In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by John Howells, head professional at JCB Golf and Country Club to look at 8 beginner golfer mistakes and how to fix them.
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00:00 Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the beautiful JCB Golf
00:05 and Country Club and this video in which we're going to take a look at the 8 biggest beginner
00:09 golfing mistakes and how to fix them. These are either all traps that you might be falling
00:14 into when you're out on the golf course or simple swing mistakes that might be costing
00:17 you. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of John Howes, he's the head pro here at JCB
00:22 and he offers some really simple and effective ways to get yourself back in the game if you
00:27 are making a few of these mistakes. Right, let's head out onto the golf course and get
00:33 started. So one of the things you are going to need
00:37 to do if you're getting into golf is figuring out how far you hit the ball with every club
00:41 in the bag. And John, I think the key bit of advice here is that it's not your best
00:45 shot with every club in the bag, it's your, it's a sort of true reflection of how far
00:49 you hit the ball isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. I think all too often we have players and
00:53 students that will know they hit a shot once upon a time, they might have hit that 7-iron
00:59 185 yards but it was downhill, downwind, maybe caught a little bit of a flyer for example
01:05 and the shot is going to go an awful lot further in that situation. But what we need to do
01:09 is really have a, I would call like a normalised shot which is just a shot that is on a calm
01:14 flat day with no extra help from certain conditions. Okay, so that begs the question, how can people
01:21 go out and get that yardage? Well the best thing to do is to do it away from the golf
01:24 course, you should do it either at your practice area or at the driving range. A practice area
01:29 is ideal because you could actually hit a shot out onto the range with maybe your 7-iron,
01:34 a series of 20 shots, put your bag in the middle of that grouping of shots and then
01:38 laser that yardage from where you hit from. Okay, yeah, really simple, really effective.
01:42 What if you can't go out into the range? What if it's a sort of normal driving range set
01:45 up? Obviously it's going to be a little bit more challenging, probably going to have to
01:48 do it on the golf course late in the evening, something like that. Go out there onto a golf
01:52 course, maybe even just hitting to the fairway in a flat situation where it's, you've almost
01:56 kind of controlled some of those variables. Okay, so let's say then you have your yardages
02:01 for your clubs. When you get out onto the golf course then you need to add in all the
02:06 different factors that might be going on. And this is a really good example of that.
02:09 So this is the 17th hole at JCB, it's the signature hole of the golf course. Play slightly
02:14 downhill over water, trouble everywhere. How do you figure out your yardage on a hole like
02:18 this, Jon? Absolutely. So first of all, I've taken the
02:20 Bushnell laser and I've lasered the flag at 195. Now I know my six iron in normal conditions
02:27 will go about 182, but I've got a situation here where I'm downhill, a good sort of five,
02:33 six degrees. So that's going to take some yardage off. And I've also got a little breath
02:37 of downwind, which is also going to help me. So I'm factoring in the fact that I'm downhill
02:42 using a little bit of educated guesswork. And I know that six iron is going to be about
02:46 the right number. Right. Okay. And if you're playing uphill,
02:49 the opposite sort of rules would apply, right? Yeah, absolutely. You're going to have to
02:52 use again, a bit of educated guesswork. You can use your Bushnell to sort of train yourself.
02:57 There are certain Bushnells that will allow you to factor in how much degrees uphill or
03:02 downhill and how much that's going to add on to the actual number that you're playing.
03:07 But for most people, it's going to be a bit of educated guesswork.
03:10 Okay. So the moment has arrived, John, I think it's time for you to hit this one for us.
03:14 Absolutely. Let's give it a try. So I'm just thinking middle of the green here, Neil.
03:19 I should think so too. Lovely. Starting at the centre of the green and pretty much staying
03:32 there. So there you have it. Some really handy advice on how to pick the right club.
03:37 Okay. So the first one on our list is something that costs players and it can cost them in
03:45 terms of accuracy and the quality of their strike, John. And it's about the way in which
03:49 you turn your body in the backswing or whether you sway in the backswing, right?
03:55 Yeah, exactly. So all too often with amateur golfers, we see a lot of hip sway, this kind
03:59 of lateral movement, which I think people with the best intentions, they're trying to
04:03 make a nice weight shift, but they probably overdo it.
04:06 Right. Okay. So what does it look like then? What's the wrong position look like?
