HOW I PLAY GOOD GOLF | All shots explained

All right guys chilled out video today.

I'm gonna play nine holes of golf here at the marriott woodsy park i'm gonna talk through all my shots tell you how i hit them tell you what i'm thinking about um hopefully i play well if i don't if i play badly you might learn from it as well now you might have seen recently i've been doing these break 75s every week i've been going into these beautiful golf courses. And playing golf and recording it all and so far it's been so so some rounds i've been really happy with played really solid other rounds have not quite gone my way it's part of golf i suppose so today.

I'm gonna break every shot down chill out. And relax and let's play nine holes so i'm gonna start here on the fourth little par three down the hill i'm also just going to show you this quite a few people asking this when i mark my ball one of these little gadgets where i put a straight line on it through the pro v1 sign typically. And then.

I put a little side line on as well it helps square my face up when i'm setting up to the golf ball and then.

Hey presto okay pin is 166. pins right at the back there's loads of green at the front there's nothing massively trouble at the front um slightly down the hill i'm just getting a very nice eight i don't think it's a full one it's just a very nice comfortable eight iron hopefully try. And leave it short of the flag so i've got an uphill put there's not a lot of room past the flex that's one thing i'm very conscious about i don't want to hit it too far one thing i'll try and do before each shot as well i try. And picture a good ball flight ask myself what does a good shot look like. And i try and repeat that when i come to hit it little draw not full power and if that sits down a little bit we should be good oh yeah pin high a little bit more draw than i planned. But we're putting yeah that wasn't bad just a tiny bit too much draw okay. So this is what we're faced with. But little birdie putt like i said just overdrew it annoyingly you might have seen recently as well i've put a new putter in the bag i use this up in scotland. And really likes it i feel like it just gives me a nice alignment and with that line on the ball it feels like it really helps i've also been doing a little bit of aim point recently as well you might have seen me look like i'm dancing down the line of the putt and without going into too much complexity it's quite hard to describe it on video you're trying to work out between one. And five degrees of slope which foot is higher. Or lower than the other so for me here my right foot was one maybe one. And a half degrees lower than my left foot so then.

I'd stand up here use an alignment finger and basically that's where you aim your putt it is it's useful to learn as i mentioned it's quite hard to actually tell you on a video because you have to really feel it under your feet that's pretty good though up the hill apart from that fairly straightforward slightly off the left just going to give this a nice speed i'm just going to try. And get this roll this one close obviously i'd love it to go in but i'm just going to try. And nestle it up nice and close to the hole so i play golf okay. So we've got two back to back par fives now this being the first one this is the fifth hole our second that we're playing today.

Slight dog leg left to right it kind of moves around the trees on the right there oddly all the trouble is kind of shorter than where my driver would go. So i'm to hit driver on here aiming at the left-hand side and i'm just toying a little bit at the moment i'm trying to play a little bit more of a cut gold shot just starting up the left and fading it back it's not my favorite yet but i'm trying also i thought it's a good opportunity not many t's i've made quite cool aren't they if you find these dotted around this is where i was i'll try. And scatter some so i'm gonna team up on the right side of the tee box here again it feels like it opens me up for a little bit of a fade down that left hand side driver it is there's a tree in the background that i'm going to kind of take aim at a single one on its own. And just hit one on that line visualize that good golf shot again that's really nice just slightly left of my target but that's going to put me in a great position to maybe get there in two that was nice okay. So i've carried the path which is always a good hit on this tee shot uh just just missed the fairway like a yard off if i'd have faded it it would have been back in the fairway. But no massive difference i'm 245 yards to the front 260 to the greek to the middle uh. And look at a couple of things here first off the lie and then.

I've got two options then.

