What Scratch Golfers Do That You Don’t Know About

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what makes a scratch golfer we’re going to look at the numbers we’re going to look at the statistics that you track and we’re going to look at the general ability of what’s going to get a score to level par the first thing a scratch golfer does is get the ball in a better position than everybody else to allow a shot toward the green because the numbers say a scratch golfer hits nine or 10 greens a round meaning five per nine holes regardless of what people say the number one thing a scratch golfer does is keep the ball straighter and by straighter I mean less offline when you when you go less off line and you hit the ball better you go straighter with a longer distance and that’s what appears to be the distance making the scratch gol for better but it’s not really true it’s keeping the ball tighter in the areas of play with a with a longer distance because of a better strike position position position eliminating most of the danger you read about golf online and they’ll tell you Fairways are overrated scratch golf is only hit 50% of the fairways don’t listen to that nonsense Fairways are not overrated it’s a predictable shot if I could have this shot 5 yard to the left I would make an even better result if I had this shot 20 yard back from the Fairway I will have a better result than this shot because a fairway is predictable this is unpredictable and when they say scratch golfers miss the fairways as much as anyone else look how much I missed the Fairway by a yard and a half that means I’m in the semi that means I’m in something decent enough to hit a good shot then the next part is I actually understand the LIE of this golf ball if you watch the video with Bryson dambo and Rick Shields you’ll see that Bryson says I hit these these shots and I get wacky shots that are remaining and if I can’t hit the wacky shot it’s all for nothing so but he can because he knows the LIE of the golf ball another part scratch golfers separate themselves is in understanding not only the LIE primarily but also the elevation and wind so we got the wind with us a little bit we got 138 yds playing probably about 144 yds so what I’ll do is I’ll take a club and hit a slight Punchy shot just to control the club face getting to the ball first and then because we have the bunkers on the right we don’t want to go those we avoid danger you know scratch golfers avoid the short side like crazy and we’re going to go left of the hole where we have a big open space to allow ourselves to hit the green that’s just all it is it’s lie interpretation it’s less proximity from the Fairway it’s get it on the green cuz we know how to assess the lie and the elevation and wind the sun being at that angle the glare I couldn’t see where it finished I finished 2T from the hole and that is all due to the ability to read the LIE pick the correct shot and club from the LIE even though I missed the Fairway that is the big defining Factor come on you got it you got a tip now on this nine we’re going to try hit five out of nine greens because scratch golfers hit five out of nine greens how do we hit more greens though well we have to get it to a great position and then have the ability to strike the ball well enough with a good shot pattern left and right to not miss the green if we can get it more within our field goals we’re going to hit greens and when we don’t hit the green we have to get up and down right to shoot a round level par so it’s all about hitting the green and then missing in the correct area now to be able to hit the green we have to pick the right shot and I could hit a 99 from 148 into the breeze but I think I’ll be short of the green which I don’t want to be cu the bank is going to be difficult because the ball’s going to roll down and have to chip uphill so what I rather do is hit a faded seven and then we’re going to pick field goals to land the ball within so I’m going to pick set this up just to the inside the left edge of green so it fades toward the fat part if it lands within the area between that bunk on the left and that bunk on the right I’ve done very well and I’m on the green it’s all about distance a control a intend this ball to start left edge of the green and then go about 150 hopefully a scratch golfer has a plan for every single hole here we saw the 150 yard Mark is about 250 yards away so clear the bunker is 260 yard down Breeze though we’re not into the breeze like on the par five we’ve just turned with down breeze so it’s going to give us a few more yards on the mini driver two wood here and we have a lot of space left so our plan here is to go toward the left if it does feder over the bunker that’s fine it hits a down slope and puts us a bit too close to the green but majority of the time we’re going to go left and leave ourselves about a 100 120 into the hole which is absolutely money my free throw distance money money money money of course for Scratch golf you cannot discount ball striking and technique if you want