- 5 hours ago
We've analyzed millions of golf shots, courtesy of Shot Scope, to identify the key strategic blunders made by amateur golfers. In this exclusive feature, we dive into the data to show you where you're going wrong and provide actionable advice to improve your course management and decision-making on every hole.
Category
š„
SportsTranscript
00:04Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club where today we're
00:08looking at the seven biggest strategy mistakes that golfers make. Now the information we've got
00:13for you in this video comes courtesy of the guys at ShotScope. ShotScope have a unit called the
00:19V2 which consists of a GPS watch that I've got on my wrist here that gives you all the distances
00:23you'll need while you're out on the golf course, plus a load of tags that you can put into the
00:28butt end of your golf clubs that allows you to track all the shots you hit during a round of
00:33golf.
00:33Now ShotScope have aggregated all of their data from all of their users to provide us with some
00:39really interesting findings and in particular in this video we're going to focus on some of those
00:44really simple mistakes that you might be making that could save you shots going forward. So guys
00:49if you're new to the Golf Monthly channel please do hit the subscribe button, give us a like if you
00:54like
00:54what you're watching and do leave comments below where do you think you're throwing away shots,
00:58how do you think you can improve, we'd be really interested to hear your thoughts. But let's head
01:02out now onto the golf course here at the London Club and look at the seven biggest strategy mistakes
01:06the golfers are making. 80% of missed greens are missed short so 47% are short right and 33
01:24% are short left and if
01:26you fall into the category of missing short of pin high more than you think you should then there are
01:32a
01:33few different things to consider within your own game. The first is how consistent is your ball
01:37striking. Now it will depend on your handicap as you improve your ball striking of course gets better
01:43but if you feel like your ball striking isn't quite at the level that your handicap is it can be
01:48a really
01:48quick and easy way to improve. There are a whole host of free online tutorials out there that will
01:54help you strike the ball better, will help you catch the ball and then turf and that's a really powerful
01:59strike through impact that could make a big difference. The next point relates to your
02:05equipment. Is your equipment forgiving those slight heel and toe strikes that might be causing you to
02:11come up short of the green? If the answer to that is I'm not sure then perhaps a more forgiving
02:16modern
02:17set of irons might just help you out. And thirdly how far do you hit each club in the bag?
02:23Obviously
02:24this is where performance tracking technology like the Shotscope V2 can prove really handy. Finding
02:30out how far you hit the golf ball on the course when you're faced with different lies and different
02:34weather conditions and you're under pressure is really useful and it can be very different to how
02:39far you hit the ball on the range hitting shot after shot from the perfect lie. The other thing is
02:44it's also worth finding out how far you carry each club in the bag because your total distance will
02:50largely depend on ground conditions whereas knowing your average carry yardages will make a big
02:55difference to knowing what club you should hit in what situation. So for instance this is the third
03:00hole here at the London club. We have water short left. You really don't want to be coming up short.
03:04The
03:05pin is sort of just beyond halfway up the green. The front of the green is 127. Middle of the
03:09green is
03:10142. So you really need to make sure that whatever you do on this hole you pick a club that
03:15you know
03:16carries past 127 and if all you know is that you hit your 9-iron around about 135 yards well
03:23you don't
03:24know whether you carry your 9-iron over 127 yards. So it's something to think about. So if you fall
03:31into that category do some work on the range in practice find out how far you carry each club in
03:37the bag and use those as your go-to numbers going forward. It could make a really big difference to
03:42your game.
03:47Right so the next one on my list relates to which club you should be using off the tee and
03:53what you're
03:54looking at here are the average distances players are able to achieve with their driver versus their
03:59three-wood and usually players are giving up around about 30 yards between driver and three-wood which
04:05is roughly what we would expect. What we didn't expect to see however was that players were off the
04:10tee using a three-wood were only one percent more accurate. Now that's something that's well worth
04:16considering because and it's something that we've said in some of our videos in the past fairway woods
04:21are the hardest golf clubs in the bag to get right. Obviously small head long shaft you're standing a
04:27long way away from it you've got to hit the ball a long way so you've got to make a
04:29big full athletic
04:30swing. Fairway woods are hard to get right and it is difficult to find something that you can really
04:35rely on so that you end up using it well when you need to most when you're competing out on
04:39the golf
04:39course under pressure. So there are a couple of things to consider here. Firstly is your fairway
04:44wood a golf club that you really can rely on? If it is then fine keep it in the bag.
