In this video, Neil Tappin shares some handy tips to help you find your golf ball more often and avoid costly penalty strokes.
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00:00 Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club and this video in which we are going to offer some
00:06 advice to help you search for and find golf balls that you've hit into a little bit of trouble.
00:11 Now we all do it from time to time where we hit tee shots or other shots into
00:15 difficult areas of the golf course to find your ball in and actually there are some really good
00:19 practical tips that will help you find your ball
00:22 more often than not and that's what we're going to go through in this video. Guys if you're new to the Golf Monthly channel
00:27 please do hit the subscribe button to make sure you don't miss any of our videos. Hit the like button if you like what you're watching
00:32 but let's take a look at the seven best tips to help you search for and find your golf ball.
00:37 Now this tip relates to keeping a very close eye on your ball whenever you hit it into trouble. Now it sounds
00:56 incredibly obvious doesn't it but the truth is whenever you hit a bad shot
01:00 the temptation is to look away in frustration or to think about what you've just done wrong in your swing that's caused you to hit such
01:06 a bad shot but that's not going to help you find the golf ball. The only way you're going to find your golf ball is
01:11 to keep a very close eye on exactly where it's gone. In this scenario
01:15 I've just hit a bit of a slice here off the 15th tee at the London Club.
01:19 I know it's up the right but because I turned away in disgust I have absolutely no idea where it's finished.
01:25 So keep watching your ball very closely until it lands so you get all the information that you need. If you need to
01:31 walk over to the side to get a better view of exactly where the ball's gone. In this scenario
01:34 it's gone over a little mound on the right hand side.
01:37 I can probably see a bit more of its flight if I walk over to this side of the tee. All of those things,
01:42 they might seem small, they might seem obvious, but they will make a big difference if you've hit your ball into trouble.
01:51 Whenever you've hit your ball into trouble you will of course need to get a good idea of how far you've hit it.
01:57 I think the big mistake I see in this scenario is that people tend to overestimate how far they've hit the ball.
02:02 Often you'll find yourself
02:04 searching for somebody's ball in the group and they're looking in an adjacent area to where the other players are who've hit them straight down the
02:10 fairway when in fact they've hit a slice and chances are if you've hit a slice the ball will not go as far.
02:16 So just be realistic about how far you've hit the ball. If you're looking for a push shot or a slice shot,
02:22 take a bit of yardage off. That's always a sensible idea.
02:25 Alternatively if you have hit a hook then perhaps it might have gone a little bit further.
02:28 But do remember also that if the ball's gone into an area like this with some really thick long grass
02:33 there's not going to be any run on it either. So as you can see here my playing partner's hit a really good drive
02:38 that's just ended up in the right hand semi on this hole.
02:40 My ball, which was further right than that, was a bit of a slice. There's some thick grass in here.
02:45 It's never going to have gone as far as that drive there.
02:48 So just having a sort of a sensible approach, a common sense approach,
02:53 to how far you've hit the ball whenever you've hit it into trouble might well help you identify a
02:58 better area to search for your ball in and it might just yield the results you're looking for.
03:04 Now whenever you've hit your ball into trouble it is really important that you get a very good line
03:08 on where that ball has gone. Now I'm on the 16th hole here on the International Course at the London Club
03:13 and I've hit a hook off the tee. My ball has gone just over the left hand edge of the bunker
03:19 that I think you can probably see there. It's a bit of a slant.
03:22 So I'm going to try and get a good line on that.
03:24 I'm going to try and get a good line on that.
03:26 I'm going to try and get a good line on that.
03:28 I'm going to try and get a good line on that.
03:30 It's just over the left hand edge of the bunker that I think you can probably see there at the end of the fairway.
03:34 Now by having a really really good line on it and by knowing the ball's gone over just that left hand edge
03:39 I've got a much better chance of finding it.
03:41 Now it might well be that you pick out a spot on the horizon whether that's an electricity pylon,
03:46 a church spire, a tree, whatever it is.
03:49 Pick something out that's really easily identifiable and as specific as possible
03:54 so that when you get into the area to search for your golf ball you can pick out that spot once again
03:59 and you should be able to have a much better idea of where your ball has come to finish.
04:04 Now it's not essential under the rules of golf that you do this
04:11 but we would always advise that you put an identification mark on your golf ball.
