In this video, legendary Tour caddie, Billy Foster offers five crucial strategy decisions - every golfer needs to get right!
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00:00Welcome to Bingley St Ives. For this video, in partnership with Motorcaddy, we've got
00:10Tour Caddy Billy Foster. He's going to be calling on all of his experience from caddying
00:14for the likes of Seve Baier, Stair Ross, Darren Clark, Lee Westwood, and right now, Matt Fitzpatrick.
00:21He's using the Motorcaddy M5 GPS electric trolley, and he's going to share all of his
00:25best advice to help you strategise around the golf course.
00:31OK Billy, hit the fairway, as always, of course, but still quite a long way to go, so you come
00:39up to a shot like this, first of all, how far have we got?
00:43Well we've got 165 to the front, 182 to the flag kit, so normally 182 for a pro golfer
00:51would be a 7 iron, let's say, for example. Today, you've got to factor in a couple of
00:58downhills, so 180. The weather conditions, the temperature, it's going to go at least
01:035 yards less, a little bit of breeze into us as well, so it's going to be probably 10,
01:10so I'd be looking at least 190, which all of a sudden changes it from a 7 iron to a
01:14really good 6 iron, so that's what you'd be looking at.
01:18Looking at your landing areas, obviously the green's pretty soft today, so you would
01:21be looking to land it 2 or 3 yards short of the hole, so then you'd be going 187 is my
01:27landing number, which still is just a nice 6 iron.
01:30But you get different scenarios, you know, if the pin was on the front, let's say there
01:34was water short, and this is where a lot of guys still make mistakes, they were going
01:38right, well I've 180, you know, it's a 7 iron, because I want to land it 180, but actually
01:43you don't, because the pin's on 6, you're going over water, so you'd be looking to land
01:46it at least 5 yards past the hole, so you'd be adding it 185, which would probably change
01:52it from a 7 iron to a 6 iron, because if a good 7 iron lands on the front, spins a bit,
01:57you're in the water, so you're protecting yourself in it a little bit past the fatter
02:01part of the green and taking the hazard out of play, but right now for you, it's a good
02:05solid 6 iron, mate.
02:07So often though, amateurs come up short on a shot like this, probably for two reasons.
02:11Ego, we think we hit the ball a lot further than we do, and also just general quality
02:16of the strike.
02:17Would you err on the long side and really get to know your yardages essentially?
02:21All day long, I mean I've caddied in probably 3,000 pro-arms over 40 years, you know, and
02:27like I say, the two mistakes you always see is the alignment's always shocking, it's always
02:3120 or 30 yards right, so always try and pick something on line with where you're hitting
02:35it and get the club pointing at your target that's on the ground, might be a divot or
02:39a teepeg or something, and then just step in square to your club face, so you will automatically
02:45align yourself a lot better.
02:46But yeah, definitely the strike of the shot is key, you know, amateurs don't really know
02:53how far to fly every club, but I mean if you went on the practice ground and hit a load
02:57of 7 irons and said, well I fly my 7 iron 150, you know, and you might have 155 here,
03:03well guess what, I'm going to hit a good 7 iron, but you miss strike it a lot, so I'd
03:06always recommend it in one club mode and swinging it smooth instead of trying to smash
03:10the lights out of it and hoping you hit it out of the sweet spot, which you might do
03:141 in 10, but as amateurs we don't, so I would always say use an extra club, swing it smoother,
03:21and then, you know, if you pin high you're obviously going to be a lot closer, even if
03:24you're left or right, you're going to be a lot closer to the hole than if you're 15 yards
03:28short, so it's simple maths really.
03:31In most instances, is it better just to aim for the middle of the green, almost forget
03:35about the flag, if you're an amateur and you aim for the middle of the green every
03:38time, you're going to give yourself a lot more putts for birdie, aren't you?
