In this video Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Professional and Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Alex Elliott to discuss the 5 best on course swing tips. As we head into the competitive part of the season, these tips are about having just the right level of technical thought to play your best. These tee-to-green tips should help you find a swing that delivers good shots under pressure.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video in which we're going to look at the five best on-course swing tips.
00:07Now these are all things that will help you as we head into the competitive part of the season.
00:11Nothing too technical, but they're all designed to help you think clearly on things that are really going to help you swing the club better and score better as well.
00:19Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Alex Elliott. He's one of the Golf Monthly top 50 coaches.
00:24And as I say, his advice is really simple and really effective.
00:27Right, we're here at the London Club. Let's get started.
00:36Right, so the first one on our list relates to how you prepare for golf shots.
00:41Now Alex, you've got a line on the ground here. Put an alignment stick on the ground. Why have you done that?
00:46I want you to think about this in every single shot. A thinking zone and a playing zone.
00:51Like golf is one of those sports, isn't it, where some advice is don't think about anything.
00:55Think about this, think about that. Whereas I want you to think about two zones where you can be a little bit more swing aware.
01:03You can think about what swing thoughts are, what you've been working on with your PJ Pro.
01:06And then once you step across this line, you sort of let the shot dictate the swing a little bit more.
01:13Okay, so tell us then, so if this was you in this scenario and you're trying to hit the shot that we're facing here, it's a tricky par five, you need to hit a good drive down here.
01:23What's the first part of the thought process for you and then what's the second part?
01:26So I'd have selected my club. So in this case, it does require a driver on this par five.
01:31I would then be stood behind my goal four because I'm taking into account one, the shot that I'm about to play, straight down target.
01:38That's going to help my alignment. But I'm also thinking about my two swing thoughts right now.
01:42So for me, I get a little bit slidey. So I'm making two practice swings, exaggerating, almost no slide and just a lot of turn.
01:52So I'm thinking about my swing, but I'm actually practically putting it into play as well.
01:56Right. So this is stuff that you would have that you're working on at the range and you're focusing on that here.
02:01A hundred percent.
02:01And then you step over that line. And how does it change?
02:03So once I've stepped over that line, what I like to do, Neil, this is a really good point, actually, is stand directly behind my ball, though.
02:09OK, because then I'm actually getting a view of my ball to target line is.
02:13Yeah. So I'm stepping across this line.
02:15I'm leaving that baggage behind.
02:17And all I want you to look at is what shot am I going to play?
02:21Now, for many of us, if we're a higher handicapper, that might seem a little bit unrealistic.
02:26But how I'd bring this to life for you is imagine you're in the trees and you had to hit a low shot.
02:30Your environment would dictate what shot you're about to hit.
02:33Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I want that to be as best you can.
02:35Picture it, almost play a bit of a shot tracer out in your mind.
02:38And then when you're pulling the trigger, you've got a better chance of playing the shot.
02:44Beautiful. Slight fade straight down the middle.
02:48Yeah. And I think if you can employ this tactic, it means that you don't have to be without any technical thoughts on the golf course,
02:55because a lot of people struggle with having either too many technical thoughts or too few.
02:59This just gives you the structure that you need to be able to put it into play in the best way possible.
03:04And if you do that, you should be able to hit shots a little bit like Alex has just hit there.
03:08OK, so for this one, we're talking about the longest shots that you need to hit from the fairway.
03:12Shots that so many golfers, myself included, really struggle with.
03:16You know, your sort of 200 yard plus shots.
03:19And Alex, what's the advice to help people get a bit more performance out of their clubs in a scenario like this?
03:24I think first off, I would say for higher handicap golfers, have more hybrids in your bag than long irons.
03:31Just a little bit easier, a little bit more forgiving and they help you get it in the air.
03:34Yeah. And I think for most people watching this, they probably, a lot of people will already follow that tactic.
03:39So how do you get the most out of them? How do you make sure that you get the strike that you're looking for?
03:43Well, I think the misconception with these is we see it look a bit like a wood with a hybrid,
03:48or with our longer irons, maybe they get a bit chunkier and we put the ball a bit too far forward,
03:53but then we feel the need to help it up in the air.
03:56Now, actually in golf, it's a bit counterintuitive to do that.
04:00I want you to think about it the opposite way.
04:02I want you to move the ball a half a ball further back than you would naturally.
04:06OK. And focus on making a little bit of a divot target side.
04:10Yep. So a nice little analogy here, Neil, I've got this tee down on the ground,
04:14is think about you've got an out of bounds side behind the golf ball,
04:17an inbound side on the target side of the golf ball.
04:20And to start with, just try and make a bit of a bruising divot on that target side.
04:25Yes.
04:26And then take that same swing thought of the ball a little bit further back
04:29and making that divot on target side into your shot.
04:31Now, this requires a little bit of trust.
04:33Trust in the fact that the technology at work within the hybrid is going to help get the ball up in the air.
