In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by John Howells, head professional at JCB Golf and Country Club to look at 8 beginner golfer mistakes and how to fix them.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the beautiful JCB Golf
00:05and Country Club and this video in which we're going to take a look at the 8 biggest beginner
00:09golfer mistakes and how to fix them. These are either all traps that you might be falling
00:14into when you're out on the golf course or simple swing mistakes that might be costing
00:17you. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of John Howes, he's the head pro here at JCB
00:22and he offers some really simple and effective ways to get yourself back in the game if you
00:27are making a few of these mistakes. Right, let's head out on to the golf course and get
00:33started. So one of the things you are going to need to do if you're getting into golf
00:38is figuring out how far you hit the ball with every club in the bag and John I think the
00:43key bit of advice here is that it's not your best shot with every club in the bag, it's
00:46your, it's a sort of true reflection of how far you hit the ball isn't it? Yeah absolutely,
00:51I think all too often we have players and students that will know they hit a shot once
00:56upon a time, they might have hit that 7-iron 185 yards but it was downhill, downwind,
01:02maybe caught a little bit of a flyer for example and the shot is going to go an awful lot further
01:07in that situation but what we need to do is really have a, I would call like a normalised
01:11shot, which is just a shot that is on a calm, flat day with no extra help from certain conditions.
01:19Okay so that begs the question, how can people go out and get that yardage? Well the best
01:23thing to do is to do it away from the golf course, you should do it either at your practice
01:26area or at the driving range, a practice area is ideal because you could actually hit a
01:30shot out onto the range with maybe your 7-iron, a series of 20 shots, put your bag in the
01:36middle of that grouping of shots and then laser that yardage from where you hit from.
01:40Okay yeah, really simple, really effective, what if you can't go out onto the range, what
01:43if it's a sort of normal driving range set up? Obviously it's going to be a little bit
01:47more challenging, probably going to have to do it on the golf course late in an evening,
01:50something like that, go out there onto a golf course, maybe even just hitting to the
01:53fairway in a flat situation where it's, you've almost kind of controlled some of those variables.
01:58Okay so let's say then you have your yardages for your clubs, when you get out onto the
02:03golf course then you need to add in all the different factors that might be going on and
02:07this is a really good example of that, so this is the 17th hole at JCB, it's the signature
02:11hole of the golf course, play slightly downhill, over water, trouble everywhere, how do you
02:17figure out your yardage on a hole like this John?
02:19Absolutely, so first of all I've taken the Bushnell Laser and I've lasered the flag at
02:22195, now I know my 6 iron in normal conditions will go about 182, but I've got a situation
02:30here where I'm downhill, a good sort of 5-6 degrees so that's going to take some yardage
02:34off and I've also got a little breath of downwind which is also going to help me, so I'm factoring
02:41in the fact that I'm downhill using a little bit of educated guesswork and I know that
02:466 iron is going to be about the right number.
02:47Right ok and if you were playing uphill the opposite sort of rules would apply right?
02:51Yeah absolutely, you're going to have to use again a bit of educated guesswork, you can
02:55use your Bushnell to sort of train yourself, there are certain Bushnells that will allow
02:58you to factor in how much degrees uphill or downhill and how much that's going to add
03:04on to the actual number that you're playing, but for most people it's going to be a bit
03:08of educated guesswork.
03:10Ok, so the moment has arrived John, I think it's time for you to hit this one for us.
03:14Ok, let's give it a try.
03:16So I'm just thinking middle of the green here Neil.
03:19I should think so too.
03:27Lovely, starting at the centre of the green and pretty much staying there.
03:32So there you have it, some really handy advice on how to pick the right club.
03:37Ok, so the first one on our list is something that costs players and it can cost them in
03:45terms of accuracy and the quality of their strike John, and it's about the way in which
03:49you turn your body in the backswing or whether you sway in the backswing right?
03:55Yeah exactly, so all too often with amateur golfers we see a lot of hip sway, this kind
03:59of lateral movement, which I think people with the best intentions, they're trying to
04:03make a nice weight shift, but they probably overdo it.
04:06Right ok, so what does it look like then?
04:07What does the wrong position look like?
04:09From this kind of camera angle basically, as we do our backswing, what we see is people
04:14kind of doing this weight shift where their right hip kind of laterally moves away from
04:19the target, they get this big weight shift but they haven't really made much turn in
04:22their hips.
