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In this video, Neil Tappin and Katie Dawkins discus how to take your game from the range to the golf course.
Transcript
00:00 Now, one of the biggest areas that golfers often struggle with is how do you take your
00:06 golf game from the range with you out onto the golf course?
00:11 We've all been there before where you've hit it well on the range, preparing for a big
00:14 round of golf, and then you get onto the golf course and suddenly all those good shots suddenly
00:19 elude you and you play really poorly and it's very demoralizing.
00:22 So that's what this video is all about.
00:24 And we're going to offer some really simple and effective advice.
00:27 Now the tips come from Katie Dawkins.
00:29 She's one of the Golf Monthly Top 50 coaches and she'll offer you a framework for practice
00:34 and a way in which you can put that practice into play when you're on the golf course.
00:39 Now a lot of this is about information gathering.
00:42 And so that's why in this video we've partnered up with Garmin.
00:45 They've got a whole host of different technologies you can use both when you're on the range
00:49 and also when you're out on the golf course to help you gather all that information you
00:52 need to make smarter choices while you're on the golf course.
00:56 Right.
00:57 So we're going to split this video up into three sections.
00:59 Off the tee, ball striking, and pitching.
01:01 And we're going to start right here on the range.
01:06 Okay, so we are going to start with the game off the tee.
01:17 And I guess the biggest difference between the range and the golf course is consequence.
01:22 When you're hitting balls on the range, you've got this big expanse to hit at.
01:25 Yeah.
01:26 There's no consequence.
01:27 It's just a matter of if you don't get it right, does it?
01:28 So how do you make sure that your range session then is as valuable to you as possible when
01:33 you're working through it?
01:34 So you have to keep it more in line with how you would play on the course.
01:37 And the way that I do that is I go through my pre-shot routine every single time.
01:41 So every shot I hit, I'll walk behind the ball and I'll prepare myself and rehearse
01:46 the swing.
01:47 Right.
01:48 And then I'll come in and hit the shot.
01:49 Exactly how I do in the course.
01:50 And that, so when you're on the golf course, that puts you in a more positive state of
01:53 mind, does it?
01:54 Yeah, because I've, I trust it.
01:55 I trust my routine.
01:56 It's almost like having a safety blanket.
01:59 That's interesting because I think a lot of people know they have to have a pre-shot
02:01 routine and it's something they use on the golf course.
02:03 But how many of you watching this use it on the range as well?
02:07 And Katie's talking about doing it on every single shot.
02:09 It requires real discipline.
02:11 Okay, Katie, why don't you hit one for us?
02:13 Okay.
02:14 We have the Garmin Approach R10.
02:15 A portable launch monitor on the ground.
02:18 So that will give me some feedback on the app about where it's going.
02:21 You've got nowhere to hide.
02:22 Sorry about that.
02:23 That's fine.
02:24 Lovely shot.
02:25 Slight fade, straight down the middle.
02:26 And that has gone.
02:27 It's carried 195.
02:28 It's gone 212.
02:29 So a good shot, a nice shot.
02:30 But one of the first shots that we've actually hit this morning, I think as you, you know,
02:31 as you warm up, you'll probably start to hit it a bit further.
02:32 But the question is, how do you then prepare specifically for the game off the tee with
02:33 the different clubs that you'd be looking to hit?
02:34 What would be the way you'd do it?
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10:54 With your iron play, this is all about good quality ball striking when you're on the golf course.
11:00 You've given us a really good drill to use on the range to make sure you're getting that ball first, ground second contact that we all need.
11:06 But you're still on the golf course here, you've got trouble all in front of you, you still need to focus on that good quality contact.
11:12 How do you do it when you're on the course?
11:16 On the range we put a little something, a little mini target ahead of the ball just to encourage ourselves to stay lower for longer.
11:22 Out on the course it's very easy to suddenly get result orientated.
11:28 You suddenly worry about the water, the bunkers, what happens if it goes wrong.
11:34 What happens with that then is you come up on the ball, therefore you don't get the grass underneath it.
11:40 So just having an awareness of what's ahead of the ball helps you just to keep the club a little bit lower, therefore get little ball then the big ball.
11:46 The last thing you need to be doing during a medal at your golf club is go hang on everyone I'm just going to stick a little something or other just in front of the ball because you can't touch your line of play.
11:54 So you can just have a look, we're on the golf course, it's a natural surface, it's grass, there's some little bits and pieces on the ground.
12:02 We've actually got a little twig just in front of our ball.
12:04 So when I stand behind my ball and go through that really important pre-shot routine and I point the club at the target line, draw a line down, I'm going to pick something just ahead of the ball on that.
12:13 That's simple, it's effective, it's something we can all do.
12:16 The other part that we can all do and get right is figuring out the yardages, the work that we've done on the range to work out our carry yardages, you need to now apply it.
