7 Biggest Risk & Reward Scenarios And How To Play Them
In this video, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Ged Walters looks at 7 Risk & Reward Scenarios... And How To Play Them!
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00:00Hello and welcome to the London Club. Now, as we head into the main competition part
00:04of the golf season, you are going to need to make some really important strategy decisions
00:08while you're out on the golf course. And that's what this video is all about. We're going
00:12to take a look at the seven biggest risk and reward scenarios. We're going to talk you
00:17through some of the strategy involved and tell you how to take on the shot if that's
00:21what you decide to do. Now, the advice comes courtesy of Jed Walters. Jed is one of the
00:25Golf Monthly Top 50 coaches. He'll talk you through the technique that you need to play
00:30all of these crucial shots. Now, this video, it's important to say, comes in partnership
00:34with Nikon and the Coreshot 50i Laser Rangefinder. I'll be using this to provide us with all
00:39the key yardages that we need while we're out on the course. Now, it features something
00:43called dual locked-on quake functionality that helps you to identify the flag a little
00:48bit faster and a little bit easier. It also allows you to scan the horizon to help you
00:53differentiate between the flag and the background. Now, the last thing I'll say about it is that
00:58it also has a magnet that allows you to attach it to the side of your golf cart. Right, come
01:03on then, Jed. Let's get started.
01:18Okay, so this one is all about picking your line off the tee. And again, how aggressive
01:22are you with that line? And this is a great hole to talk about this one, because it's
01:26a par five, it's reachable for the longer hitters, but you've got a decision to make.
01:30You can either go down the right-hand side of the hole, makes the hole much longer, probably
01:34plays it as more of a three-shotter if you go down the right, or you can be aggressive.
01:37You can go down the left-hand side, so left of those trees that you can see at the end
01:40of the fairway. That leaves you with a much shorter shot into the green, but it's tighter.
01:44Right, so it's trickier. So in a scenario like this, Jed, what are you thinking? What's
01:48the thought process that people need to have?
01:50Okay. Again, like all shots, it's the shape of shot that you hit is the key, isn't it?
01:54So if you're fading the golf ball, then you would look at it and say, well, I want to
02:00be giving myself the greatest funnel. So faders would definitely tee up on the right-hand
02:05side of the tee box. Drawers would probably tee up a little bit more over to the right-hand
02:10side and be aiming a little bit to the right, so they're again creating their bigger funnel.
02:16If you were going for the more dangerous shot, the risky shot, but gives you the greatest
02:22reward, you would definitely be more on this right-hand side, even if you were fading the
02:27golf ball. Because if you tee up on the left-hand side, you're hitting a fade, then your line
02:32is literally over these bushes here on the left, and that's not a good place to start
02:35mentally.
02:36So you give yourself sort of almost margin of error, and then you can see the shot in
02:39front of you. You should be able to paint a picture for what the ball flight is going
02:42to do. Now, the yardage that I've got here, so the tree at the end of the fairway that
02:45you need to be left of or right of is 282 playing 275. So that's the kind of distance
02:51that you're looking to hit it. But if you go for that left-hand side, what makes this
02:56tricky is it's slightly blind. So how do you play blind shots? How are you visualizing
03:01that target and that ball flight when it's blind?
03:04It's the same as when you can see exactly what's in front of you. If you picture where
03:09the ball is going to finish, and then if you drew your shot shape in your mind back to
03:14your point where you stood. So you're visualizing then from the left of the tree. For me, I'd
03:20be visualizing maybe a gentle draw all the way back down to here. If you're a fader,
03:26visualize the other thing. And then from there, it's just about trust. It's about trusting
03:30your process. So it's all about focusing on what you would have as a swing thought if
03:35you've got one, or stuff that you've been working on with your coach. So the impact
03:41is all about the process. So you try to make your swing.
03:44Which is a really good point because that becomes harder to do as the pressure mounts.
03:48It's very easy to get away from that process. Okay, Jed, so go for it. I want you to have
03:52a go for the aggressive shot.