03:41No, it's not just amateurs, I mean I carry for Matt Fitzpatrick and he has a chart that
03:44he's religious, you know, if the pin's got 4 from the left, he'll never hit it at the
03:49flag, because he knows his dispersion with say a 7 iron might be 9 yards, so we'd always
03:54aim 5 yards right of the hole, so even if he tugs it a bit, it's still going to be on
03:58the left side of the green, you know, so, yes, always hit it in the middle of the green,
04:02the best players, Nick Fowler always talked about the cheese wedge he called it, so he
04:07would say where the pin is and he'd have a wedge around the flag and he would try and
04:11hit it in the cheese wedge, right or left of the hole, depending on which side of the
04:15green the flag is cut, so, the best players in the world, again, limit the mistakes and
04:20keep it in the fat side of the green.
04:22Okay, I'm certainly not one of the best players in the world, but I'm going to limit my mistakes,
04:25so is it 6 iron?
04:266 iron it is, yep, there you go, all the best, good luck son.
04:30I made it, thank you.
04:32So, there you go, if you are in a situation like this, it's a mid iron, long iron in,
04:37make sure you know your numbers, aim for the middle of the green and whatever you do, if
04:41there's water, a big bunker, do not go flirting with it, hit the centre and give yourself
04:46a putt.
04:51Okay, Billy, this is an absolute classic, we're over in the trees, got a little bit
04:57of a window here, we can come out sideways, plenty of options, but what's the right one?
05:03Yeah, well, as you can see, I'm in my usual spot here on the 9th hole at Bingley, another
05:08pull-up off a tee, yeah, I mean, you do have a few options here, I think I learnt a lot
05:15of different options off the great Seve Ballesteros, but obviously, you've got four options, the
05:22easiest one is to just chip out sideways, you could actually go between this bush and
05:28the first tree here, that would be the safe shot, just pop something out short of the
05:34bunker and you can still get home in three on this par five.
05:37You do have an option up here to the left, where you could hit a high cut, if you so
05:44desired, but I don't really see that reaching the green, so my personal shot would be between
05:51the two trees you can see in front, and the way I go about it, I'd always try and plumb
05:56bob, or you'd always see Justin Rose doing something like this, where he holds the club
06:01up and he tries to pick the dead centre between the trees, and it just so happens that I'd
06:07always try and choose something on line in the middle of the gap there, like this leaf
06:13is in the perfect position right in the middle of them two trees, so I would always try and
06:19align the club face to the leaf, so now I know that club face is pointing perfectly
06:26in between the two trees, obviously play it off the back foot a little bit, because you
06:29want a little low chaser, and I would try and drive that low hard through the middle
06:36of the gap and chase it in there, obviously with a bit of a draw, because you need to
06:41shape it round there a bit, but personally that would be the shot of my choice, if you've
06:46got any sort of low handicap or pro, I would normally go for this shot right here and chase
06:52something up, just short the green, or if you get it perfect you could knock it on the
06:56green, I'm sure the Grand Senor would be, he'd have a birdie putt from here no problem,
07:00he'd have a bogey putt from the middle of the fairway, but he'd have a birdie putt from
07:04here. I'm no savvy, but I'm tempted, I've got to take this on, have you got the right
07:08club there? Yeah that should be good, so we've got that leaf as our alignment, nice low punch
07:14under there, I'm channeling my inner Justin Rose here, careful lads it might bounce back
07:23and hit you. Always chip out sideways ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad I could be here as
07:40the guinea pig, to show you that it's not always the best thing to go chasing the tricky
07:46recovery shot, chip out sideways, get it back in play, unless you're a good player like
07:50Billy here. Like I said, good players would go for it. You should have chipped it out.
08:02So Billy, how far have I got? Alright, let's have a look Kip. OK, we've got 85 yards to
08:10the flag. OK, so that's not a full wedge, what do you do in this kind of situation?