04:37So I recommend you do this at the range because the more shots that you hit,
04:40where you feel that you're slightly hitting down on it,
04:43the more comfortable you'll be in a scenario like this on the golf course.
04:46But as Alex says, have this as a swing thought on the course.
04:50It could help. Alex, the stage is set.
04:52You've got 225 yards over water to a tight flag.
04:55I can't imagine what could possibly go wrong.
04:58I'm going to try him at the bunker here.
04:59OK. Good idea.
05:01Here we go. So again, I've moved it a little bit further back
05:04and I'm just focusing on where I'm contacting that ground.
05:07Safe. Pushed.
05:12Safe.
05:12Not much of a divot, but I mean, I was taking a good look.
05:15And as you'd expect, Alex is a PGA pro, the divot is slightly after where that T-peg is.
05:21And if you can have that image in mind before hitting shots like this,
05:23it gives you a really positive outlook that could really make a difference.
05:27OK, so if you want to shoot better scores this year, then hitting the ball onto the green from
05:34scenarios like this is, I'd say, a bit of a must.
05:37A hundred percent.
05:38Yeah. And I think, Alex, what would be great here is if you could come up with some advice for me
05:44to help me become a bit more consistent from this sort of yardage. So avoiding hitting those kind
05:48of bad shots that end up costing you a bogey when you're in actually really a good position.
05:52Yeah, I think it's probably the most frustrating thing in golf. You feel like you've done the hard
05:55work from the tee and you get here. OK, so a nice rule of thumb. Anytime you've got a club that's
06:00seven iron and below, I want you to go and commit to a round of doing this and see what results you
06:05get of playing a three quarter shot. OK, right.
06:09So this example here is 144 yards would actually be a comfortable, maybe quite a hard nine iron for me.
06:16I'm going to go one club more. OK, I'm going to use my A time.
06:18And I'm going to follow this process. So I'm going to firstly grip down and I would have even
06:25amount of grip at the top of the bottom of the club. OK.
06:27Rather than being gripped right at the top. How much is that taking off the shot, do you think?
06:31For me, probably about five yards. OK.
06:32But I don't want you to think about it as sort of in detail as that. Just think about it. It's
06:36giving you more control. More control. So you've clubbed up, but giving yourself more control.
06:40Exactly. The next thing I want you to think about is just moving that ball a position back. So my
06:46A time would roughly be around, let's say, just left in my zip. I'm going to move it
06:50just to sort of on my zip, for example. OK.
06:52And then when you're in the shot, just make that shoulder height swing through to shoulder height
06:58swing and pose that finish for three seconds. As simple as that.
07:01It is simple. I think it's something that we could all do, or we could certainly all at least give it
07:06a go. As you say, in a practice round, see how well you score. It could become one of those things
07:10that becomes absolutely crucial to you when you're competing with a card in hand.
07:14100%. Go on then, Alex. Have a go for this.
07:17OK. So here we go. So I've already gripped down. I'm moving that ball position back,
07:23and I'm making that tail swing.
07:29Lovely. Nice draw back towards the flag. And it just looks controlled, doesn't it? I think you can
07:34just see from Alex's swing there that it's not rushing into the ball. It's controlled. It's easy.
07:39And that's where consistently good strikes come from. OK, so we're on the 12th hole here at the
07:44International Par 3, as you can see, stretched out behind me. And I suspect you already know where
07:48we're going with this. But there's some really important points that we need to make. Now,
07:52obviously, we're going to tell you to aim at the middle of the green in a scenario like this and take
07:56the flag out of play. The question is, Alex, how do you commit to doing that? Because a lot of
08:00mistakes come into play, even when people have the right intention in mind.
08:03A hundred percent. I think straight away, nice and simple, it's picking something out in the
08:07far ground. So for example, we've got these alignment sticks aimed at just on the end tree
08:13here. And that becomes a real good focus point. Anytime we just aim at the middle of the green,
08:17we can sort of maybe get drawn into the flag. So having that discipline, aiming about something
08:22in the far ground is where I go with it. Gives you a bit more focus. And then you're saying,
08:26in practice, you would actually lay some alignment sticks down on the golf course, would you?
08:29Yeah. If I'm going out on my own, which sometimes I do in the late summer
08:33evenings, I would pick out hard shots like this at my golf course. And firstly,
08:38put my yellow line down. So this would be my ball to target line. Really key that we put this one
08:42down first because then we can build our stance around with the blue alignment stick, our ball
08:48to target line. Not the other way around because what I see for most golfers, we tend to do a bit
08:54of a bad mistake here is aim our body. This would then translate to our ball to target line being a little
08:58bit right at that. And as you can see from this shot, that's not going to end well.
