Reasons Why You're Not Improving Your Handicap

Golf Monthly

In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA professional Alex Elliott to look at the main reasons why golfers get stuck at the same handicap for long periods. Alex offers some insights into the traps golfers fall into and provides advice on how to move forwards and possibly even to get your handicap down.

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone and welcome to the London Club. In this video we're going to take a look at the top

00:0410 reasons that golfers do not get better. Looking at everything from the mental challenges out on

00:09the golf course to some of the tough shots that are costing you. Right let's head out and get started.

00:18Right so number 10 on our list and the first one we're going to look at Alex is making

00:22swing changes mid-round. Yeah I think this can work both ways like you could make a swing change

00:29actually hit a decent shot if you've been struggling throughout that round but then you

00:33sort of question yourself well what did I do differently? You try it again and then the ball

00:37goes off in a different direction. So question for you then Alex, how many swing thoughts do you think

00:43is the right number of swing thoughts for a ball? I like to have two just in the sense of like having

00:48a back swing thought and then a trigger thought. Okay for example like mine would be take it wide

00:55and then belt buckle to target just to make sure I get through the ball but the two feelings that

01:02are something that are easy to do. Right okay. It's not like move this do this. No not a really

01:07technical complicated move. Exactly that and just actually if you're going to make a swing change

01:12either maybe get it from a YouTube video or get some advice from a PJ bro. Yeah so as Alex said two swing

01:18thoughts stick with them while you're on the golf course if it hasn't worked then make a change

01:23don't make that change while you're on the course.

01:28So number nine on our list is about distance. Alex what is it? Yeah I mean this might be a bit

01:34of a contradiction to what you've probably heard on online before and if you don't drive it far

01:39enough it's actually hard to lower your scores. Right okay so let's say you've got somebody out

01:44there who hits it 200 yards but pretty straight what sort of handicap would you say they could get to

01:49before they start to struggle to get any lower from that point? I would say trying to access

01:53single figures potentially. Right. Because you're going to drive it to a point where you're always

01:57going to have a medium to long iron into majority of par fours whereas we know long irons are hard

02:03to hit greens and it's hard to hit close so your proximity to the hole it's just generally harder

02:08to lower your scores that way. Yeah now Alex has got some advice on his YouTube channel about how to

02:12hit the ball further off the tee. We have plenty of videos about the same topic on our YouTube channel. If you are

02:18struggling on that front take a look at some advice to help hit the ball a bit further it could be the

02:23thing that is stopping you from shooting lower scores. Okay so this one is about being too hard

02:32on yourself putting too much pressure on your shoulders to perform. Alex what do you think is

02:36the mistake here that sort of causes players to play poorly? I think obviously we all want to play our best

02:41golf we all invest a lot of money a lot of time and we put the pressure on ourselves to perform and if

02:47it doesn't happen we get a little bit wound up sometimes potentially and it's a downward spiral.

02:52I agree with you right and I've definitely fallen foul of this in the past but we're all human beings

02:57it's kind of natural to want to play your best every time you go out especially if you've been

03:01investing in clubs and lessons so how do you take pressure away from yourself? I think it's

03:07basically managing your expectations so it's going out there going actually well I'm going to just enjoy

03:11today and to Athens. Right you think about this I bet you've done this exact scenario you've not played for

03:16two or three weeks you've come out and played your best golf. Yes. It's been raining you've gone out

03:20with waterproofs on wet gloves on expectations no one will shoot a good score today probably shot a

03:25good score. Yes. Expectation levels are lower you can relax and actually let your creative juices flow.

03:31Yeah so don't be too hard on yourself golf is a difficult sport maybe sort of try and feel your way

03:36into the round and then see how things are going before you start building any expectations because

03:41trying to go out there every single round from the first shot trying to shoot your lowest score

03:45is very difficult. Number seven is not tracking your stats a lot of really valuable information

03:55that you might just be giving up on by not tracking your stats yeah what should people be looking out

03:58for Alex here? I just think something things simple like how many fairways are we hitting how many

04:04greens regulation and then on that are we missing it more left or more right okay so it gives you an idea

04:09about how to work on your game but then also an idea about how to strategize while you're on the golf

04:13course yeah like take this flag here it's a right hand side flag if you miss more to the right it's

04:17probably not a good idea to short side yourself yes so you can build in knowledge about your game as

04:22well as working on the correct areas and not just the areas you like to work on yeah and so you might

