- 10/06/2025
In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Pro and YouTuber Alex Elliott. They discuss the 7 ways to play better golf without changing your swing. These are all the things you can do that will make a big difference out on the course and in practice. You needn't make any major technical swing changes to play better, instead a smarter all-round approach could help improve your handicap far quicker. Try putting some of Alex's ideas into play and you should notice an improvement!
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00:00Hello everyone Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video which we are looking at
00:08the seven ways to play better golf without changing your swing. This is all about how to
00:15practice and how to think on the golf course so that you have a smarter approach so that you don't
00:20have to go through the whole process of rebuilding your swing and making major technical changes.
00:25The advice in this video comes from Alex Elliott. He's our PGA Pro and he offers some really simple
00:30and effective ways for you to play better without changing your swing. Right let's head
00:34out onto the golf course here at West Hill and find out what number seven on the list is.
00:42Okay so the first one on the list Alex is no flag golf. Now you may have noticed the 16th green
00:48behind us here at West Hill there's no flag on it. There's no flag on it for a reason Alex. What's
00:52the thinking here? I think a lot of us when we get down to the kind of like our seven eight nine
00:57iron or even six iron depending on the level of player we get that kind of green light in our
01:02head where we go right we've got to go for that flag and it could bring in trouble like say for
01:06example on this hole here if it was tight against the right then straight away we're bringing in
01:10those bunkers we're going to have to miss it a little bit. Yeah and you're also going slightly
01:14uphill and if you're leaking it a bit right it's going to come up a little bit short as well so all of
01:17those things are going to count against you. Exactly all I would say is if we could hit one more green
01:21around that's going to have a massive effect on our handicap over the season. Have one more green
01:26around strokes gain tells us we've got more chance of holding the putt. Yeah. So we look at the knock-on
01:31effect of this in confidence I just really believe that if you could go right okay I've got a green
01:36it's 15 yards either side of that flag and my virtual flag's now in the middle then our margin for
01:41error is so much bigger. This does take quite a lot of discipline I'll warn you because there are times
01:47when you just can't help it can you but if you do play towards the middle of the green and if you
01:51can hit the ball where you want to which is the other thing isn't it yeah but if you can do that
01:54then you're never going to be left with that long apart I guess. No and I say it's amazing a lot of
01:59the time when I've tried this with people like in the lesson they actually even if they hit and miss
02:03it and they slightly leak it to the right and the flag's on the right they sometimes hit it closer.
02:07Yeah. So it's it's I think it's just measuring your expectations and measuring where your strengths and
02:12weaknesses are and realizing that okay well if I'm a slight fade of the golf ball slight draw of the
02:17golf ball even if I am at the middle I'm never going to be too far away from the flag. Go on then Alex
02:21it's I'll let you into a little trade secret here it's very early in the morning Alex hasn't warmed
02:26up he hasn't hit a ball we're going to put him under pressure and see how good he is. No pressure no.
02:30So one thing I would mention you know when you're going to do this because we've taken the flag out
02:34here if there was a flag when you were playing I would pick out a target in the far ground okay and use that
02:39as kind of my focus point okay otherwise it just becomes a bit a bit too wide. Okay so what are you
02:43looking at here? Well there's a silver birch I think it's a silver birch. Yep yeah that is a silver birch.
02:48Straight through onto the middle of the green that is exactly what I'm trying to hoe my target in on
02:52so if the flag was either side of that I would focus on the tree. All right.
03:02That's gone straight at the silver, I'll tell you what it's about three yards left of the silver birch.
03:07Do you know what Alex it's a tad long you've taken maybe half a club too much but from wherever
03:11that's finished it's not far away you haven't got much work to do to make sure that you walk off with
03:15a par and if you can keep your score ticking over if you can keep making cars ultimately your your
03:22handicap your scores are definitely going to improve.
03:28Okay Alex so you found yourself in a spot of bother here and as I'm sure that most people watching this
03:33will be thinking to themselves you're going to tell them to chip out but it's not quite as simple as
03:37that. No I like to use the word smart golf so every time you've got a situation it could be from the
03:43fairway to a tight flag or predominantly like we have here I've got to fade it round keep it low get
03:49it towards the green or I could chip it out. Ask yourself the question how many times out of 10
03:55could I pull this shot off and keep me being able to advance towards the green? I like to use the
04:008 out of 10 rule yes so anything less than 8 out of 10 I would take the smarter safer option possibly
04:07if it's a question where you go yeah I can pull that shot off then it's a risk worth taking.
