Shots Every Golfer Needs To Know Around The Green And How To Play Them

Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video in which we’re going to take a look at the seven shots that every golfer needs. Now these are things from the the T all the way through to the green that are really going to help you shoot lower scores. They’re not necessarily the flashy shots that everyone wants to hit, but they certainly are the ones that are going to help you get your handicap down. So they are well worth learning now. The advice in this video comes from PGA Pro Alex Elliott. He’ll offer you everything you need to know and how to play these shots. Guys, if you need to the Golf Month channel, please do hit the subscribe button to make sure that you don’t miss any of our videos. Hit the like button if you like what you’re watching. But let’s head out now to the golf course here at West Hill and look at the seven shots that every golfer needs. If you want to keep your score ticking over, you’re going to need to be able to play this sort of half pitch shot. And it’s one that so many golfers struggle with, myself included. Alex, why is it that people struggle with this shot? You think for me it’s the lack of speed, so it’s a lack of commitment and not set it up to it correctly. Anything that we’re talking around short game, we’ve got to be set up to it correctly because we’ve not got the speed, we’ve not got the momentum, we’ve not got that time to compensate and hit the shot. Yeah, there’s nothing you can do about the fact that you can’t put much speed into the shot. It is what it is. But how? How do you set up to it properly so that you can take the kind of bad shots out of play? So straight away I want to feel as though I grip in the middle, so I’ve even amounts of grip at the top of the bottom. OK, so shortening the length of the club and if you think about it, we’re looking for accuracy, we’re not looking for distance. So all these things are everything that’s going to help us give control rather than give distance. OK fine. I like to feel ball in the middle of stance, shoulders parallel to target line but lower half, slightly open and this is the best thing for me. I’d I’d encourage a lot of you to make some one handed practice swings because it’s amazing anytime they make a one handed practice swing. Actually most people swing it on plane and most people swing it really good. So I would put my right hand onto my left elbow and just make some practice swings back and through, really trying to concentrate on can I create this L shape. So every time you do this, I’m not even thought about doing this. I’ve made the club feel light. It’s not feeling heavy and too far around the corner. It’s not too far out and in front of my hands. It’s not heavy in each direction. Anytime the club feels light, it’s a lot easier for me to control speed. Can I just ask you, why do you open up your hips? So what? What does that do for you? By opening your stance up a little bit, what? What does that do? Helps us clear that left side. So a lot of people go wrong when it’s very scoopy. So if I was to stand very square on this would encourage sort of a more scoopy nature to the motion, right? So I’d always start with a bit of a routine club. Down behind the ball, everything starts. Parallel ball in the middle of the stance, lower half opens, weight, goes left. Little bit of a waggle. Yeah, very nice. And we get a good bit of consistency. We’ve got a routine. Anytime we’ve got a routine, we can trust it. And the one thing you have to do with this shot is practice a stock shot, Alex. It’s something that everyone needs, right? Everyone needs a shot. They can rely on a swing thought that they can have. That’s really going to just help them get the ball in play. What’s your advice here? I think a stock shot, We’ve got to have it where when we’re under pressure or when we’re not playing our best golf and if we can get the ball around the golf course that way, that’s our best, best golf. I think that’s most impressive golf. Yeah, Stock shot. That gets us around the course. OK. So I think most golfers will tend to fade to slice it. So I think it’s working out on the day. Is it more fadey today or is it a little bit straighter? Because sometimes we have days where we feel better and it becomes a bit more of a straight shot. So I tend to get 5 golf balls before I got on the golf course and maybe these are my last five before I actually walk to the first tee. No real swing thoughts. What I would try and do here is no swing thoughts at all. No, I want you to at this point. We’ve gone through that process of working on a swing thought and maybe getting a feeling to the swing. What happens if I naturally make a swing? What ball flight comes out? Because if we can let the ball flight dictate our swing, then that’s a great place to be in. OK how many times have we’ve all done this? No matter level of golfer, we’ve tried so hard to get it into a certain position. We’re not really worried about the ball flight. So for your last five shots, make a swing. Let’s see what ball flight comes out, right. OK. So when you’re out on the golf course, then Alex, do you not you play with no swing thought you’re just focusing on the target and the ball fly. I, I, I separate it like this. I have kind of like a virtual line which is thinking zone, playing zone, right. So I’m quite heavily thinking about technique and swing thoughts right here. As soon as I step over the line, I let the shot dictate the swing, Right. OK, Because I use a theory we all practice to improve our technique. So we’ve got to trust that actually improving our technique while we are improving our technique, so it becomes an inherent movement. So and keep reminding me what my kind of blue star, my Gold Star, my blueprint is. So when I get over here, I trust that what I’ve done