7 Biggest Risk And Reward Scenarios - How To Play Them

Hello and welcome to the London Club. Now as we head into the main competition part of the golf

season you are going to need to make some really important strategy decisions while you're out

on the golf course and that's what this video is all about. We're going to take a look at the seven

biggest risk and reward scenarios. We're going to talk you through some of the strategy involved

and tell you how to take on the shot if that's what you decide to do. Now the advice comes

courtesy of Jed Walters. Jed is one of the Golf Monthly Top 50 coaches. He'll talk you through the

technique that you need to play all of these crucial shots. Now this video, it's important to

say, comes in partnership with Nikon and the CoolShot 50i Laser Rangefinder. I'll be using

this to provide us with all the key yardages that we need while we're out on the course

Now it features something called dual locked on quake functionality that helps you to identify the

flag a little bit faster and a little bit easier. It also allows you to scan the horizon to help you

differentiate between the flag and the background. Now, the last thing I'll say about it is that it

also has a magnet that allows you to attach it to the side of your golf cart. Right, come on then

Jed, let's get started. Okay, so this one is all about picking your line off the tee and again, how aggressive are you with

that line and this is a great hole to talk about this on because it's a par five it's reachable for

the longer hitters but you've got a decision to make you can either go down the right hand side of the hole makes the hole much longer probably plays it as more of a three shotter if you go down

right or you can be aggressive you can go down the left hand side to the left of those trees that

you can see at the end of the fairway that leaves you with a much shorter shot into the green but

it's tighter okay so it's trick it's trickier so in a scenario like this jen what what are you

thinking what's the thought process that people need to have okay again like all shots it's the

shape of shot that you hit is the key isn't it so if you're fading the golf ball then you would

look at and say well you know i want to be giving myself the greatest funnel so you know faders

would definitely tee up on the right hand side of the tee box okay and drawers would probably tee up

a little bit more over to the right hand side and be aimed a little bit to the right so they're

Again, creating their bigger funnel. If you were going for the more dangerous shot

the risky shot, but gives you the greatest reward, you would definitely be more on this right-hand side

even if you were fading the old ball. Because if you tee up on the left-hand side

you're hitting a fade, then your line is literally over these bushes here on the left

and that's not a good place to start mentally. So you give yourself almost margin-fair

and then you can see the shot in front of you to be able to paint a picture for what the ball flight is going to do now the yardage that i've got here so the tree at the end of the fairway that you need

to be left of or right of is 282 playing 275 so that's the kind of distance that you're looking

to hit it but for but if you go for that left hand side what makes this tricky is it's slightly blind

so how do you play blind shots how are you how are you um visualizing that target and that ball

flight when it's blind it's the same as when you can see exactly what's in front of you um you know

if you picture where the ball is going to finish and then if you drew your shot shape in your mind

back to your point where you stood so you're visualizing then from the sort of left of the

tree for me i'd be visualizing pretty maybe gentle draw all the way back down to here if you're a

fader visualize the other thing and then from there it's just about trust it's about trusting

your process so it's all about focusing on what you would have as a swing thought if you've got

one or stuff that you've been working on with with your coach yes so the impact is all about

the process yes so you just try to make your swing which is a really good point because that becomes

harder to do as the pressure mounts it's very easy to get away from that process okay Jed so

go for it I want you to have a go for the aggressive shot aggressive shot I'm looking

the tree maybe to sort of the left side of the tree sort of left side of the branches

so from that point of view there just picking my line focusing now square in my face just here

just in front of that line I've picked out at now I can build my stance around the club face

and then from that point of view it's just trusting my feeling there

and then just committing to it just focus on what it feels like to swing the golf club

and there's that little draw at the tree and then just back round into the fairway perfect and you've