to play better golf you have to hit the ball better with a better control of the face and better technique the best way to do that is with swing tweaks now swing tweaks has a new product they’ve launched it’s only $49.99 USD per month and you get the same awesome lesson you always got from your coach you get one per month there long as you subscribed and you also get FaceTime with your coach on the computer or on your phone to be able to ask questions about anything you want in golf the lies equipment course management and the direction you’re going with your swing get to swing tweaks download it sign up for the new Subscription Service 4999 and you’re going to change your game hit the ball better so that you could get closer to scratch in your lifetime so our plan worked out perfectly there we’ve left ourself a wedge into the green full shot I like to have a a fuller wedge in you know instead of pitching partial shots over deep bunkers to Flat greens and firm greens that can can shoot the ball on because there’s not enough spin on it I just don’t have that super spinny shot never really worked on it okay the average Drive of a scratch handicap is supposedly about 260 and that’s an average some will be longer some will be shorter I’ll hit some 230 and some will go 280 and somewhere between they we’ll get an average and one of the things we do is we tra we Chase birdies on PA FS either with a wedge in our hand or trying to get onto the Green in two if it’s a shot that’s going to give us a high probability of getting up and down thereafter we don’t just willy-nilly hit shots with the wrong distances in our mind we do it with an intention and that’s the beauty of the two-wood baby right over there with downwind if we hit that two-wood do we finish in that bunker and is that bunker okay I think that bunker is fine it’s green side and I don’t mind bunker shots scratch golfers rather have bunker shots than very tough chip shots caddy let’s go uh mini driver I’m going to tie the mini driver because uh it’s not a bad play and we can recover we have the recovery shots if we’re playing scratch golf to be able to come back after not a great shot I assume it’s going to fade because it’s off the ground and I’m Hing down on it so we’ll aim left edge of that bunker and hopefully it fades to W in line with the pin hopefully okay that’s a pretty nice shot and it’s in play up there let’s go see what we assess and this is a perfect example when you miss half the greens as a scratch golfer you want to get up and down the other 50% of the times and when you miss the greens on a par 5 and two you want to get up and down for birdies that’s why the short game is so essential when you’re a higher handicap player it’s to save shots from being double bogeys by when you miss the green 30 40 yards right and left when you’re a lower handicap player it’s to save par and it’s to get birdies on par five the short game is always the Bedrock of every golf game well not my best chip at all but it gives us a putt for the bird I’ve put it out too far but I’ll rather Miss on the high side than on the low side and we can recalibrate on the next greens something that may shock you is that scratch golfers are not really using The Strokes gain app they’re not using The Strokes gain what we like to use the tracking data for on the watches that have sensors or the Garment is to check which clubs are obsolete in the bag which clubs are not being used which clubs go the same distance that other clubs to eliminate one put something more useful in how far do our wedges go how far do our clubs go recalibrate everything we look for dispersion patterns left and right so we can find that to pick better aiming spots we find where we missing the green the most Left Right short long we’re trying to improve our our radar we’re trying to improve our aiming spots so that we can use that shot dispersion to hit more greens get in a more advantageous position do we use The Strokes game to see where we’re losing shots against another scratch player no because we know other scratch players have got different abilities so if you’re a shitty putter just get your putting better to a better position not necessarily as good as the next guy but good enough to take another one or two shots off your score that’s it it’s very easy you assess yourself tomorrow versus yesterday versus the day before it’s you versus yourself versus the golf course not against other people what am I going to compare against someone playing lyx golf in the UK and someone playing Resort course in America versus someone playing TI Parkland courses in Johannesburg no so we got 185 here and we’re going to hit our beautiful 7 iron it’s a money distance we’re not going at the pin it’s tuck behind the bunkers pointless shot too much danger when we play scratch golf we eliminate all danger play to the fat side just absolute stinky pong pong see I just want a good strike I don’t care about distance and then when I get a good strike with a better Club face control it goes further not every hole is an attack