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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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club and this video in which we are going to offer some
00:06advice to help you search for and find golf balls that you've hit into a little bit of trouble.
00:11Now we all do it from time to time where we hit tee shots or other shots into
00:15difficult areas of the golf course to find your ball in and actually there are some really good
00:20practical tips that will help you find your ball
00:22more 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
00:27please 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
00:32watching, but let's take a look at the seven best tips to help you search for and find your golf ball.
00:51Now this tip relates to keeping a very close eye on your ball whenever you hit it into trouble. Now it sounds
00:56incredibly obvious doesn't it?
00:57But the truth is whenever you hit a bad shot
01:00the 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
01:06such a bad shot, but that's not going to help you find the golf ball.
01:09The only way you're going to find your golf ball is to keep a very close eye on exactly where it's gone. In this scenario
01:15I've just hit a bit of a slice here off the 15th tee at the London Club.
01:19I know it's up the right but because I turned away in disgust I have absolutely no idea where it's finished.
01:25So keep watching your ball very closely until it lands so you get all the information that you need. If you need to
01:31walk over to the side to get a better view of exactly where the ball's gone. In this scenario
01:34it's gone over a little mound on the right-hand side.
01:37I can probably see a bit more of its flight if I walk over to this side of the tee. All of those things,
01:42they might seem small, they might seem obvious, but they will make a big difference if you've hit your ball into trouble.
01:48Whenever you've hit your ball into trouble, you will of course need to get a good idea of how far you've hit it.
01:54I think the big mistake I see in this scenario is that people tend to overestimate how far they've hit the ball.
02:00Often you'll find yourself searching for somebody's ball in the group and they're looking in an adjacent area to where the other players are
02:07who've hit them straight down the 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.
02:14So just be realistic about how far you've hit the ball. If you're looking for a push shot or a slice shot, take a bit of yardage off.
02:21That's always a sensible idea. Alternatively, if you have hit a hook then perhaps it might have gone a little bit further.
02:26But do remember also that if the ball's gone into an area like this with some really thick, long grass, there's not going to be any run on it either.
02:32So as you can see here, my playing partner's hit a really good drive that's just ended up in the right-hand semi on this hole.
02:39My ball, which was further right than that, was a bit of a slice. There's some thick grass in here. It's never going to have gone as far as that drive there.
02:46So just having a sensible approach, a common sense approach to how far you've hit the ball whenever you've hit it into trouble
02:53might well help you identify a better area to search for your ball in and it might just yield the results you're looking for.
03:08Now whenever you've hit your ball into trouble, it is really important that you get a very good line on where that ball has gone.
03:22Now I'm on the 16th hole here on the international course at the London Club and I've hit a hook off the tee.
03:27My ball has gone just over the left-hand edge of the bunker that I think you can probably see there at the end of the fairway.
03:34Now by having a really, really good line on it and by knowing the ball's gone over just that left-hand edge, I've got a much better chance of finding it.
03:40Now it might well be that you pick out a spot on the horizon, whether that's an electricity pylon, a church spire, a tree, whatever it is.
03:48Pick something out that's really easily identifiable and as specific as possible so that when you get into the area to search for your golf ball,
03:56you can pick out that spot once again and you should be able to have a much better idea of where your ball has come to finish.
04:03Now it's not essential under the rules of golf that you do this, but we would always advise that you put an identification mark on your golf ball.
04:14This is my Titleist ProV1X No. 2 and I put two green dots above the Titleist on both sides of the golf ball.
04:22That means that if I do hit the ball into an iffy area, and chances are there are going to be other Titleist 2s over in that area, I know exactly which ball is mine.
04:31It can be one of those things that can really help clear up any unwanted confusion.
04:36Whenever it comes to the rules of golf, you really want to avoid any confusion.
04:39So when it comes to searching for and finding your golf ball, I'd say it's always a good idea to put a unique identification mark on your ball.
04:48The next one is a really important one and it relates to how you go about searching for your golf ball.
04:56This is the 13th hole on the International Golf Course here at the London Club and I've hit a slight pull off the tee.
05:02I know that my golf ball is somewhere behind me in amongst these trees and the long grass.
05:08Having got a good line on my tee shot, I know it's in line with that tree that you can see behind me, but where exactly, I don't know.
05:15Now if I'm carrying my golf clubs, which I am today, then I would walk from the tee into the area that I think I've hit my ball on the line of the shot.
05:23Effectively, at some point I should run into my golf ball and I should see it as I walk in on that line.
05:29Now that's not always going to be possible, of course, because sometimes you're going to be playing in a buggy or you're going to be using a trolley.
05:35In those scenarios, what I'd say is a good idea is to pull up roughly adjacent to the area you think your ball might be in, walk into the rough,
05:44and by looking back towards the tee and looking forward towards the tree, I'm effectively retracing the line of the shot.
05:51I can then walk forwards and hopefully I should be able to find my ball.
05:55Some really simple stuff there, but when it comes to searching for golf balls in difficult areas, that's the sort of stuff that can make all the difference.
06:06So if the sun was out for this shot, which I appreciate, it's a bit in and out of the clouds,
06:10then I'd be hitting directly into the sun and it can be really, really difficult to see where the ball goes.
06:15You make a swing at the ball, you look up to see where it's gone and suddenly you're blinded by the sun and you can't see where it's gone.
06:20In this situation, it always makes sense just to have a word with your playing partner and say,
06:25do you mind just keeping an eye on this one, just to make sure that your playing partner isn't, you know,
06:30practicing his grip or checking his sort of backswing while you're hitting?
06:34Because if that does happen and you lose sight of it and your playing partner hasn't seen it at all,
06:39you could end up losing a ball that actually was perfectly findable in the first place.
06:43In the latest set of revisions to the rules of golf that were released by the RNA and USGA at the beginning of 2019,
07:03they decided to remove the penalty for accidentally moving your ball while searching for it.
07:10So if you're somebody that's played golf for many years, you might think to yourself,
07:14oh, if I accidentally step on my ball or hit my ball with my club while I'm searching for it, I'm going to get a penalty shot.
07:20That is now not the case. So my advice to you would be get in there, have a good look for it.
07:25Move the grass around with your feet. That will really help you uncover the ball in difficult areas,
07:30especially if you're playing in the autumn when leaves are coming down off the trees.
07:34The ball can go underneath those leaves, can be very annoying, can lose a ball in some really sort of findable areas.
07:41Now, if you do happen to accidentally move your ball, so my ball's just here and if I'm searching for it,
07:46I accidentally move it like that, I don't get a penalty, but I must replace the ball to its original position.
07:53So I'd simply pick it up and then I know exactly where it was.
07:57But if I didn't know exactly where it was, then I'd have to sort of guess to the best of my knowledge
08:02where it was originally situated, which was just in there.
08:06And now I can carry on knowing that I've not broken the rule.
08:09So the advice here is very simple.
08:11If you're searching for your ball, search for it, get in there, move the grass around, try and find it.
08:15And if you move it, simply put it back to its original position.
08:18So there you have it. That's our list of seven tips for how to search for and find your golf ball
08:24whenever you hit it into a spot of bother on the golf course.
08:26I hope you found that useful.
08:28Guys, before you go, hit the pause button and let us know if you have any tips for searching for golf balls
08:33that you think might be helpful to other people.
08:35I think it's always useful to share those ideas around.
08:38But that's it for now from the London Club. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.