I think you've got about 170 odd yards to the flag you're in real birdie chance if you can pull

off that eagle chance eagle chance so it goes to show you you can do it but you need the thought

process and then you need to be able to have the presence of mind not to get too caught up in

anything else other than your normal process if you do that you might just be able to pull off a

few more shots like that one. Right, so as you can see, we have a tree in the way. Now this is a par

five, the 11th hole here on the international course of the London Club. And Jed, it's one of

these scenarios where you've got two options. You can chip it back outside, that's fine. But in that

scenario here, you're still going to have about 250 odd yards left into the green. So you can take

the more aggressive play up the right hand side, but that is a little bit more dangerous. Now

The Nikon is telling me that to the crest of the hill, Jed, you've got 150 yards, which would leave you about 80, 90 yards in, which would be absolutely ideal

So the question is, what do people need to think about before taking on the shot

And then if they do take the shot on, how do they do it? Okay. Lie, swing direction, your pattern are probably the first two things to think about

Okay. Can I hit the shot I want to hit? So can we get to the crest of the hill? Can we get 150, 160 yards down there

from this line we've got here we can do if we were here um no way no we've got no chance yeah

you just got to take your medicine there um and then understanding what shot you hit so if you're

slicing the golf ball then you can't hit this shot you're not going to just be able to turn it on and

off otherwise you wouldn't slice it um so you've got to understand that if you're slicing it your

swing pattern is this way um then you're gonna have to fade it around the tree well from this

position here that's not the shot if you're maybe over there yeah you can play that shot

if you try to play it from here you're bringing the tree in yeah yeah so it's a tough one so

okay so then with this particular shot you need to hit the hit a slight draw yeah you need to keep

the flight down because of the the branches technically how do you do it um so the ball going to start closer to where the clubface points so we don want to point the club face at the target because there are trees there so the ball will start too close to it

and nine times out of ten, you see somebody try and play this shot, and they'll hit the tree. So, we want to align the body a little bit to the right of the tree

so from here, I'm looking at probably where the bunker is, just there

So, if I was to align the club face to the bunker, and my body a little bit to the right of the bunker

But then I've now got the ability to swing the club normally

but have the club face at impact slightly closed to the path I'm swinging on

which is going to then help me do it. Yeah, and I guess you should be able to look down at a dress and see that the face of the club is slightly closed to what you would usually see, right

Without it being too exaggerated and bringing the tree to play. Yeah, and then nudging the ball a little bit back in your stance than we'd normally have it

So not loads, we're not going to push it all the way back here. you know maybe a ball's width maybe a ball and a half's width back in the stance

just to try and take a little bit of that loft off and just keep that initial launch a little bit

lower yeah lovely shot Jed I think it shows that you can develop the skills that you need to be

able to hit these shots but it does take some practice right so we're on the par 312th on the international course at the london club and jed this is a risk

and reward scenario because the question that everyone will need to answer in a position like

this is how aggressive are you with your line how close to the flag do you aim now jed what's the

information that you need to gather in order to build a strategy in a scenario like this okay so

But the main problem that we've got is the water, which we need to carry

So whether we want to be aggressive and go at the flag

I suppose it would just depend on where you were. You know, if you were in the club championships

and you were into the back nine in the last round and you're going on a good score

then you're probably just going to stick this in the middle of the green. It's almost like playing 12 of Augusta, isn't it, on Sunday

But you need to know what is it to carry the water at the flag

At the flag. And then also, at the middle of the green. I've got the slope on to help, and it's 165 playing 152 to carry the water

Okay, and what about the middle of the green? Middle of the green is 175 playing 160

Okay, so there's not a great deal in it between those two. So now the next number we need is the most important one

What is it to the hill at the back of the green? Here at the back is 179

So 190 playing 179. Okay. That's the number. Right, okay. Because we want to take the danger out of the equation

Bear in mind that most golfers don't flush it all the time

So if you mis-strike it, but you've got the club that's not going to hit it anywhere beyond that second number at the back of the green

then you're going to be on the green. Yeah. So if you hit an okay shot, I'm on the green