04:12So let me ask you this question then Alex what quantifies a successful outcome from here being
04:19on the green being around the green being in a bunker short of the green what would you say
04:22I'll take that over a chip out? I think what I would say here is if I could advance this
04:27inside 100 yards then I've got a better opportunity of getting this ball closer to the flag. Versus
04:33chipping it outside. I'll leave myself 200-180 yards say I'm less likely to hit it closer to the green
04:39whereas if I could get this out here on this par 5 inside 100 or around 100 yards no matter what
04:44level of player we are we'll probably feel a little bit more comfortable with a wedge than we do say a
04:484 iron or 3 iron. Now see 8 out of 10 threshold to me sounds quite high yeah I'd probably yeah I
04:55wouldn't describe myself as naturally the most aggressive golfer but I'd probably be working
04:59to about a 5 out of 10 which I think illustrates the problem. Yeah and but I mean I think it could
05:03be a sliding scale depending on your level of player if you feel like you're less likely to be
05:10more repeatable under pressure in this situation then possibly it might be like a 6-5 out of 10.
05:15Or maybe it's saying what okay well maybe I need to take a little bit more of potentially a risk because
05:20we look at all the top guys on tour and they are the elite of the elite but they take on some of the
05:25shots that we wouldn't dream of and I know they're probably thinking because they can control their
05:29ball a little bit better than us yes but I believe that we've got to be smart aggressive sometimes.
05:34Okay yes okay so that begs the question what out of 10 would you rank this shot? I've got to say
05:408 haven't I? No I would probably give this an 8 out of 10 but just because I'm quite comfortable
05:46fading the golf ball okay I also carry a 3-iron which I know I can hit relatively low and it suits
05:53my eye if it was a hook around the tree right then it probably might be a shot yeah so even though this
05:58looks like a really difficult golf shot you're about an 8 so you would go for this versus the chip out yeah
06:03well then that unfortunately you're going to have to hit for us then Alex okay I feel a little bit
06:10in danger here Alex I'm not going to lie you've got to trust me that's an absolutely amazing shot
06:22that's probably going to get about 20 yards short yeah if it wasn't quite so wet that would be on the
06:27green I think it goes to show you've got to know your game you've got to know as Alex said what your
06:31strengths and weaknesses are if you're happier hitting a fade than a draw then there are going
06:34to be certain circumstances where you will be able to pull shots off where otherwise you wouldn't so
06:38understand your own game be realistic and then come up with a plan if it's 8 out of 10 whether you go
06:43for it or not it might just make a big difference to your scores okay so the next one is a great way
06:53of practicing if you're out on the golf course on your own a bit of performance practice that's really
06:57going to sharpen you up Alex talk about a tip here deliberate miss it's going to sound a bit
07:02contradictory of terms we don't want to ever try and miss the green but this element of this game
07:08really kind of tunes you into where is a good miss your short game skills and also makes it a little
07:13bit more fun and interesting okay over say three holes okay fine it's easy just to go out and
07:19mundanely hit shots and not really take anything in okay fine so in a situation like this you've got
07:23about 150 yards into the green you're looking to miss the green yeah where are you looking to miss
07:27it so for this flag here where it'd be a nice simple chip if i could miss it front left i've
07:32then got a simple chip and run up so i'll get a point if i missed the green yeah two point two more
07:38points if i then got it up and down from there okay and minus two if i actually hit the green okay
07:43fine so over the three holes say if you played it when you were on your own there's nine points
07:48available so you can measure your score out of nine yeah i think if we could really go and say well
07:52imagine i was now hitting it towards this small bunker and that was my good miss on this hole
07:57you could use the same theory and say well if i can hit it into a five yard wide bunker
08:02i can hit it onto a 45 for sure but wide green yeah so it's actually harder to do yeah the
08:07deliberate mess let's do it okay so i'm gonna go for short left here just on line with this big tree
08:23oh get down don't get on the green oh just short just just just short uh you're in danger of losing
08:31two points there but you haven't uh so you're one point up uh now quick question for you do you have
08:36to chip it or can you putt it completely up to you aim of the game now is just to get it up and down
08:41okay fine and i guess the idea here is the more you get it up and down the more you're growing your
08:45confidence you're testing your short game skills it's good for a whole host of different reasons
08:48exactly and this becomes less pressure on hitting greens then so you're probably going to hit more
08:52greens just because you feel a bit more relaxed more relaxed okay fine let's see if you can i would
08:57usually put this here but just for this bit of mud on the front of the green here i'm just going to
09:01try and lift it over it yeah that's where it's a bit dewy isn't it so rolling out towards the hole
09:21yes saved to two points two points there you go so put this into play whenever you get the chance to
09:26play golf on your own give this a go it will build your confidence from the fairway and around the
09:31greens and it could make a big difference to your scoring so neil we've got 177 into the last tier
09:42yes what would be your usual approach to hitting a shot one that potentially you're not very comfortable