04:48If it's not
04:49then perhaps you go down a different route. Perhaps you leave the three-wood behind carry a five-wood
04:54use something that doesn't quite go as far but you do feel confident using and confident using under
04:58pressure. And the other point about the data that we've seen here is that if you're going to
05:02not go for driver in order to use something you know you can hit straight then make sure that you
05:08take a club that you do know you can hit straight so you would expect to be far more accurate
05:13with
05:13your fairway wood off the tee than just one percent over your driver. Guys there's real food for thought
05:19there in terms of your strategy off the tee. What do you do when there are bunkers in play like
05:24there
05:24are here when there's trouble up there that you need to avoid? Do you just stick with hitting driver and
05:30take your chances or do you try and hit the fairway with a more of a safety option? If you
05:35go for the
05:35latter make sure that you choose something that you are going to hit the fairway with more often
05:41and for the majority of people out there it might not be their fairway wood.
05:50Okay so the next point relates to how aggressive your strategy is when playing into the greens and what
05:56we're going to do here is we're going to take a look at the number of birdies players are making
06:00on average versus the number of double bogeys players are making on average and we're going to
06:04split the numbers up based on different handicap categories so what you're looking at here is the
06:10average number of birdies per round so for category one player two birdies per round category two
06:16it's roughly one birdie per round and then once you get above a handicap of about 12 really golfers are
06:23not
06:23making very many birdies at all but conversely take a look at the double bogey numbers so handicapped
06:30zero to five roughly making one double bogey per round category two golfers are making two double
06:36bogeys per round and then above category two again the double bogey numbers really increase very quickly
06:42again so the point here for a lot of players the fastest way to improve is not to make more
06:48birdies but
06:48to make fewer double bogeys and in the situation that i'm in here this is a real a really good
06:54highlight of exactly where players go wrong so the flag here on the 18th green on the heritage course at
06:59the london club is perched way over on the right hand side it's a real sucker pin and by going
07:04for it
07:05you really are bringing bogeys and double bogeys into play no matter what your handicap and i think for
07:10a lot of golfers out there especially higher handicap players it is worth thinking about playing golf to the
07:16center of the green more often so what i would suggest to you to do is next time you go
07:22and play
07:22golf try and play to the center of every single green whenever you're faced with an approach shot
07:28to the green doesn't matter if you've got 100 yards or 200 yards in aim for a point on the
07:32middle of the
07:32green that's where the gps watch comes in really handy it gives you yardages to the very center of
07:38every green work to those yardages try and hit the middle of every green and then take a look at
07:43your
07:43scoring averages take a look and see what's happening to your birdie percentages versus your
07:48bogey and double bogey percentages because i think that for a lot of players taking the flag completely
07:53out of their mindset might improve all of those numbers it might help them make more birdies but
07:58it will definitely help them keep bogeys and double bogeys off the card more often so in this situation
08:05really i need to be avoiding that flag on the right hand side aiming for the middle of the green
08:09trying to
08:10make par taking double bogey certainly out of play entirely right let's give it a go
08:22well my miss is definitely a miss to the right i've aimed for the center of the green i've pushed
08:26it a fraction but i'm still left of the flag i'm definitely not in any bother and it's that
08:31sort of thinking that can really save your shots out on the golf course
08:4682 of putts hit from outside five feet are left short it's an incredible stat from the shot scope
08:54data that we've been given and it is based on what people are doing whilst they're competing for real
08:59and it's something well worth thinking about in your own game now dave peltz did a bit of research
09:04a few years ago that said that the ideal pace at which you should be hitting your putts is to
09:08get
09:08the ball rolling about 18 inches past the hole that's where i've got the t-peg here that means
09:15the ball will be rolling fast enough to roll over any imperfections on the green without being bumped
09:18offline without going too fast and putting you in danger of three putting or lipping out if you hit the
09:23putt on a good line so pace control is a really crucial factor when it comes to your success on
09:30the greens now there are a whole host of really great drills that you can do to hone your putting
09:37speed so placing tees around the hole in a box to make sure that you get that ball rolling just
09:42past
09:42the hole the more work you can do on your speed control the more likely you will be to putt
