In this video, legendary Tour caddie, Billy Foster offers five crucial strategy decisions - every golfer needs to get right!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
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 strategize around the golf course.
00:30Okay, Billy, hit the fairway, as always, of course, but still quite a long way to go,
00:39so you come up 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
01:03five 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.
01:18You'd be looking at your landing areas. Obviously, the green's pretty soft today, so you would
01:21be looking to land it two or three yards short of the hole, so then you'd be going 187 is
01:27my landing number, which still is just a nice 6-iron. You get different scenarios. If the
01:32pin was on the front, let's say there was water short, and this is where a lot of guys
01:36still make mistakes, they were going, right, well, I've 180, it's a 7-iron, because I want
01:41to land it 180, but actually you don't, because the pin's on six, you're going over water,
01:45so you'd be looking to land it at least five yards past the hole, so you'd be adding it
01:50185, which would probably change it from a 7-iron to a 6-iron, because if you hit a good
01:557-iron, lands on the front, spins a bit, you're in the water, so you're protecting yourself
01:58in it a little bit past the fatter part of the green and taking the hazard out of play,
02:03but right now, for you, it's a good solid 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, it's, erm, amateurs don't
02:53really know how far they fly every club, but I mean, if you went on the practice ground
02:56and hit a load of 7-irons and said, well, I fly my 7-iron 150, you know, and you might
03:01have 155 here, well, guess what, I'm going to hit a good 7-iron, but you miss-strike
03:06it a lot, so I'd always recommend hitting one club more than swinging it smooth instead
03:10of trying to smash the lights out of it and hoping you hit it at the sweet spot, which
03:14you might do 1 in 10, but as amateurs we don't, so I would always say use an extra club, swing
03:20it smoother, and then, you know, if you pin-high, you're obviously going to be a lot closer,
03:24even if you're left or right, you're going to be a lot closer to the hole than if you're
03:2715 yards short, 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, you aim for the middle of the green every time,
03:38you're going to give yourself a lot more putts for birdie, aren't you?
03:41No, it's not just amateurs, I'm a callipher, Matt Fitzpatrick, and he has a chart that
03:44he's religious, you know, if the pin's got four from the left, he'll never hit it at
03:49the flag, because he knows his dispersion with, say, a 7-iron might be 9 yards, so we'd
03:53always aim 5 yards right of the hole, so even if he tugs it a bit, it's still going to be
03:58on the left side of the green, you know, so, yes, always hit it in the middle of the green,
04:02the best players, Nick Faldo 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
04:11and hit 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.
04:27Okay.
04:28There you go, all the best, good luck, son.
04:30I made it, thank you.
04:33So, 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,
04:41if there's water, a big bunker, do not go flirting with it, hit the centre and give
04:46yourself a 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 Bengley, another
05:08pull-up off a tee.
05:09Yeah, I mean, you do have a few options here, I think I learnt a lot of different options
05:16off the great Seve Ballesteros, but obviously, you've got four options, the easiest one is
05:22to just chip out sidewards.
05:25You could actually go between this bush and the first tree here, and just, that would
05:30be the safe shot, just pop something out short of the bunker, and you can still get home
05:35in 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
05:45desired, 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.
