often it's the longer clubs in the bag and it highlights usually one of two things
10:16a lack of speed or inconsistency of strike so really if you've got two clubs that go the same
10:21distance I'd always advise going for the slightly more lofted one just to give yourself that bit more
10:26forgiveness yeah and I think you can also get things like now your fairway woods your hybrids
10:31and that will help especially in the long end of the bag won't it if you're struggling to generate
10:36enough speed to get your long irons going different distances yeah look at those alternatives hybrid
10:40fairway woods absolutely and you know nowadays when we've got home launch monitors and you know
10:46data everywhere it's really quite easy to do your own gapping on the driving range with your home
10:50launch monitors so um no excuse really yeah I also wanted to look at the bottom end of the bag
10:54as well
10:55wedges because often we think well I need a 56 a 60 a 52 and we're thinking about the numbers
11:00on the
11:01bottom of the club but actually it's the distance they go that's more important isn't it you want to
11:06get a spread of yardages and then find the lofts that enable you to do that yeah absolutely and this
11:12is
11:12where you know a good fitter comes into their own because they will make sure that when you're going
11:16through your sessions they're looking at the numbers and the you know the lofts on the bottom
11:20of the club start to become irrelevant as long as we've got that nice gap in between the clubs there
11:24we go good gapping so making sure every club has its place in your bag and the setup from top
11:30to bottom
11:30is correct will just make your life a lot easier so there you have it some great tips on how
11:36knowing your
11:37yardages and using that information can really improve your scores from getting the right setup
11:43of clubs right the way through your bag to planning the best strategy on each individual hole and
11:49ultimately knowing how far every club goes so you can pick the right one all of these tips will help
11:55you
11:56save shots I hope you've enjoyed this video my thanks again to top 50 coach Adam Hartnett
12:01ShotScope for providing all of the wonderful insights and Blackmore Golf Club for hosting us
12:06we'll see you next time
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