5 KEY STRATEGY DECISIONS... EVERY GOLFER NEEDS TO GET RIGHT!!

[Music] welcome to bing lease and eyes for this video in partnership with motor caddy we've got tor caddy billy foster he's going to be calling on all of his experience from caddying for the likes of savvy buyer steros baron clark lee westwood and right now matt fitzpatrick he's using the motorcade m5 gps electric trolley and he's going to share all of his best advice to help you strategize around the golf course [Music] okay billy hit the fairway as always of course but still quite a long way to go so you come up to a shot like this first of all how far have we got well we've got 165 to the front 182 to the flag kit so you know normally 182 for a pro golfer would be a seven iron let's say for example today you've got a factor in yeah you probably a couple downhill so 180 the weather conditions the temperature it's going to go at least five yards less you know a little bit of breeze into us as well so it's going to be you know probably 10 so i'll be looking at least 190 which all of a sudden change it from a seven hand to a really good six iron so that's what you'll be looking at looking at your landing areas obviously the green's pretty soft today so you would be looking to land it to two or three yards shortly all so then you'll be going 187s my landing number which still is just a nice six iron so you get different scenarios you know if the pin was on the front let's say there was water short and this is where a lot of guys still make mistakes they were going right well i've 180 you know it's a seven iron because i want to land at 180 but actually you know because the pins on six you're going over water so you'd be looking to land it at least five yards past the hall so you'd be you know you'd be adding it 185 which should probably change it from a seven hour to a six hour because if a good seven iron lands on the front spins a bit you're in the water so you're protecting yourself in a little bit past the fatter part of the green and taking the hazard out of player but right now for you it's a good solid six hour man cool so often though amateurs come up short on a shot like this probably for two reasons ego we think we hit the ball a lot further than we do and also just general quality of the strike would you err on the long side and really get to know your yardages essentially i'm all day long i mean i've carried in probably 3 000 programs over 40 years you know and you know like i said the two mistakes you always see is the alignment's always shocking it's always 20 or 30 yards right so always try and pick something online with where they're hitting it and get the club pointing at your target that's on the ground might be a divot or a t-peg or something and then just step in square to your club fair so you will automatically align yourself a lot better but yeah definitely the strike of the shot is key you know it's um amateurs don't really know how far the fly every club but i mean if you went on the practice ground and it i loaded seven hands and said well i fly my seven iron 150 you know and you might have 155 here well guess what i'm gonna hit a good seven iron but you missed strike it a lot so i'd always recommend it in one club more than swinging it smooth instead of trying to smash the lights out of it and hoping you yeah the sweet spot which you might do one in ten but as amateurs we don't so i would always say use an extra club swing it smoother and then you know if you if you pin eye you're obviously going to be a lot closer even if you're left or right you're going to be a lot closer to the hall than if you're 15 yards short so it's simple maths really in most instances is it better just to aim for the middle of the green almost forget about the flag if you're an amateur you aim for the middle of the green every time you're going to give yourself a lot more putts for birdie that's not just amateurs kelly for matt fitzpatrick and he has a chart that he's religious you know if the pit the pins got fall from the left he'll never hit out the flag because he knows his dispersion with say a seven iron might be nine yards so we'd always aim five yards right of the hall so even if he tugs it but it's still going to be on the left side of the green you know so yes always in the middle of the green the best players nick faldo always talked about the cheese wedgie he called it so he would say where the pin is in another wedge around the flag and he would try any in the cheese wedge right or left of the hole depending on which side of the green the flag is cut so the best players in the world again limit the mistakes and keep it in the fat side of the green okay so i'm certainly not one of the best players in the world but i'm going to limit my mistake so is it six iron six on it is yeah okay there you go all the best good luck son i made it thank you so there you go if you are in a situation like this it's a mid-iron long iron in make sure you know your numbers aim for the middle of the green and whatever you do if there's water a big bunker do not go flirting with it hit the center and give yourself a putt [Music] okay billy this is an absolute classic we're over in the trees a little bit of a window here we can come out sideways plenty of options but what's the right one yeah well as you can see i'm in my usual spot here on the ninth hall at bingley another pull-up off the tee um yeah i mean you do have a few options here uh i think uh i learned a lot of different options off the great cevi balosteros but um obviously you've got four options the easiest one is to just chip out sidewards you could actually go between this bush and the first tree and just that will be the safe shot just pop something out short of the bunk and you can still get home in three on this par five you do have an option up here to the left where you could hit a high cut if you so desired but i don't really see that reaching the green so my personal shot would be between the two trees