03:53The aggressive shot. I'm looking at the tree, maybe to the left side of the tree, left side
04:00of the branches. So from that point of view there, just picking my line, focusing now,
04:07square in my face, just here, just in front of that line I've picked out at. Now I can
04:12build my stance around the club face. And then from that point of view, it's just trusting
04:18my feeling there. And then just committing to it, just focus on what it feels like to
04:23swing the golf club. And there's that little draw at the tree, and then just back round
04:31into the fairway.
04:32Great. And I think you've got about 170 odd yards to the flag. You're in real birdie chance
04:38if you can pull off that shot.
04:39Eagle chance.
04:40Eagle chance. So it goes to show, you can do it, but you need the thought process. And
04:45then you need to be able to have the presence of mind, not to get too caught up in anything
04:49else other than your normal process. If you do that, you might just be able to pull off
04:53a few more shots like that one.
04:54Right. So as you can see, we have a tree in the way. Now this is a par 5, the 11th hole
05:04here on the International Course of the London Club. And Jed, it's one of these scenarios
05:08where you've got two options. You can chip it back out sideways. That's fine. But in
05:12that scenario here, you're still going to have about 250 odd yards left into the green.
05:16So you can take the more aggressive play up the right hand side, but that is a little
05:21bit more dangerous. Now, the Nikon is telling me that to the crest of the hill, Jed, you've
05:26got 150 yards, which should leave you about 80, 90 yards in, which would be absolutely
05:31ideal. So the question is, what do people need to think about before taking on the shot?
05:35And then if they do take the shot on, how do they do it?
05:39Okay. Lie, swing direction, your pattern are probably the first two things to think about.
05:46Can I hit the shot I want to hit? So can we get to the crest of the hill? Can we get 150
05:51160 yards down there? From this line we've got here, we can do if we were here. No way.
05:57No, we've got no chance. Yeah. You just got to take your medicine there. And then understanding
06:01what shot you hit. So if you're a slice of the golf ball, then you can't hit this shot.
06:05You're not going to just be able to turn it on and off. Otherwise you wouldn't slice it.
06:09So you've got to understand that if you're slicing it, your swing pattern is this way.
06:14Then you're going to have to fade it around the tree. Well, from this position here, that's
06:18not the shot. If you're maybe over there. Yeah. You can play that. You can play that shot.
06:23If you try to play it from here, you're bringing the tree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a tough one.
06:26So, okay. So then with this particular shot, you need to hit the hit a slight draw. You need to
06:32keep the flight down because of the branches. Technically, how do you do it? So the ball's
06:38going to start closest to where the clubface points. So we don't want to point the clubface
06:41at the target because our tree's there. So the ball will start too close to it. And nine times
06:46out of 10, you see somebody try and play this shot and he'll hit the tree. So we want to align
06:51the body a little bit to the right of the tree. So from here, I'm looking at probably where the
06:56bunker is just there. So if I was to align the clubface at the bunker and my body a little bit
07:01to the right of the bunker, then I've now got the ability to swing the club normally, but have the
07:10clubface impact slightly closed to the path that I'm swinging on, which is going to then help me do
07:14it. Yeah. And I guess you should be able to look down at address and see that the face of the club
07:18is slightly closed to what you would usually see, right? Without it being too exaggerated and
07:23bringing the tree in play. Yeah. And then nudging the ball a little bit back in your stance than
07:27where you'd normally have it. So not low. So we're not going to push it all the way back here.
07:31You know, maybe a ball's worth, maybe a ball and a half. So we're back in a stance
07:36just to try and take a little bit of that loft off and just keep that initial launch a little bit
07:39longer. Yeah. Lovely shot, Jed. I think it shows that you can develop the skills
07:49that you need to be able to hit these shots, but it does take some practice.
07:58Right. So we're on the path 312 on the international course at the London Club. Jed,
08:01this is a risk and reward scenario because the question that everyone will need to answer in
08:05a position like this is how aggressive are you with your line? How close to the flag do you aim?
08:12Now, Jed, what's the information that you need to gather in order to build a strategy in a
08:16scenario like this? Okay. So the main problem that we've got is the water, which we need to carry.
08:22So whether we want to be aggressive and go at the flag, I suppose it would just depend on
08:28where you were. You know, if you were in the club championships and you were into the back nine and
08:33in the last round and you're going on a good score, then you're probably just going to stick
08:37this in the middle of the green. It's almost like playing 12 over Augusta, isn't it, on Sunday.