in my routine is going to somewhat come into my gold swing. But simply shot dictates the swing. OK, so your stock shot would tend to be a little fade, would it? Yeah, definitely, definitely. Some days it comes out a little bit straighter. So it’s for me just finding out what it is. And I would tend to split these five golf balls up, three with my 7-9 and two with driver go on, then hit a couple for us. There’s one, a little bit of a fade, a little fade. So straight away I’ve got a little bit of feedback. Again, no real thoughts, just seeing what ball flight comes out. Again, a little bit of a fade. So I’m getting some feedback right now, knowing that out on the golf course today, I can expect a little bit more of a fade. Yeah. And you can see now that that’s building a picture in Alex’s mind should be building a picture in your mind of exactly the sort of shape you’ll have. So when you get into the golf course, you can have a positive image in the in your mind before you play the shot. And if you can do that, you should be able to get the ball around the golf course in fewer shots. OK, so I guess this one, Alex, is on the list because it’s one of the most intimidating shots that people face, isn’t it? So having to hit a chip shot over a bunker, it’s tricky for anybody in this scenario. You’ve got a little bit more green to work with with the flag, but if the flag was a little bit closer to the bunker, this would be a very intimidating shot for a lot of people. How do you play it? I think a lot of people go wrong with this kind of shot straight away. Is especially if this flag was a little bit closer is the Phil Mickelson million dollar shot of trying to land it just over the bunker and take all the risk into play. You’re right. Yes I I always try and think if there’s not a lot of agreement between the fringe and the flag over bunker, try and land it in the hole. So I always overcompensate and take 1015 even 20 foot past the flag right. So you’re taking the bunker out there. I think for a lot of golfers if we can avoid going in here we avoid that card wrecker and we can keep our score going that that also begs the question how do you avoid hitting it 50 yards over the back. So the set up that I like to use is, is ball position in middle of the stance choose my most lofted wedge which is my 58°. I then really like want to feel a little bit of separation between upper and lower. So I feel like my shoulders point towards or parallel with target but my lower halves and my feet and my hips are slightly open. If we think in the long game everything that we’re looking for is to be open, impact and be through to target. Whereas in the short shot we’ve not got the speed, we’ve not got the momentum for that. So it’s almost like pre empting where we want to be. OK, fine. So I lay the field, just get that split and almost feel my stance is very, very narrow ball in the middle underarm throwing it through towards target and really trust that I’ve got to put the speed. And now if I took a really long back swing, I might tend to de accelerate into the ball to control the distance that way, right? However far back you go is how far through we go. Let’s imagine the flag is a little bit closer to us than it is because it with this shot it would be a slightly more straightforward shot. But if the flag was a bit closer to us, so again I would picture landing into the hole, I won’t open the face too much. I’ve chosen my most lofted wedge and trust the fact that the loft is going to come from what club I’ve taken. OK, ball in the middle, weight slightly left, and trust that it’s going to land over roll just past the flag. And I’d always say to every single person we’d rather have a 10 foot put past the flag or even 20 foot put than be in the bunker in front of us. Yeah, if you can devote a little bit of time to that in practice, because it’s the sort of shot you’re going to need from time to time out on the golf course. And avoiding the bunker and avoiding hitting over the back is the only way to keep your score intact. OK, so this one is about the punch. Now, a lot of people watching this might think to themselves, well, you know, I want to master, you know, a normal golf shop before I develop the punch. But actually it’s a shot well worth practising, isn’t it? Because it can teach you an awful lot about your game. Definitely. I think what most people looking for with the Ryan’s hands ahead of the golf ball, hit, hit the ball and turf, that’s everything. This shot sort of tending itself to be. So it can actually have some great benefits. Technical works. Yeah. OK, so how do you play it? How can people play in the sort of most simple and effective way? So First off, we’ve got to think of like we’re trying to lower the ball flight, so we want a little bit less speed and less spin. So less speed and less spin. A little bit more gripping. Yeah, so, so, so by having when you have more spin, more backspin, it doesn’t matter what level you are. I think a lot of people associate backspin with like Tor level, but everyone creates backspin. The harder you hit it, the more you create, the higher the ball go. That’s the basic physics right? Exactly. Yeah. So shorten the lever. So may ultimately making gripping the Golf Club closer towards the steel, all towards the back of our stance. So I try and tend to use my reference points as well. My buttons are on my shirt just to write my buttons no specific point really start everything feeling like it’s working parallel to target. I then open up the lower half and weight goes left. Why do you open up the lower half now? Without going to too much detail, the more you hit down on it, the more light. This ball is going to want to squirt a little bit out to the right. So I open up my stance and feel as though I swing down my feet line and hit down on it that way. Right. OK, go on