- 11 hours ago
Lower your handicap by mastering on-course strategy. In this video, we show you how to accurately determine how far you hit each club and use that knowledge to your advantage. Learn about the best technology, simple tracking methods, and pro strategies for club selection that will help you avoid hazards and hit more greens.
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00:00Most people think it's dodgy technique costing them all those shots over par and whilst that
00:05may be true to an extent there's another big reason that could be hurting you and that's
00:10knowing your yardages. With the help of ShotScope we've put together five brilliant tips to show
00:16you how and why you need to know your yardages to shave shots off of your scores. I'm here at
00:22the amazing Blackmoor Golf Club and Adam Hartnett is going to show us how.
00:37The most obvious way that knowing your yardages is going to help your game is with club selection
00:42of course whether it be on a par three like this beautiful one behind us or on second shots
00:47into the greens. Now the first part of that is of course Adam knowing what your yardages are
00:53so how do you work out what your yardages are for each club? So I think the first thing is
00:59having a
00:59distance measuring device okay so if you're using a rangefinder or a GPS watch that's going to be the
01:03most straightforward way for most golfers to do it. What I like to do is something that Tommy Fleetwood
01:09actually spoke about which is keep a little notebook in my back pocket and every time I hit my say
01:14seven
01:14iron I'll make a note of how far it goes and that way then I've got a range of seven
01:19irons and I'll
01:20know that my shortest seven iron goes x my longest seven iron goes y and then that gives me a
01:25real nice
01:26kind of area to work through when I've got a seven iron shot to the green. Of course you can
01:31also do it
01:32with all the modern technology out there we've got the LM1 little launch monitor down there a brilliant
01:36bit of kit you can use that indoors outdoors and it will tell you those numbers on a variety of
01:41shots.
01:41Shot scopes data tracking as well will do that with all of its shot tracking and its GPS and actually
01:47a
01:47really little handy thing there is that it will give you the P average which is essentially how far
01:52you're hitting that club with any really dodgy ones taken out so if you're chipping out of the trees or
01:57anything like that so it gives you that true representation as Adam said on how far each club
02:02goes. Now once you've got those numbers you're stood on the tee here you know where the flag is you
02:07know
02:07where the edges of the green are how are you then choosing the right club? Well again I think
02:12it comes down to knowing your shortest and your longest and then taking into consideration the
02:17wind uphill downhill. In my notebook I also make note of if I'm going uphill or downhill into wind
02:24so when I'm playing on the round I'll look at my notebook and I'll see okay I hit this similar
02:28shot a few holes ago now I know what to hit so that's my little bible. Right well you've chosen
02:33your
02:34club there yep we're going to see if you've got the right one in hand let's have a go
02:47well the line is very good
02:51and that's beautiful below the hole putting uphill for birdie what more do you want so there you go
02:56a great shot from Adam understand what your yardages are and use the technology available to find them
03:01and then factor that in appropriately when choosing your club on approach shots.
03:08When it comes to knowing the yardages of each of your clubs it's important to know that you want
03:13to be thinking really about two yardages and that's your carry distance and your total distance because
03:20what those two are and how they relate to each other is really going to aid you with your shot
03:24selection and making sure you're taking any hazards out of play whether that be running into them
03:29or flying over them so what is the difference between these two yardages in terms of how you're
03:34putting your strategy together and how do you use them? Yeah so I like to think that carry is for
03:40flying total is for dying and what I mean by that is carry is for flying obstacles bunkers ditches hazards
03:47anything you've got to get over that number that carry number is crucial for those scenarios and total for
03:54dying so when your ball comes to a rest okay so how far is the ball going to run out
03:59that's my total
04:00distance so that's going to be more for things like getting to the end of dog legs running into bunkers
04:05those kind of things off the tee. Now we've got a lovely shot in here but that bunker on the
04:09right
04:09hand side is just coming into play if we're just right of the pin now when it comes to working
04:15out
04:15exactly what club to hit here obviously you've got the back edge to worry about but the bigger danger
04:20is that front and the bunker so how do you equate it especially if you're a little bit between clubs
04:24in terms of your carry and where that pin is? Absolutely most holes the danger is at the front
04:29right so here's a really good example of that so I want to know the back yardage and the yardage
04:34to
04:34the flag it's nice to obviously know the yardage to that bunker but I'm not going to flirt with it
04:39at
04:39all I'm going to completely take it out of play most of the time you've got a good amount of
04:44room
04:44between the front bunker and the back of the green so we're going to be aggressive here. Brilliant and of
04:49course
04:49ShotScope and all of its technologies if you use it to track your shots out on the course and the
04:54LM1 launch monitor that will give you both of those numbers so you can know exactly where you are
04:59I know you know what yours are Adam and now you're going to put it into practice and fly that
05:03bunker
05:04with ease onto the green. Let's give it a go
05:18An absolutely beautiful shot the carry distance was there it soared well over the bunker even if it
05:23had gone a little bit right but it didn't and that final distance that total was spot on as well
05:28birdie putt upcoming
05:33Under clubbing is an absolute epidemic amongst handicap golfers and the stats bear that out
05:40Everyone over a 10 handicap is actually more likely to miss it short than hit the green from 150 yards
05:49and when you move to a 20 handicap you will hit half short so that is an incredibly high number
05:56which shows
05:56we are doing something wrong Adam why is that the case and what can we do to fix it?
