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In this video Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Professional Alex Elliott to look at 10 tips to handle your first golf competition!
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00:00Playing competition golf is not easy and that's why we've come out here today to produce a
00:05video on the 10 best tips to handle your first golf competition. This is all the things that
00:10you need to do from the strategy that you have on the golf course, good course management,
00:14to developing some of the stock shots that you need to be able to compete and get yourself in
00:19the best possible mindset to return a good score. Right, let's head out onto the golf course here at
00:24Fox Hills and look at the 10 best tips to handle your first golf competition.
00:34Okay, so we're on the first tee here at the long course golf course at Fox Hills and Alex,
00:39you said to me that one of the best things that you can do if you're going to play in a competition
00:42is to have a stock shot. Definitely. Now, I think a lot of people when you say stock shot, they
00:47associate like low handicappers, professionals, but that could literally be for anybody. Now,
00:53most commonly for players who are a high handicap, that might be a lot of movement left to right
00:57or right to left, depending on if you're a right or left-hander, but just sticking with that,
01:02knowing what happens is very powerful. Okay, so if you were to advise somebody
01:08and just say, this is a good stock shot to have, what would you suggest they use?
01:13Now, it can vary day to day. If you've got the opportunity to practice the day before or on the day
01:17before on a driving range, I would just see what comes out, whether it be a fade, whether it be a
01:22draw, and I would stick with that on the golf course. Okay, fine. All right, well, I'm going
01:26to go for my stock shot here, which is my stock shot in this scenario would be a little fade,
01:31I think, Alex. Okay, so interesting, as you said before,
01:34sometimes it feels a draw, but if you have to hit a fairway, it becomes a fade, so that is your stock
01:39shot. If you're one of those players that likes to hit a draw, but you have to hit a fairway swing,
01:44and it comes out a fade, that becomes a stock shot. A safe shot, something we can all do with,
01:48right? Let's see if this one can work for me. Beauty, that is really nice.
02:14Now, the next one on our list is a very simple one, but it's really important. Alex, what is it?
02:20Cleaning your clubs after every single shot. Yes. Do you know what? It's very,
02:25very wet underfoot at the moment in the UK. We've had so much rain, and it's obvious to clean your
02:30clubs after every shot, but why is it so important? I think the main thing is when it doesn't look like
02:35it's got much on it, it could be a little bit of broken mud inside the grooves, you're more likely to
02:40get a flyer. Right. That means when you're hitting from the rough, likely to end up hitting it too
02:45far. Exactly. Having dirty grooves, having grass in the grooves, you could have that same effect
02:50from the fairway. A shot that could go 90 yards, and it could go 100 yards, getting you in trouble.
02:55Because it's not spinning. Exactly. When you get grass between the ball
02:59and the grooves, or some sort of debris between the ball and the grooves, this causes the ball to spin
03:05less, the ball could potentially go further. Yes. Obviously, carry a golf towel,
03:09give every club in the bag a quick wipe. Once you've hit it, you'll be fine. Exactly.
03:20Okay. The next one on the list relates to your scorecard, and a little bit of prep you can do
03:25before you go out and tear up for the first time in a competition. What is that prep, Alex?
03:30Firstly, we've got to have our name, date, competition, and your handicap. What I get
03:34people to do, especially if they're brand new to the game and find the scoring system potentially a
03:39little bit difficult on a stable foot, I get them to mark on everywhere they've got a single shot,
03:44or off the handicap, say, for example, 20, where they get two shots.
03:47Fine. You're just making that little note on the stroke indexes to say,
03:50Exactly. Yeah, you get two shots here and two shots here. That's important because that can
03:55actually have a bearing on the way in which you play those holes. Right, Alex?
03:58Exactly. Say, for example, the stroke index one, we know we don't potentially have to get it on in
04:02three. We can actually get it on in one more than that.
04:04Yeah, and if you can just get away with making even a double bogey, you might find yourself picking
04:10up shots on the field, and just that little bit of prep before you can go out to play can make a big difference.
04:21Right, so as you can see, we've made our way up to the green. If you're about to play in your first
04:25golf competition, you're going to face long putts like this. Actually, as anyone who's
04:30played golf for a while will know, three putts really do kill a score. They kill your momentum
04:34and your mood. Alex, what's your advice when putting from long range?
04:39Now, when we've got a putt of this length, we see on TV, we saw the highlights, them draining putts
04:44on this distance, 25, 30 feet, when really, we're not expected to. If we watch that, we run the risk
04:50of trying to be too aggressive at this point. Of course, we could hold the putt, but we run the
04:55risk of hitting it three or four foot past, got a knee knocker coming back.
