In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Pro and YouTuber Alex Elliott. They discuss the 7 ways to play better golf without changing your swing. These are all the things you can do that will make a big difference out on the course and in practice. You needn't make any major technical swing changes to play better, instead a smarter all-round approach could help improve your handicap far quicker. Try putting some of Alex's ideas into play and you should notice an improvement!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello everyone Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video which we are looking at
00:08the seven ways to play better golf without changing your swing. This is all about how to
00:15practice and how to think on the golf course so that you have a smarter approach so that you don't
00:20have to go through the whole process of rebuilding your swing and making major technical changes.
00:25The advice in this video comes from Alex Elliott. He's our PGA Pro and he offers some really simple
00:30and effective ways for you to play better without changing your swing. Right let's head
00:34out onto the golf course here at West Hill and find out what number seven on the list is.
00:42Okay so the first one on the list Alex is no flag golf. Now you may have noticed the 16th green
00:48behind us here at West Hill there's no flag on it. There's no flag on it for a reason Alex. What's
00:52the thinking here? I think a lot of us when we get down to the kind of like our seven,
00:56eight, nine iron or even six iron depending on the level of player we get that kind of
01:01green light in our head where we go right we've got to go for that flag and it could bring in trouble
01:05like say for example on this hole here if it was tight against the right then straight away we're
01:10bringing in those bunkers we're gonna have to miss it a little bit. Yeah and you're also going slightly
01:14uphill and if you're leaking it a bit right it's going to come up a little bit short as well so all of
01:17those things are going to count against you. Exactly all I would say is if we could hit one more green
01:21around that's going to have a massive effect on our handicap over the season. I have one more green
01:26around strokes gain tells us we've got more chance of hole in the putt yeah so we look at the knock-on
01:31effect of this in confidence I just really believe that if you could go right okay I've got a green
01:36it's 15 yards either side of that flag and my virtual flag's now in the middle then our margin for
01:41error is so much bigger. This does take quite a lot of discipline I'll warn you because there are times
01:47when you just can't help it can you but if you do play towards the middle of the green and if you
01:51can hit the ball where you want to which is the other thing isn't it yeah but if you can do that
01:54then you're never going to be left with that long apart I guess. No and I say it's amazing a lot of
01:59the time when I've tried this with people like in the lesson they actually even if they hit and miss
02:03it and they slightly leak it to the right and the flag's on the right they sometimes hit it closer
02:07yeah so it's it's I think it's just measuring your expectations and measuring where your strengths and
02:12weaknesses are and realizing that okay well if I'm a slight fade of the golf ball slight draw the
02:17golf ball even if I am at the middle I'm never going to be too far away from the flag. Go on
02:21then Alex it's I'll let you into a little trade secret here it's very early in the morning Alex
02:26hasn't warmed up he hasn't hit a ball we're going to put him under pressure and see how good he is
02:30so one thing I would mention you know when you're going to do this because we've taken the flag out
02:34here if there was a flag when you were playing I would pick out a target in the far ground okay and use
02:39that as kind of my focus point okay otherwise it just becomes a little bit too wide okay so what
02:43are you looking at here well there's a silver birch I think it's a silver birch yep yeah straight
02:48through onto the middle of the green that is exactly what I'm trying to hoe my targeting on
02:52so if the flag was either side of that I would focus on the tree all right
03:02that's gone straight at the so tell you what it's about three yards left of the silver birch
03:07do you know what Alex it's a tad long you've taken maybe half a club too much but from wherever
03:11that's finished it's not far away you haven't got much work to do to make sure that you walk off with
03:15a par and if you can keep your score ticking over if you can keep making cars ultimately your your
03:22handicap your scores are definitely going to improve
03:28okay Alex so you found yourself in a spot of bother here and as I'm sure that most people
03:33watching this will be thinking to themselves you're going to tell them to chip out but it's not quite
03:37simple as that no I like to use the word smart golf so every time you've got a situation it could be
03:43from the fairway to a tight flag or predominantly like we have here I've got to fade it around keep
03:48it low get it towards the green or I could chip it out ask yourself the question how many times out of
03:5410 could I pull this shot off and keep me being able to advance towards the green I like to use the
04:00eight out of ten rule yes so anything less than eight out of ten I would take the smarter safer option
04:06possibly if it if it's a question where you go yeah I can pull that shot off then it's a risk worth
04:11taking so let me ask you this question then Alex what what quantifies a successful outcome from here
04:18being on the green being around the green being in a bunker short of the green what would you say
04:22I'll take that over a chip out I think what I would say here is if I could advance this inside 100 yards