you can see in front the way i go about i'd always try and plumb bob or you'd always see justin rose doing something like this where he he holds the club up and he tries to pick the dead center between the trees and it just so happens that i'd always try and choose something online in the middle of the gap there like this leaf is in the perfect position right in the middle of them two trees so i would always try and align the club face to the leaf so now i know that club first is pointing perfectly in between the two trees obviously play off the back foot a little bit because you want a little lure chaser and i would try and drive that lure hard through the middle of the gap and chase it in there obviously with a bit of a draw because you need to shape it around there a bit but that personally that would be the shot of my choice if you've got you know any sort of low handicapper or pro would would normally go for this shot right in chair something up just short the green or if you get it perfect you could knock it on the green i'm sure the grandson you all would be he'd have a birdie put from here no problem yeah we could have a borgia put from the middle of the fairway but you'd have a birdie putt from here i'm no savvy but i'm tempted i've got to take this on you got the right club there right yeah that should be good yeah okay so we've got that leaf bizarre over the legal alignment nice low punch under there right i'm channeling my inadjusting rose here okay careful as it might bounce back and hit you [Laughter] always chip out sideways ladies and gentlemen i'm glad i could be here as the guinea pig to show you it's not always the best thing to go chasing the tricky recovery shot chip out sideways get it back and play unless you're a good player like i said good players we'll go for it you should have chipped out [Music] okay billy how far have i got all right let's have a look kit okay we've got 85 yards to the flag okay so that's not a full wedge what you do in this kind of situation again you've got to you've got to know your landing numbers looking at that flag again it's it's tight left so i'd be recommending dot knock the flag out because if you pull it a little bit you're going to be in the deep bunker left so you'll be aiming two or three yards to the right of the hall i'm probably looking to land it pin eye the greens are pretty soft again you need to know your yardages and the only way to do that is and i'll tell any juniors the best way to make your game much sharper don't spend so much time bashing drivers and long irons i would spend certainly half your time hitting wedges or eating a lot of chips around the green so the more you practice your short game the better so you get the likes of phil mickelson he used to he'd just like put towels down on the range at 70 yards 80 yards 90 yards 100 yards 110 and he try and land it on the towels you know hundreds and hundreds of balls try to land it on that spot so you dial in your wedges and you can you get to a stage where you can land it within two or three yards of that towel every time and that's what makes champions great by having a really sharp short game the likes of luke donald got to number one in the world because immaculate wedge player zach johnson's got a green jacket and a claddet jug unbelievable wedge player and even though you don't bomb it 320 yards it just goes to prove that great champions have great wedge play okay reasonably straightforward from the fairway there's a juicy bit of rough over here so i just want to see what you think about this lie all right billy this one well it's pretty juicy it's not great is it how does this change the shot that we're able to play uh well let's see we've got so we've got 90 yards here you can see it's a wet lush thick grass lyre so this is going to come out dead so you know if you were playing you would you'd probably say that might be even be playing 110 so you'd be really thrashing a big lob wedge or trying to dig out a sand wedge because it it's going to come out at least 10 or 15 yards dead but on the other hand you get you draw a line that's maybe two or three feet to the right a lot let's take that one for example so that is like burnt wispy grass you got a little wispy tufted grass behind it that is a potential exercise so that really could jump 20 yards at least 20 yards further than it normally would go so if you're looking to really probably bring the flight down that and chip one in there and get it running out because you've got no control over that and that happens a lot you know you might get i've carried for a lot i remember one with dad and clark in in holland um really dry wispy grass i need like 190 yards well that's a six iron but it was such a dry wispy lie he actually a pitching wedge and it just comes out with no no spin on it whatsoever like a bullet and it literally went 50 yards further than a normal wedge would go because it was so fiery and wispy grass and you get the grass between the club first and the ball no spin on the ball and it just reel it's like a bullet and they get it on the green for 190 yards with a wedge and that's the difference between a juicy wet thick grass light or the wispy little bit of grass behind it exercise and it's reading the lies and only experience can tell you to read lies you know it's like the semi-rough you might be doing a normal semi-reflex so you've got 180 yards that's always gonna come out five to ten yards soft because it's in the first quarter off um and it is reading lies and only experience can teach you that over the years great stuff so there you go make sure you do read the lie because as we've just heard whether you're in the fairway that nice little wispy one or in the cabbage here that completely changes the shot that you can play especially when it's a little pitch in from about 90 yards [Music] okay billy 250 yard par four slightly uphill it's drivable now normally i'll just reach for the big dog without even thinking about it but what