04:28have a theory about where you miss you might have a theory about how many fairways you hit how many

04:33greens you hit but actually backing it up with the data gives you that framework doesn't it exactly

04:37that and then you actually start to see improvements because you're actually working on the areas

04:41that need work yeah okay Alex uh you're gonna have to hit this one for me so we've got 191. Alex has

04:47got a very very skinny uh cobra four iron in his hands this is really going to test you out isn't

04:53it and it's cold and it's cold

05:00you've taken it on Alex you've actually committed exactly the crime that you were guarding helping

05:06people guard against yeah but it's got a good shot short game so i'm sure it'll be fine

05:13this one is about not having exactly the right equipment for your game Alex what's the big

05:18mistake here yeah i think there's two one with driver which most people probably think about when

05:22they go for a driver fitting but also with irons it's having the correct length and lie angle

05:28yeah help you play better golf okay so if you get it wrong what will players see so if a club is too

05:34long and therefore the lie angle is too upright we'll start to see that golf ball launch a little

05:39bit left for the majority of your shots and even more so with lofted irons if it was the opposite

05:44if that line goes too flat we're going to see that shot starts the right now where do most people

05:49swing this golf club yeah a little bit over stand up create it a little bit flatter yeah so having

05:55the right equipment for you crucial in terms of your accuracy with your eyes what about with the driver

06:00with the driver i think we all have this thing about we have to have the stiffest shaft we have

06:04to have the club with the most or the least loft to act like we can hit it a long way we're actually

06:09optimizing the correct shaft and possibly more loft for most golfers is going to make it a little

06:14bit further yeah so that low loft low spin performance might be good for your best swing and

06:20your best strike and your best shot yeah but how often is that going to actually cost you when

06:25you're not got your best swing and strike exactly on the ball and that's where we want to play our

06:30better golf right we want to be able to get around the golf course round our handicap when we're not

06:33playing our best golf yeah some really handy advice there for getting the right equipment for your game

06:42so number five on our list is about putting and alex everyone could do with holding a few more

06:48putts doesn't matter what handicap you are but what's the sort of advice here what's the mistake that

06:53people make i think we always try and get a little bit complicated because we think now our golf game

06:59is based on such fine margins it's now a hole not a fairway and not a green we've got to be really

07:05perfect okay yeah but so you're telling me we don't have to be perfect well not really no i think a lot

07:10of us try and be too perfect and then we don't have any flow to our stroke okay so if flow to your

07:16putting stroke is so important then give us a quick tip how do you get it so i i like to think of it like

07:20this i think a lot of it comes from grip pressure i always picture tiger now that's not the analogy

07:25that i have yeah his hands look comfortable on the club yeah so we're in there hands looking

07:29comfortable maybe give the shoulders a bit of a waggle and i have the practice swings looking at the

07:33hole just tuning myself into my senses about what i've got to actually do yeah and if you can do that

07:40then you don't have to think too much about how hard you're hitting the ball it should happen

07:43naturally yeah um come on then i'm going to put you under pressure make make it for us you've given me a

07:47left to right here okay you're slightly to right although greens are perfect i'm giving you no

07:52excuses oh oh dear not enough flow not enough flow but a lovely pot

08:08okay so number four on our list is about strategy and alex it's about the eight out of ten rule explain

08:15yeah i i think no matter what level you are it's using this strategy where if i have a shot that

08:20i'm about to hit if i can't pull it off eight times out of ten then possibly it's rethinking

08:26either the club or error aiming okay good so how does it apply in this scenario well this is a tough

08:32hole here at the london club right water all down the left one place you can't go is left now most club

08:37golfers we hit it with a bit of a slice so you might think you know what for me to hit this fairway i've

08:42got to aim at the trouble yes let it come in whereas actually we know if i aim down the middle

08:47maybe hopefully hit the bullet straight but worst case scenario i'm in the right rough i'm in play

08:52yeah and you can always recover you can always make a sort of four or five the further up you get

08:57up the hole but if you're in the water off the tee because you've hit that brilliant tee shot that's

09:01gone dead straight then you're not going to be able to recover that exactly yeah so think about the

09:05eight out of ten rule while you're out on the golf course use it to your advantage it could really

09:09help so number three is not warming up okay how many of us are guilty of not doing anything before

09:19we go and play golf to warm our bodies up it's really important also the other point here is that

09:24not everyone is going to have a facility like there is here at london club where you can go and hit