04:23Right, fine, so what's the best way to think about it to get yourself out of that mode
04:27and get yourself into a better rotation?
04:30So we've got to replace that hip sway with rotation, so if I put the alignment stick
04:34just through my front two belt loops, I'll just have to breathe in a little bit, but
04:38basically what I'm trying to do is get this feeling that as I do my backswing, I'm turning
04:46and trying to match this 45 degree angle that I've put on the ground here, so I'm getting
04:50the hips to match that white stick that's on the ground, so I'm making a nice big turn,
04:55you can see that if I drew a line from my right hip down to my right ankle, I'm turning
04:59within that line as I do that backswing, it's going to help me on multiple fronts.
05:03Okay, and you've got another drill as well?
05:05Absolutely, yeah, so we can try and then, once we've got this feeling of a hip turn,
05:09we can just slide in a little blocker, maybe just pop it on the outside of my right hip
05:15and do exactly the same thing, now I'm going to get a bit of feedback from a touch, if
05:19I'm swaying into that yellow stick, then obviously I'm going to feel that during my golf swing,
05:25you can see I've done it incorrectly there and I'm trying to basically give myself very,
05:29very narrow margin for error here and just turn inside of that right hip line.
05:35And you should see through the camera there that as John turns, there is still a weight
05:39shift but it's kind of more of a natural shift that happens as the rotation of the body takes
05:43place as opposed to really thinking about, I've got to get my weight onto my right side
05:47of the top, which is a good thought in some ways but can lead to the wrong kind of action.
05:52I think people overdo it, don't they?
05:54They're good at doing it but they overdo it.
05:56So if you tend to hit slices or you're catching shots a lot of the time, thin or fat, give
06:01these two drills a go.
06:06Right, so we have some strategy advice for you and if you are looking to try and get
06:10your handicap down, there are a few things you can do to get your ball safely around
06:15the golf course, which is absolutely crucial.
06:16John, what's the advice here for people?
06:19Yeah, absolutely, so I think all too often people take dead aim at the flagstick and
06:22I think what's a lot more realistic is if you can think about the shot pattern that
06:26you hit, it's kind of probably the size of a football centre circle, the middle of that
06:31is obviously where you're trying to hit it but if you think about your right-most miss
06:34and your left-most miss, that's going to give you quite a big shot pattern.
06:38Now what we need to try and do is sort of centre that shot pattern so that all potential
06:43shots that you might hit are in a safe location, i.e. not in the bunker, not in a water hazard,
06:48we want them all to be pretty much on the green.
06:50Yeah, it's a really simple way of looking at it and actually the scenario that we faced
06:53with here on 17 is a good example of that because the flag is over there on the right-hand
06:58side of the green, it's a bit of a sucker pin, isn't it?
07:00Yep, so if you're playing away from the flag, have a very positive mindset, pick a spot,
07:04be really positive with it and then go for it.
07:07Absolutely.
07:11Okay, so John, I think one of the mistakes I think we all make when we start playing
07:14golf is sort of trying to help the ball up into the air, it can lead to really inconsistent
07:20strikes, can you tell us what people should and shouldn't be trying to do when it comes
07:23to impact?
07:25You're absolutely right, I see it a lot and I think it often comes down to the concept
07:28that people think that they're trying to give it all this loft at impact, the setup
07:33position and the impact position should actually be different as you can see me demonstrating
07:38there.
07:38The setup should have the shaft pretty well neutral or 90 degrees to the ground as you
07:43look at it here, but as I approach impact, I'm looking to get that shaft leaning forwards
07:48a little bit so that I can hit down on the golf ball and get that nice compressed strike.
07:52Yeah, because it's that combination of the speed in your swing and the angle of attack
07:55down into the ball creates the backspin that you need to get the ball up in the air, it's
07:59not actually hanging back and delivering lots of loft to the club.
08:02Exactly right.
08:03So John, you've got a drill for us, can you just talk us through what the drill is and
08:08how people should be doing it?
08:10Yeah, for sure.
08:11So what we're going to do in this drill is get yourself into that adjusted impact position
08:15where basically we turn our hips a little bit, we put a little bit more pressure onto
08:19our left foot, my right heel for a right-handed golfer might just come up in the air a little
08:24bit and I'm going to start the swing here, do a tiny little backswing and then try and
08:29return back to that impact fix that I had at the start.
08:31So let's give it a try.
08:37Yeah, lovely.
08:38And you can see the strike is just perfect there.