08:41But you need to know what is it to carry the water at the flag and then also...
08:47Right. I've got the slope on to help and it's 165 playing 152 to carry the water.
08:54Okay. And what about the middle of the green?
08:55Middle of the green is 175 playing 160.
09:02Okay. So there's not a great deal in it between those two. So now the next number we need is the
09:08most important one. What is it to the hill at the back of the green?
09:12Hill at the back is 179. So 190 playing 179.
09:19Okay. That's the number.
09:21Right. Okay.
09:21Because we want to take the danger out of the equation. Bear in mind that most golfers don't
09:27flush it all the time. So if you miss strike it, but you've got the club that's not going to hit it
09:32anywhere beyond that second number at the back of the green, then you're going to be on the green.
09:37Yeah.
09:37So if you hit an okay shot, I'm on the green. Hit a great shot, I'm at the back of the green.
09:42Okay. Got it, Jed. You've got one task here.
09:44Got one task here.
09:45To carry the water.
09:46One task here to carry the water. Well, I've got six iron because I know that, well,
09:49if I don't quite get it, I should carry the water. And if I hit it really solid,
09:53well, at worst case scenario, I'm going to be back edge.
09:55Back edge.
09:56Yeah.
09:57Okay.
09:58So we are going to go for it.
09:59You're going to go for it?
10:00Yeah.
10:00It's a quite aggressive line.
10:01I'm going to be aggressive on it. Yeah.
10:05I've just pulled it a touch.
10:06Well, you've just drawn it away from the flag.
10:09It's fine. It's good.
10:11It's only just about made it over, but I think it goes to show that the thought process is exactly
10:16right. Figure out what it is to the safest part and then work from there.
10:26Okay. So this is less of a risk and reward scenario, more just risk as far as I'm concerned.
10:31For me, this would be, and for most golfers, I think this would be one of the hardest shots
10:34they could face. The long bunker shot, Jed. Have you got a safe way of playing this?
10:38Yes. Mentally and visually, it's an intimidating shot. The reality is
10:44it's quite straightforward. The loft is the key to it. Most people will come in here,
10:50it's a green side bunker, so they will immediately go in the bag and reach for
10:53the green side bunker club. Low wedge generally for a lot of people, 58, 60 degrees. Some people
10:58will go sand wedge, but it's still a lot of loft. We've got, I don't know, what was it?
11:03It looks like it's about 45 yards.
11:04Well, laser is telling me it's 40 yards to the flag and it's 60 yards to the bank over the back.
11:08Right. Okay. So the key then is to play the shot in the same way, but use less loft to play it.
11:17So I've got two clubs here. I've got my 58, which is my normal green side bunker club,
11:21but the shot I play this with is actually a pitching wedge.
11:23Right. Okay.
11:25It's about 13 degrees of loft difference.
11:28Yes. Okay, Jed. So I'm going to ask you to play two shots. Play one with your normal
11:32lob wedge to start with. I'll take the wedge and I just want you to talk through the techniques.
11:36What's the green side bunker technique? And then play it again with the wedge.
11:39Hopefully we should see the difference.
11:40Okay. So I personally prefer a square setup. I know there's a lot of people open the club face
11:48and aim to the left. It's good because that engages the bounce, but you can still do it
11:53in a slightly different way. So me personally, I prefer taking a setup and aiming at your target.
11:59Then create you with the stance, ball position. As you can see, there's a forward of center.
12:05From here now, I'm going to roll the club face in my hands a little bit.
12:09So I'm opening the club face.
12:10Opening the face.
12:11That's engaging the bounce and taking the leading edge away. But then obviously,
12:16that's off to the right hand side. But if I then lower my hands, that brings the face
12:20back to the target. It tilts the loft back to where I want to go.
12:23And that enables you to use your wrist a little bit more to create the-
12:25So I can make my normal swing in terms of direction a little bit more sort of wristy.
12:30So feeling upward hinge and then downward hinge more. Now, some people would pick the club head
12:36up and throw it in the sand with your trail hand. And then some might feel,
12:42point the butt of the grip at the ground and then point it back at your torso quickly.