09:02No. And let's say you're
09:03playing in a competition. You don't have your alignment sticks with you. How are you focusing
09:08on this process in that scenario? So I think we can thank Bernard Langer for this one. I like to
09:13stand behind the golf ball, pick out my objective in the far distance. So we've said this tree,
09:18but I would go to the extreme of picking out a leaf on that tree or a branch. So aim small,
09:24miss small, have a better chance of actually getting the green and achieving our objective
09:29or having hopefully a two putt par, but then creating sort of an intermediate target of a
09:34divot. Yeah. So essentially everything goes back to this yellow line. Yeah. And you can see in the
09:39foreground, much easier to align yourself with something that's right here than it is something
09:43in the distance. 100%. Right. This shot is tricky. It's at 175 odd yards, isn't it, Alex? It's windy.
09:48You're going to have to hit it for us. I'm going to try. So here we go. Being disciplined. And like we
09:54said, if you're on your own, put these down. It's really good for you.
10:02Beautiful. Looks pretty good. Beautiful. It's actually finishing
10:07just to the right of that branch that you picked out there. That's perfect. Couldn't be better.
10:12So I think that that shows if you can have the discipline around how to aim in tricky scenarios
10:17around the golf course, that will build that positive mindset that you need to hit good shots.
10:21Okay. So the last tip on our list is about shot selection. Really important, especially when it
10:26comes to the short game, because there's so many different options. Yeah. Alex, we've got three
10:29golf balls set out in front of us here to explain the thinking. What is that thinking? So I use this
10:35little mantra and it's something that I do every time I play. If I can put it, put it, which we can here
10:41because we've only got a little bit of fringe to go through. If I can chip it, run it. Okay. And then, last resort,
10:47get it in the air. And now, a few things you've got to take into account when going through that mantra
10:51is obviously the lie, the obstacle in front of you. But in this situation, we've got nothing in front
10:56of us and we've just graded what club we're going to use with a difference in the lie.
11:00Okay, fine. So what's then the sort of thought process, the swing thought for each of these shots?
11:06So putting here, I mean, it's a little bit hard. A lot of people would go with, take it back this far,
11:12go through this far to have a gauge of distance. How I do it, I make maybe three or four more
11:17practice swings, but looking towards target. Right. Okay. That just gives you a feel for that
11:22distance. Exactly that. Just trying to see what I think I've got to put into the shot
11:27in order to get it to go that distance. What I like about that also is that it keeps you quite
11:31loose in your grip pressure. So it stops you getting too tense while you stood over the ball. And that's
11:35what you're going to need if you're going to judge the distance right. Exactly. Especially on long puts
11:38like this. If you start tensing up, you'll find it hard to get there. We actually need a little
11:42bit of a lighter grip pressure to help us get it that way. Go on then, hit this one for us.
11:46So it's going to move a little bit left to right as it goes over that brow. This is tricky.
11:54I think you judged that. I think that could be pretty good. Really well. Get out a bit.
11:59Go on. Very good. Nicely played. Okay. So then now you're faced with the chip and run shot,
12:05what's the swing thought, the technical approach to the chip and run? So I'm going to play this in my
12:10nine iron. I use my nine as my chip and run club. Seven iron for me, I just feel it comes off a bit
12:14too hot fast. Yeah. Yeah. And I like the fact that nine gives you a bit of loft as well. So how I play
12:20this, I grip right down towards the bottom of the grip. I walk in a little bit closer, trying to
12:27encourage that shaft angle to get a little bit steeper, pull my left foot back, put my weight on
12:31the left with the ball back and just keep the triangle back and through. And through. Simple
12:36as that. And again, trying to get it to roll out like a putt. Yeah. Very good. Simple. And I think
12:47that's the key there. If you keep it as simple as that, what can go wrong? I know what can go wrong.
12:52I'm sure you do too, but fewer things can go wrong. Okay. So this is the higher tariff shot,
12:56then this is the wedge shot. How are you thinking about this one? So I've gone with my 50 degree.
13:00Many of us might carry three or four different wedges in our bag. And this is sort of my lower
13:05lofted specialist wedge. How I play this one is very similar to the last one, to be honest with you.
13:10Okay. I wouldn't change too much apart from ball position. Okay. I'm just going to move it a little
13:15bit more towards the middle. Still keep my weight on my left and still keep this triangle in this sense
13:19because I don't really need to play it too high. You don't need to have loads of height, but you want
13:23that little bit more loft. You want that little bit more check control. Exactly. Okay. So I'm in,
13:28picturing the same. That's really well played. Hopefully you can see just how simple Alex has
13:37made those. Is that going to go in? Not quite. Hopefully you can see how simple Alex has made
13:43those three shots. And that's, I think, the key here. If you can make these shots as simple as
13:48possible, then you're giving yourself the best possible chance of getting it close and getting
13:52away with a par. So there you have it. That's our look at the five best on course swing tips.
13:57Hopefully you found that useful and some, a couple of nuggets in there that you can take with you
14:01onto the golf course the next time you play and it should help your scoring. If you've enjoyed the
14:05video, please do hit the like button. But that's it for now from The London Club. Thanks for watching.
14:09We'll see you next time.