04:09 From this kind of camera angle, basically, as we do our backswing, what we see is people
04:14 kind of doing this weight shift where their right hip kind of laterally moves away from
04:19 the target. They get this big weight shift, but they haven't really made much turn in
04:22 their hips.
04:23 Right. Fine. So what's the best way to think about it to get yourself out of that mode
04:27 and get yourself into a better rotation?
04:30 So we've got to replace that hip sway with rotation. So if I put the alignment stick
04:34 just through my front two belt loops, I'll just have to breathe in a little bit. But
04:38 basically what I'm trying to do is get this feeling that as I do my backswing, I'm turning
04:46 and trying to match this 45 degree angle that I've put on the ground here. So I'm getting
04:50 the hips to match that white stick that's on the ground. So I'm making a nice big turn.
04:55 You could see that if I drew a line from my right hip down to my right ankle, I'm turning
04:59 within that line as I do that backswing. It's going to help me on multiple fronts.
05:03 Okay. And you've got another drill as well?
05:05 Absolutely. Yeah. So we can try and then once we've got this feeling of a hip turn, we could
05:09 just slide in a little blocker, maybe just pop it on the outside of my right hip and
05:15 do exactly the same thing. Now I'm going to get a bit of feedback from a touch. If I'm
05:19 swaying into that yellow stick, then obviously I'm going to feel that during my golf swing.
05:25 You can see I've done it incorrectly there. And I'm trying to basically give myself very,
05:29 very narrow margin for error here and just turn inside of that right hip line.
05:35 And you should see through the camera there that as John turns, there is still a weight
05:39 shift, but it's kind of a more of a natural shift that happens as the rotation of the
05:43 body takes place, as opposed to really thinking about, "I've got to get my weight onto my
05:47 right side of the top," which is a good thought in some ways, but can lead to the wrong kind
05:52 of action.
05:53 People overdo it, don't they? They're good at doing it, but they overdo it.
05:55 Yeah. So if you tend to hit slices or you're catching shots a lot of the time thin or fat,
06:01 give these two drills a go.
06:07 Right so we have some strategy advice for you. And if you are looking to try and get
06:10 your handicap down, there is a few things you can do to get your ball safely around
06:15 the golf course, which is absolutely crucial. John, what's the advice here for people?
06:19 Yeah, absolutely. So I think all too often people take dead aim at the flagstick. And
06:22 I think what's a lot more realistic is if you can think about the shot pattern that
06:26 you hit, it's kind of probably the size of a football center circle. The middle of that
06:31 is obviously where you're trying to hit it. But if you think about your right-most miss
06:35 and your left-most miss, that's going to give you quite a big shot pattern. Now what we
06:39 need to try and do is sort of center that shot pattern so that all potential shots that
06:43 you might hit are in a safe location, i.e. not in the bunker, not in a water hazard.
06:48 You want them all to be pretty much on the green.
06:50 Yeah, it's a really simple way of looking at it. And actually the scenario that we faced
06:54 with here on 17 is a good example of that because the flag is over there on the right-hand
06:58 side of the green. It's a bit of a sucker pin, isn't it?
07:00 Yeah, exactly.
07:01 So if you're playing away from the flag, have a very positive mindset, pick a spot, be really
07:05 positive with it and then go for it.
07:07 Absolutely.
07:08 Okay, so John, I think one of the mistakes I think we all make when we start playing
07:14 golf is trying to help the ball up into the air. It can lead to really inconsistent strikes.
07:20 Can you tell us what people should and shouldn't be trying to do when it comes to impact?
07:24 You're absolutely right. I see it a lot and I think it often comes down to the concept
07:28 that people think that they're trying to give it all this loft at impact. The setup position
07:34 and the impact position should actually be different, as you can see me demonstrating
07:38 there. The setup should have the shaft pretty well neutral or 90 degrees to the ground as
07:43 you look at it here. But as I approach impact, I'm looking to get that shaft leaning forwards
07:48 a little bit so that I can hit down on the golf ball and get that nice compressed strike.
07:52 Yeah, because it's that combination of the speed in your swing and the angle of attack
07:55 down into the ball creates the backspin that you need to get the ball up in the air. It's
07:59 not actually hanging back and delivering lots of loft to the club.
08:02 Exactly right.
08:03 So John, you've got a drill for us. Can you just talk us through what the drill is and
08:08 how people should be doing it?