08:40It's the ball and then the ground, which is exactly what you're looking for.
08:44And then I think if you can, I guess, build up the swing from there, keeping that impact
08:49position in mind, that will really help.
08:51Yeah, build it up over time, try to start with small swings like I did there and then
08:55build it up into a three-quarter length backswing and then eventually up into a full shot.
08:59But it's about getting that concept correct, first of all.
09:02Yeah, so if you're looking for more consistency of strike, you're looking to eradicate fat
09:06shots or thin shots from your game, this drill is a great one to use.
09:11Right, so chipping.
09:12Jon, what's the biggest mistake that you see when people will start out with the chipping
09:16that's costing them?
09:17Well, typically people will set up in a way that doesn't really give them a chance of
09:21success.
09:21So what we often see is a situation where the club is de-lofted like this, where I've
09:27got the handle way in front of the golf ball and I've got the ball way back in my stance,
09:32almost opposite my right foot.
09:34The problem with that, Neil, is obviously I'm going to now chop down to the right foot
09:38and I'm going to get that leading edge of the club to dig into the ground, which isn't
09:44really going to be an effective way to chip.
09:46Yeah, you need to catch the ball absolutely perfectly, otherwise you're going to hit it,
09:49you're going to duff it really, aren't you?
09:50Or you're going to thin it over the back.
09:52You've got a very small landing area to land that club on the ground in that situation.
09:56So then, Jon, how do people get to use the right part of the club in order to strike
10:00their chips more effectively?
10:02Yeah, so what we need to do is use the bounce on the bottom of the club.
10:04On every wedge, there's a little bit of bounce at the bottom that's the difference between
10:08the trailing edge and the leading edge.
10:10And if we present that in the correct way at setup, i.e. not having the shaft leaning
10:15super far forward, let's get it a little bit more neutral as you look at it from this perspective.
10:20And we're trying to actually return it very simply to that position that we started in.
10:24We can now start to utilize a bit of that bounce on the bottom of the club.
10:28And our landing area is a lot bigger to actually get the club to land on the ground.
10:33Do you have any drills that you can show us to help us with that?
10:36Let's try this one.
10:37So what I want you to do, first of all, is just set up to the grass just here.
10:43And I'm going to put these two sticks in perfect vertical alignment, OK?
10:47OK.
10:48Now if you do the one, the incorrect one, first of all, just to show people what that's like.
10:51So typically what we're going to do there is we're going to hit the yellow stick
10:55before the white stick.
10:56That means that we've got an awful lot of shaft lean and we're going to dig the club
11:00into the ground.
11:01Then if someone was struggling with that, what I would try and get them to do is almost
11:05hit the sticks simultaneously.
11:06So let's try that now.
11:07Trying to hit the white stick, maybe even a fraction before the yellow stick.
11:11So now we're starting to see that the club is interacting with the ground
11:15in a much more efficient way.
11:16Right, yeah.
11:17Sort of surfing the turf, I like to call it.
11:18Yeah, it's that feeling that I get when I'm doing that is that my sort of,
11:22the club head's sort of almost overtaking the hands.
11:24It's certainly catching up with the hands through impact.
11:27It's the one area that's very different to long game, isn't it?
11:29Yes.
11:29One area where we do want to throw that club a little bit
11:32and try and get the bounce being used.
11:34So you've got a couple of balls on tees here, John.
11:37What's that for?
11:38So what I would do if someone was struggling with their chipping,
11:40I would start with them up on a high tee
11:42and just get them to do this sort of action,
11:44just nipping the ball off the top of the tee.
11:46So why don't you set up to that big tall tee first of all.
11:50Yeah, you've got a nice setup there.
11:51We've got a nice vertical sort of shaft alignment.
11:54And your job now is to imagine those two sticks there
11:57and almost try and hit the bottom stick before the top stick.
12:00Very nice.
12:00That was a really nicely nipped chip shot.
12:03Over time, we would progress to bringing that tee height down a little bit lower
12:08and still trying to just interact with the tee peg only.
12:12Nice.
12:12It's hard, isn't it?
12:13Challenging now because your depth perception of where that tee peg is
12:17is obviously a little bit more tricky.
12:19Over time, we could start to raise the level of that tee peg down and down and down
12:23until eventually you don't need it at all.
12:24Yeah, well, there you have it.
12:25If you are struggling with your chipping,
12:27use John's technique there.
12:28Should really help you out.
12:34Right, so the next one on our list is about clubface control.