Do i go. For it or do i lay up the lie is quite nice a little bit muddy looks like it's just bounced there. And stopped pretty quick let me just see what a three would look like behind the golf ball yeah that looks nice actually yeah. So just enough that i think i'm gonna go three wood if it was sat down anymore if i didn't like the lie. For me personally i'd probably play it well at 260. i'd probably hit like a 160 yard shot leave myself a full 100 yards in just because that's the shot i prefer to hit but i qualify my three wood um i'm gonna go middle of the green if it stays there it's in a good spot if it fades like to the right it could go much more towards the flag yeah just nice solid three with nothing in my way that i need to worry about if i hit one really well i should be able to get front edge oh i've blasted it down the right oh wasn't my best here. And i must admit the one place i couldn't miss was right because there's a couple of bunkers down there which i honest i thought i should have carried because i didn't strike it well maybe not the option there. But i wanted to take the gamble on okay i actually thought i'd gone in that bunker. But i've hit it short of those bunkers i must admit i wasn't a good striker mine at all that three would then.

So i've left myself now let's get a quick number on it we've got yardage if you come around here you'll be able to see the flag a little bit better actually yeah 61 to the flag 61 yards um can't really afford to be short can't really afford to be right slightly long left is okay just in the rush it's settled quite nicely it's not too not too tight. So i'm going to go 60 degree lob wedge. And just go left of the flag put put a half swing on it a nice relaxed half swing should put me in a good position there i'm going to keep my weight a little bit to my left hand side just to get that nice strike oh it's a little bit long if i had a little bit more confidence in my short game i might have just been a fraction more aggressive there. But i've not got full confidence in my short game the long left was the miss okay we've got a long range birdie attempt just going to give it a quick aim point again reed down the hill left to right yeah it's got quite a bit of swing early doors. And then.

Kind of flattens out give this ball a quick clean so i'll line my line up with where i want the ball to start been doing this recently almost checking it with the angle of my shaft just trying to look down the side of the of the shaft and line it up with the golf ball that's been really helping actually just so i've got some confidence in where i'm aiming so i use the use the side of the shaft it might be hard to show on video and try and line it up with the line on my golf ball and then.

Lift it up just to see where i'm actually aiming just so i've got a straight line really okay again probably similar to the last part i'm not looking to knock this in i just want to roll it down the hill try. And get it nice and close it's gonna be fast early doors and then.

Flatten out so it should level out in speed yeah i probably swung a little bit more than i expected again i'll just give this one a little bit of respect it's not exactly a tapping. So i'll just mark it quickly give it a super quick read yeah just off right to left inside the hole though give it a very quick line up yeah it was good just inside right edge par not bad on that hole. But really i should be looking at trying to make birdies on par fives this is the next.

Part five i'm ready to play swings now more to the left hand side dog leg left again there's a couple of bunkers down there. But they're about 250 yards to carry so for me i wouldn't hit anything other than driving because i'm going to start getting them up in that trouble really um i quite like the shape of this hole because it suits my natural shot shape a little right to left. So the mound just where that bunker is i'm going to aim on that if i draw it a fraction. And hit it well it'll carry over the mound and bounce down and have a shot into the green if it flares out right no danger probably miss i can't afford is too far left on this tee shot nice positive thought right over that marker it's just a smidging right of my line. But that's fine in the fairway i'll have a slightly longer second shot in but it was a good hit i'm all right there i'm safe okay. So this is where my t-shirt ended up no no dramas middle of the fairway. So if i cut a bit more off it could have rolled nearer to the path but from here now i'm 220 yards to the front and the pins very much at the front so very much gettable lies nice i'm gonna hit this i put this in the bag recently actually you might have seen if you've watched the channel for a long time i've always carried a two iron i felt like my two out of my three woods were too similar. So i've decided to swap it for three iron instead i'm really enjoying hitting this i found i've been hitting my three with a lot more as well because of it so three iron not a lot to think it's fairway this green is a flag i'm just going to smack it straight at it i'm not going to over complicate this line it up make sure i've got a good thought in my head of the shot i want to try. And hit let's pull the trigger be the golf shot hello should play this more often so it's pin high to the right we've got an eagle put everybody sometimes you just don't want to complicate it pick a number pick a club hit the golf shot okay as we're walking up here it's actually looking closer than i thought it was even back there i must admit that's a worldy of a golf shot it's pitch pretty much on the number it's actually annoyingly this is a little tip if anyone's playing golf. And you ever see a pitch mark that's not yours repair it because one of these are mine because it's one of my balls finished. But one of them can't be it's not gonna make two pitch marks so little tip if you see anybody else's pitch mark please repair it also whoever didn't do that one shame on you right i also feel like if you repair a pitch mark that somebody else is like the green rewards you you know i feel like this put now should go in because i've repaired that pitch mark i'm gonna do one more just. For look i feel like now if i've done three the green should reward me right eagle put let's give this a quick read it's up the hill this time and it's swinging from right to left so i'm going to give this one a little bit more of a roll i don't want to leave this one massively short i don't want to race it past either okay i fancy this i'm gonna pick my line have a quick check that that's aiming up correctly it looks really good okay come on nice positive stroke up the hill. For an eagle three what did i just say to you i said to you i'm not going to leave it short come on look at this [Laughter] oh never mind i mean i'll take it i needed another probably three rolls. For a birdie never grumble at a birdie but an eagle would have been lovely too under so far for those holes not bad the seventh hole par three beautiful par three this is it really is there's water almost decorative water here first like a pond doesn't really come into play i'm saying that then.