08:10 Yeah, for sure. So what we're going to do in this drill is get yourself into that adjusted
08:14 impact position where basically we turn our hips a little bit, we put a little bit more
08:19 pressure onto our left foot, my right heel for a right-handed golfer might just come
08:23 up in the air a little bit. And I'm going to start the swing here, do a tiny little
08:27 backswing and then try and return back to that impact fix that I had at the start. So
08:32 let's give it a try.
08:33 Yeah, lovely. And you can see the strike is just perfect there. It's the ball and then
08:42 the ground, which is exactly what you're looking for. And then I think if you can, I guess,
08:46 build up the swing from there, keeping that impact position in mind, that will really
08:50 help.
08:51 Yeah, build it up over time, try to start with small swings like I did there and then
08:55 build it up into a three-quarter length backswing and then eventually up into a full shot. But
09:00 it's about getting that concept correct, first of all.
09:02 Yeah, so if you're looking for more consistency of strike, you're looking to eradicate fat
09:06 shots or thin shots from your game, this drill is a great one to use.
09:13 Right, so chipping. Jon, what's the biggest mistake that you see when people will start
09:18 out with the chipping that's costing them?
09:20 Well, typically people will set up in a way that doesn't really give them a chance of
09:24 success. So what we often see is a situation where the club is de-lofted like this, where
09:30 I've got the handle way in front of the golf ball and I've got the ball way back in my
09:35 stance, almost opposite my right foot. The problem with that, Neil, is obviously I'm
09:39 going to now chop down and I'm going to get that leading edge of the club to dig into
09:43 the ground, which isn't really going to be an effective way to chip.
09:46 Yeah, you need to catch the ball absolutely perfectly, otherwise you're going to hit it,
09:49 you're going to duff it really, aren't you? Or you're going to thin it over the back.
09:52 You've got a very small landing area to land that club on the ground in that situation.
09:56 So then Jon, how do people get to use the right part of the club in order to strike
10:00 their chips more effectively?
10:01 Yeah, so what we need to do is use the bounce on the bottom of the club. On every wedge,
10:05 there's a little bit of bounce at the bottom that's the difference between the trailing
10:09 edge and the leading edge. And if we present that in the correct way at set up, i.e. not
10:14 having the shaft leaning super far forward, let's get it a little bit more neutral as
10:18 you look at it from this perspective. And we're trying to actually return it very simply
10:23 to that position that we started in. We can now start to utilise a bit of that bounce
10:27 on the bottom of the club and our landing area is a lot bigger to actually get the club
10:32 to land on the ground.
10:33 I see. Do you have any drills that you can show us to help us with that?
10:36 Absolutely. Let's try this one. So what I want you to do first of all, is just set up
10:41 to the grass just here. And I'm going to put these two sticks in perfect vertical alignment,
10:47 okay?
10:48 Okay.
10:49 Now if you do the one, the incorrect one first of all, just to show people what that's like.
10:52 So typically what we're going to do there is we're going to hit the yellow stick before
10:56 the white stick. That means that we've got an awful lot of shaft lean and we're going
10:59 to dig the club into the ground. Then if someone was struggling with that, what I would try
11:04 and get them to do is almost hit the sticks simultaneously. So let's try that now, trying
11:08 to hit the white stick, maybe even a fraction before the yellow stick. So now we're starting
11:12 to see that the club is interacting with the ground in a much more efficient way.
11:16 Right, yeah.
11:17 Sort of surfing the turf, I like to call it.
11:19 Yeah, it's that feeling that I get when I'm doing that is that my sort of, the club head's
11:23 sort of almost overtaking the hands. It's certainly catching up with the hands through
11:26 impact.
11:27 It's the one area that's very different to long game, isn't it?
11:29 Yes.
11:30 It's one area where we do want to throw that club a little bit and try and get the bounce
11:34 being used.
11:35 So you've got a couple of balls on tees here, John, what's that for?
11:38 So what I would do if someone was struggling with their chipping, I would start with them
11:41 up on a high tee and just get them to do this sort of action, just nipping the ball off
11:45 the top of the tee. So why don't you set up to that big tall tee first of all. Yeah, you've
11:50 got a nice set up there. We've got a nice vertical sort of shaft alignment. And your
11:54 job now is to imagine those two sticks there and almost try and hit the bottom stick before
11:59 the top stick. Very nice. That was a really nicely nipped chip shot. Over time, we would
12:04 progress to bringing that tee height down a little bit lower and still trying to just
12:09 interact with the tee peg only.
