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so I’ve got the team at Aros golf to put together some stats to show us what scratch handicappers are doing on the golf course the mistakes they’re making and then in turn how to try to avoid these mistakes bearing in mind this is based around scratch index players if you are a higher index these are the same patterns for you but maybe this video will allow you just to see how many mistakes they’re actually making as well you’ll be making more if you use the tricks in this video you can reduce the mistakes you are making and help you lower your scores the first stat here is mindboggling so I would say this one’s quite shocking bear in mind again this is scratch golfers this is a great example how I think this can happen so let’s talk a few around this approach 100 yards in the Fairway I’ve got my yardage dialed in going to hit my shot and then we’ll show you how to maybe hit a few more greens I hope I’ve hit that green or this is going to be embarrassing so I have hit the green which is great but what I want to do just show you this green from above and what we’re going to notice that it’s very narrow at the back here and it’s very wide at the front 100 yards in the Fairway I am literally one pace from missing this green two and a bit Paces from having to hit a chip let’s rewind mind and see what some of the pits are that make scratch handicappers Miss screens at that percent so as we go up through the handicaps lots of people watching you’re missing more so let’s try again in the Fairway same distance Point number one that’s super important that allowed me to throw that ball basically to the furthest almost the the furthest distance I could send that ball is having distance control systems and ideas with my clubs so understanding how how far each Club goes while sounds really basic is absolutely crucial for this kind of shot hitting the green more often so on that shot I played a 90 yard shot it was 100 yards and I played a 90 yard shot and I got my basically one of my longer tolerances of that 90 yard shot so if I keep playing this shot what we saw play out was one of my outliers majority of them are going to be landing in that slightly wider spot and then releasing down cuz there’s more of a slope there to the hle so I’m using a distance control system to try and make sure I hit more greens doesn’t mean I hit every Green but I might hit a few percent more than the scratch handicapper which I do see from my stats on Aros next thing I’m doing is making sure I’ve done enough work on strike with this club what we see as we go up through the handicaps see we see more M hits more shots going half distance where with scratch handicappers their striking is not too bad it’s pretty good good so what are you doing to make sure that your strikes consistent with whatever Club Hits 100 yards do you have a good ball position are you using good use of pressures in the ground to make sure that you are staying or going left to try and get that ball then ground feeling of contact are you doing everything you can to make sure the strikes are up near 100% from this um distance never always going to be but if you’re losing shots from here not through all the planning but through poor strikes got to be working on that and number three being aware of your target so let’s pretend this pin now is at the front of the green and it’s 100 yards I’m not going to use my 90 yard shot common problem we see pin at the front people hitting shots in and just coming up short they’re not even that far away from the flag but they’re missing the green which costs you shots down the line if this pin was 100 yards but it was at the front of the green then I’m going to be playing my 105 to 110 default shot knowing that it’s going to go maybe 120 if I lucky but it’ll drop back to 95s which will just get on the front edge if it’s five yards on those kind of ideas you can hit more greens you’re never going to hit all of them but having these items and systems in place from these distances is going to help you hit a few more hitting a few more greens well hitting more greens does lead to lower scores scratch golfers have a 22% chance of free putting from 35 ft 35 ft that’s a pretty good shot 11 to 12 Paces away from the hole if you’re anything over 150 yards a’t it that close is good this needs fixing that’s scratch golfers what do you think the higher handicappers are doing and here leads one of the fundamental problems with golf practice I see with amate golfers they just do not practice distance control with ping enough you can get your distance control on putting honed in really boiled down into less of a question on the next shot it’s going to have such a huge difference on how many three puts you have how often and in turn your score give myself that one to be fair I’ll give myself this one as well so I’m going to take the flag out and I’m going to put it one good Pace short of the hole and just lie it down giving me SN from around 35 ft bigger goal to try and hit into I want to get past the flag and obviously around the hole I don’t mind going slightly past it or slightly short of it but I’m trying to feed it now into that bigger Gap giving me that little bit more confidence of a Target that’s not so intimidating disappointed with this one happy with this one if I hit many of these when I practice I am practicing distance control a whole lot more that can be a simple way of changing the way you look at longer putts into a bigger Target which often inspires a bit more confidence gets people panicking less about distance control let’s try and improve that mental picture in your head so what happens when you putt your blind you’re over the ball looking at the ball you have a few glances at the hole but when you set over the ball that picture that mental image of distance is deteriorating fast so doing some puts where you close your eyes and you’re blind so eyes open to look at distance feel stroke set to the ball ey I’m lining up eyes open now eyes close I’m going to hit that I’m going to say that’s the short side of the hole I’m not looking and as you can see it’s just slightly this