There's a bit of a stream that runs across the front of the green. And it's almost a little bit in 12th hole or guster but the other way around it's like the slope the stream almost goes diagonally across the front of the green right let's give this a measure okay 142 flag 142. not any wind it's right between numbers. For me there i hit my eight time around sorry 99 about 148 yards and i hit my pitching wedge around about 136. i'm getting a nice nine soft nine i think again as i mentioned all the trouble is short. So if i just hit a softer one of these this should be perfect um apart from that not much else i'm gonna just picture a nice ball flight hit a little kind of three-quarter-esque into this pick a line pick a positive swing thought and just hit a nice little delicate nine-nine into this flag oh that is good get up there a little bit oh that's lovely playing some nice golf everybody that's that's pin high just to the right. And we got a little uphill put for birdie that was very nicely controlled well done rick yeah i'm really really happy with that shot again i find sometimes in between yardages i sometimes make the mistake of going. For a club shorter and trying to smack it as hard as i can. But it's not the play right there i just took one club extra and just tried to control it a little bit more so otherwise if i hit if i had to try to hit full full pitching wedge there and not quite struck it it would have landed short and spun off anyway so pointless really anyway nice control chart nice setup for birdie have a quick read not like this right to left just slightly up the hill greens look so nice at the moment really lush and green probably not the fastest greens in the world but rolling really nice right let's let's try and knock another one in a confident putt this is one way i'm gonna obviously go. For it a little bit more because it's very makable this line everything up again just really visualize the ball going in the hole i'm going to try. And just drop it in from the top side just hey i'm not quite sure what i did wrong there it just didn't feel nice off the putter face yeah i don't think i've read it wrong i just don't think i hit it very well i think my last thought was trying to go a little bit higher up the hill. And drop it in but the problem if you doubt yourself it doesn't work you've got to have 100 trust so this is the eighth hole our fifth of the video. And honestly it's one of my favorite holes in the golf course you probably will see it best through this. So it's a dog leg to the right the fairway you kind of need to hit it around about 240 yards to stay short of the water and then.