12:11 Oh, nice.
12:12 It's hard, isn't it? Challenging now because your depth perception of where that tee peg
12:16 is obviously a little bit more tricky. Over time, we could start to raise the level of
12:21 that tee peg down and down and down until eventually you don't need it at all.
12:24 Yeah, well, there you have it. If you are struggling with your chipping, use John's
12:27 technique there. It should really help you out.
12:31 Right, so the next one on our list is about clubface control. Obviously, if you want to
12:38 hit the ball straight, you've got to have control of where the clubface is pointing
12:40 through impact. I guess, John, the key mistake, the key fault here that people make when they're
12:45 starting out tends to be a slice, doesn't it?
12:47 Yeah, it tends to be. Most people have a poor understanding of what causes that open clubface
12:52 that we see with a slice. I often see it first and foremost with the basics of a grip. Typically,
12:59 people who grip the club in what we would call a weak position, so that means the left
13:03 hand, the V of this left hand pointing up towards my lead shoulder or also the right
13:09 hand. Sometimes the right hand can be weak, Neil, and that points up towards the lead
13:12 shoulder. That will typically mean that the clubface is going to be open during the backswing
13:17 and probably into the downswing.
13:18 So where should those two Vs be pointing ideally?
13:21 So what we would want to see is basically a neutral grip where the V of this left hand
13:25 and probably the V of the right hand are pointing up towards that right collarbone. Anywhere
13:29 in and around the right ear or the right collarbone. You can probably see it here on screen.
13:34 Yeah. And then the clubface is going to want to square up through impact and that's exactly
13:40 what you're looking for. But, John, I would say I've seen people with good grips who've
13:44 obviously seen videos like this and they understand what they're trying to do. They're holding
13:48 the club in a pretty good position and they're still hitting a slice. What's going on then?
13:53 Yeah, so you're absolutely right. And that comes down to people's intent and their understanding
13:57 of what happens when the club gets moving. So typically, if we have a position in the
14:03 backswing, I'll turn to the camera here. If we have a position where that left wrist gets
14:06 into a very cupped position in the backswing or maybe even a cupped position at the top
14:11 and also even on the way down, if that left wrist is in a really cupped position, you
14:15 can see just how open the clubface is there and how the clubface is going to be pointing
14:19 right at target at impact.
14:21 Okay, John, so you've shown us the cupped left wrist. How do people get control of that
14:24 so it's in a better position at the top?
14:26 Yeah, absolutely. So what we want to try and see from a backswing perspective, if we've
14:30 got a neutral grip, we would like to see a pretty flat left wrist, i.e. there's no real
14:36 cup or no real bow, a pretty flat left wrist. Even all the way up to the top of the backswing,
14:41 we'd want to see that pretty well flat at the top. Now, if you're really struggling
14:46 with this, I would suggest even going full John Rahm. You can see his golf swing, he
14:50 gets the left wrist and the logo on his glove actually pointing away from his chest and
14:55 that gives a really strong look to the clubface, which is going to be an exaggeration, but
14:59 it'll probably help a lot of golfers out there.
15:01 Yeah, so if you are someone, if you're struggling with a bit of a slice, there's a couple of
15:04 different ways you can fix it. Either focus your attention on your grip, get that right
15:08 and then make sure that your left wrist is in the right place at the top, you should
15:12 start hitting the ball a bit straighter.
15:18 So when it comes to playing from the bunker, I think a lot of golfers know that they need
15:22 to use the loft on the face, they need to open up the face to get the ball out. But
15:26 the way there's a way to do it and there's a way not to do it. And can you just talk
15:30 about that for us, John? Because this can be where some of the problems occur, can't
15:34 it?
15:35 Yeah, all too often I see players setting up with their normal full swing grip. They
15:39 basically take this grip to begin with and then they try and open the clubface from a
15:44 position where they've already gripped the club. And ultimately, if we do that, when
15:48 we swing down and hit the shot, we're just going to return the clubface back to a square
15:51 position. And obviously for hitting a high lofted bunker shot, that's no use.
15:56 No, and you're not going to be using the bounce as we've already talked about with chipping.
15:59 So how do you open the face correctly then to use it from sound?
16:02 Absolutely. It's really simple. All you need to do is just twist the club open before you're
16:06 taking your grip. So pop it out in front of you, give it a little twist about the shaft
16:10 and then take your grip as if you haven't done anything at all different. And that's
16:14 really how you do it correctly.