should we be doing on a hole like this well you've got an oily limitations kit you know don't get me wrong if the best players in the world or even your yellow handicappers would would easily knock it on the green here with a probably a three would you know so for your average club golfer uh to me personally you look at the the widest bit of the fairway which is short of the cross bunker which is probably 175 yards so why won't you get a five iron or a four iron or whatever lay it short the bunker to the widest part of the fairway leave yourself a little 50 60 yard chip up the green birdie put worst case scenario par or if you put like a wood scissor hands at least you're making a five but um but i know what the eagles are like a twenty handicappers whether i can knock it on this green well of course you can but guess what you might knock it on the green one in 50. yeah the other 49 are going in the trees left and right you're losing your ball maybe finding a couple of chops you're making double triple bog it up from just being your ego getting the better so you've got to know your limitations of your own golf game what kind of ratio are we working on then say realistically you're going to knock it on or around the green here how many times out of 10 to make it worth your while taking it on uh you gotta be looking at seven or eight aren't you really you know you're gonna even good golfers scratch players or two handicappers or whatever they're gonna they're gonna make a couple of burgers a couple of double boards by going for the green and they might make four or five birdies you know um but you've got to know play to your own strengths and just eliminate the i always remember tom watson so you're winning open championships by limiting your mistakes not by any glory shots and making more birdies you win tournaments by eliminating your mistakes so there are less mistakes obviously the better the score so just finally on this hole when it comes to the layup obviously we're focusing on the wider part of the fairway that's what you want to hit it to how much you thinking about what second shot that leads as well and making sure that's a number or a shot that you're most comfortable with yeah sure i mean when i'm walking golf courses working for fitz exactly i'll i'll walk down i'll look at the zones of roughly where you want to eat off the tee might be between 260 and 280 and that's the widest bit of the fairway which will leave you you know maybe 140 to the flag which would be a pitching wedge or maybe a 99 into a little bit of breeze and you might want to get down the left half of the fair with the pins tucked behind the bunker on the right say for example so you know on this all i would say you know if the pin was back right you'd as a decent player you'd be looking at the left half of the fail to leave you send a better angle in so you look at these certainly the zones off the t the yardage is between like i said 260 and 280 then it'd be a three wood for fits into that area and then you're looking at the pin position where the wind is etcetera to leave yourself the best angle of attack so that goes without saying so brilliant so there you go when it comes to drivable par fours leave the ego at home aim for the fat bit of the fairway leave yourself a nice easy second shot onto the green you can always make birdie without going for it [Music] okay billy we're just off the edge of the green club selection and shot selection vitally important with these little finesse shots isn't it yeah i see it's it's changed a lot of the last 20 30 years the modern player the modern young players whatever the miss agreeing the first thing they do is reach for the lob wedge every time you know and um like i said you know i carry for seven for all those years and he never had a lob wedges maximum loft was 56 and you know the players of that generation yuri and your faldos your bernard langers zevis etc greg norman's great chippers and that seems to have been been a bit lost with everybody's reaches for the lord we're jealous phil mickelson but as you see you've got a fairly straightforward chip here so why would you want to land a lob wedge halfway to the hall you know it might get a soft bounce it might scoot on it might have a bit of sidespin i'm taking it away so how i was brought up from that generation was try and land it on the green as soon as you can with less loft so you've got to judge what you can land it say two yards on the green with a straighter first club i'd see this as a pitching wedge so you just pop it on the green and then the ball will run end overhead and track like a putt instead of having too much spin and relying on the right bound so i would see a pitching wedge for this particular shot landing it four feet on the green sir just take that lob wedge the lob wedge then get rid of that snap it in half okay never never need a lob wedge do you a fan no no i'm good let's try a pitching would you see here again punching wedge so a little bit short get it just run in a bit just land it three or four feet on the green then just get it running towards the whole kit pretty good yeah spot on for distance really yeah just just just pulled it a little bit but landed in the perfect spot and you know it was online it had a chance to go in great stuff so anytime you are around the greens use as little loft as you can to get the ball running as quickly as you can and you're sure to get a more consistent outcome thanks for watching some fantastic advice and amazing insights from billy foster there that's all for this video in association with motocaddy make sure you use those tips next time you're on the golf course and i'm sure you'll shoot loads under your handicap [Music] you

Channel: Golf Monthly

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Keywords: golf, Golf Monthly, motocaddy, billy foster, golf strategy tips, golf tips

Id: HPXbIqd1aSo

Length: 17min 53sec (1073 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 31 2021