You've got to hit it all over water towards the green so it plays 409 to the middle of the green from here i'm somewhere between the three wood and the three iron probably this is the only hole that i would have used my two iron i used to love on this hole. So i'm a little bit in between and i'm gonna go through iron there's no real wind slightly short is a bit bit better than going long. And the miss you don't really want to miss left you don't miss right or left but left makes the whole lot longer so i'm going to try. And just drill one down the right side of the fair with my thread very kind of similar gold shot to what i just hit a few holes ago when i hit it into that par five so pick out a nice line let me see if i can just drill it down the right hand side of the fairway with a little draw that'll be absolutely perfect confident swing confident stroke yeah that's okay yeah that's that's okay not exactly the golf shot i envisioned i just hit it a fraction from the toe. But either less it's drawn back left side of the fairway i might have 10 10 15 yards longer than i wanted to into the green but it's absolutely fine good decision really okay. So second shot into this part four this is what i was talking about if you can just kind of skim one up the right hand side you've got a shorter line in. But either way this isn't bad i'm 168 yards to the flag got water to get over but it's way short of the green so i'm not really thinking about that i'm right between eight and seven so let's do what i'll learn on the last hole let's this is where again i've made the mistake of trying to smash an eight time. But it's just not the shot and it goes seven i and i'm gonna hit this one just a little bit more softer really try and plop it on the front of the green nice little three quarter swing yeah this is the club oh it's pushy travel travel we're on the green. Or maybe just off the green i had a few little doubts in my mind maybe that was the right club just right between clubs again. But i should have committed to that instead of backing off it okay. So yeah not the outcome that i wanted really obviously there was a chance of getting somewhere near to the hole it would have been better. But this isn't a terrible outcome for me if i've missed the green and i can put it i am more than happy um. So this is fine the only disadvantage i can't do is i can't line the ball up which i like to do when i'm putting. But apart from that this is uh should be fairly straightforward i'll i'll give it a quick read something that i would maybe question not enough people do is read putts that are off the green you know they might um just have just become a bit lazy. Or lackluster when the ball is off the green. But it's still really important to read it it's quite a lot of swinging this yeah a lot of swing start up the round side again a bit like the second hole if i can. Or the first also we played if i can roll this up nice. And close for a tapping par i'll take that right now it's going to be slow at the first bit. And then.

Actually speed up as it progresses towards the hole lots of right to left swing oh i've not hit it ah that's weak got scared of it oh right could do with holding this. For par if i'm honest with you obviously quite a bit of break still on this right to left just outside the hole just okay come on confident put up the hill line it up that was perfect right come on rick up the hill confident straight in the middle thought hit it through the break. But it's in we move on to the next.

Hole okay the six hole we're playing today.

Par three now normally if i'm honest this isn't that hard of a hole it's a massive green. And normally when they put the pin somewhere in the middle it's like a 160 odd yards but that pin is. So far back left it's actually playing 193 yards now i know from experience of playing this golf course you've either got to be absolutely on the money for distance in that gap or you're better off playing slightly shorter and to the right so i'm gonna hit a nice five iron i don't think it's a full five i feel like it's just a nice little delicate five iron. And if i can just semi trap draw one just try. And just get it fizzing out there a little draw it's got a chance of chasing up near the flag yeah middle of the green if i draw it a little bit happy days if it doesn't draw we should be putting. For birdie stop drawing stop drawing stop drawing stop drawing oh it might have just gone a fraction long or it's just gone to the left and bounced off the green either way wasn't far away but i just overturned it in the air okay. So uh looking at where it's finished i think i hit one club too many because this is this is over the green i thought i'd be more pin high. But it's actually past the green i i think i needed twitter six iron there um not ideal miss short-sided myself the green's running away from me as well i've gotta play an absolute little world here the lie is not phenomenal either. So for me here it's gonna have to be loft i'm gonna go on my 60 degree lob wedge i'm just gonna try and land it just in that fringe that first cut just short of the green and i'm going to use use a little tactic here that i use when i've not got a particularly nice lie let me show you what i mean. So yeah it's just a little bit nasty. So what i'll do when i lie like this i'll typically just lift the handle of the golf club up. So the toe of the golf club is almost sticking more into the ground. And then.

What i'll do is almost play it more like a putting stroke with stiff wrists. So i'll show you from that angle there that'll be me playing it normally what i'm gonna do here is just lift the handle up a little bit come slightly closer grip down. And almost play it with more stiff wrists that way i feel like i don't flick at it or get a bad contact hopefully pick a line i know i want to aim this i don't know when i'll land it just left of the flag just in that first cut oh rick [Laughter] i i taught a good game i did dark shot is my absolute nemesis i feel like sometimes when i'm stood over a shot like i feel dead confident. And all of a sudden i think yeah. But what about the bad shot it's a mental game either way i said it wasn't all going to go to plan we've got a super long put now i think now it's a matter of damage limitation like i don't want to obviously three pucks that'll be a disaster. For me it's about resetting what's just taking place bad shots happened you know what i mean it's one of those things i need to reset what's just happened. And then.