04:58Yes, so what should we be aiming for then? I like to use the bin lid method. If we can get the ball
05:04around the bin lid, we keep it stress-free, we've got a better chance of maintaining that score,
05:09keeping that momentum, like you said. Yes, so just take a little bit of pressure
05:12off your own shoulders. Just try and get the ball, as Alex said, within that kind of bin lid around
05:17the hole. You'll be taking three putts out of the equation, won't you?
05:20Exactly, exactly. Go on then, show us how it's done.
05:22No pressure.
05:23And that is how it's done.
05:40Okay, so for the next one on the list, you can probably guess what we're about to tell you,
05:44that is the importance of warming up. Alex, people know that it's important to warm up
05:49before they go and play, but what should they be doing?
05:51I would firstly research a few stretches that you can do online, just to basically get mobility
05:58through back, through spine, and just get us generally warmed up, ready for exercise.
06:02Okay.
06:02Then I would make sure if you hit a few golf balls, don't treat it like a practice session.
06:07Don't treat it like a practice session. All right, we've all done it.
06:11Yeah, it's very, you hit one bad one, you pull one, then suddenly you're like, well,
06:14maybe I did this, maybe I did that.
06:16You start tinkering.
06:16So what do you do in that scenario? You hit a bad shot, how do you put that to your back in mind?
06:19I mean, you're always going to want to tinker a little bit.
06:21What I'd do is I would go back to either my last lesson, my rules of thumb, what I've been working
06:26on in general, and trust that that's going to come through.
06:29Okay, fine. Let's say you've done your stretches, you've hit how many balls?
06:3425, max.
06:35You've hit 25 balls. What's the routine? What's the timeline between arriving at the golf course
06:42and stepping onto the first tee?
06:43A lot of people finish on their putting as the last thing they do before they go on the first tee.
06:48Now, generally, that probably is because of putting means near the first tee, but if we can,
06:52my absolute ideal scenario is stretching, putting, a few wedges, mid-irons, and lastly,
06:59finish on about five drives straight to the first tee, we're ready to go.
07:03Off you go. Okay, so what happens if that last drive you hit, what happens if you carve it off
07:08to the right-hand side? It's not a great image to have as you step onto the first tee, is it?
07:11No, it's not, but you could argue if your first tee shot of the day was a bad one,
07:15then that could set the tone for the day. What I would say is, literally look at the warm-up
07:20as a way of just getting your body loose, body ready, and don't judge the last shot as what's
07:25going to happen on the first tee, because you're in a completely different environment.
07:28Yeah, I mean, the truth is, you can't really expect to play well if you haven't done some form
07:33of warming up before you step onto the first tee. If you haven't got the ability to hit balls before
07:37you go and play, because that's not always the case, then at least do the physical stretches
07:41that you can, do a little bit of putting, get to the first tee and some degree of readiness
07:46so that you can go and shoot a good score.
07:53Okay, so Alex, the next one on the list is a really simple one. It's got nothing to do
07:57with technique or even strategy, but it actually can make a difference to you on the course, and that's
08:02related to where you put your bag when you're putting on the green.
08:06Definitely, and just in terms of speed of play, I mean, I've got a prime example here. I just hit
08:10the front edge. Now, the flag is at the back of the green. The next tee is actually over the back
08:15of the green. Over there, yeah.
08:16Now, this would be an absolute killer for me to leave my bag here, put out, have to then walk back,
08:22collect my bag, off to the next tee. Your plane partners you're playing with are not going to like
08:26you, and especially the guys behind. Actually, it's one of those things that can create a sense of
08:32pressure on your own shoulders, because you can feel like you're actually holding people up.
08:35People are looking at you as if to say, come on, get a move on, and actually, you're just trying to
08:39do your best, aren't you?
08:40Exactly, and especially if you're then first on the next tee, you're then running over,
08:43it could actually affect your next shot.
08:45Yeah, so actually, Alex, come over here, because in actual fact, your best bet, both of us in this
08:51scenario, is to pop both the bags over here, and then walk back to your golf ball, and then go on
08:58from there, isn't it?
08:59Exactly, so we're straight off to the next tee.
09:07Okay, so the next one is, Alex, a really important one, isn't it? It's course management. If you want
09:12your first competition to be a good one, if you want to shoot a good score, you need to think
09:16about this stuff really closely. What's your advice, generally speaking, on course management, Alex?
