7 SHOTS EVERY GOLFER NEEDS... (AND HOW TO PLAY THEM!)

Hello

every

one, Neil Tapping here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video where we're going to take a look at the seven

shots

every

golfer

needs

. These are the things, from the tee to the green, that are really working. To help you achieve lower scores, they're not necessarily the flashy

shots

that everyone wants to hit, but they're certainly the ones that will help you lower your handicap, so they're worth learning now. The tips in this video come from pga. Professional Alex Elliott will offer you everything you need to know and how to

play

these shots. If you're new to the monthly golf channel, 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 seeing, but let's now go to the golf course here at West Hill and look at the seven shots every

golfer

needs

, if you want to keep your score going, you're going to need to do that. being able to

play

this type of mid-pitch shot and it's one that many golfers struggle with, including Alex, why do people struggle with this shot?

Do you think for me it's a lack of speed, so it's a lack of commitment? setting up correctly whatever we're talking about in the short game we have to be set up correctly because we don't have the speed we don't have the momentum we don't have that time to compensate and hit the shot yeah so there's nothing you can do about the fact that you can't put much speed into the shot is what it is, so how do you set it up correctly so that you can eliminate the type of bad shots from the game? So right away I want to feel like I'm gripping in the middle, so I have equal amounts of grip on the top and bottom, okay, shorten the length of the club and if you think about it, we're looking for precision. not looking for distance, so all these things are all that will help us give control instead of giving distance, okay, I like to feel bald in the middle of the stance, with the shoulders parallel to the target line but the lower half slightly open and this is the best for I would encourage many of you to do some practice swings with one hand because it is amazing every time you do 100 practicing, in fact, most people do it on the plane and most Most people do it very well, so I would put my right hand on top of my left hand. elbow and just doing some practice back movements and trying to really focus on can I create this L shape?

So every time you do this I haven't even thought about doing this. I've made the club feel light, it doesn't feel heavy and too far around the corner it's not too far in front of my hands it's not heavy in every direction every time the club feels light it's much easier for me control speed Can I ask you why you open your hips and what does that do? Do it for yourself by opening your inclinations a little. What does that do? It helps us clear that left side, which is why a lot of people get it wrong when it's too primitive, so if I was very firm on this, it would encourage a sort of scooping. nature to the correct movement, so I would always start with a bit of a routine, one club behind the ball, everything starts in parallel, the ball in the middle of the stance, the lower half opens, the weight goes to the left, a little movement, yes, very good, then we arrive. a little bit of consistency we have a routine every time we have a routine we can rely on it and the only thing you have to do with this shot is practice a standard shot alex it's something everyone needs true everyone needs a shot they can rely on a swing thought that they can have and that will really help

them

put the ball in play.

What is your advice? I think we have to have a standard shot, we are someone who is under pressure or when we are not playing our best golf and if we can move the ball around the golf course that way, that will be our best fight for the goal, it is golf more impressive, yes, the standard shot that takes us around the course is fine, so I think most golfers will tend to fade away. to cut it so I think it's working on the day is it easier today or is it a little bit straighter because sometimes we have days where we feel better and it gets a little more straight so I tend to play five golf ? balls before hitting the golf course and maybe these will be my last five before walking off the first tee with no real thoughts about the swing.

What I would try to do here is no thoughts about the swing at all. No, I want you to do it right now. I went through that process of working on a swing thought and maybe getting a feel for the swing. What happens if I swing naturally? What ball flight comes out because if we can let the ball flight dictate or make the swing, then that's a great place to be. Well, how many times have we done this? Regardless of the level of the golfer, we have worked hard to place it in a certain position. We're not really worried about ball flight, so if your last five shots swing, let's see.

Which ball flight goes well? So when you're on the golf course, Alex, don't you play without a swing? I thought you're just concentrating on the target in the flight of the ball. I separate it like this. I have something like that. a virtual line that is thinking in the correct playing zone, so I'm thinking a lot about technique and swing thoughts here, as soon as I step over the line I let the shot dictate the correct swing, that's okay, because I use a theory that we all practice. improve our technique, so we have to rely on that, really improve our technique, why are we improving our technique so that it becomes an inherent movement?

