• 12 hours ago
Here are our top tips for playing golf in cold weather!
Transcript
00:00So this is the first of five tips for playing in the winter and obviously what
00:08we find a lot you get in some wet fairways you get muddy lies and a great
00:12tip is really I think is to play them much like you would do a fairway bunker
00:16shot. So for that in mind what I would tend to do is I'd narrow the stance down
00:20a little bit. I'd actually the other thing I always encourage players to do
00:24is to aim towards the front of the ball. So of course in the winter we've got
00:28pick and place. So my ball is finished here so what I'd actually do here is I'd
00:32turn it round so I can actually see the line so obviously I'll use that for
00:36putting but in this instance I'm going to put it down like this. So now when I
00:41actually address the ball I'm actually looking at the front half of the ball
00:44and this will ensure that I catch the ball first rather than the turf because
00:47as you know on a damp fairway if you hit behind the ball you're just going to end
00:51up with no distance whatsoever. So if I demonstrate narrow the stance down
00:58looking down the fairway I'm looking towards the front of the ball and I can
01:05see how the balls come off there really nicely it's got turf second and I've got
01:10a nice shallow contact that I haven't dug down into it and that's really critical
01:14when you're playing off wet fairways. So here's a really important tip in the
01:18winter ground conditions are going to get a little bit soggy we need to get
01:22more stability so what I work on is actually narrowing the stance down and
01:25of course that also has an effect of just bringing the spine a little bit
01:28steeper so it'll actually help lower your ball flight which is a good thing
01:31this time of year. So you can see here I've set up for my normal three wood
01:34shot so my feet I put the balls down to measure where I normally would be so
01:39I'd stand to here we'll just give this one a hit so that will be my normal set
01:47up to there. So now what I would practice is literally standing inside of these
01:54balls so I'd actually have my stance a little narrower here same idea and I can
02:04immediately feel I'm a lot more stable from that setup and that's something
02:07that we're all going to need this winter. So my big bugbear about golf balls is I
02:12see a lot of golfers with all sorts of a jumble in their bag and really you want
02:16to find a ball that's best for you there's a lot of great ball fitting out
02:19there in the pro shops you can find out what is the best ball for you and once
02:23you do definitely fill your bag with it. Certainly in the winter my feeling is
02:27find something a little bit firmer and you'll find a little bit more distance
02:30off the tee and certainly when you get on the greens they're really damp that
02:33firmer ball will definitely roll out a bit easier. So a major improvement I
02:37think in golf in the winter is the clothing. You've got these companies now
02:41offering the base layer, mid layer and outer layer and you can move so much
02:45easier than with the old equipment. So jackets are now much lighter so this is
02:49the first time today it's actually stopped raining so I'm going to take
02:52this off and you can see here I've got this nice smart layer on underneath but
02:57they're really warm and of course the other great thing about these jackets is
03:00they're so light they don't add any weight to your bag. So I've got the mid
03:04layer that keeps you really warm I can move a lot easier than I could with the
03:08old equipment then I've got a base layer underneath and that really keeps me nice
03:12and warm but as I say the movement is the big thing and I think you know if
03:15you haven't shopped for golf equipment for a few years get into your local pro
03:19shop and have a look around and get yourself something smart. As the weather
03:23gets colder I always think it's a really good idea to actually carry a golf bag.
03:26There's several reasons for that as you know the green keepers have to rope
03:29areas off so you can actually walk straight to your ball if you're walking
03:32and I also think you know with the colder weather you definitely work a
03:35little bit harder so it's better for you and it's better for the ground as well
03:39because less trolleys on the golf course. The other thing you can consider I've
03:43got a full set here but then maybe play with a three-quarter set or even what
03:47I'm really keen on which I've often run competitions is have a seven club
03:51challenge so you take two long, two medium, two short clubs and a putter and
03:55it's a really interesting way to find out the differences between your clubs
03:59and obviously at this time of year the difference between say a six and a seven
04:02iron starts to get quite little so I think that's quite an interesting
04:06addition to your golf game in any case so definitely if you're able to give it
04:11a try these bags are really light now they're fantastic really well balanced
04:14and I definitely am a big advocate for that in the winter.
04:24So there's five simple tips that I think will help your winter game so I hope you
04:29enjoyed them.