hole this game is a game of patience you use your best shots try to get yourself in the best position and then every now and then you’re going to find a place to really attack with a confidential shot this was not one of them you got a bunker 12 yard to the right you got a bunker 15 yard short in this bottom right corner there’s no point so with this one we want to get this close to the hole because scratch golfers get these puts of what is this this is probably about 50 ft to a closer distance to the hole than higher handicaps because inside 3 ft we basically 100% well that’s the goal and if you can get it to that 100% return putt range you’re going to make a lot more two puts if you put this to 5 6 7 ft that’s when your return putt make rate goes way way down it’s all about distance control the better your distance control the shorter The Return part is the easier this game becomes and now we have a foot to tap in instead of five or 6 feet where we go 80% 70% 60% make rate just that simple scratch golfers are always trying to shoot level par they are playing the course par on the scorecard but except that on Long T’s the course rating the slope rating is higher and their handicap comes from shooting 7 4 75 76 depending on the difficulty of the course scratch golfers don’t shoot 72 every single round a scratch golfer doesn’t just pump distance they hit the ball where they want it to go I want to set it up right because I can have a pit shot up the whole green with many many options I like to give myself options on the golf course a scratch golfer doesn’t only assess the LIE of the ball also assesses the resulting if I hit the seven wood too far to the left going for the pin I’m going to plug in a bunker because the the trajectory is going to be high and then it’s going to come down because of the wind straight down and plug in the bunker leaving an impossible bunker shot over the whole bunker we don’t want to go there so I’m looking at that place to the right I can hit the ball to that place I’m not guessing I’m not hoping I’m going to set it up to the right hit this thing about 210 yards and leave me a beautiful 4050 yard pitch up the entire green I can use a low Loft because I know the pin’s back left and if I’m on the right I have the entire green to pitch up Let it scoot up to the hole just going to fader a little bit to the right and I don’t know why I’m telling you this stuff cuz I’m a one or two handicapper but a traveling one or two handicap so on a course I know I’d probably be a a scratch or just slightly plus handicap now over here we’ve left ourselves the shot we wanted it’s all the way up the green I’ve eliminated most of the bunker what I would have preferred was a shot more to the right of what I like to call a nipple liquor it opens up the hole we’ve opened up the hole only slightly here just a little bit of kissing and now we want to take a 52° because I don’t like this partial shot 56° I just screw up here so I’m going to try hit a lower to the ground 52° keep it low to the ground keep it out the wind if the wind does affect it it’s going to stop it we’re heading on to an upslope money no son because too much upin too you’ll find a scratch golfer doesn’t practice long putts because he wants to practice putts he knows he’s going to make the majority of that’s why scratch golfers will practice inside ft only knowing they’re going to make 70% of those putts instead of going from 10 ft 20 ft all the time and just missing putts couldn’t read that one I thought it was straight but I guess the burn mark is here so it’s probably slow with a little bit of right to left we use that feedback for next time remember to look at the burn mark that’s where we get our feedback from we’ve got so much space left and right here that it’s ludicrous in not to hit a big boy driver probably got 150 yards from the left extreme to the right extreme okay M we have to assess the LIE we’re in the Fairway bunker into the wind we got so much space on the right let’s ER toward the right we’re going to take two clubs more than normal the seven iron will clear this lip here uh 6 Iron Will Not So we go with the lowest LOF possible to clear this thing for sure we don’t want to keep it in the bunker and we know we’re going to lose distance with the wind and the sand so our best case is on the front right and the probable case will be on the right hand side leaving a chip it’s just a difficult shot today we don’t want to go left because we have the water and then you’re in trouble so let’s stick to the right hand side really commit to it and just accept that this one’s going to be a scrambling par maybe a bog ski of course I pull the ball like hell onto the back left of the green but that’s life in the big city so that’s a great result scratch golfers mainly Play One Shot shape especially off the te you just want to get that ball in play reliably and when you’re hitting shots into the green often what you’ll see a scratch golfer will try counteract the turf creating a shot shape or embrace the shot shape and just hit that shot