So I keep reminding myself what my blue star type is, my gold star, my blueprint, so when I get it over here, I'm confident that what I've done in my routine will somehow be incorporated into my golf swing, but I just shooting Dick makes a swing, okay, so your original shot will tend to fade a little, yeah definitely, some days it comes out. a little bit more direct so it's for me to just figure out what it is and I would tend to split these five golf balls into three with a seven iron and two with a driver and then hit a couple for us there's one a little bit off color. it fades so immediately I get a little bit of feedback again, no real thoughts, just watching the ball flight come out again, a little bit of a fade, so I'm getting some feedback right now, knowing I'm on the field today golf.

You can expect a little more fading, yes, and now you can see that that's creating an image in Alex's mind. You should create a picture in your mind of exactly the type of shape you will be in when you step onto the golf course. You can have a positive image in your mind before you take the shot, if you can do that you should be able to get the ball down the golf course in fewer shots, so I guess this Alex is on the list because it is one of the shots most intimidating things people face, right?

Having to make a chip shot over a bunker is difficult for anyone. In this scenario, you have a little more green to work with the flag, but if the flag were a little 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 get this type of shot wrong right away, especially this fight was a little closer, it's the phil. mickelson, a million dollar chance by trying to land right over the bunker and taking all the risk on the line, yeah, I always try to think that if there's not much green between the edge and the flag over the bunker, I try to land it on the hole, so I always overcompensate and take 10 15 even 20 feet beyond the flight, so you're taking out the bunker.

Yeah, I think for a lot of golfers, if we can avoid coming in here, we'll avoid that card destroyer, that's fine and we can keep our score. That also begs the question of how to avoid hitting it 50 yards off the bench, so the setup I like to use is the ball position in the middle of my stance, I choose my highest wedge, which is my 58 degrees, so I really like it. Feeling a little bit of separation between the top and the bottom, so I feel like my shoulders are pointed towards or parallel to the target, but my lower half, so my feet and my hips are slightly open if we think long term about everything What are we searching for. it's being open at impact and getting to the target, whereas on the putt we don't have the speed, we don't have the momentum for that, so it's almost like getting ahead of where we want to be okay, so I'll leave the field just divided. and I almost feel like my stance is very, very narrow, the ball in the middle under the arm, I swing towards the target and I really trust that I have to put the speed and now, if I take a really long backswing, I might tend to slow down towards the ball to control the distance that way, no matter how far it goes, is how far we go.

Let's imagine that the flag is a little closer to us than it is because with this shot it would be a little more direct. shot, but if the flag was a little closer to us, I would again imagine myself landing in the hole. I won't open my face too much. I chose my highest wedge and trust in the fact that the flag will come from where it will come from. which club I have taken, it is well in the middle weight, slightly to the left and I am confident that it will land just after the flag.

I would always tell all the people that we would rather have a 10 foot putt beyond the flag or even a 20 foot putt than be in the bunk in front of us, yes if you can spend a little time on that in practice because it is the type of shot that you will need from time to time on the golf course and avoiding the bunker. and avoiding hitting from behind is the only way to keep your score well, so this one is about the hit. Now a lot of people who see this might think, well, you know, I want to master, you know, a normal golf shot before I developed it. the shot, but it's actually a shot worth practicing, isn't it?

Because it can teach you a lot about your game. I definitely think what most people are looking for with Ryan's hands in front of the golf ball, hitting the ball and the grass, that's it. This intake tends to be like this, so it can actually have great benefits. Technical words, yes, okay, so how to play? How can people play in the simplest and most effective way? First of all, we have to think about ourselves. We're trying to lower the ball flight, so we want a little less speed and less spin, so less speed and less spin, a little more grip, yeah, by having more spin, more backspin, it doesn't matter what level you are at.

I think a lot of people associate backspin with a similar level of travel, yes everyone creates backspin the harder you hit it the more you create the higher the ball will go that's basic physics exactly yes like that which shortens the lever so you can ultimately grip the golf club. closer to the ball of steel towards the back of our stance so I try to use my reference points like where my buttons are on my shirt yeah just to write my buttons there is no peaceful point I really start everything feeling that it runs parallel to the target, then open the bottom half and the weight goes to the left, why do you open the bottom half now without going into too much detail?