Fight back and try and at least you know worse come off with a bogey on this hole so two put from here very very long range distance in fact and i hate to admit it i think i'm further away now than i was after my first shot probably even double the amount of distance past it's going to be slow distance control is key nice long put up the hill try. And get it within that kind of bucket lid around the hole keep going really good. For speed like incredible for speed just didn't quite start up the right hand side enough okay this is one of those mental battle puts you know this really could do with going in i almost feel like i've saved a bogey if this knocks in not much in it just go straight at it nice confident put yeah it's a four listen it's scrappy bad shot from the back of the green. But if my worst score is a bogey you can keep a round together it's when your bad score starts to really really rack up with more mistakes bad shots are going to happen it's how you deal with it is the thing that's going to shine through your scorecard okay. So just checking the time and actually there's a shotgun start going out in 30 minutes. So i think it's gonna have to be the last hole everybody my plan was to play nine. But i've been chatting to you guys so i've been a bit slower than normal um so this will be the last hole that i play on this video hopefully you enjoyed it guys if you did smash that like if you want to see me do more of these videos hit the like let me know in the comments below it's nice sometimes just having that time to talk through shots hopefully you guys pick some information up from my good shots. And my bad shots you know that's part of what it is. So this is now our seventh hole it's a par four it's one of those ones where it's like risking reward i can't hit driver comfortably over the bunker on the right it just gets a little bit tight to the fairway. And i've probably gotta carry it i can carry it with a three wood like if i can hit three wood down there i can carry all the trouble. And it doesn't get too much into a bottle neck okay nice positive line let's finish off with a really nice tee shot oh. Or push it up the right hand side it's not going to be in trouble. But i must admit i almost always draw this 3-wood and that time it didn't draw so it stayed out to the right but have avoided the bunker which is good okay this isn't where i want to tweet it it's gonna be quite interesting i've ended up leaving it on the uh the bank of what i think was an old bunker maybe back in the day as my ball is very very much uphill very much ball above my feet i've got to get over a tree with the pin back left um. So sometimes you kind of got to be sensible you can probably just about see the flag from here you'll see it there the red one lucky. For me the pins not on the right side of the green because if it was on the right i'd absolutely have to chip out sideways. And then.

Play it to the green i am 143 to the middle um it's a pitching wedge i think it on a flat light would be a pitching wedge off a slope that's severe because as soon as you go on a slope that's there you're going to add loft to the golf ball to the golf club should i say. So i think it's just a nine iron which is going to act more like a pitching wedge because of the loft difference i'm just going to adjust my body to the slope. And then.

Just nail it over this tree yeah when you're adjusting to a slope the trick is to try. And get your body in line with the slope try not to fight against it too much because you end up certainly slowly you could end up digging your club right into the ground so you want to try and adjust your almost your the center of your body your spine angle more with the slope as opposed to against it i'm gonna aim slightly right as well because i'm expecting a bit of draw here as well off this lie oh rick why did you do this why did you put it here this could have been such an easier shot. But anyway gotta relish these opportunities to show off i'm sure mickelson said that once upon a time all right a little bit lean back it's gonna launch super high up in the air go go go go oh that was really close you just about if you zoom in in line with the flag there's a ball that's just not on the green. But just short of the green i could have possibly at a time that went about 150 yards up in the air not bad though here we are front of the green didn't do bad like say could have i don't think i could have eight iron from back there. So this is probably the best result i would have had now as you saw from the last chip chipping's still something i need a little bit of finessing with. And i do not think bad of anybody who takes support from here because it's the safest shot well i know my worst port from here will be much better than my worst chip without question starts at the round side slightly up the hill. And then.

Straightens out as it goes towards the hole let's see if we can finish off with one nice birdie put from here thanks. For watching we'll see you next.

Time [Laughter].