12:37Obviously, if you want to hit the ball straight,
12:38you've got to have control of where the clubface is pointing through impact.
12:41And I guess, John, the key mistake,
12:43the key fault here that people make when they're starting out
12:46tends to be a slice, doesn't it?
12:47Yeah, it tends to be.
12:48Most people have a poor understanding of what causes that open clubface
12:52that we see with a slice.
12:53And I often see it first and foremost with the basics of a grip.
12:57Okay.
12:57Typically, people who grip the club in what we would call a weak position,
13:02so that means the left hand, the V of this left hand
13:06pointing up towards my lead shoulder or also the right hand.
13:09Sometimes the right hand can be weak, Neil,
13:11and that points up towards the lead shoulder.
13:13That will typically mean that the clubface is going to be open
13:16during the backswing and probably into the downswing.
13:18So where should those two V's be pointing ideally?
13:20So what we would want to see is basically a neutral grip
13:23where the V of this left hand and probably the V of the right hand
13:27are pointing up towards that right collarbone,
13:29anywhere in and around the right ear or the right collarbone.
13:32You can probably see it here on screen.
13:35Yeah, and then the clubface is going to want to square up through impact
13:40and that's exactly what you're looking for.
13:41But, John, I would say I've seen people with good grips
13:44who've obviously seen videos like this
13:45and they understand what they're trying to do.
13:47They're holding the club in a pretty good position
13:50and they're still hitting a slice.
13:52What's going on then?
13:53Yeah, so you're absolutely right.
13:55And that comes down to people's intent
13:57and their understanding of what happens when the club gets moving.
14:00So typically, if we have a position in the backswing,
14:03I'll turn to the camera here,
14:04if we have a position where that left wrist
14:06gets into a very cupped position in the backswing
14:09or maybe even a cupped position at the top
14:11and also even on the way down,
14:12if that left wrist is in a really cupped position,
14:15you can see just how open the clubface is there
14:17and how the clubface is going to be pointing right at target at impact.
14:21Okay, John, so you're showing us the cupped left wrist.
14:23How do people get control of that
14:24so it's in a better position at the top?
14:26Yeah, absolutely.
14:27So what we want to try and see from a backswing perspective,
14:30if we've got a neutral grip,
14:32we would like to see a pretty flat left wrist,
14:35i.e. there's no real cup or no real bow,
14:37a pretty flat left wrist.
14:39Even all the way up to the top of the backswing,
14:41we would want to see that pretty well flat at the top.
14:44Now, if you're really struggling with this,
14:46I would suggest even going full John Rahm.
14:49You can see his golf swing.
14:50He gets the left wrist and the logo on his glove
14:53actually pointing away from his chest
14:55and that gives a really strong look to the clubface,
14:58which is going to be an exaggeration,
14:59but it'll probably help golfers out there.
15:01Yeah, so if you are someone,
15:02if you're struggling with a bit of a slice,
15:04there's a couple of different ways you can fix it.
15:05Either focus your attention on your grip, get that right
15:08and then make sure that your left wrist is in the right place at the top.
15:12You should start hitting the ball a bit straighter.
15:17So when it comes to playing from the bunker,
15:19I think a lot of golfers know that they need to use the loft on the face.
15:23They need to open up the face to get the ball out,
15:25but there's a way to do it and there's a way not to do it.
15:29And can you just talk about that for us, John?
15:31Because this can be where some of the problems occur, can't it?
15:34Yeah, all too often I see players setting up
15:36with their normal full swing grip.
15:38They basically take this grip to begin with
15:40and then they try and open the clubface
15:43from a position where they've already gripped the club
15:45and ultimately if we do that, when we swing down and hit the shot,
15:49we're just going to return the clubface back to a square position.
15:52And obviously for hitting a high lofted bunker shot, that's no use.
15:55No, and you're not going to be using the bounce
15:57as we've already talked about with chipping.
15:59So how do you open the face correctly then to use it from sand?
16:02Absolutely, it's really simple.
16:03All you need to do is just twist the club open before you're taking your grip.
16:06So pop it out in front of you, give it a little twist about the shaft
16:10and then take your grip as if you haven't done anything at all different.
16:13That's really how you do it correctly.
16:15Go on then, let's have a look.
16:16All right.
16:19So I've twisted it there, just open ball position,
16:21just forward in my stance, a little bit more squatted than normal.
16:29And you can see how much loft there is there.