12:46Whichever resonates with the individual,
12:47I would say more than anything, but it's having that mental picture.
12:55And as you can see, you've made it into that.
12:58Well, yeah. Well, you look at that. That was the green. That'll be a-
13:01Absolutely no problem. So, right. Let's have a go for the flag then.
13:04Okay. I'll give you that.
13:06And I'll give you that. And give yourself half a decent life, Jed. I'm going to give you a chance.
13:10Right. Okay. Let's pop it there.
13:12There you go.
13:13Okay. So same setup, same routine, same technique. Only this time, I'm not rolling open 58 degrees.
13:23It's a lot less.
13:27So you are opening it, but it's because it's less loft to start with.
13:30Yeah. So I've just opened it there a little bit, but then once I lower my hands,
13:33I'm pointing it back more at the target and then just making the same motion.
13:43And you've made the carry easily.
13:46I mean, you've made that look incredibly easy,
13:48but I think it is one for people to practice and just get comfortable with less loft.
13:52Yeah. Bunker shots are the ones that are hard to practice because there's not a lot of facilities
13:57to go out and just stand there and hit shots. But practicing them, different lofts,
14:02but the same technique, seeing the different trajectories and distances that you're going to get.
14:05Yeah. That's a simple way to do it.
14:13Okay. So this is a real risk and reward scenario. So you've got a long shot over the water. It's
14:18165 to carry the water, 180 to the flag, Jed. So it's a long enough shot over the water to
14:24really get your attention. You can play this up the right hand side and a lot of golfers
14:28would be well advised to do that, pitch it on and make par that way.
14:32Yeah. But I want to focus on going for it and hitting that long iron or that hybrid into the
14:37green. I want to talk to you about technique. What's the key to playing this shot well?
14:42The biggest thing, obviously, we've got a perfect line because we're in the fairway,
14:45the fairways here are fantastic. I think the biggest thing that we need to think about is
14:49making sure that the club makes contact with the ground in the correct spot.
14:56And for a lot of people, ground contact is generally happening back here. So there's a lot
15:02of golfers hanging pressure backs, moving the arms away from the ground and raising up a little bit
15:10to avoid hitting the ground here. And that's why a lot of golfers pick it clean off the top,
15:15hit the thin shots, hit the fat shots, hit the top shots. And really, if we want to strike the
15:21ball really nicely, then we've got to hit the ground, but we need to hit it in the correct
15:24spot, which is always target side of your golf ball. Right. Ball first, ground second. That's
15:31the order that you're looking for. So give us a tip or a drill to help people focus on that.
15:35I would say for most people, they need to make sure that their weight is forward or
15:39towards the target. So whether you're going to go with hybrid or an iron. So I mean,
15:46for the distance that we have here, 180, that's about my six iron distance.
15:52There's plenty of golfers who might not even sort of hit that 160 carry with irons. So yeah,
15:58if you need to hit hybrid, hit hybrid, hit the club that is going to carry it the distance you
16:03need. As always, we know what it is to the flag. We know what it is to the carry. If we know what
16:07it is to the back of the green, which I can tell you, it's 195. So you've got a bit of room there
16:15for every golfer there. Well, we've got 15 yards behind the flag. So really what we need to do is
16:20pick our 190 club. Yes. And hit that one. Okay. So what's that? What's our tip? So from this one
16:25here, so I'm going to go with iron. So I'm going to give that to you. And the key to it, as I say,
16:30is weight forward. So from this point of view here, for most golfers from the top of the backswing,
16:37the pressure can shift into the trail side and then stay there. So we have the ability to hit
16:44the ground here. And to avoid that, we raise up, we early extend, we separate the elbows, flick it
16:50at the wrist. So this is all raising the circle that the club is moving on away from the ground,
16:56away from the golf ball. What we actually want to do is feel that from the top of the backswing,
17:01we shift towards the target. So we shift the pressure more in for me, the left, if you're a
17:05lefty, to your right. And we maintain that movement constantly and maintain fairly straight
17:13arms, so extended arms. So the club will then want to hit the ground more over here. Well,
17:18that's going to give you your ball to strike. That's going to give you the biggest opportunity
17:22to get that quality of strike. Yeah. And if you start doing it, you will immediately notice
17:27what a big difference it makes, the quality of the contact. Huge difference. And we can't just
17:31talk about this shot forever, Jed. You're going to have to hit it for us. Okay. So taking my aim,
17:40squaring that face in there. And then for me, I mean, I'm always a little bit more left-sided
17:47pressure anyway into the setup position. So I'd probably be maybe, I don't know, 60, 65%
17:53into my left-sided address anyway with irons. You know, a lot of people maybe can drift. You see a
17:59lot of it to the right. So I'm going to be a little bit more into the left-hand side,
18:03try and stay nice and stable in the backswing and then shift the pressure,
18:07try and get that ground contact over there.