side of the hole trying to dial in that mental image with a stroke that’s reliable so you can just contain everything kind of in here it’s so powerful Blind part then call I that’s about right yeah not bad at all it’s such a good way of building up that mental image bring that together with reality just control might improve at home practice there’s great systems like xut I’ve done full reviews on those let’s try and include a link for those I will I’ve also got a discount code on xut if you want to get that for a better price it’s a system that allows you to hit putts at home and it simulates into the screen basically how far the put’s gone you can change the stimp the slope you can really manipulate the whole thing to recreate whatever course you’re going to play or play it’s a great way for keeping that distance control practice really tight at home so you’re ready ready for the golf course this is a huge one final one’s amazing this this is an amazing stat maybe one now we’re used to hearing like we’ve heard this one a few times now but I think we forget the value of it so when we look at Fairways here in scratch handicappers it actually doesn’t differ that much from all the handicap ranges there are other real big outliers that do really matter in the driving world and overvaluing the idea of hitting Fairway often is one that holds golfer’s back and I think sometimes what’s heard or thought of when you think of this stat is that so this hole here at Hunton the 15th there’s it’s a big dog leg round to the left there’s a bunker and a tree that You’ got to get over and the green is tricky so hitting the Fairway here has some value over hitting the rough but it doesn’t have the same value of me going more down the left than it does down the right which literally cuts 40 50 yards off the hole and this is a great example of a hole which uh valuing hitting Fairways just it’s just not in my head I just want it down on a certain line as far as possible now but then I hear lots of people what they will say is yeah but there’s holes where if you don’t hit the Fairway you’re dead on the holes where if you don’t hit the Fairway and you’re dead yes that value goes up but as a whole as your Baseline figure I find there’s often more holes where it doesn’t matter so much if I hit Fairway or not it Just matters how far down I go where on the ones where it’s very obvious that you’ve got to hit Fairway you do what you have to do on those incidents and they’re often tougher holes overvaluing Fairway is a killer for score so what does this mean this means that I’m going to be looking at other Fairways can I go down them I’m going to be looking at certain groups are rough if I hit it in there what kind of shot do I have to the green does it make it easy for me to hit the Green from there is it even rough on lots of UK courses there are areas where the rough just doesn’t grow you can go in there no problem avoiding bunkers they kill scores so I know I can carry this bunker on the left so I can take aim at it even though it’s making my chance of hitting Fairway less if I couldn’t carry this bunker I am pushing right like I am not going in the bunker at all costs valuing Fairway over hazards and what have you it’s dangerous CU at the end of the day you will hit Fairways I’ll tell you what you should be valuing boom perfect straight over the bunker you need to start valuing penalty shots how many shots in a round does your driver cost you penalty shots how many times does it go with the fence how many timeses It Go in a hazard how many times does your driver put you in a recovery position where you can’t get to the green off the driver so you hit the drive and then you have to chip out they’re the real numbers you should be valuing because they’re the ones that Define good and uh better players the worst players over value in Fairway it’s something the scratch players aren’t doing but the high handicappers often are too much I hear you you have to sometimes but not all the time remember today’s video is based on what scratch handicappers are doing which I think is so shocking because I think lots of higher handicappers think they’re doing these things as well which leads to poor practice poor picking of targets poor use of clubs and poor Improvement strategies because they think they’re already achieving what they’re obviously not if you want to understand more about exper that I mentioned earlier this video is full review of expart this will get your distance control honed in
9 Comments
I made 4 double bogeys on Saturday all because my ball off the Tee wasn't good, so I had to chip out
no two chips, no 3 putts and no penalty shots for OB/hazard…those OB are really killers in a "by the rules" match or score. With fairways now drying out time, time to watch out for those rolls that carry it past those white stakes.
The 100 yards in the fairway stat is slightly off as the scratch golfer is there from the tee, whereas us mortals its our 3rd shot😉..
Mark fab video 👌 but we do need to see you and the man you “hate” in a vlog soon? It’s been a minute 😊
I use the Exputt system, its excellent for distance control and has no doubt improved my putting
So many dropped shots from wayward driving. It's been a really big issue lately. Love the video!
Excellent video Mark. My #1 stroke adder is the driver. I can keep the 3 wood in play and usually in the fairway around 240-250 yards down the fairway but the driver…all bets are off and I cannot figure out why. It's literally the only club in my bag that I cannot hit consistently.
I played with a 1.7 index yesterday during my clubs open. Probably only FIR around 5/14 and GIR around 8 or 9 greens, but was always long sided and his short game was excellent. Came in 2 over on a tough set out course
When I was actually improving my handicap (long time passing) I found that my two lowest medal scores happened when I didn't hit any bunkers.
But that involved short straight drives with my 3wood.
My driver would then, and still will today, drop me more shots than the extra yardage gains.
So, some of these stats make sense, others are absolutely against the truth that I've lived with my game 🤔