shape there’s not too much working of the ball unless absolutely necessary so I’m going to hit Two Shots one I’ll hit my standard shot I’m just going to set it up left and let the ball drifted over not going to add anything special another option we can do which you’ll see more at the coast is that a lot of golfers who play in a lot of wind will develop shots where they hit the shot shape Against the Wind so a draw here can really be straightened up by The Firm wind we probably got a club wind off the left so we don’t need a big draw so what we’ll do is we’ll try set this club face up to the hole close our stance off a little bit and swing Along our foot line imagining a draw ski we don’t want to draw too much cuz the wind’s not that strong just like that and then the wind is going to push it back against the drawer and I’ve hit a beautiful shot closer than the other one but it’s not a shot I develop cuz it’s not my 9 out of 10 shot so I hit the wind rider instead of the wind cheater I think we got a double breaker snaker and we’re going to go right to left her and then it’s going to come left to right her it’s all on the left side come on baby yes ni birdie that’s not a real birdie though that’s not a real birdie so you don’t get a tip because it’s a fake birdie that’s a YouTube birdie I can cut out the first shot and put that one and then we can say you have have a tip but I’m not going to do that girl I sto doing that just like I stopped taking 18 Mulligans around I was going to hit the seven wood here because I thought the wind was helping us and we can reach that bunk at 270 on the left so the seven wood would have been perfect but actually the wind is slightly into us off the right so I’m going to hit a mini driver again off the deck though so maybe get a lower ball flight and let’s get the ball in play we have a lot of space to the left we want to eliminate the right side not going to reach the bunkers full confidential reality as with everything with any video we should take context into account I’ve been playing this game since I was 12 on and off I took two or three breaks when I was mentally screwed playing this game and I put in a lot of work short game a lot of work on how to hit the golf ball by myself and then took lessons with Eric Chong of impact golf Malaysia and learned how to hit the ball even better there’s just no substitute for hitting the ball better hitting it straighter and then by hitting it straighter hitting it better off The Sweet Spot you hit it longer we’ve got 107 yards here we’ve hit a beautiful nipple liquor we’ve opened up the hole nicely and we are going to play from no danger point of view we don’t hit toward any bunker we’ve got a clear shot up the alley there that’s where I came this far left the pin is on the top tier so I’m hitting 48° we got a back stop behind the pin and the wind’s off the right so I’m going to put this a little bit out to the right but also I’ve taken two clubs more than I normally would it’s a 56° normally I’m going to hit it slightly lower let it let it land and jump up under the wind rather than let the 52° be hit by the wind and push to too far left into the bunker which is basically a normal shot but we just think low finish low absolutely money scratch golf extraordinarily a scratch golf is going to hit 7 8 9 10 11 12 greens around and on those greens he’s generally going to two he might hold one two or three of them but if he holds more than that he brings his score down real good cuz the putting is what determines the score on the greens and regulation then on the greens he misses between 12 and six greens around what is he doing to get up and down he’s chipping it close he’s missing in the right areas and then giving himself makeable putts to save the par all of it comes down to the short game and yes the ball striking is important but that is already been sorted out that’s already a level they’ve got to so we can ignore that Difference Maker between the winner and the loser is the guy who makes more putts when he’s not supposed to and gains Strokes on the field and the guy who gets up and down when he misses the other half of the greens if he doesn’t get up and down on those nine holes he shoots nine over par plus his two birdies he’s seven over that’s not good enough if he gets up and down out of those nine holes six or seven times then he takes his birdies hey now he’s shooting level par one over one under so it all comes down to the short game this is where the money is made because once your ball striking is good it’s pretty much going to be okayish you have full back positions go to clubs of the T goto clubs on approach and then you aim correctly giving yourself a chance to just get up and down for pass have I hit it have I hit it no I haven’t freaking hit the damn thing man and that is it 3 in is the difference between a birdie and a paw you have that 3 in on four holes and on the other day you don’t have that you goes in the cup that’s four shots from one day to the next the putting is extremely important for us lower handicappers