06:01Yeah I think it's a case of you know golfers not truly knowing their yardages so you know really
06:05knowing your yardage is so key for that reason most people think they hit it further than they do
06:10so what I like to do is get a yardage not only to the flag but to the back of
06:16the green when I get
06:18yardage to the back of the green I know what I'm really working with so here I've got 150 yards
06:22to
06:22the flag I've got 165 to the back of the green so I'm going to choose a club that I
06:27know goes a
06:27minimum of 150 and a maximum of 165 rather than a lot of golfers are choosing a club that goes
06:33the maximum distance for the yardage that's why they come up short and also here we look you can
06:38see there's a bunker short typically there is more danger short than long so if you are going to miss
06:44to be honest favoring long a lot of the time is actually a bit better yeah and I think it's
06:50great you
06:50I played a game as a kid and this is a really great way of doing it I gave myself
06:54a point every
06:55time I got past the flag and that way I kind of changed the instead of thinking about trying to
07:00get it just on the green or near I was making sure I got it passed all the time and
07:05in reality
07:05I actually was getting it much closer great stuff let's see you hit one into this flag
07:09and past it hopefully let's go past it yeah
07:21looks good and there you go on the green but just past the flag brilliant stuff there you go
07:28know your yardages and make sure you know that back edge of the green and play just short of it
07:38knowing your yardages is also absolutely essential when it comes to building an effective strategy that
07:44is going to take as much danger out of play as possible you can see we've got a big old
07:49fairway
07:49bunker lurking down there behind us and statistically the average 15 handicapper is going to drop half a
07:55shot by going in that fairway bunker as opposed to finding the short grass so it really matters
08:01so when it comes to deciding whether you're going to take driver or anything else here and build a
08:07strategy how are you approaching it yeah so for me I'm looking at the I know my total distance for
08:13my driver this particular hole is a little bit into wind I'm not going to carry that bunker today with
08:17my driver so I need to know the distance I've got to roll up to it and choose an applicable
08:23club
08:23so that even if I hit it solid I'm not going to reach it I'm taking the bunker completely out
08:28of play
08:28yeah the bottom line is get it in play off the tee avoid those big bunkers any penalty areas any
08:34water
08:34take clubs that are going to keep you out of it you've made your decision
08:38yep let's see you commit to it and find that fairway all right
08:51so there we go good strategy the right club in hand takes all of the trouble out of play and
08:56now
08:56we're in the fairway and able to attack with our second
09:03one important thing that knowing all of your yardages can do as well is help you build a full
09:08picture of the gapping through your bag with your clubs now Adam what is gapping and why is it important
09:14yeah gapping effectively is the difference in yardage between the clubs so as you go through the bag each club
09:20we want to have a nice consistent gap between each club as we move through the bag what sort of
09:26gap
09:26are you looking for I guess a lot of people would think 10 yards kind of range makes sense yeah
09:31I
09:31would say so it varies on the golfer's ability you know so a lot of time golfers will go and
09:36get fitted
09:37for clubs and the fitters you know part of the fitters job is to make sure that they've got a
09:41sensible gap between clubs so it's not uncommon actually to not have certain clubs in the bag
09:46because maybe we're lacking a bit of speed and you know we miss out certain clubs so we get a
09:51nice
09:51range through the bag knowing how far you're hitting them might throw up some issues whereby
09:56the gapping isn't where you want it to be either you've got a massive gap that you've not got a
10:01club
10:01that you can fit into that yardage or equally you've got a couple of clubs that are almost doing
10:05the same thing how do you approach that situation yeah I mean if you've got clubs that are going the
10:10same
10:10distance quite often it's the longer clubs in the bag and it highlights usually one of two things
10:16a lack of speed or inconsistency of strike so really if you've got two clubs that go the same
10:21distance I'd always advise going for the slightly more lofted one just to give yourself that bit more
10:26forgiveness yeah and I think you can also get things like now your fairway woods your hybrids
10:31and that will help especially in the long end of the bag won't it if you're struggling to generate
10:36enough speed to get your long irons going different distances yeah look at those alternatives hybrid
10:40fairway woods absolutely and you know nowadays when we've got home launch monitors and you know
10:46data everywhere it's really quite easy to do your own gapping on the driving range with your home
10:50launch monitors so um no excuse really yeah I also wanted to look at the bottom end of the bag
10:54as well
10:55wedges because often we think well I need a 56 a 60 a 52 and we're thinking about the numbers
11:00on the
11:01bottom of the club but actually it's the distance they go that's more important isn't it you want to
11:06get a spread of yardages and then find the lofts that enable you to do that yeah absolutely and this
11:12is
11:12where you know a good fitter comes into their own because they will make sure that when you're going
11:16through your sessions they're looking at the numbers and the you know the lofts on the bottom
11:20of the club start to become irrelevant as long as we've got that nice gap in between the clubs there
11:24we go good gapping so making sure every club has its place in your bag and the setup from top
11:30to bottom
11:30is correct will just make your life a lot easier so there you have it some great tips on how
11:36knowing your
11:37yardages and using that information can really improve your scores from getting the right setup
11:43of clubs right the way through your bag to planning the best strategy on each individual hole and
11:49ultimately knowing how far every club goes so you can pick the right one all of these tips will help
11:55you
11:56save shots I hope you've enjoyed this video my thanks again to top 50 coach Adam Hartnett
12:01ShotScope for providing all of the wonderful insights and Blackmore Golf Club for hosting us
12:06we'll see you next time