12:24 So the shot that we've got here, the second shot into 16 here at West Hill, the back of the green, the laser is telling me is 164, flag is 160.
12:32 To cover the bunker on the right is 152, that's to carry that.
12:37 So what club are you going to play, what's the key yardage of all of that that you're trying to take into account?
12:42 So I want to carry the bunker, but at the same time, it's a really good idea when you're going for your approach shots to actually focus on hitting the middle of the green.
12:49 And my watch says 153 to the centre, so I'm going to hit something I'm confident on average, and it's really important that part, on average goes 150 yards.
12:59 Right, Katie, so you're going to have to hit this for us.
13:01 Now, it is quite dewy this morning, you just gave me a very good tip in this scenario. What is it?
13:06 So when there is dew on the ground, you can actually see where your club hits the world.
13:11 And that's important, that gives you immediate feedback.
13:13 And for us, immediate feedback, if you've done a good swing, is a real confidence booster.
13:18 So you would have picked your little mini target just ahead of the ball, but then, so we know where we're aiming because we've got that spot.
13:25 Then you're going to set up level with the ball, and you're going to do your practice swing back and through.
13:31 Yeah, and you can see where you hit the ground.
13:33 I can see, so I can see that my first point of contact would have been the ball. After that, I've made a nice little neat divot mark ahead of that.
13:41 So I know that I'm collecting that mini target that we were using on the range.
13:45 I'm ticking that box, I've committed to the shot, and I've hit what's under the ball.
13:49 Yes, and the dew really highlights it. Go for it.
13:52 Lovely. Great strike.
14:00 Now, where's that going? Middle of the green.
14:03 Green, that's fine.
14:04 Very good.
14:05 Decent two-part, I'd be happy with that.
14:06 Yes, indeed. And it's just a really good way to think. It doesn't need to take you an awful lot of time, but just having the awareness to think about some of these factors while you're on the golf course should really help you shoot lower scores.
14:22 Okay, so for the final part of our video, we're looking at pitching. Now, pitching, Katie, is one of those areas that coaches like you will tell amateurs like me, you need to focus on this because it's the fastest way to save your shots out on the golf course.
14:34 But you've got to practice it, right? And so the first question is, how do you practice your pitching?
14:39 Well, I think, like you say, this is like your score zone. So if you can get your wedges actually hitting the greens, you are going to save shots. It's quite simple.
14:48 But a lot of people don't like doing the half shots, three-quarter shots. So you need to know your wedge distances with the full swing first and foremost. That's your first port of call.
14:57 And we can do that on the range.
14:58 Yes, you can. And it helps to have a laser to identify how far the flags are. So I've already done it. The first flag is 71, second flag is 83, and the third flag is 109. So Katie, why don't you hit a full shot with your, which club is this?
15:13 This is my sand wedge, so it's 54 degrees.
15:15 Right, fine. And we've got the Approach R10 on the floor as well, so I'll be able to get some feedback.
15:20 OK, right, good shot, Katie. Now that's carried 74. And again, the carry yardages are what you're looking for. You're looking for average carry yardages.
15:29 And I guess having a good understanding for how far a full wedge shot goes for each of your wedges, maybe your 9-iron, etc., is going to be really useful to you.
15:37 But if you really want to get good at pitching, you need to add an extra dimension to everything. What is that?
15:44 So the extra dimension that you need is to be able to control the length of your swing. Because it's all very well knowing how far you hit a full shot, but we're not always going to have a full shot out there.
15:53 And people try and manufacture that less length by slowing down and decelerating. We all know what that results in.
15:59 Yeah, fat shots. I've done that before.
16:01 Lovely big old fat shots, and you think that was a lovely drive for water waste. And so it's just a point of frustration for everybody. So you can practice this.
16:08 So how do you, what's the way that you think about it?
16:10 So one of the best visuals that I tend to use when I'm coaching is that your head is 12 o'clock and you're doing a length of swing that's almost 9, bang, through to 3.
16:19 So it's like a half swing. And you would work on your averages like we talked about before.
16:24 So the average distance that say you'd hit between 7 and 10 balls, doing that length swing with each of your clubs.
16:30 Yes. Now you can get more in-depth in this. You can do sort of 10 o'clock swings.
16:34 Yeah, you can lengthen it.
16:35 But we're suggesting in this instance, just to get a foothold in all of this, that 9 till 3 swing with each of your clubs through to, I guess even up to 7, 9.
16:44 Yeah, even up to a 7 or a 6 sign. If you imagine you're playing Lynx golf out by the seaside, you need to bump and run that ball in.
16:52 You need to be able to control how far you carry it.
16:54 Yeah.
16:55 And obviously the result there on in.
16:57 Yeah.
16:58 So it's important to go all the way through your clubs. But initially just your sort of four wedges or so would be sufficient.
17:03 Would be a good start. So I'm now interested to find out how much a 9 to 3 swing takes off your normal full pitching swing shot, which was, as we know, carry distance 74.