18:14I've just started that fraction to the right. It's drawing though. Yeah, it's coming around.
18:19Yeah, so I'm nice and safe. I'm on the green, but a slightly longer shot than ideally I would have
18:25liked. I've got an eagle putt. Yeah. So, I mean, whatever you would do in this scenario, whether
18:29you'd go for it or play it safe, it's worth practicing this shot that Jed is talking about
18:32here. Because again, if you can develop that skillset, it really can come in handy.
18:42So we have a classic risk and reward scenario, one that many golfers will face,
18:47you know, in the majority of rounds of golf that they play. And the question is,
18:50how aggressive do you want to be? How close do you want to pitch this ball to you to get it close to
18:54the flag? What should people be thinking about here, Jed? Don't try and keep it this side of the
19:03flag is what I would say. You know, hitting it to six feet to 10 feet is a good result. But bear in
19:11mind, there's still 10 feet to the other side as well, which gives you more room. The classic one
19:16is literally trying to sort of be too cute with it and dumping it in the bunker. Yeah. And that's
19:22why it is such a fearful shot for most golfers. And I guess the key here is to assess the lie.
19:26That's why we've got two golf balls. Obviously we've got one, which is, you know, it's not lying
19:31too bad. It's very close to the edge, but it's, you know, it's not a bad position to be in. And
19:36then this one here, you know, this is really nestled down. So this is a really difficult one
19:41to judge in terms of how it's going to come out. Sometimes these come out sort of really dead.
19:45Other times they'll fly on and release a lot. The key is just committing to how far you want the ball
19:52to fly through the air. So if we think of A to B is where the ball is to where it lands,
20:00B to C is then out of your control. So we concentrate on the length and the type of
20:07motion that's going to move the ball from its lie to the green. And then, you know, if you get from
20:13that lie, especially if you get quite lucky, it lands softly and it ends up close, then great.
20:18But you're better off with the putter in your hands than just keeping this wedge in your hand
20:21for the next shot. Definitely. So talk us through how you play it then. So you assess the lie,
20:27you're trying to pitch the ball past the flag, are you on the flag?
20:30I would be looking at this and I would be looking at trying to sort of pitch it
20:34close enough to the flag. I'd be thinking of about maybe two or three feet short of the flag,
20:41so try and carry it all the way. Okay. So play this one for us.
20:45So from here, this kind of lie here is, it's a kind of lie where if you were a really good or
20:50skilled bunker player, you could play like a bunker shot and play that sort of flop shot,
20:54which everybody likes to see. If you're not so skilled playing the bunker shot, you can still
20:59play that type of flighted shot, but just take all the risk out of it.
21:03That's the shot I need to know how to play. Okay. So that shot there is really just
21:10taking your setup to where your target is there. And then we're going to open the club face
21:16to give ourselves more loft. So I've got my sand wedge here, which is a 54 degree. But now by the
21:22time I've opened it up, that's getting closer to 58, 60. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to
21:28move around to my right. So I bring my club face more to the target. So from there, you see the
21:36ball position from this angle actually looks like it's right in line with sort of the inside of my
21:41left foot. But the reality is it's still quite central. Yeah. So I've now got the club face
21:47pointed at the target. So I've got my loft preset. I don't need to do anything. I can literally just
21:51keep my arms nice and extended, move them back and then just rotate the torso through, just allow
21:57the loft to slide underneath and just pop it into the air. Yeah. So it's the length of swing now for
22:02the distance that it needs to go. Okay. So from here now, keeping the pressure of the body into
22:07the left hand side and then just moving arms back, chest through and just committing to it.