04:29then I've got a better opportunity of getting this ball closer to the flag versus chipping it outside
04:34leaving myself 200 180 yards say I'm less likely to hit it closer to the green whereas if I could get
04:39this out here on this par five inside 100 or around 100 yards no matter what level of player we are we'll
04:45probably feel a little bit more comfortable with a wedge than we do say a four iron or three iron
04:49now see eight out of ten threshold to me sounds quite high yeah I'd probably yeah I wouldn't describe
04:56myself as naturally the most aggressive golfer but I'd probably be working to about five out of ten which
05:00I think illustrates the problem yeah and but I mean I think it could be a sliding scale depending
05:05on your level of player if you feel like you're less likely to be more repeatable under pressure
05:12in this situation then possibly it might be like a six five out of ten or maybe it's saying what okay
05:17well maybe I need to take a little bit more of potentially a risk because we look at all the top
05:21guys on tour and they are the elite of the elite but they take on some of the shots that we wouldn't
05:26dream of and I know they're probably thinking because they can control their ball a little bit
05:30better than us yes but I believe that we've got to be smart aggressive sometimes okay yes okay so
05:36that begs the question what out of ten would you rank this shot I've got to say eight haven't I
05:42no I would probably give this an eight out of ten be just because I'm quite comfortable fading the
05:47golf ball okay I also carry a three iron which I know I can hit relatively low and it suits my eye if
05:53it was a hook around the tree right then it probably might be a shot so even though this
05:58looks like a really difficult golf shot you're about an eight so you would go for this versus
06:02the chip out yeah well then that unfortunately you're gonna have to do it for us then Alex okay
06:09I feel a little bit in danger here Alex I'm not gonna lie gotta trust me
06:12that's an absolutely amazing shot that's probably gonna get about 20 yards short yeah if it wasn't
06:25quite so wet that would be on the green I think it goes to show you've got to know your game you've
06:29got to know as Alex said what your strengths and weaknesses are if you're happier hitting a fade
06:33than a draw then there are going to be certain circumstances where you will be able to pull shots
06:36off where otherwise you wouldn't so understand your own game be realistic and then come up with
06:41a plan if it's eight out of ten whether you go for it or not it might just make a big difference to
06:45your scores okay so the next one is a great way of practicing if you're out on the golf course on
06:55your own a bit of performance practice that's really going to sharpen you up Alex talk about a tip
07:00here deliberate miss it's going to sound a bit contradictory of terms we don't want to ever try
07:04and miss the green but this element of this game really kind of tunes you into where is a good miss
07:11your short game skills and also makes it a little bit more fun and interesting okay over say three
07:16holes okay it's easy just to go out and mundanely hit shots and not really take anything in okay fine so
07:22in a situation like this you've got about 150 yards into the green you're looking to miss the green
07:26yep where are you looking to miss it so for this flag here where it would be a nice simple chip if
07:31i could miss it front left i've then got a simple chip and run up so i'll get a point if i missed the
07:36green yeah two point two more points if i then got it up and down from there okay and minus two if i
07:42actually hit the green okay fine so over the three holes say if you played it when you were on your own
07:46there's nine points available so you can measure your score out of nine yeah i think if we could really
07:52go and say well imagine i was now hitting it towards this small bunker and that was my good
07:56miss on this hole you could use the same theory and say well if i can hit it into a five yard wide
08:01bunker i can hit it onto a 45 for sure but wide green yeah so it's actually harder to do yeah the
08:07deliberate mess let's do it okay so i'm gonna go for short left here just on line with this big tree
08:13oh get down don't get on the green oh just short just just just short uh you're in danger of losing
08:31two points there but you haven't uh so you're one point up uh now quick question for you do you have
08:36to chip it or can you putt it completely up to you aim of the game now is just to get it up and down okay
08:42fine and i guess the idea here is the more you get it up and down the more you're growing your
08:45confidence you're testing your short game skills it's good for a whole host of different reasons
08:48exactly and this becomes less pressure on hitting greens then so you're probably going to hit more
08:52greens just because you feel a bit more relaxed more relaxed okay fine let's see if you can i would
08:57usually put this here but just for this bit of mud on the front of the green here i'm just going to
09:01try and lift it over it yeah it's wet it's a bit dewy isn't it so rolling out towards the hole
09:12hurry hurry go
09:21yes saved to two points two points there you go so put this into play whenever you get the chance to
09:26play golf on your own give this a go it will build your confidence from the fairway and around the
09:31greens and it could make a big difference to your scoring
09:34so neil we've got 177 into the last tier yes what would be your usual approach to hitting
09:45a shot one that potentially you're not very comfortable with uh good question well i have
09:50learned over the years that i'm better off having a very clear picture in my mind okay for the sort
