In this video, Neil Tappin runs down the 7 biggest strategy mistakes golfers are making.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello 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
00:27butt end of your golf clubs that allows you to track all the shots you hit during a round of golf.
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 like
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
01:02head out now to the golf course here at the London Club and look at the seven biggest strategy mistakes
01:06the golfers are making.
01:1880% of missed greens are missed short. So 47% are short right and 33% are short left and if you fall into the category
01:27of missing short of pin high more than you think you should then there are a few different things to
01:33consider within your own game. The first is how consistent is your ball striking. Now it will
01:39depend on your handicap as you improve your ball striking of course gets better but if you feel
01:44like your ball striking isn't quite at the level that your handicap is it can be a really quick and
01:49easy way to improve. There are a whole host of free online tutorials out there that will help you
01:54strike the ball better, will help you catch the ball and then turf and that's a really powerful strike
02:00through impact that could make a big difference. The next point relates to your equipment. Is your
02:06equipment forgiving those slight heel and toe strikes that might be causing you to come up short
02:11of the green? If the answer to that is I'm not sure then perhaps a more forgiving modern set of irons
02:17might just help you out. And thirdly, how far do you hit each club in the bag? Obviously this is where
02:24performance tracking technology like the ShotScope V2 can prove really handy. Finding out how far you
02:30hit the golf ball on the course when you're faced with different lies and different weather conditions
02:35and you're under pressure is really useful and it can be very different to how far you hit the ball
02:40on the range hitting shot after shot from the perfect lie. The other thing is it's also worth finding
02:45out how far you carry each club in the bag because your total distance will largely depend on ground
02:51conditions whereas knowing your average carry yardages will make a big difference to knowing
02:56what club you should hit in what situation. So for instance, this is the third hole here at the
03:00London club. We have water short left. You really don't want to be coming up short. The pin is sort of
03:05just beyond halfway up the green. The front of the green is 127, middle of the green is 142. So you really
03:11need to make sure that whatever you do on this hole you pick a club that you know carries past 127.
03:18And if all you know is that you hit your 9-iron around about 135 yards, well you don't know
03:24whether you carry your 9-iron over 127 yards. So it's something to think about. So if you fall into
03:31that 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 your game.
03:43Right, so the next one on my list relates to which club you should be using off the tee. And what
03:54you're looking at here are the average distances players are able to achieve with their driver
03:58versus their three-wood. And usually players are giving up around about 30 yards between driver and
04:04three-wood, which is roughly what we would expect. What we didn't expect to see however, was that players
04:09were off the tee using a three-wood were only one percent more accurate. Now that's something
04:15that's well worth considering because, and it's something that we've said in some of our videos
04:19in the past, fairway woods are the hardest golf clubs in the bag to get right. Obviously small head,
04:25long shaft, you're standing a long way away from it, you've got to hit the ball a long way so you've
04:28got to make a big full athletic swing. Fairway woods are hard to get right and it is difficult to
04:33find something that you can really rely on so that you end up using it well when you need to most when
04:38you're competing out on the golf course under pressure. So there are a couple of things to
04:42consider here. Firstly, is your fairway wood a golf club that you really can rely on? If it is,
04:47then fine, keep it in the bag. If it's not, then perhaps you go down a different route.
04:51Perhaps you leave the three-wood behind, carry a five-wood, use something that doesn't quite go as
04:55far but you do feel confident using and confident using under pressure. And the other point about the
05:00data that we've seen here is that if you're going to not go for driver in order to use something that
05:05you know you can hit straight, then make sure that you take a club that you do know you can hit
05:10straight. So you would expect to be far more accurate with your fairway wood off the tee than
05:15just one percent over your driver. Guys, there's real food for thought there in terms of your strategy
05:21off the tee. What do you do when there are bunkers in play like there are here, when there's trouble
05:26up there that you need to avoid? Do you just stick with hitting driver and take your chances
05:31or do you try and hit the fairway with more of a safety option? If you go for the latter,
05:36make 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.
05:45Okay, so the next point relates to how aggressive your strategy is when playing into the greens.
05:56And what we're going to do here is we're going to take a look at the number of birdies players are
06:00making on average versus the number of double bogeys players are making on average. And we're
06:04going to split the numbers up based on different handicap categories. So what you're looking at here
06:10is the average number of birdies per round. So for category one player, two birdies per round.
06:15Category two, it's roughly one birdie per round. And then once you get above a handicap of about 12,
06:22really golfers are not making very many birdies at all. But conversely, take a look at the double
06:28bogey numbers. So handicap zero to five, roughly making one double bogey per round. Category two golfers
06:35are making two double bogeys per round. And then above category two, again, the double bogey numbers
06:40really increase very quickly again. So the point here for a lot of players, the fastest way to improve
06:47is not to make more birdies, but to make fewer double bogeys. And in the situation that I'm in here,
06:52this is a really good highlight of exactly where players go wrong. So the flag here on the 18th green
06:58on the heritage course at the London club is perched way over on the right hand side. It's a real sucker pin.