05:54The way I go about it, I'd always try and plumb bob, or you'd always see Justin Rose
05:58doing something like this, where he holds the club up, and he tries to pick the dead
06:03centre between the trees, and it just so happens that I'd always try and choose something on
06:08line in the middle of the gap there, like this leaf is in the perfect position right
06:16in the middle of them two trees, so I would always try and align the club face to the
06:22leaf, so now I know that club face is pointing perfectly in between the two trees, obviously
06:28play it off the back foot a little bit, because you want a little low chaser, and I would
06:33try and drive that low, hard, through the middle of the gap, and chase it in there,
06:39obviously with a bit of a draw, because you need to shape it round there a bit, but personally
06:43that would be the shot of my choice, if you've got any sort of low handicap or pro, would
06:50normally go for this shot, right here and chase something up, just short the green hole,
06:55if you get it perfect you could knock it on the green, I'm sure the Grand Senor would
06:58be, he'd have a birdie putt from here no problem, he'd have a bogey putt from the middle of
07:02the fairway, but he'd have a birdie putt from here. I'm no savvy, but I'm tempted, I've
07:06got to take this on, have you got the right club there, right, yeah that should be good
07:10yeah, okay so we've got that leaf as our alignment, nice low punch under there, I'm channelling
07:16my inner Justin Rose here, go on then, careful lads it might bounce back and hit you, always
07:37chip out sideways ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad I could be here as the guinea pig to
07:41show you that it's not always the best thing to go chasing the tricky recovery shot, chip
07:46out sideways, get it back in play, unless you're a good player like Billy here, like
07:50I said good players would go for it, you should have chipped it out, it's fine. Okay Billy
08:02how far have I got, all right let's have a look Kip, okay we've got 85 yards to the flag,
08:11okay so that's not a full wedge, what do you do in this kind of situation? Again you've
08:17got to know your landing numbers, looking at that flag again it's tight left, so I'd
08:22be recommending don't knock the flag out because if you pull it a little bit you're going to
08:26be in the deep bunker left, so you'd be aiming two or three yards to the right of the hole,
08:31I'm probably looking to land it pin eye, the greens are pretty soft, again you need to
08:36know your yardages and the only way to do that is, and I'll tell any juniors, the best
08:40way to make your game much sharper, don't spend so much time bashing drivers and long
08:46irons, I would spend certainly half your time hitting wedges or hitting a lot of chips around
08:53the green, so the more you practice your short game the better, so you get the likes of Phil
08:58Mickelson, he used to, he'd just like put towels down on the range at 70 yards, 80 yards,
09:0490 yards, 100 yards, 110 and he'd try and land it on the towels, you know hundreds and
09:09hundreds of balls trying to land it on that spot, so you're dialling your wedges and you
09:15get to a stage where you can land it within two or three yards of that towel every time
09:18and that's what makes champions great by having a really sharp short game, the likes of Luke
09:23Donnell got to number one in the world because immaculate wedge player, Zach Johnson's got
09:27a green jacket and a claret jug, unbelievable wedge player and even though you don't bomb
09:32it 320 yards it just goes to prove that great champions have great wedge player.
09:38Okay, reasonably straightforward from the fairway, there's a juicy bit of rough over
09:42here so I just want to see what you think about this lie, alright Billy this one, well
09:47it's pretty juicy, it's not great is it, how does this change the shot that we're able
09:51to play?
09:52Let's say we've got 90 yards here, you can see it's a wet, lush, thick grass lie so this
10:02is going to come out dead, so you know if you were playing you'd probably say that might
10:07be even playing 110 so you'd be really thrashing a big lob wedge or trying to dig out a sand
10:14wedge because it's going to come out at least 10 or 15 yards dead but on the other hand
10:18you draw a lie that's maybe two or three feet to the right of that, let's take that one
10:25for example, so that is like burnt wispy grass, you've got a little wispy tuft of grass behind
10:32it, that is a potential exocet so that really could jump 20 yards, at least 20 yards further
10:42than it normally would go so you'd be looking to really probably bring the flight down that
10:45and chip one in there and get it running out because you've got no control over that and
10:50that happens a lot, you know you might get, I've carried for, I remember one with Darren
10:55Clark in Holland, really dry wispy grass and he'd like 190 yards, well that's a six iron
11:02but it was such a dry wispy lie, he actually hit a pitching wedge and it just comes out with no
11:08spin on it whatsoever like a bullet and it literally went 50 yards further than a normal
11:12wedge would go because it was so fiery and wispy grass and you get the grass between the clubface
11:17and the ball, no spin on the ball and it just really it's like a bullet and he hits it on the green
11:22from 190 yards with a wedge and that's the difference between a juicy wet thick grass lie or
11:29the wispy little bit of grass behind it exocet and it's reading the lies and only experience
11:34can tell you to read lies, you know it's like the semi-rough, you might be just a normal semi-rough
11:39lie, well that's say if you've got 180 yards that's always going to come out five to ten yards
11:46soft because it's in the first quarter of and it is reading lies and only experience can teach you
11:52that over the years. Great stuff, so there you go, make sure you do read the lie because as we've just heard
11:56whether you're in the fairway, that nice little wispy one or in the cabbage here, that completely
12:01changes the shot that you can play especially when 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 the
12:19big 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 the
12:29world or even your yellow handicappers would easily knock it on the green here with
12:34probably a free wood you know so but if you're an average club golfer, to me personally you look at
12:39the widest bit of the fairway which is short of the cross bunker which is probably 175 yards so
12:45why wouldn't you get a five iron or a four iron or whatever, lay it short of the bunker to the
12:49widest 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
13:02but 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, the other
13:1149 are going in the trees left and right, you're losing your ball maybe finding a couple of chops
13:17you're making double triple bogey up from just being your ego getting the better so you've got
13:21to know your limitations of your own golf game. What kind of ratio are we working on then, say
13:26realistically you're going to knock it on or around the green here, how many times out of
13:3110 to make it worth your while taking it on? You've got to be looking at seven or eight aren't you
13:37really, you know you're going to, even good golfers, scratch players, your two handicappers or whatever
13:42they're going to they're going to make a couple of bogeys, a couple of double bogeys by going for
13:46the green and they might make four or five birdies you know, but you've got to know, play to your
13:52own strengths and just eliminate the, I always remember Tom Watson say you're winning open
13:57championships by limiting your mistakes, not by hitting glory shots and making more birdies, you
14:03win tournaments by 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 wider part
14:13of the fairway, that's what you want to hit it to, how much are you thinking about what second
14:17shot that leaves as well and making sure that's a number or a shot that you're most comfortable with?