04:15 This is my Titleist ProV1X number 2 and I put two green dots above the Titleist on both sides of the golf ball.
04:22 That means that if I do hit the ball into an iffy area
04:26 and chances are there are going to be other Titleist 2s over in that area, I know exactly which ball is mine.
04:32 It can be one of those things that can really help sort of clear up any unwanted confusion.
04:37 Whenever it comes to the rules of golf you really want to avoid any confusion.
04:40 So when it comes to searching for and finding your golf ball
04:43 I'd say it's always a good idea to put a unique identification mark on your ball.
04:52 The next one is a really important one and it relates to how you go about searching for your golf ball.
04:56 Now this is the 13th hole on the International Golf Course here at the London Club
05:00 and I've hit a slight pull off the tee and I know that my golf ball is somewhere behind me
05:06 in amongst these trees and the long grass.
05:08 Now having got a good line on my tee shot I know it's in line with that tree that you can see behind me
05:13 but where exactly I don't know.
05:16 Now if I'm carrying my golf clubs which I am today
05:18 then I would walk from the tee into the area that I think I've hit my ball on the line of the shot.
05:24 Effectively at some point I should sort of run into my golf ball, I should see it as I walk in on that line.
05:29 Now that's not always going to be possible of course because sometimes you're going to be playing in a buggy
05:34 or you're going to be using a trolley and in those scenarios what I'd say is a good idea is to pull up
05:39 roughly sort of adjacent to the area you think your ball might be in, walk into the rough
05:45 and by looking back towards the tee and looking forward towards the tree
05:48 I'm effectively retracing the line of the shot.
05:52 I can then walk forwards and hopefully I should be able to find my ball.
05:56 Some really simple stuff there but when it comes to searching for golf balls in difficult areas
06:00 that's the sort of stuff that can make all the difference.
06:03 So if the sun was out for this shot, which I appreciate it's a bit in and out of the clouds
06:11 then I'd be hitting directly into the sun and it can be really really difficult to see where the ball goes.
06:16 You make a swing at the ball, you look up to see where it's gone and suddenly you're blinded by the sun
06:19 and you can't see where it's gone.
06:21 In this situation it always makes sense just to have a word with your playing partner
06:25 and say "do you mind just keeping an eye on this one?"
06:28 just to make sure that your playing partner isn't practicing his grip or checking his sort of backswing
06:34 while you're hitting because if that does happen and you lose sight of it
06:38 and your playing partner hasn't seen it at all, you could end up losing a ball
06:41 that actually was perfectly findable in the first place.
06:44 In the latest set of revisions to the rules of golf that were released by the RNA and USGA
07:05 at the beginning of 2019, they decided to remove the penalty for accidentally moving your ball while searching for it.
07:12 So if you're somebody that's played golf for many years, you might think to yourself
07:15 "oh if I accidentally step on my ball or hit my ball with my club while I'm searching for it
07:20 I'm going to get a penalty shot" that is now not the case.
07:23 So my advice to you would be get in there, have a good look for it, move the grass around with your feet
07:28 that will really help you uncover the ball in difficult areas, especially if you're playing in the autumn
07:33 when leaves are coming down off the trees, the ball can go underneath those leaves, can be very annoying
07:38 can lose a ball in some really findable areas.
07:42 Now if you do happen to accidentally move your ball, so my ball's just here and if I'm searching for it
07:47 I accidentally move it like that, I don't get a penalty but I must replace the ball to its original position
07:54 so I'd simply pick it up and then I know exactly where it was, but if I didn't know exactly where it was
08:00 then I'd have to guess to the best of my knowledge where it was originally situated, which was just in there
08:06 and now I can carry on knowing that I've not broken the rule.
08:09 So the advice here is very simple, if you're searching for your ball, search for it, get in there
08:14 move the grass around, try and find it and if you move it, simply put it back to its original position.
08:19 So there you have it, that's our list of 7 tips for how to search for and find your golf ball
08:24 whenever you hit it into a spot of bother on the golf course.
08:27 I hope you found that useful, guys before you go hit the pause button and let us know if you have any tips
08:32 for searching for golf balls that you think might be helpful to other people
08:35 I think it's always useful to share those ideas around.
08:38 But that's it for now from the London Club, thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
08:43 www.londonclub.co.uk
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