08:17Again you've got to know your landing numbers, looking at that flag, again it's tight left,
08:22so I'd be recommending don't knock the flag out, because if you pull it a little bit,
08:25you're going to be in the deep bunker left, so you'd be aiming two or three yards to the
08:29right of the hole. I'm probably looking to land it pin eye, the greens are pretty soft. Again,
08:35you need to know your yardages and the only way to do that is, and I'll tell any juniors,
08:40the best way to make your game much sharper, don't spend so much time bashing drivers and
08:46long irons. I would spend certainly half your time hitting wedges or hitting a lot of chips
08:53around the green, so the more you practice your short game the better. So you get the likes of
08:58Phil Mickelson, he'd just put towels down on the range at 70 yards, 80 yards, 90 yards,
09:04100 yards, 110, and he'd try and land it on the towels, you know, hundreds and hundreds
09:09of balls trying to land it on that spot, so you're dialling your wedges and you get to
09:15a stage where you can land it within two or three yards of that towel every time and that's
09:18what makes champions great, by having a really sharp short game, the likes of Luke Donnell
09:23got to number one in the world because he's an immaculate wedge player, Zach Johnson's got a
09:27green jacket and a claret jug, unbelievable wedge player and even though you don't bomb it 320 yards
09:34it just goes to prove that great champions have great wedge play. Okay, reasonably straightforward
09:39from the fairway, there's a juicy bit of rough over here so I just want to see what you think
09:43about this lie. All right Billy, this one, well it's pretty juicy, it's not great is it? How does
09:49this change the shot that we're able to play? Let's say we've got 90 yards here, you can see
09:58it's a wet, lush, thick grass lie, so this is going to come out dead, so you know if you were
10:04playing you would probably say that might be even be playing 110, so you'd be really thrashing
10:11a big lob wedge or trying to dig out a sand wedge because it's going to come out at least 10 or 15
10:16yards dead, but on the other hand you get, you draw a lie that's maybe two or three feet
10:22to the right, let's take that one for example, so that is like burnt wispy grass, you've got a little
10:31wispy tuft of grass behind it, that is a potential exocet, so that really could jump 20 yards,
10:41at least 20 yards further than it normally would go, so you'd be looking to really
10:44probably bring the flight down that and chip one in there and get it running out because
10:48you've got no control over that, and that happens a lot, you know you might get,
10:52I've carried for, I remember one with Darren Clark in Holland, really dry wispy grass and he'd like
10:58190 yards, well that's a six iron, but it was such a dry wispy lie, he actually hit a pitching wedge
11:05and it just comes out with no spin on it whatsoever, like a bullet, and it literally went
11:1150 yards further than a normal wedge would go because it was so fiery and wispy grass, and you
11:15get the grass between the clubface and the ball, no spin on the ball, it just really, it's like a
11:20bullet, and he hits it on the green for 190 yards with a wedge, and that's the difference between a
11:25juicy, wet, thick grass lie or the wispy little bit of grass behind it, exocet, and it's reading
11:33the lies, and only experience can tell you to read lies, you know it's like the semi-rough,
11:37you might be just a normal semi-rough lie, well that's, say if you've got 180 yards, that's always
11:43going to come out five to ten yards soft, because it's in the first quarter of, and it is reading
11:50lies, and only experience can teach you that over the years. Good stuff, so there you go, make sure
11:54you do read the lie, because as we've just heard, whether you're in the fairway, that nice little
11:58wispy one, or in the cabbage here, that completely changes the shot that you can play, especially
12:04when it's a little pitch in from about 90 yards.
12:12Okay Billy, 250 yard par four, slightly uphill, it's drivable, now normally I'd just reach for
12:19the big dog without even thinking about it, but what should we be doing on a hole like this?
12:24Well you've got to know your limitations Kit, you know, don't get me wrong, if the best players in
12:29the world, or even your yellow handicappers, would easily knock it on the green here with
12:34probably a three wood, you know, so if your average club golfer, to me personally, you look
12:39at the widest bit of the fairway, which is short of the cross bunker, which is probably 175 yards,
12:45so why wouldn't you get a five iron, or a four iron, or whatever, lay it short of the bunker,
12:49to the widest part of the fairway, leave yourself a little 50, 60 yard chip up the green, birdie put,
12:56worst case scenario par, or if you put like Edward Scissorhands, at least you're making a five, but
13:02um, but I know what the egos are like of 20 handicappers, whether I can knock it on this
13:07green, well of course you can, but guess what, you might knock it on the green one in 50,
13:11the other 49 are going in the trees, left and right, you're losing your ball,
13:15maybe finding it a couple of chops, you're making double, triple, bogey, from just being your ego
13:20getting the better of you, so you've got to know your limitations of your own golf game.