16:15 Go on then, let's have a look.
16:16 All right. So I've twisted it there, just open, ball position just forward in my stance,
16:22 a little bit more squatted than normal.
16:30 You can see how much loft there is there without John trying to do anything particularly out
16:34 of the ordinary, he's created an awful lot of loft and yet kept the motion as simple
16:38 as possible.
16:39 OK, so hopefully you now know how to grip the club in order to open the face. But, John,
16:46 one of the keys to playing bunker shots consistently well is taking the right amount of sand every
16:50 time. It's something that so many golfers struggle with. I can see you've got a drill
16:54 here. What is it and how does it help?
16:56 So we've got two little scoops of sand here, one with ball, one without. And what I want
17:00 you to understand is that really we're trying to control the depth of this divot, Neil.
17:04 So if I set up just to the side, I want to make a swing where I don't actually break
17:09 the ground. I don't want to see a divot being taken place because if I do that, I've gone
17:13 way too low.
17:14 Right, yes.
17:15 So by setting up to this little bit of sand, same bunker sort of technique, I'm going to
17:20 just look to hit the sand only. You can hear that really nice sound that you hear on great
17:25 bunker plays.
17:26 Yeah, and there's no divot. It's just a sort of light bruising of the ground, isn't it?
17:30 Yeah, just nipping that sand, getting plenty of spin, plenty of height on the shot. And
17:34 you can try that with a golf ball as well.
17:38 Yeah, it's a really nice way of thinking about it. It's a drill I've not seen before, actually,
17:47 and hopefully if you try it, it will help you get that consistency that you need with
17:51 your splashes in the sand to get the ball out every time.
17:55 Okay, Jon, so green reading, what have we got going on down here?
18:02 So we've got this funny looking contraption. It's a perfect putter. It's a device that
18:05 can actually guarantee that we're starting the ball on the same line every time. But
18:10 we've got different speed markers on the device here so we can roll the ball at different
18:14 speeds and see whether or not it goes in.
18:16 Yeah, because there is a direct correlation between your line and the pace that you hit
18:21 the ball. If you don't get both right, you're likely to miss, aren't you?
18:24 Absolutely. A speed and line match up is what we need. The line is only as good as the speed
18:29 that you're trying to hit it into the hole at.
18:31 Show us how it works, then.
18:32 Okay, so what we've got, basically, we've figured out this putt here and we're going
18:35 to roll it from the little marker on two here. And we know that if we do that, we're going
18:40 to be very, very close to holing it and it's gone in nicely there. If I was to roll it
18:46 at a slightly slower speed than that, so I'm going to go down to zero, just two little
18:50 clicks lower on this little speed device, you can see that it breaks that little bit
18:54 more and it ends up missing on the low edge. And if I now do it differently, I'll go up
18:59 to a four on the little speed marking. You can see that extra bit of speed. It just kind
19:06 of grabs that top edge of the hole. It probably would have gone in if the flag was out, but
19:10 it caught more of the right edge of the hole. If I maybe go even quicker than that, maybe
19:14 up towards a five on this little device, you can see that's on an awful lot higher line.
19:19 And then as a result, it doesn't actually go in.
19:20 Yes, it's a really good visualisation. Even though each putt, each ball is going down
19:24 on exactly the same line, the pace that you hit your putts will have a direct impact on
19:30 whether you're able to make them or not. What's interesting about this though, as I look at
19:36 it, I guess the temptation, I guess the mistake here that people make is that they miss on
19:40 what's often called the amateur side, which would be the low side. You'd end up hitting
19:44 more times that you miss, you'd miss low than missing high. Why is that? Why do people tend
19:49 to miss low more than they miss high?
19:51 Well I think people often see and visualise what we've laid out here, but they end up
19:55 aiming at the apex ball, which would probably be about this ball here, which obviously as
20:00 you can see in this demonstration is actually way lower than the start line, which is this
20:05 white string line. So we need to start the ball a lot higher than the apex that we visualised
20:10 I think the apex is a worthy picture to draw yourself, but you've got to make sure you're
20:16 aiming it higher than that on this right to left breaking putt.
20:19 Yeah, it's a really interesting subject and these small things, it's just one of those
20:23 things that if you can take it out with you onto the golf course, get used to hitting
20:27 your putts high enough when you're faced with some break like this, you should, should be
20:31 able to hold a few more.
20:32 [Music]