09:55of shot i'm trying to play so i would definitely be trying to work out whether i want to hit a fade
10:00or draw now i'm not the best golfer in the world but i can hit you know i can try and do that so
10:05you're more away from a technical swing thought then yes although i will have one swing okay and
10:11that's important i think having one kind of gives you a feeling what you're trying to achieve
10:14what i want to get you into here is i think a lot of people have too much going on in their head yes
10:19so potentially some means sometimes people got five swing thoughts yes and that's clutter yes
10:25so this is all about asking good questions what i want you to do is before every single shot
10:32whether that be a tee shot chip shot iron shot we've got here or even a putt i still have a
10:36question what shot do i see fine even if you ask it in your head stand behind the golf ball i think
10:42straight away it's a lot easier for you to paint that picture in your mind and if you're not something
10:46that's very visual i always think of you know the shot tracer yes thing you see on tv yeah almost
10:52trying to imagine one of those i think that's a really good way to go about this fine and
10:55question i've got for you then alex is you don't want to be negative with any shot you want to hit
11:00we all understand how important it is to stay positive and yet it's also really important to
11:05know where you can't miss so how do you stay positive whilst also paying attention to where
11:09you can't hit it i think the thing you've got to realize is all these top players they
11:13they will have negative thoughts i think it's just about how you deal with them
11:16and it's it's realizing that if i have a negative thought don't let that become
11:20so much of an objective in your shots okay fine i think it'd be unrealistic for us to go right okay
11:26you'll never think negative even though we want to try and think as positive as we can
11:29i would really try and hone myself on a really clear detailed image said you like to fade it
11:35you like to draw it i know we hit a few shots before draws probably your go-to shot yeah so i'll
11:40be really detailed in the shot that i see towards the green okay fine and in a shot like this
11:45where you know it's one of my i'll be honest one of my least favorite shots here at west hill i always
11:52worry that i'm going to hit it into the clubhouse um so should i be just sticking with my normal shot
11:57shape which would be a slight draw or should for instance i feels like naturally to me this favors
12:02a slight fade but would you suggest i should stick with the draw you've answered the question there
12:06don't you you've said what shot do i see yeah this this this shot now favors a natural fade
12:10so that's where i would go well the picture's telling you the story if it was really where
12:16when you're super super not comfortable with and it was potentially a little bit further away
12:19i would potentially revert to type so your draw yes but where you've come out to me there and you
12:24said this shot prefers a fade you're telling yourself what you see okay fine good okay fine so
12:29i'll try and hit a little fade in here then trying to draw a very clear picture in my mind for what to do
12:34see if i can do it
12:36beautiful shot start line was a bit off i pushed it a bit but i faded it
12:49it's over the bunker it's okay isn't it i'll take it
12:53okay so the next one on our list relates to the way in which you build a strategy for the holes that
13:03you're playing out on the golf course in particular alex the difficult holes that you
13:07yeah and what's the thinking here um ultimately i think it's just highlighting the way the course
13:12designer wanted you to play it rather than getting into your own routine i think we're all probably
13:17guilty of this we get to say the fifth the sixth the sixteenth oh i always hit driving here or i always
13:22hit three wood here and we just get into a routine of doing that bringing in trouble probably making
13:26the same mistakes every single time so if we take the 16th here at west hills if we look at it
13:31back towards the tee and we said right okay if we wanted to hit to the middle of the green here
13:36well we'd probably want to be down the right hand side as we look at it so the left hand side from
13:40the tee from the tee yep and it really opens up the green takes away the trouble on the right side
13:44which you can't see here there's some bunkers there and for me it really believed that it doesn't
13:48highlight the trouble it really highlights the positions you want to put the ball in it's interesting you
13:53should say that because actually it's the first time i've really looked at this hole from this angle
13:57and certainly the left hand side as you play it is a much better place to miss it as well because
14:02the trouble's not as severe on that left side you can get away with hitting a bit of a hook whereas
14:06if you leak it out to the right you're in a lot more trouble and it's the sort of thing that you'll
14:10only really notice i think when you look at the hole from the green back towards the tee exactly i think
14:15you don't look at it subjectively as well because if you're looking at it from the tee to the green
14:19you know you've got to then play a shot there and it might influence you that way whereas if you
14:23stood here now you know you've played the hole it could be in a practice round it could just be
14:27walking that hole and it just gives you that impression of right okay well if i put it there
14:31put it here and put it there i know golf's not as simple as that but i think if we can start to plan
14:36our rounds better we take the trouble out of play so there you have it think about it slightly
14:40differently pick the three hardest holes the three holes on your local course that you play the worst