16:31Without John trying to do anything particularly out of the ordinary,
16:35he's created an awful lot of loft and yet kept the motion as simple as possible.
16:40Okay, so hopefully you now know how to grip the club
16:42in order to open the face.
16:44But John, one of the keys to playing bunker shots consistently well
16:48is taking the right amount of sand every time.
16:50It's something that so many golfers struggle with.
16:53I can see you've got a drill here.
16:55What is it and how does it help?
16:56So we've got two little scoops of sand here,
16:58one with ball, one without.
16:59And what I want you to understand is that really
17:01we're trying to control the depth of this divot, Neil.
17:04So if I set up just to the side,
17:06I want to make a swing where I don't actually break the ground.
17:09I don't want to see a divot being taking place
17:12because if I do that, I've gone way too low.
17:14So by setting up to this little bit of sand,
17:17same bunker sort of technique,
17:19I'm going to just look to hit the sand only.
17:23You can hear that really nice sound that you hear on great bunker plays.
17:26Yeah, and there's no divot.
17:27It's just a sort of light bruising of the ground, isn't it?
17:30Yeah, just nipping that sand, getting plenty of spin,
17:32plenty of height on the shot.
17:34And you can try that with a golf ball as well.
17:43Yeah, it's a really nice way of thinking about it.
17:45It's a drill I've not seen before, actually, Jon.
17:47Hopefully, if you try it, it will help you get that consistency
17:50that you need with your splashes in the sand
17:52to get the ball out every time.
17:58Okay, Jon, so green reading.
18:00What have we got going on down here?
18:02So we've got this funny looking contraption.
18:03It's a perfect putter.
18:05It's a device that can actually guarantee
18:07that we're starting the ball on the same line every time.
18:10But we've got different speed markers on the device here,
18:12so we can roll the ball at different speeds
18:15and see whether or not it goes in.
18:16Yeah, because there is a direct correlation between
18:19your line and the pace that you hit the ball.
18:21If you don't get both right, you're likely to miss, aren't you?
18:24Absolutely. A speed and line match-up is what we need.
18:27The line is only as good as the speed
18:29that you're trying to hit it into the hole at.
18:30Show us how it works, then.
18:31Okay, so what we've got, basically, we've figured out this putt here.
18:35We're going to roll it from the little marker on two here.
18:39And we know that if we do that,
18:40we're going to be very, very close to holing it.
18:42And it's gone in nicely there.
18:44If I was to roll it at a slightly slower speed than that,
18:47so I'm going to go down to zero,
18:49just two little clicks lower on this little speed device,
18:53you can see that it breaks that little bit more
18:54and it ends up missing on the low edge.
18:57And if I now do it differently,
18:59I'll go up to a four on the little speed marking.
19:03You can see that extra bit of speed.
19:05It just kind of grabs that top edge of the hole.
19:07It probably would have gone in if the flag was out,
19:10but it caught more of the right edge of the hole.
19:12If I maybe go even quicker than that,
19:13maybe up towards a five on this little device,
19:16you can see that's on an awful lot higher line.
19:18And then as a result, it doesn't actually go in.
19:20Yes, it's a really good visualisation.
19:22Even though each putt, each ball is going down
19:24on exactly the same line,
19:26the pace that you hit your putts will have a direct impact
19:29on whether you're able to make them or not.
19:32What's interesting about this though, as I look at it,
19:36I guess the temptation, I guess the mistake here
19:38that people make is that they miss
19:40on what's often called as the amateur side,
19:42which would be the low side.
19:43You'd end up hitting more times that you miss,
19:46you'd miss low than missing high.
19:47Absolutely.
19:48Why is that?
19:48Why do people tend to miss low more than they miss high?
19:51Well, I think people often see
19:53and visualise what we've laid out here,
19:54but they end up aiming at the apex ball,
19:57which would probably be about this ball here,
19:59which obviously, as you can see in this demonstration,
20:02is actually way lower than the start line,
20:05which is this white string line.
20:06So we need to start the ball a lot higher
20:09than the apex that we visualised.
20:10I think the apex is a worthy picture to draw yourself,
20:14but you've got to make sure you're aiming it higher than that
20:17on this right to left breaking putt.
20:19Yeah, it's a really interesting subject
20:21and these small things, it's just one of those things
20:23that if you can take it out with you onto the golf course,
20:26get used to hitting your putts high enough
20:28when you're faced with some break like this,
20:30you should, should be able to hold a few more.