07:03And by going for it, you really are bringing bogeys and double bogeys into play, no matter what your
07:08handicap. And I think for a lot of golfers out there, especially higher handicap players,
07:14it is worth thinking about playing golf to the centre of the green more often. So what I would
07:20suggest to you to do is next time you go and play golf, try and play to the centre of every single
07:25green. Whenever you're faced with an approach shot to the green, it doesn't matter if you've got 100 yards
07:29or 200 yards in. Aim for a point on the middle of the green. That's where the GPS watch comes in,
07:35really handy. It gives you yardages to the very centre of every green. Work to those yardages,
07:40try and hit the middle of every green and then take a look at your scoring averages. Take a look
07:45and see what's happening to your birdie percentages versus your bogey and double bogey percentages.
07:49Because I think that for a lot of players, taking the flag completely out of their mindset
07:55might improve all of those numbers. It might help them make more birdies, but it will definitely
07:59help them keep bogeys and double bogeys off the card more often. So in this situation, really,
08:05I need to be avoiding that flag on the right hand side, aiming for the middle of the green,
08:09trying to make par, taking double bogey certainly out of play entirely. Right, let's give it a go.
08:14Well, my miss is definitely a miss to the right. I've aimed for the centre 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 ShotScope
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,
09:02Dave Peltz did a bit of research a few years ago that said that the ideal pace at which you should
09:07be hitting your putts is to get the ball rolling about 18 inches past the hole. That's where I've
09:12got the tee peg here. That means the ball will be rolling fast enough to roll over any imperfections
09:17on the green without being bumped off line, without going too fast and putting you in danger of three
09:22putting or lipping out if you hit the putt on a good line. So pace control is a really crucial factor
09:28when it comes to your success on the greens. Now, there are a whole host of really great drills
09:33that you can do to hone your putting speed. So placing tees around the hole in a box to make
09:40sure that you get that ball rolling just past the hole. The more work you can do on your speed control,
09:46the more likely you will be to putt the ball just past the hole. And if you can do that more often,
09:51chances are you might just hole a few more 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 make a more committed swing and the results ultimately will be slightly better. But
10:13the ShotScope data doesn't actually back this theory up. What you're looking at here is the average
10:19proximity to the hole data for shots hit from 50 yards versus shots hit from 80 yards. And both
10:25from the fairway and the rough, players are hitting the ball closer to the hole from closer to the green.
10:32It's something well worth thinking about in your own game. If you've always tended to lay up
10:37to a further yardage, well, perhaps just consider it. Perhaps keep some stats of your own to find out
10:42if you are hitting it closer from further away, because it might be that you aren't. And if you aren't,
10:47then a little bit more of an aggressive strategy off the tee or from the fairway with your layup shot
10:52might pay off, might pay dividends. So the shot that I've got here, this is just around about the 62
10:57yard mark. This would be a fiddly shot for me, but perhaps I'm better off hitting a shot from here
11:03than I am from 30 yards further back. Let's give it a go.
11:15A 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 needs to ask themselves. And as far as the shot scope data goes, it's fairly inconclusive for
11:33lower handicappers. So for category one or 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 handicaps of
11:5113 and over tend to be more successful with hybrids. For a 20 handicapper facing the sort of shot that
11:57I'm facing here of around about 180 to 200 yards, a 20 handicapper is almost twice as likely to hit
12:05the green with a hybrid as they are with a long iron. It really is food for thought. And I'm sure it's
12:10something that a lot of you out there have considered and thought about in your game. If you are a high
12:14handicapper carrying long irons, just be wary. Think about it. Keep some stats of your own. Find out how
12:20successful you are from further out from the green. If you find out that you're coming up short a lot
12:25of the time from further out with your longer irons, perhaps it's worth swapping out your three
12:30and 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 to
12:50miss 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,
13:04they don'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 can bring that into your game. So a hole like this, this is the 10th hole
13:14here on the heritage course of the London club. You cannot go left off the tee. And if you are a
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 one into
13:29the water. That's where the card wrecking score comes from. For me, that water on the left here is
13:34a huge danger. Whereas if you're somebody that misses more often to the right, you'll know that water on the
13:40left-hand side is not such a big danger. And you can take a more aggressive strategy. I know that
13:45in my game, I'm much more likely to miss right than I am to miss left. So I'm confident and happy
13:51with driver. That's what I'm going to hit here. And having a simple strategy based on what you are
13:56most likely to do can really help your game. It's about managing your misses and going from there.
14:02It can make a huge difference. As predicted, I've missed it slightly to the right-hand side,
14:16but I'm fine. I'm in play and I can attack the green from there. So there you have it. Those
14:21are the seven biggest strategy mistakes that golfers make based on the shot scope data. And there are
14:26some really fascinating insights in there. I don't think it matters whether you're a category one player
14:31or if you're just starting out on your golfing journey. There are some really simple findings
14:35in there that could help give you some guidance on the best and quickest way to possibly improve
14:40your game. Guys, please do leave comments below. Is there anything that you want clarification on?
14:44Is there any more information you want from the stats? We'd be more than happy to help out wherever we
14:49can. Please also hit the like button if you liked the video. But for now, from the London Club, it's goodbye.
15:06So,
15:07I have a lot of information before I go to the London Club.
15:10Going into the making.
15:11Go to the London Club.
15:13Good afternoon, Mr. Starks.
15:15You can see what it's doing for my business.
15:17Now, I'm not sure.
15:18I'm gonna go to the London Club.
15:20You can see this concert.
15:21I'm going to go to the London Club.
15:22I'm going to go to LA Club.
15:24I'm going to go to London Club, Christine.
15:26And I'm going to go to London Club.
15:28So, I'm going to go to London Club.