then hit one for us. Then Alex, can you club down, gripping down more towards the steel? Start with everything parallel and that’s a really nice point. Open up the lower half, weight goes left, Swing down the feet line and keep the weight left. And I’m really trying to feel like I make a three quarter back swing to three quarter. Yeah. And you should notice that it doesn’t look like Alex is really, I think I have a certainly I have a tendency to try and hit the ball too hard when I’m doing it and then you just create that ball, you create the sort of spinny flight that you’re looking to avoid. So it’s really important, isn’t it? Yeah. And and I I kind of attach that to Gears of a car. So we probably, you hit our normal shots tonight and kind of gear four out of five, whereas I try and feel it more in gear 3A, little bit smoother, a little bit slower. Yeah. OK. So our next one relates to how to chip from a bad line. Alex, we have given you a particularly bad line and it’s one of those situations that you’re going to need to have a shot that helps you in this scenario because this can be a real card wrecker, can’t it? Yeah, I mean we’ve all been late in the round, 16th, 17th, I’ve just missed the green and we we end up in this. Yes, you need to find a technique that is going to take the Duff and the thin and even actually from a lie like this, the double hit out of the equation, that’s what I’m worried about. So, So what what what are you doing here to escape and get a good contact on the ball. For me there’s two factors. It’s club selection and how we settled to the ball. These two things have got to be on point to allow us to I think our level expectation. We don’t expect to get it too close here. It’s like I said before, get it on the green, worst case scenario bogey, not turning that into a double or a triple. So I always like to advocate using a more specialist wedge. So we have wedges that are part of the set, sometimes a bit more of a cavity on the back. This is more like a specialist wedge bounce, got a little bit more bounce on than a traditional set out wedge out of a set and this just helps us in terms of interaction on the ground. So my preferred wedge for this is 50 degree 52 or even 48 could be as long as it’s a specialist wedge will really help us play this shot. OK, so fine, technically then yeah. How are you changing it from your normal chipping technique? So my normal chipping technique, I will stand a little bit open. I wouldn’t be as close to it, this whole my soul. The club would be on the ground and I would feel very similar to a chip and run shot that I would underarm, throw it back and through. Whereas this setup changes completely. I like to feel I get the toe on the ground, I walk a little bit closer to it and I grip it just short of the steel. So all I’m trying to feel is that I keep my weight left and I get the toe brushing the ground. So ultimately we feel as though the toe is working and scooping this ball up it’s like pops it up. OK, so the best way I can describe, it’s like a knife and butter. It’s like a sharp edge getting into that bad lie and popping it out and up. OK, go on then show us how, how it’s done. So we’re in there. I have a few practice swings. I think it’s important to have a practice swing and commit to this because a lot of people would see this and be like, ah yeah, and probably also to practice it from time to time. Definitely. You know, it’s very tempting when you’re practising your chipping just to give yourself a perfect lie and practice those ones that just spin a little bit on the second bounce. But actually, in reality, it’s these shots that are going to really help you out. These are the ones that keep momentum. You know if you get up and down for par here or not even that you just don’t make a card wrecker, then you’re going to feel good walking on the next tee. Yeah so a few practice swings just get the toe interact on the ground try and feel. It’s a more of a wooden motion no wheel set in the wrist. I try and feel my thumbs are really pointing down to the ground walking in weight left. Oh it’s really well played do you know that Got a little sheet he bounce but it’s fine. I mean, from from there, I’m more than, I’m more than happy with that shot. It’s a really good shot. It’s probably a little bit unlucky actually. So you know, it’s one of these things that can be tempting not to practice this shot. But when you are confronted with a situation like this out on the golf course, you’ll need technique. Hopefully Alex’s that he’s showing you there will help you. OK. So the next one relates to putting and in particular putting from long range. If you can get down in two from this area more often, it’s going to make a massive difference to your momentum and your scoring. And it’s just going to help you all round the whole of your game. And it’s how do you prepare and then what do you do to make sure that you’re getting the ball consistently right in terms of the distance. So preparation is key, getting the speed of the greens out on the course. I’m picturing a bin laid around the whole, so not really from this distance looking to hold it. If we do absolutely fantastic. I think we can get into a bit of trouble trying to hold a put of this length and it go in three to that four feet. Yeah yeah. So what do you do pre round then to help you get a better judgement for pace? This might sound quite counter intuitive really, but I don’t put towards a hole. I have two golf balls. What I would do is I’d put into free space and I’d almost try and play balls. I’d try and hit them a second ball onto my first because if I can do that, it’s a lot harder to do that than it is to get it inside that bin lid. OK, So what? So why do you take the hole out of the equation then? So there’s no real outcome in terms of something that I can make it relative to