13:23What kind of ratio are we working on then, say realistically you're going to knock it on or
13:28around the green here, how many times out of 10 to make it worth your while taking it on?
13:34Uh, you've got to be looking at seven or eight, aren't you really, you know, you're gonna,
13:39even good golfers, scratch players, you're two handicappers, whatever, they're gonna,
13:43they're gonna make a couple of bogeys, a couple of double bogeys by going for the green and they
13:46might make four or five birdies, you know, but you've got to know, play to your own strengths
13:53and just eliminate the, I always remember Tom Watson say, you're winning open championships
13:58by limiting your mistakes, not by getting glory shots and making more birdies, you win tournaments
14:03by eliminating your mistakes, so the less mistakes, obviously the better the score.
14:09Just finally on this hole, when it comes to the layup, obviously we're focusing on the
14:12wider part of the fairway, that's what you want to hit it to, how much are you thinking about
14:16what second shot that leaves as well and making sure that's a number or a shot that you're most
14:20comfortable with? Yeah sure, I mean when I'm walking golf courses, working for fits exactly,
14:24I'll walk down and I'll look at the zones of roughly where you want to hit off the tee,
14:28might be between 260 and 280 and that's the widest bit of the fairway which will leave you,
14:34you know, maybe 140 to the flag which would be a pitching wedge or maybe a 99 into a little bit
14:39of breeze and you might want to get down the left half of the fairway if the pin's tucked behind the
14:43bunker on the right, say for example, so you know on this hole I would say, you know, if the pin
14:47was back right, as a decent player you'd be looking at the left half of the fairway to leave
14:51yourself a better angle in, so you look at these, certainly the zones off the tee, the yardage is
14:56between like I say 260 and 280, then it'd be a three wood for fits into that area and then you're
15:02looking at the pin position where the wind is etc to leave yourself the best angle of attack, so
15:07that goes without saying. Brilliant, so there you go, when it comes to drivable par fours, leave the
15:11ego at home, aim for the fat bit of the fairway, leave yourself a nice easy second shot onto the
15:17green, you can always make birdie without going for it. Okay Billy, we're just off the edge of
15:27the green, club selection and shot selection vitally important with these little finesse
15:31shots isn't it? Yeah, I see it's changed a lot over the last 20-30 years, the modern player,
15:37the modern young players whatever, they're misagreeing, the first thing they do is reach
15:41for the lob wedge every time you know, and like I say you know, I've had it for Seve for all those
15:46years and he never had a lob wedge, his maximum loft was 56 and you know the players of that
15:52generation, you're Ian Woosdoms, you're Faldo's, you're Bernard Langers, Seve's etc, Greg Norman's
15:57great chippers and that seems to have been been a bit lost with everybody just reaches for the
16:02lob wedge a la Phil Mickelson, but as you see you've got a fairly straightforward chip here,
16:07so why would you want to land a lob wedge halfway to the hole, you know it might get a soft bounce,
16:13it might scoot on, it might have a bit of side spin on taking it away, so
16:17how I was brought up from that generation was try and land it on the green as soon as you can
16:22with less loft, so you've got to judge what you can land it, say two yards on the green
16:27with a straighter first club, I'd see this as a pitching wedge, so you just pop it on the green
16:32and then the ball will run end of red and track like a putt instead of having too much spin and
16:37relying on the right bounce, so I would say a pitching wedge for this particular shot, landing
16:41it four feet on the green, so stick that lob wedge, get rid of that, snap it in half,
16:47okay, never need a lob wedge do you, no not really, let's try a pitching wedge, see how you get on,
16:53so a little bit short, get it just running a bit quicker, just land it three or four feet on the
16:58green there and just get it running towards the hole kit, pretty good, yeah spot on for distance
17:10really, yeah just pulled it a little bit but landed in the perfect spot and you know it was
17:15on line, it had a chance to go in, great stuff, so anytime you are around the greens, use as little
17:21loft as you can to get the ball running as quickly as you can and you're sure to get a more consistent
17:26outcome, thanks for watching, some fantastic advice and amazing insights from Billy Foster there, that's
17:34all for this video in association with motorcaddy, make sure you use those tips next time you're on
17:39the golf course and I'm sure you'll shoot loads under your handicap!