09:47with uh good question well i have learned over the years that i'm better off having a very clear
09:53picture in my mind okay for the sort of shot i'm trying to play so i would definitely be trying to
09:59work out whether i want to hit a fade or draw now i'm not the best golfer in the world but i can hit
10:03you know i can try and do that so you're more away from a technical swing thought then yes although i
10:09will have one swing okay and that's important i think having one kind of gives you a feeling what
10:13you're trying to achieve what i want to get you into here is i think a lot of people have too much going
10:18on in the head yes so potentially some means sometimes people got five swing thoughts yes
10:23and that's clutter yes so this is all about asking good questions what i want you to do is before every
10:31single shot whether that be a tee shot chip shot iron shot we've got here or even a putt i still have a
10:36question what shot do i see fine even if you ask it in your head stand behind the golf ball i think
10:42straight away it's a lot easier for you to paint that picture in your mind and if you're not something
10:46that's very visual i always think of you know the shot tracer yes thing you see on tv yeah almost
10:51trying to imagine one of those i think that's a really good way to go about this fine and
10:56question i've got for you then alex is you don't want to be negative with any shot you want to hit
11:00we all understand how important it is to stay positive and yet it's also really important to
11:05know where you can't miss so how do you stay positive whilst also paying attention to where you
11:09can't hit it i think the thing you've got to realize is all these top players they they will have
11:13negative thoughts i think it's just about how you deal with them and it's it's realizing that
11:18if i have a negative thought don't let that become so much of an objective in your shots okay fine i
11:23think it'd be unrealistic for us to go right okay you'll never think negative even though we want to
11:28try and think as positive as we can i would really try and hone myself on a really clear detailed image
11:34said you like to fade it you like to draw it i know we hit a few shots before draws probably your
11:38go to shot yeah so i'll be really detailed in the shot that i see towards the green okay fine
11:44and in a shot like this where you know it's one of my i'll be honest one of my least favorite shots
11:51here at west hill i always worry that i'm going to hit it into the clubhouse um so should i be just
11:56sticking with my normal shot shape which would be a slight draw or should for instance i feels like
12:01naturally to me this favors a slight fade but would you suggest i should stick with the draw you've
12:05answered the question there don't you you've said what shot do i see yeah this this shot now favors
12:10a natural fade so that's where i would go well the picture's telling you the story if it was really
12:15where the one you're super super not comfortable with and it was potentially a little bit further
12:19away i would potentially revert to type so your draw yes but where you've come out to me there and
12:24you said this shot prefers a fade you're telling yourself what you see okay fine good okay fine so
12:29i'll try and hit a little fade in here then trying to draw a very clear picture in my mind for what to do
12:35see if i can do it beautiful start line was a bit off i pushed it a bit but i faded it
12:49it's over the bunker it's okay isn't it i'll take it
12:58okay so the next one on our list relates to the way in which you build a strategy for the holes that
13:03you're playing out and got on the golf course in particular alex the difficult holes that you
13:07yeah and what's the thinking here um ultimately i think it's just highlighting the way the course
13:12designer wanted you to play it rather than getting into your own routine i think we're all probably
13:17guilty of this we get to say the fifth the sixth the sixteenth oh i always hit driving here or i always
13:22hit three wood here and we just get into a routine of doing that bringing in trouble probably making the
13:26same mistakes every single time so if we take the 16th here at west hills if we look at it back
13:32towards the tee and we said right okay if we wanted to hit to the middle of the green here
13:36well we'd probably want to be down the right hand side as we look at it so the left hand side from
13:39the tee from the tee yep and it really opens up the green takes away the trouble on the right side which
13:44you can't see here there's some bunkers there and for me it really believed that it doesn't highlight
13:49the trouble it really highlights the positions you want to put the ball in it's interesting you should say
13:53that because actually it's the first time i've really looked at this hole from this angle and
13:57certainly the left hand side as you play it is a much better place to miss it as well because the
14:02trouble's not as severe on that left side you can get away with hitting a bit of a hook whereas if
14:06you leak it out to the right you're in a lot more trouble and it's the sort of thing that you'll only
14:10really notice i think when you look at the hole from the green back towards the tee exactly i think you
14:15don't look at it subjectively as well because if you're looking at it from the tee to the green
14:19you know you've got to then play a shot there and it might influence you that way whereas if you
14:23stood here now you know you've played the hole it could be in a practice round it could just be
14:27walking that hole and it just gives you that impression of right okay well if i put it there
14:31put it here and put it there i know golf's not as simple as that but i think if we can start to plan
14:36our rounds better we take the trouble out of play so there you have it think about it slightly