the course. So I’m literally tuning into not actually holding a put but getting pace. I think a lot of golfers think they’re better at pace than they are reading the put and they don’t actually tune into this enough. So then, Alex, what are you doing on the course in a situation like this to make sure that you get that pace right? What I would do is similar to what we might do on a long chip and run. I would walk half the distance, make a triangle between me and the whole walk back. And this gives us a great perception of distance, right? Yeah. So looking at something this way, we can make sometime look a little bit shorter. Yeah. Short it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And just taking a walk on that journey, you get a little bit of feedback. Is it uphill? Is it downhill? Is it left to right? Because sometimes we’ve all been there. We’ve looked at a put from this side, we’ve got on the other side, and we’re like, it looks totally different. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. So it gives us a real good instincts come into play. It gives us a real good view of what the whole and what the put is like. So as I’m preparing for a put, I’m looking at the hole and making that stroke back and through asking myself a question. Is that enough? If it’s not, take a little bit further back, a little bit further through. Really getting some great feedback for hitting that put over the golf ball. Now one look towards target, pull the trigger. Yeah, very good. Now we’ve made that stress free. We’re more than happy from 3540 feet walking up to that tapping it in. We may even mark it for to be sure, but definitely take stress free. Put those tips into play and it should help you whenever you’re in this sort of situation and you’ve got a scorecard in your hand and you need to keep it ticking over. OK, so this one is about the chip and run. Now, I’m sure it’s a shot that most of you have played, but how many of you actually practice it? And I think that’s the the key point, isn’t it, Alex? Because definitely, you know, it’s a shot that, that technically there’s not an awful lot of sort of difficulty with it, but it does require practice if you want to, you know, consistently get the ball up and down. Yeah. And I think because it’s not a glamorous shot, it’s not the shot people see on TV all the time. It’s like I don’t really want to practice that one too much. But I I tend to get a lot of people especially like playing lessons things like that. Using a rule. If we can put it, let’s put it. So in this situation here we probably can’t put this. I know the turf’s great here. It’s quite a long shot. Really. Yeah. So next resort in my head I’m going right if I can chip it, let’s run it. So yes, I can chip and run this. Now I try and think of it in a simple analogy of if I was going to underarm throw it or and the strings, the badminton racket here ultimately in my palm or the club face, how much impetus would I have to put into it. I know it’s a lot easier for me to land it 5 yards in front of me than 25 yards next to the flag on a fivepence piece. OK. So when you’re planning the shot, how are you figuring out where to land it, how much to run it, what club to hit all of those elements? So I would tend to, in a shot like this, maybe have a little bit of a walk. Yeah. And especially because there’s a little bit of a raise here and get to a point and sort of give myself an angle from the side of what does this shot look like, because from the side you get a much better perception of distance. Yeah, when we’re looking this way at something, it looks a little bit shorter. A little bit shorter, yeah. So I tend to get to the side of it, have a little bit of a look, always walk to where I want to land it on as well. So you’ve almost got a reference of even subconsciously. Well, that was about 10 yards. I know I can back myself to a 10 yard chart. And I think most people watching this one as well, no matter what your handicap is. Whereas if I was trying to land it with my 58 off this lie as well, which is, which is tight. Yeah. What would be the mistakes that people make with this shot? I think like like what I said there is standing to it like a full shot, letting the club work to around the body. OK And then I always think grab, make gravity on your side. So getting closer to the golf ball and I use this term lightly straighter, back, straighter through. It’s never quite straight back, straight through, but it allows you to easily drop the Golf Club on the back of the ball rather than too much around the corner. We’re sort of fighting it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And scooping it. OK, so everything’s on your side, then a little bit closer, a little bit easier and make it a little bit more wooden. OK, go on. Let’s have a look. There you go. Really good. And I think the point about this shot is, Alex, that it’s just, it’s one of the safest shots you can hit. You know, you are prone to the odd, you know, chunky chip around the greens or thinning one through the back, and you’re playing in competition. It’s just a fairly easy shot to play. You know, you’re not going to make double bogey from this scenario. No, I would say Your worship and runs never going to be as worse as you’re the worst lofted shot. Yeah, OK, so practice that. Hopefully you’ll improve. There you have it. That was our list of the seven most important goal shots that every golfer needs. Guys, before you go, please do hit the pause button and let us know firstly if you think we’ve missed any, if they think there are any shots that really would help players get round as fewer shots as possible. And also if you do use any of these techniques regularly, let us know. We’d be interested to hear your thoughts, but that’s all now from West Hill. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time.