14:20Yeah sure, I mean when I'm walking golf courses, working for fits exactly, I'll walk down and I'll
14:25look at the zones of roughly where you want to hit off the tee, might be between 260 and 280
14:31and that's the widest bit of the fairway which will leave you you know maybe 140 to the flag
14:36which would be a pitching wedge or maybe a 99 into a little bit of breeze and you might want to get
14:40down the left half of the fairway if the pin's tucked behind a bunker on the right say for
14:44example, so you know on this hole I would say you know if the pin was back right you'd, as a decent
14:49player you'd be looking at the left half of the fairway to leave yourself a better angle in, so
14:52you look at these, certainly the zones off the tee, the yardage is between like I say 260 and 280
14:58then it'd be a three wood for fits into that area and then you're looking at the pin position where
15:03the wind is etc to leave yourself the best angle of attack, so that goes without saying. Brilliant,
15:08so there you go when it comes to drivable par 4s leave the ego at home, aim for the fat bit of
15:13the fairway, leave yourself a nice easy second shot onto the green, you can always make birdie
15:19without going for it. Okay Billy we're just off the edge of the green, club selection and
15:29shot selection vitally important with these little finesse shots isn't it? Yeah I see it's changed a
15:35lot over the last 20-30 years, the modern player, the modern young players whatever,
15:39they're misagreeing, the first thing they do is reach for the lob wedge every time you know and
15:45like I say you know I've had it for Seve for all those years and he never had a lob wedge,
15:48his maximum loft was 56 and you know the players of that generation you're Ian Woosdams, you're
15:53Faldo's, you're Bernard Langers, Seve's etc, Greg Norman's great chippers and that seems to have
15:59been been a bit lost with everybody just reaches for the lob wedge a la Phil Mickelson but
16:04as you see you've got a fairly straightforward chip here, so why would you want to land a lob
16:08wedge halfway to the hole, you know it might get a soft bounce, it might scoot on, it might have a
16:14bit of side spin on taking it away, so how I was brought up from that generation was try and land
16:19it on the green as soon as you can with less loft, so you've got to judge what you can land it,
16:25say two yards on the green with a straighter face club, I'd see this as a pitching wedge,
16:31so you just pop it on the green and then the ball will run end of red and track like a putt
16:35instead of having too much spin and relying on the right bounce, so I would say a pitching wedge
16:40for this particular shot, landing it four feet on the green, so I'm gonna have to stick that
16:44lob wedge, the lob wedge then, get rid of that, snap it in half, okay, never need a lob wedge do
16:49you, no not really, let's try a pitching wedge, see how you get on, so a little bit shorter,
16:56get it just running a bit, just land it three or four feet on the green there and just get it
16:59running towards the hole kit, pretty good, yeah spot on for distance really, yeah just pulled it
17:12a little bit but landed in the perfect spot and you know it was on line, it had a chance to go in,
17:17great stuff, so anytime you are around the greens, use as little loft as you can to get the ball
17:22running as quickly as you can and you're sure to get a more consistent outcome,
17:27thanks for watching, some fantastic advice and amazing insights from Billy Foster there,
17:33that's all for this video in association with motorcaddy, make sure you use those tips next
17:38time you're on the golf course and I'm sure you'll shoot loads under your handicap.