14:40differently pick the three hardest holes the three holes on your local course that you play the worst
14:45think about them from the green back to the tee maybe come up with a slightly different strategy
14:49you might just shoot those scores
14:55right neil i'm now your caddy roles reversed yes we've got a flag here we've got 120 yards it's
15:01quite tight on the right i want you to give me what color you think this flag is on a traffic light
15:06system so red amber or green um well i would say it's a green light flag it's 120 yards i'm a five
15:14handicapper so um i definitely would be going for this put it that way yeah it's for me because it's
15:20quite close to that bunker and because there's a little bit of danger there it's i would kind of
15:25classify this as an amber okay fine just because i think it's one of those sucker pins where you could
15:32potentially bring in a lot of danger i would think about flags and scenarios and wind and conditions
15:38and that would give me an overall opinion on what i would classify okay so so you're saying to me that
15:43before you hit every shot into a green you're kind of having a simple traffic light system and green
15:49being absolutely go for it uh amber being play away from it a bit what's what's red red would be
15:55one where i would kind of take middle of the green so we sort of spoke about on a previous tip
15:59where we would just say no flag golf and that would be where if i missed that green at all costs
16:04then it was going to be bogey say for example water island green bunker short-sided that would be
16:10where it would be a red flag but that could also be on the situation as well like say this is howling
16:15into the wind yes this then may change or downwind vice versa it may change more towards the green yeah
16:21so it all depends on the situation that's why i want you to think of it as like a fluid system okay
16:26depending on the day depending on the weather but having a category of flags definitely allows you
16:30a bit more of a game plan so where shall i aim okay so what i would do here because i'm i think
16:36from a caddy's point of view i'll be saying right okay five handicapper it's 120 yards into a little
16:41bit wind but it's a tight flag i'll be saying this is an amber flag so if we could aim roughly five
16:46ten yards left of it okay see the fence in the background that would be where i'd concentrate
16:50in my aim because if we could still get pin high we're still gonna have a chance of a birdie right
16:55i'm going to take one more club okay because it's as you say it is getting into the wind a bit and i
16:59will do my best i will do my best to aim away from the flag even though my natural instinct is to be
17:06aggressive from here i'll aim a little bit left of it well i've pulled it a bit it's very safe
17:19but it's on the green
17:27okay so number one on our list is something that every single golfer no matter what your ability
17:33can do alex what is it consistent alignment routine from the tee i think it's just worth
17:38noting that i think people get into bad habits with alignment i think notoriously people will aim
17:44a little bit to the right swing a little bit left and it can really bring in bad swing habits
17:50and bad swing habits can lead to bad shots out in the golf course so i kind of think of it as like
17:55another three-stage process that is really simple to follow you know i put this alignment stick down
18:01on the ground here this is going to be our ball to target line so if we look directly down this
18:06this is just pointing just right at that second bunk on the left yeah so for me there i've got my
18:12ball to target line and i would go trace that from the target to an intermediate target so we've got
18:17an alignment stick down here but i appreciate if you're playing your competition on a saturday or a
18:21sunday this can't be down i would just pick out a divot a leaf and an impression on the ground that
18:27will form your intermediate target between the bunker we've got here and the ground i always then
18:33place my club down try and make like a right angle with my driver between the crown and that imaginary
18:38line yeah and then try and build my stance around that so point number two i would really try and
18:45feel that i've got parallel lines with my yeah like you're stood on a train tracks exactly that
18:50and people may argue slight for draw slight for fade but i really believe if you can get
18:54consistently aiming towards a certain target it's going to make you feel a little bit more
18:58comfortable a little bit more of a better routine yeah and i think any routine your golf swing
19:03especially like on the first tee coming on the last with a good score it's a good place it's definitely
19:07going to help you handle pressure that little bit better exactly so so go on then alex just run
19:11through the process don't necessarily need to sort of slow it down just talk us through kind of
19:16exactly what you're doing and then hit one trace my ball target line picking my intermediate target out
19:22club down feet parallel waggle the shoulders one look towards the target and pull the trigger
19:30and you flush one straight down the middle very good now how many of you out there do what alex has
19:38just done take the time just to make sure that you're focused on getting the right alignment if
19:43you don't be sure to put that into your game this year it might just make a big difference so there
19:48you have it that was our list of the seven ways to play better golf without changing your swing guys if
19:54you've liked the video please do hit the like button and also comment below what have you done in your game
19:59that's made a big difference leave some comments below share the ideas around we'd be really
20:03interested to hear your thoughts and that's all from west hill for now thank you for watching we'll see
20:08you next time
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