17:13 So yeah, hit a full, sorry, hit a 9 to 3 sand wedge shot for us.
17:20 Lovely. Okay.
17:26 Now that's interesting, Katie, because that's carried 60.
17:29 Yeah.
17:30 So there's a 14 yard carry distance gap between those two shots.
17:35 I hit that pretty well.
17:36 You hit that, okay.
17:37 That was probably one of my better wedge shots.
17:39 Right.
17:40 So I probably wouldn't take that, probably more than I'd normally hit my 9 to 3 on average.
17:44 Okay. Yeah.
17:45 So that's an important point is not to take, that's why it's so important to do the sort of 7 to 10 shots.
17:50 Shots.
17:51 Yes.
17:52 Okay, fine. So once you've got that, that average for each of the shots, then you can do that with each of the different clubs.
17:57 Yeah.
17:58 And I guess a key point here is practice, just the repetition of being comfortable hitting those half shots.
18:03 Yeah. And when you're going through your routine on the course, you're rehearsing, you've got a definite place to go.
18:08 That 9 o'clock is a really good kind of band of distance to swing that club back and through.
18:14 And obviously, if you've written it down, you look at the yardage on the course and you go, what's that?
18:19 Oh, that's my 9 o'clock pitching wedge.
18:21 Yeah.
18:22 And my 9 o'clock club wedge.
18:23 And the other great thing about this is that when you get to the golf course, this process gives you options as you're about to find out.
18:29 Okay. So you've done all of that work on your pitching.
18:32 You should have some confidence in hitting the numbers that you're trying to hit.
18:36 But again, you need to be smart while you're out on the golf course.
18:39 Now, Katie, the flag, I've lasered the flag.
18:41 It's 80 to the flag.
18:43 It's 80 to the back.
18:44 What is it to the middle?
18:45 So you've got 71 to the middle of the green.
18:47 And like we mentioned, we've mentioned before, the middle of the green is just a safe place.
18:51 Yes.
18:52 Safe option. So 71 to the middle.
18:54 Uphill a little bit.
18:55 So we're going to take that into account.
18:56 But it's 83 to the back.
18:57 So hit one for us then, Katie.
18:59 This will be a full sand wedge shot for you.
19:02 But we've got two clubs because I'm going to ask you to play in two different ways.
19:05 Because this is the beauty of really getting to know your pitching distances.
19:09 You can play these shots in different ways.
19:11 So I'm going to hit my full sand wedge first of all.
19:13 Lovely. That's good.
19:21 Do you know that's actually, I think that's pin high.
19:24 What did you say?
19:25 Yeah, that's pretty good.
19:26 Literally my full sand wedge will go about 75, 80 yards.
19:30 Perfect.
19:31 So my watch said 72 and actually we went for the back yard, just so it's perfect.
19:35 Yeah, so we're going to play the same shot again, but with a 9-9 using that 9 to 3 action.
19:41 And hopefully the ball will go to a similar sort of distance.
19:44 Yeah. And the reason this is quite a good idea as well is there's no trouble in between us and the flag.
19:49 So you can bump and run it in if you like.
19:52 And a shorter swing is a lot safer.
19:55 A lot of golfers would stand there with a full sand wedge.
19:58 That's a lot of golf swing if you catch it skinny.
20:00 Yeah. And you can hit big pulls or pushes as with any other part of your game.
20:04 So maybe this is the most consistent way of doing it.
20:07 Absolutely. It's the safest way of doing it.
20:09 Yeah.
20:10 And from where I'm stood, it's so interesting because it's a lot more of a driven ball flight.
20:19 It's a lot lower.
20:20 And it's half a swing.
20:22 It's run, once it's gone onto the green, it's run probably a yard or two further than the first one, but not a huge amount.
20:27 No. And probably the most important thing is if I hadn't quite caught that,
20:32 say I had caught it a little bit skinny, there's not enough swing there to send me into a lot of trouble.
20:37 I may be at the back of the green, but I'm not going to be really in a pickle.
20:40 Yeah. So as I said before, this might feel like a really kind of advanced technique,
20:44 but you can see from Katie's, the way that Katie's played it, it's actually really simple.
20:48 But it does require that time on the range to make sure that you know what you're doing.
20:53 Because once you become comfortable with shots like this, they can really, really help you out on the course.
20:58 So there you have it.
20:59 That's our look at how you take your game from the range to the golf course.
21:04 Yeah. And I think it's not just about what you do on the golf course.
21:08 It's about building good habits when you're practicing so that you are in fact practicing the same game here as you play out there.
21:16 Yeah. It's a simple piece of advice, but it requires real discipline and real thought to make sure that you get it right.
21:22 Hopefully Katie's tips today will make a big difference.
21:25 But that's it for now. Thanks very much for watching.
21:27 We'll see you next time.
21:28 [Music]