09:48the ball
09:48just past the hole and if you can do that more often chances are you might just hole a few
09:53more putts
09:59it's often said that when it comes to pitching you're better off leaving yourself a little bit
10:03further back so that you can make a full swing the idea being that if you make a full swing
10:07you can
10:08make a more committed swing and the results ultimately will be slightly better but the shot scope
10:14data doesn't actually back this theory up what you're looking at here is the average proximity
10:19to the hole data for shots hit from 50 yards versus shots hit from 80 yards and both from the
10:25fairway
10:25and the rough players are hitting the ball closer to the hole from closer to the green it's something
10:33well worth thinking about in your own game if you've always tended to lay up to a further yardage well
10:38perhaps just consider it perhaps keep some stats of your own to find out if you are hitting it closer
10:43from further away because it might be that you aren't and if you aren't then a little bit more
10:48of an aggressive strategy off the tee or from the fairway with your layup shot might pay off might pay
10:53dividends so the shot that i've got here this is just around about the 62 yard mark this would be
10:59a
10:59fiddly shot for me but perhaps i'm better off hitting a shot from here than i am from 30 yards
11:04further back
11:04let's give it a go
11:05a little bit long but i'll take it
11:22should you be carrying hybrids or long irons at the top end of your bag it's a question that every
11:27golfer
11:27needs to ask themselves and as far as the shot scope data goes it's fairly inconclusive for lower
11:33handicappers so for category one and category two golfers it really does depend on the individual
11:38and the individual's game but as the handicaps increase so hybrids tend to be far more successful
11:45and i'd say the cutoff point seems to really around about the handicap of a 13 mark golfers with
11:50handicaps of 13 and over tend to be more successful with hybrids for a 20 handicapper facing the sort of
11:57shot that i'm facing here of around about 180 to 200 yards a 20 handicapper is almost twice as likely
12:04to hit the green with a hybrid as they are with a long iron it really is food for thought
12:09and i'm sure
12:10it's something that a lot of you out there have considered and thought about in your game if you
12:14are a high handicapper carrying long irons just be wary think about it keep some stats of your own
12:20find out how successful you are from further out from the green if you find out that you're coming
12:25up short a lot a lot of the time from further out with your longer irons perhaps it's worth swapping
12:30out your three and four irons for hybrids instead
12:38and finally are you more likely to miss right or left off the tee it's really invaluable information to
12:45know so the shot scope data reveals that for the majority of golfers out there they are more likely
12:50to miss right it's 58 right versus 42 left and it's really about knowing your game and understanding
12:58your shot patterns understanding where you are most likely to miss now the best players in the world they
13:04don't always hit great shots but what they do understand is where not to miss and they understand
13:09what they're most likely to do you could bring that into your game so a hole like this this is
13:14the 10th hole
13:14here on the heritage course of the london club you cannot go left off the tee and if you are
13:19a
13:19player that is more likely to miss left you can build your strategy based on that knowledge you
13:25can say to yourself okay the mistake i'm not going to make is i'm not going to snap and hook
13:29one into
13:30the water that's where the card wrecking score comes from for me that water on the left here is a
13:35huge
13:35danger whereas if you're somebody that misses more often to the right you'll know that water on the left
13:40hand side is not such a big danger and you can take a more aggressive strategy i know that in
13:45my game
13:46i'm much more likely to miss right than i am to miss left so i'm confident and happy with driver
13:52that's
13:52what i'm going to hit here and having a simple strategy based on what you are most likely to do
13:58can really help your game it's about managing your misses and going from there it can make a huge difference
14:13as predicted i've missed it slightly to the right hand side but i'm fine i'm in play
14:17and i can attack the green from there so there you have it those are the seven biggest strategy
14:22mistakes that golfers make based on the shot scope data and there are some really fascinating insights
14:27in there i don't think it matters whether you're a category one player or if you're just starting out
14:32on your golfing journey there are some really simple findings in there that could help give you
14:37some guidance on the best and quickest way to possibly improve your game guys please do leave
14:42comments below is there anything that you want clarification on is there any more information
14:46you want from the stats we'd be more than happy to help out wherever we can please also hit the
14:51like
14:51button if you like the video but for now from the london club is goodbye
Comments