14:44think about them from the green back to the tee maybe come up with a slightly different strategy
14:49you might just shoot those scores
14:51right neil i'm now your caddy roles reversed yes we've got a flag here we've got 120 yards it's
15:01quite tight on the right i want you to give me what color you think this flag is on a traffic light
15:06system so red amber or green um well i would say it's a green light flag it's 120 yards i'm a five
15:14handicapper so um i definitely would be going for this put it that way yeah it's for me because
15:20it's quite close to that bunker and because there's a little bit of danger there it's i would
15:25kind of classify this as an amber okay fine just because i think it's one of those sucker pins where
15:31you could potentially bring in a lot of danger i would think about flags and scenarios and wind and
15:37conditions and that would give me an overall opinion on what i would classify okay so so you're saying
15:42to me that before you hit every shot into a green you're kind of having a simple traffic light
15:48system and green being absolutely go for it uh amber being play away from it a bit what's what's red
15:54red would be one where i would kind of take middle of the green so we sort of spoke about on a previous
15:59tip where we would just say no flag golf and that would be where if i miss that green at all costs
16:04then it was going to be bogey say for example water island green bunker short-sided that would be
16:10where it would be a red flag but that could also be on the situation as well like say this is howling
16:15into the wind yes this then may change or downwind vice versa it may change more towards the green
16:21yeah so it all depends on the situation and that's why i want you to think of it as like a fluid system
16:25okay depending on the day depending on the weather but having a category of flags definitely allows you
16:30a bit more of a game plan so where shall i aim okay so what i would do here because i'm i think
16:36from a caddy's point of view i'll be saying right okay five handicappers 120 yards into a little bit
16:41wind but it's a tight flag i'll be saying this is an amber flag so if we could aim roughly five ten
16:47yards left of it okay see the fence in the background yes that would be where i'd concentrate
16:50in my aim because if we could still get pin high we're still gonna have a chance of a birdie right i'm
16:55going to take one more club okay because it's as you say it is getting into the wind a bit and i will
16:59do my best i will do my best to aim away from the flag even though my natural instinct is to be
17:06aggressive from here i'll aim a little bit left of it
17:09well i've pulled it a bit it's very safe
17:19but it's on the green
17:22okay so number one on our list is something that every single golfer no matter what your ability
17:33can do alex what is it consistent alignment routine from the tee i think it's just worth
17:38noting that i think people get into bad habits with alignment i think notoriously people will aim
17:44a little bit to the right swing a little bit left and it can really bring in bad swing habits and bad
17:51swing habits can lead to bad shots out in the golf course so i kind of think of it as like a three
17:56stage process that is really simple to follow you know i'll put this alignment stick down the ground
18:01here this is going to be our ball to target line so if we look directly down this this is just pointing
18:07just right at that second bunker on the left yeah so for me there i've got my ball target line
18:13and i would go trace that from the target to an intermediate target so we've got an alignment stick
18:18down here but i appreciate if you're playing your competition on a saturday or a sunday
18:22this can't be down i would just pick out a divot a leaf and an impression on the ground
18:27that will form your intermediate target between the bunker we've got here and the ground
18:32i always then place my club down try and make like a right angle with my driver between the crown
18:37and that imaginary line yeah and then try and build my stance around that so point number two
18:43i would really try and feel that i got parallel lines with my yeah like you're stood on a train
18:48tracks exactly that and people may argue slight for draw slight for fade but i really believe if
18:53you can get consistently aiming towards a certain target it's going to make you feel a little bit
18:58more comfortable a little bit more of a better routine yeah and i think any routine your golf swing
19:03especially like on the first tee coming down the last with a good score it's a good place it's
19:07definitely going to help you handle pressure that little bit better exactly so so go on then
19:11just run through the process don't necessarily need to sort of slow it down just talk us through
19:16kind of exactly what you're doing and then hit one trace my ball to target line picking my
19:20intermediate target out club down feet parallel waggle the shoulders one look towards the target
19:28and pull the trigger
19:30and you flush one straight down the middle very good now how many of you out there do what alex has
19:38just done take the time just to make sure that you're focused on getting the right alignment if
19:43you don't be sure to put that into your game this year it might just make a big difference
19:47so there you have it that was our list of the seven ways to play better golf without changing your swing
19:53guys if you've liked the video please do hit the like button and also comment below what have you
19:58done in your game that's made a big difference leave some comments below share the ideas around we'd be
20:03really interested to hear your thoughts and that's all from west hill for now thank you for watching
20:07we'll see you next time