09:22Most golf courses either have a course guide, or people have a digital device, or even, in fact,
09:27on each hole, they have a visual of what you can see. My kind of rule of thumb is, one, look at the
09:32visual. Where's the trouble? Is the bunkers? Is the water? Is the trees like there is here at
09:37Fox Hills?
09:38Yeah.
09:39I would then think about, have I got a shot on this hole? Because having a shot on this hole
09:43might mean we can take a little bit less risk from the tee, and plan our way down the hole a little bit
09:47better. Okay, so are you identifying where the big trouble is? So you're just basically plotting
09:53your way through saying, that's a kind of card wrecking area over there, I can't hit it. Exactly,
09:58and I think if we are a higher handicapper, if we avoid a card wrecker, and we say, if we're off 20,
10:03and we accumulate just a run of bogeys, we're going to be under our handicap. It's when we have those
10:08sevens, and we turn those sevens into nines, that's when it can be really bad for our game. Okay,
10:13so specific scenario we've got here, this is 170 yards, slightly downhill, wind off the left,
10:20you can see that the flag is sort of tucked a little bit behind that bunker on the right-hand
10:24side. What is your advice, I guess, to different golfers and different abilities from a place like
10:30this? So if we are a better player, so single figures potentially, and we have a bit more
10:34confidence in our game, I would like you to kind of base the flag on a colour code system. So green,
10:40being one you can attack, that might be one in the middle of the green here. Amber being one,
10:44if we feel like it's a good win, it's a good shot shape, it's accessible for our game, that's when
10:50it comes into one that maybe go for, and a red would be potentially this scenario behind the bunker,
10:55over water, where it could be again a card wrecking situation. Yeah, okay, so for me, what's this one?
11:02I would think for you, because you said on the start of the video, stock shot was a fade,
11:07this one might be an amber for you. Amber to red, depending on how we feel and the stage of the
11:11game. Now, if you're a higher handicapper, my rule of thumb is if we hit the green and the centre of
11:17the green every single time, we're not going to be far away. No, okay, fine. And I guess, how much
11:23are you thinking about where to miss? Because a shot like this, if you miss this particular shot,
11:27short left, you're absolutely fine. Exactly. But if you miss it short right,
11:31you're in a bad position, aren't you? Are you thinking about that stuff? And if you are,
11:36how are you blocking out sort of bad thoughts from kind of causing you to make a bad swing?
11:41I think you're never going to block bad thoughts, and potentially they will come in,
11:45but I always think you can't plan for a bad shot. You know the trouble's there, you use a colour code
11:50system almost as a way of weighing up the trouble, but not almost highlighting the trouble. Okay, fine.
11:56And then we plan to hit a good shot. Like, for example, here, we'll be planning to hit a nice fade into the
12:00flag. I wouldn't want you thinking, well, I can miss it short left, I can miss it short right.
12:04Right, fine. Because that's just going to give you bad underlying thoughts.
12:07Okay, good. Well, I'm going to give this a go then, Alex.
12:10All right, I want to see the stock shop. Okay, fine. Yeah, well, you've asked for it,
12:13so I'll have to do it. Okay.
12:18Go. Oh, no. Guess where it's gone, people. It's in that trap short right. I got a little bit greedy
12:36with it, didn't I? I thought it was going to be all right for a second, but the wind just held it up there.
12:40Okay, so the next one on our list relates to swing thoughts. Now, I guess most golfers have
12:52swing thoughts, things in their golf swing they're looking to achieve. It's a question for you, how
12:57many is a good number of swing thoughts to have, do you think? Before I give the answer, I want to
13:01know, how many do you have? One. One. Okay, so I'd say you're generally probably not the norm.
13:07Oh, really? Most people that come for lessons have sometimes upwards of five swing thoughts.