22:17You see how it just pops up in the air. It's landed about a foot short. It's run on. It's
22:21probably about nine feet away, but I take that every day. Yeah. And I think it shows that you can
22:27get yourself into a bit of a fix here. If you start to really get too aggressive,
22:32having that mindset of getting the ball back in play, giving yourself a putt for par,
22:36it could make all the difference to your scoring.
22:44Okay. So the final hole here on the international course at the London club, it's a par five,
22:49just over 500 yards, Jed. And I think for a lot of golfers, they will have a hole at their home
22:53club where they know that if they get a really good drive away, they might be able to get to
22:57the green in two, whether that's long par four or par five. On this occasion, the crest of the hill
23:02that you can see over there in front of us, I've lasered. It's telling me it's about 235 to get
23:09over that crest of that hill. So if you can do that, Jed, you'll have a good chance. So how do
23:14you add a bit of extra distance to your drives without losing control? I think the key is,
23:19and modern driving ranges and all the gadgets that we can have now is we've got a lot more
23:24data about what we can do ourselves. Knowing your club head speed is an important one
23:30because relative to your speed, your launch conditions are the most important things,
23:35as well as where we strike the golf ball on the club face. So if you're a slower swing speed
23:41player, you need a higher launch angle and a little bit more spin, then it's not too bad.
23:47As that club travels faster through impact, then the launch will come down a little bit. The spin
23:53needs to come down so you can optimize your conditions to maximize your distance. Bear in
23:57mind, if you miss the middle of the club face, then that's going to cost you energy. You're
24:03going to be spinning it off a bit probably, aren't you? So how do you achieve those launch
24:07conditions then? Is that something you do at setup? Yes, so setup. And again, certain players,
24:12when they've got a really fast speed, they can have the ball a little bit further back in the
24:15stance and not quite hit it as up, so hit it down. But I would say generally for the majority of
24:19players who are swinging the club, say under 100 miles an hour with the driver, then a ball
24:25position which is a little bit further forward, launching it a little bit higher is key. It's
24:30like now, we're into a little bit of a breeze here, so a lot of people who want to tee it down,
24:35well teeing it down is going to lower your launch, it's going to increase your spin,
24:37and actually has the opposite effect. It makes it shorter into the wind than actually hitting it
24:42further. Yes, okay. So go on then, show us what the correct address condition looks like. So
24:46from here now, I've got the ball teed up fracking higher than normal. If you were to address ball
24:54almost in line with sort of left foot there, from here keeping the ball there and just opening the
24:59width of your stance. Okay. So the ball now, especially from my perspective, looks like it's
25:03sort of out here. And from there, that's going to give me the opportunity then to have a little bit
25:09more upward angle of attack, hitting the ball fraction above the center of the club face and
25:14trying to optimize them launch conditions. And I guess one of the keys here is to ensure that
25:18your upper body doesn't, you don't end up trying to sort of, so your upper body is not getting on
25:23top of the ball, it's staying centered over your stance. Not leaning back, but sort of staying
25:27centered, right? Yeah, it's almost trying to keep your head stable, keep your centers aligned. So
25:33your lower body is still going to drive forward, your pressure is still going to drive forward,
25:36but especially where the ball position is there, you're behind the impact,
25:39that's going to help you with that upward delivery. Okay, go on then, hit it for us.
25:49What a shot. Beautiful. We'll take that one. You've carried the cusp of that hill comfortably.
25:54Yeah. You'll be able to get up in no problem at all. I think it goes to show, just get those
25:59basics right at address, get the strike right, and you should be able to add a few extra yards.
26:04So there you have it. That's our look at the seven risk and reward scenarios that every golfer will
26:08face. Hopefully Jed's advice there will help you think a bit smarter to ensure that when you do
26:13want to go for a shot, you're not just going to go for a shot, you're going to go for a shot.
26:17To ensure that when you do want to take on the risk involved in these shots,
26:21you've got the technique and you've got the skillset to be able to do it because it could
26:24help with your overall scoring. But that's it for now from the London Club. Thanks very
26:27much for watching. We'll see you next time.