The more you hit it, the more likely it is that this ball will want to squirt a little bit to the right, so I open my stance and I feel like I'm swinging down the line of my feet and hitting it that way, okay, go ahead and hit one for us, grabbing more towards the steel start with everything parallel, that's a really nice point, open up. the bottom half of the weight goes to the left, down the line of the feet and keeps the weight to the left and I'm really trying to feel like I'm doing a three-quarter swing back to three-quarters four, yeah, and you should notice that it doesn't seem like Alex is really I think so, I certainly have a tendency to try to hit the ball too hard when I do it and then you just create that ball and create the kind of spinning flight that you're looking to avoid, so yeah, it's really important, does it?

It is not like this? Yes, I attached it to the gears of a car, so you'll probably go to our normal shops tonight and then go four out of five, while I try to feel it more in gear three, a little bit softer. a little bit slower, yeah, okay, so our next one is all about how to take advantage of a bad line. Alex, we've given you a particularly bad line here and it's one of those situations where you'll need to have a chance to help you in this scenario. because this can be a real carb record, right?

Yeah, I mean, we were all late in the 16th, 17th round, we just missed the green and ended up in this. Yes you need to find a technique that takes the Duff and The Thin and even from a lie like this the double hit here that's what worries me so what are you doing here to escape and get good contact with the ball for me ? There are two factors: club selection and how we adapt to the ball, I think these two things have to be on point.adequate to allow us. I think our expectation level we don't expect to get too close here, it's like I said before, putting it in the worst case scenario green. bogey doesn't turn that into a double or a triple, so I always like to recommend using a more specialized wedge, so we have wedges that are part of the set, sometimes a little more of a cavity in the back, this is more like a specialized wedge, uh.

The bounce has a little more bounce than a traditional set. We're set up in Java and this just helps us in terms of ground interaction, so my preferred wedge for this is 50 degrees. 52 or even 48 could be as long as it is. a specialized wedge will really help us play this shot, okay, technically very good, so yeah, how do you change it from your normal chip technique? My normal chip technique, I would be left a little open, I wouldn't be as close to that in all my soul. The club would be on the ground and I would feel very similar to a chip and I would run an underarm shot through it.

Back and forth, while this setup changes completely, I like to feel like I have the tip. With my foot on the ground, I walk a little closer to it and grab it just before the steel, so all I'm trying to feel is that I'm holding my weight. to the left and the toe brushes the ground so at the end we feel like the toe is working and when you pick up this ball it's like it's jumping okay the best way I can describe it is like a knife and butter it's like a sharp edge getting into that. bad lie and take it out and lift it up, okay, go ahead and show us how it's done, so we're there.

I have some practice changes. I think it's important to have a practice swing and commit to this because a lot of people would see this. and say ah yeah and probably also practice it from time to time definitely you know it's very tempting when you practice your chipping just to give yourself a perfect lie and practice those that just spin a little bit on the second bounce, but in fact, actually, they're these shots that will really help you, these are the ones that keep the momentum going, you know, if you go up and down for par here or not even that, you just don't become a card destroyer, then you're I'll feel good walking to the next tee , yeah, so a few practice moves just get the toe interacting with the ground.

Try to feel like it's more of a wooden movement. There is no real fit on the wrist. I try to feel like my thumbs are really pointing down. the ground walking weight to the left oh it's really well played you know it had a little bounce but it's okay I mean from there I'm more than happy with that shot it's a really good shot it's probably a little bit Actually , it's a little unfortunate, so you know it's one of these things, it can be tempting not to practice this shot when you're faced with a situation like this on the golf course.

You will need technique, hopefully Alex is showing you that he will help you. So the next one relates to putting and in particular long distance putting. If you can split from this area more often, it will make a big difference in your momentum and score and will help you throughout the process. of your game and it's how you prepare and then what you do to make sure you're getting the ball right in terms of distance, so preparation is key to achieving the green speed on the course that I envision. a container lid around the hole so not from this distance looking to hold it if we make it absolutely fantastic I think we can get in trouble trying to hold a stand this length and it goes from three to four feet yeah yeah yeah .

So what do you do before the round to help you get a better feel for the pace? This may sound quite counterintuitive, but I'm not pointing into a hole. I have two golf balls. What I would do is put

them

in free space and almost try to play balls. I'll try to hit the second ball into the first because if I can do that, it's a lot harder to do than to put it inside the lid of the trash can. And? So why did you take the hole out of the equation so that there's no real outcome in terms of something he can accomplish in relation to the field?