13:13Right, so like grip, posture, whatever. Exactly. Right, fine. So my tip for that is,
13:17because we're always going to have, if we're new to the game of golf, it's our first competition,
13:21we're going to have something that we need a bit of a checklist. Yes. So I kind of like separate
13:24that into pre-swing, so grip, stance, all those aspects. Okay, yeah. So we can throw them away once
13:30we've done it. Fine, so you do all of the groundwork that you know you need to do to get yourself in a
13:34good position over the ball. Exactly. And then once you're there- I tend to have, hopefully,
13:38no more than one, potentially two, one back swing and one trigger thought. Okay, so what is it for
13:43you then? So I like to feel that the club goes wide on the way back. Okay. Because I get kind of a
13:47little bit narrow is my bad swing thought. On the way through, I'm an absolute bugger for keeping my
13:52head down. Okay, right. So it stops me rotate through, so I like to feel like, I call it anacrit,
13:57that's literally my only thought on the way through. Okay, right, yeah. So I try and work on like a role model that I
14:03can copy and almost create the same thing as what I visualise and see. Okay, that's good. Well, I
14:08have, as I say, I have one, and my one is because I tend to get a bit snatchy from the top. I just
14:15like to just feel as if I'm just, not pausing, but just there's a bit of time at the top of the
14:20backswing. Just don't rush the start of the downswing. You're on one of them like maybe like
14:24Matsuyama to the top. Yeah, exactly. And then go. Exactly. It doesn't always look like that. I'm sure
14:28anyone who's seen any of our videos in the past will know, it doesn't always look like that. But for me,
14:32I know it's a swing thought that's worked well for me. And I guess, Alex, the point is that it's
14:36different for different people and different golf swings, isn't it? Exactly. But the one key thing
14:40is between me and you, it's simple. It's not a specific position. Yes. It's a simple thought
14:47and a feeling to work to. Okay. Good. Shall I have a hit? Let's have a hit.
14:53Right, I've got to really try and pause at the top now, Alex. Yeah.
15:02A little bit over fade, but it's okay.
15:13So as you can see, the next tip we've got for you is about alignment. And we've chosen alignment
15:17because it's something that everyone can get right. It makes a big difference if you do get
15:22it right. But equally, it's something that we all get wrong from time to time. Certainly, Alex,
15:25I'm somebody that can often stand quite close to the ball at a dress. I'm the same.
15:29Why is it important to get your alignment rock solid? I think the main aspect is the fact that
15:34a lot of people's bad shots and bad swings just stems from poor alignment, like you were saying
15:39about yourself there. Okay. So having a routine to stick to on the first tee is absolutely key
15:45to assure you've got good alignment. Yeah. So I mean, we're talking here about how to handle your first
15:49competition. And one of the big challenges of playing competition golf is that you can get a
15:54bit scrambled at times. And these are the sorts of things that can fall by the wayside. How do you
15:58make sure that doesn't happen? I would visualize exactly what we've got down here. We've got two
16:03alignment sticks, one down the ball to target line, and then a parallel one for our feet line.
16:08Okay, fine. So how are you building that stance then? So straight away, I'd do this and I'd make
16:12this as part of every single shot, whether it be the first tee shot, whether it be the last shot into
16:17the 18th green. Fine. And even if it's your first round, I would make sure you build this into a
16:22good thing, which happens every single round. Okay, good. So behind the golf ball, establish your ball
16:27to target line, and that'd be where we want the ball to finish. Yes. So I don't then tend to make it
16:33like a thin line. I like to feel like an alignment channel. So that's going to be our outside alignment
16:38stick. I would then, once I've got a strong visual of the outside one and highlighted it, I would bring in
16:44a second one, which feels like my feet line runs parallel to that. From that, I can build my stance
16:48around it, my hips, my shoulders, and then I'm ready to go. Yes. So two parallel lines, that's the
16:54key. Obviously, you can't put shafts down like this in competition. Just remember to get those two
16:58parallel lines set, get yourself set properly over the ball. If you do, you are more than halfway to
17:04make a good swing. Okay, so the last one on the list relates to your scorecard. Actually, we're
17:14talking here, Alex, about what you do after a round, because you might think that you've finished
17:18your round of golf, nothing can go wrong. But actually, before you hand your card in, something
17:22can go wrong. What do people need to do? What do they need to look out for? First point of call,
17:27we've got to have the gross scores correct. Okay, yes. I know we talked about playing in a stable third,
17:32and we have a tally of points that we get. Now, if they don't add up correctly, it doesn't matter,
17:36and if they're not the correct points, that doesn't matter. The main thing is, as long as your gross
17:40scores for each hole are correct. Yes, so I would go through my card, and I'd check what I'd put you
17:45down for, and against what you've got on your card, we just make sure that the scores on both cards
17:50tally up, right? Exactly. And then if they do? Two things you've got to do then. Okay. Number one,
17:56make sure you sign it, but the one I find a lot of people forget is the playing partner's got to sign it too.
18:01Yeah. Okay, so get that right, hand your card in, and you'll be good to go.
18:05So there you have it. That was our list of the 10 best tips to handle your first golf competition.
18:11Guys, what did you think? What did you think of Alex's tips? Is there anything that you've done
18:15playing under pressure, playing in competition that's really helped you out? We'd be really
18:18interested to hear your thoughts. But for now, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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