09:27balls if you do have a facility like this what's the best way of doing it kind of quickly because

09:32most people out there don't have hours to spend before they tear i would if it got a facility

09:36like this i'd do five minutes putting five minutes chipping finish off a little bit on the range head

09:41straight to the first tee whereas most people actually do it in the reverse yes but i want to do

09:46the last thing on the range the first thing i'm going to do on the first thing right so you're

09:50imagining that first tee shot that you're going to be hitting exactly okay and then if you don't have

09:54a facility like this let's say you don't have any practice facilities whatsoever how should you do it

10:00stretching just use your locker room like you can actually mobilize your body quite easily just by

10:05going in the locker room doing a few dynamic stretches and if you're wondering where to get

10:09that advice my tpi has got loads of different exercises and i use them quite regularly if i know

10:15if i'm going playing a tournament with a golf course that's got no range i'll go and spend 10 minutes

10:19in the locker room yeah it's really simple stuff and again it's the sort of preparation that we all know

10:24we should do but we often fail to do it if you do commit to doing it chances are those first few

10:30holes you might just score them a bit better

10:36so number two on our list and it's something that stops a lot of golfers from lowering their

10:40handicaps lowering their scores is that they don't have a shot for a scenario like this they don't work

10:46on those scoring shots alex yeah and i think even for a higher handicap right in a scenario like this

10:52on a long par four we're going to be in a situation where we're going to have this 30 yard chip

10:56for our third shot more often than not yes and even for higher handicappers you want to be getting

11:01it up and down every now and again you certainly never want to be getting down in four which means

11:06executing this shot a little bit better so alex give us a tip so i always think most people would

11:11resort most lofted club to pull here a shot like this i use the rule if i can chip it run it last

11:16resort get it in the air okay so nice and simple fall slightly towards the back of your stance

11:21narrow stance full width apart and wait on your lap okay this makes it more of a long chip rather

11:27than like a pitch okay so which club have you got so i've got pitching match okay go on then let's see

11:32it there we go i'm looking for around about two to three feet on running it up there as much as possible

11:41yeah lovely and just notice how simple that action is it's something that every golfer can try

11:46and replicate themselves keep it simple hit it a bit closer you might get it up and down a bit more

11:51often okay so number one the number one fault that is holding golfers back and stopping them from

12:00scoring their best is alex practice right yeah so not using the range in the best way possible

12:07like i call it like machine gun fire people get their 100 ball that's gone in 30 minutes

12:12yeah and i think most people watching this will have heard this sort of tip before and they go to

12:17the range myself included with the best intentions yeah but before you know it suddenly you've hit 30

12:22shots very quickly and you've stopped thinking about anything that you're working on so what's a good

12:26way of kind of thinking about it and committing to doing it properly i think playing your hardest hole

12:31at your golf club in your head is a great way to actually well get over that hole but also tune

12:37yourself into actually playing some shots rather than out there just trying to make a perfect swing and

12:42oh that wasn't good right i just do this yes actually get out there and do something that reflects

12:47what you're gonna do what you're trying to do on the golf course so let me ask you then alex so you've

12:51got driver in your hand here you're imagining the fifth hole or whatever it is at your course are

12:56you actually picturing the fairway what do you what do you see definitely i'm quite a person a visual

13:00person so for me it helps me picture the fairway i picture the shot and i'll set a boundary between

13:06let's say the two red flags in front of us right let's test you out then so what is the boundary

13:10what's the shot that you're hitting okay what can you see so we'll use the fifth at my golf club

13:14it is as narrow or it perceives looks as narrow as these two red flags so i hit a fade so i'm thinking

13:21right can i fade it off the left flag into the middle of that fairway okay that's what i'm picturing

13:27so i would do this as well going through my full routine because that's really important you reflect

13:34and you mirror what you want to do in the middle round on a saturday yeah so you're more comfortable

13:38in all of those scenarios out of the course

13:48beautiful beautiful and it's it's simple processes like that if you are serious about shooting low

13:54scores a bit more often than preparing yourself for the pressure of these scenarios getting you

13:59the most out of your practice time it's absolutely essential so there you have it that's our look at

14:04the top 10 reasons golfers do not get better at the game hopefully you found some of alex's tips in

14:10there helpful some useful things to take out with you on the golf course going forward if there is

14:14anything that you think we've missed please do leave some comments below we'd love to hear what you

14:19think but that's it for now from the london club thanks for watching we'll see you next time

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