So I'm literally tuning myself to not hold a putt but to have rhythm, I think a lot. Golfers think they have better rhythm than they read the put and they don't really tune into this enough, so Alex, what are you doing on the course in a situation like this to make sure you have the right rhythm? What we would do is similar to what we could do on a long chip and run. I'll walk half the distance. I'll make a triangle between me and the hole. I'll walk backwards and this gives us a great sense of distance.

Yeah, so looking at something this way. it can make it seem a little bit shorter sometimes, yeah, yeah, and just taking a ride on that ride you get a little bit of feedback if it's uphill, it's downhill, it's left to right because sometimes we've all been there and we've looked at a putt on this side we have the other side and it looks like it looks totally different, yeah, yeah, so it gives us very good instincts that come into play, it gives us a very good vision of which is the hole and which is the putt.

So, as I'm setting up for a put, I'm looking at the hole, I'm making that backswing, and asking myself a question, it's enough if not a little bit further back, a little bit further, to really get something going. great feedback for hitting that putt on the golf ball, now a look at the target, pull the trigger, yes, very good, now we have done it stress free, we are more than happy from 35 40 feet walking to that touch, we can even Mark it to be safe, but definitely take it stress-free, put those tips into play and they'll help you whenever you find yourself in this kind of situation and you have a scorecard in your hand and you need to keep functioning, okay?

So this one is about the chip and the race. I'm sure it's a shot most of you have played, but how many of you actually practice it? I think that's the key point, isn't it, Alex? Because you definitely know that it's a shot that technically doesn't have much difficulty, but it takes practice if you want to know how to get the ball up and down constantly, yeah, and I think because it's not a glamorous shot, it's not the shot that people see on the television. All the time it's like I don't really want to practice that too much, but I tend to like a lot of people especially like giving lessons, things like that, using a ruler, if we can say it, let's put it that way in this situation here.

I probably can't put this in, I know the grass is great here, it's a pretty long shot, yeah, yeah, so next resource in my head and I go right, if I can cut it, let's run it, so yeah, I can cut it. and execute this now, I try and think. of it in a simple analogy of if I were to throw it under my arm or and then the strings the badminton racket here finally in my palm or on the face of the club how much momentum would I have to put into it I know it's much easier for me to land it five yards in front of me and not 25 yards next to the flag with a fivepence, okay, so when you're planning the shot, how do you work out where to land, how much to run, what club to hit, all those. elements, so in a shot like this, I would maybe walk a little bit, yeah, and especially because there's a little magnification here and it would come to a point and give me an angle from the side of what's doing this.

The shot looks like this because from the side you get a much better perception of the distance, yes, when we look this way something looks a little short, it's shorter, yes, so I tend to reach to the side, have a little Look, it always walks towards where I want to land too, so you almost have a reference, even subconsciously, well, that was about 10 yards. I know I can backtrack to a 10 yard graph. I think most people are looking at this as Well, it doesn't matter what your handicap is, whereas if I were trying to land a 58 on this lie as well, which is just tight, yeah, what would be the mistakes that the people with this shot?

I think like I said there's a position for it's like a full shot letting the club work two around the body okay and then I always think gravity is on your side so getting closer to the golf ball and using this term slightly straighter back, straighter back, is never completely straight back, but allows you to easily drop the golf club on the back of the ball instead of too far around the corner, we're struggling against it, yes, yes, yes, and picking it up well so that everything is on your side, then a little closer, a little easier and make it a little more rigid, okay, let's take a look, you do it very well there and I think the point of this shot is, Alex, it's one of the safest shots you can hit, you know if you're prone to the odd. you know, a thick chip around the greens or a thinned one on the back and you're playing in a competition, it's a pretty easy shot to play, you know you're not going to make double bogey with this, no, I always say your worst chip and career.

It's never going to be as bad as you are the worst overhead shot, yeah okay so practice, hopefully you'll get better, there you have it, that was our list of the seven most important golf shots every golfer needs and guys, before you go, please knock. the pause button and let us know first if you think we have missed any, if you think there are any shots that would really help players move in as few shots as possible and also if you use any of these techniques regularly, please let us know. We'd be interested to hear your opinion, but that's all from West Hill.

Thanks for watching and see you next time.