Hit a great shot, I'm at the back of the green. Okay, go on there Jed. You've got one task here

I've got one task here. To carry the water. One task here to carry the water. Well I've got six iron because I know that well if I don't quite get it I should carry the water

and if I hit it really solid well at worst case scenario I'm going to be back edge

Back edge. Yeah. Okay, let's find out. But we are going to go for it

You're going to go for it? Yeah. It's a quite aggressive line. You're going to be aggressive on it, yeah. I've just pulled it a touch

Well you've just drawn it right from the flag. It's fine, it's good. Good

I think it goes to show that the thought process is exactly right

Figure out what it is for the safest part and then work from there. OK, so this is less of a risk and reward scenario

more just risk as far as I'm concerned. For me, this would be, and for most golfers

I think this would be one of the hardest shots they could face, the long bunker shot, Jen. Have you got a safe way of playing this

Yes. mentally, visually, it's an intimidating shot. The reality is it's quite straightforward

Okay. The loft is the key to it. Right. Most people will come in here. It's Greenside Bunker

so they will immediately go in the bag and reach for their Greenside Bunker Club. Log wedge, generally, for a lot of people

58, 60 degrees. Some people will go sand wedge, but it's still a lot of loft

We've got, I don't know, what was it? It looks like it's about 45 yards. Well, laser is telling me it's 40 yards to the flag

and it's 60 yards to the bank over the back. Right, okay. So the key then is to play the shot in the same way, but use less loft to play it

So I've got two clubs here. I've got my 58, which is my normal green side bunker club. But the shot I play this with is actually a pitching wedge

Right, okay. You know, it's what, 13 degrees of loft difference? Yes. Okay, Jed, so I'm going to ask you to play two shots

Play one with your normal lob wedge to start with. I'll take the wedge

And I just want you to talk through the techniques. So what's the greenside bunker technique and then play it again with the wedge

Hopefully we should see the difference. Okay, so I personally prefer a square setup

I know there's a lot of people open the club face and aim to the left. It's good because that engages the bounce, but you can still do it in a slightly different way

So me personally, I prefer taking a setup and aiming at your target

Then create you with the stance, ball position. As you can see, there's a forward or centre

From here now, I'm going to roll the club face in my hands a little bit

So I'm opening the club face. Opening the face. So that's engaging the bounce and taking the leading edge away. Yeah

But then obviously, that's off to the right hand side. But if I then lower my hands, that brings the face back to the target

It tilts the loft back to where I want to go. And that enables you to use your wrist a little bit more to create the..

So I can make my normal swing in terms of direction a little bit more sort of wristy

So feeling upward hinge and then downward hinge more. Now, some people would pick the club head up and throw it in the sand with your trail hand

And then some might feel point the butt of the grip at the ground and then point it back at your torso quickly

Whichever resonates with the individual, I would say more than anything. But it's having that mental picture

As you can see, you've made it into that. Well, yeah, yeah. Well, you look at that, if that was the green, that would be a nice one

Absolutely no problem. So, right, let's have a go for the flag then. Okay

I'll give you that. And I'll give you that. And give yourself half a decent life, Jed. I'm going to give you a chance

Right, okay, let's pop it. There you go. Okay so same setup same routine same technique only this time I not rolling open 58 degrees

It's a lot less. So you are opening it, but because it's left loft to start with

Yeah, so I just opened it there a little bit, but then once I lower my hands

I'm pointing it back more at the target and then just making the same motion

and you've made the carry easily and i mean you've made that look incredibly easy but i think it is

one for people to practice yeah um and just get comfortable with less loft yeah bunker shots are

the ones that are hard to practice because there's not a lot of facilities to go out and just stand

and hit shots but practicing them different lofts but the same technique seeing the different

trajectories and distances that you're going to get yeah that's a simple way to do it okay so this is a real risk and reward scenario so you've got a long shot over water it's 165 to

carry the water 180 to the flag jed so it's a you know it's a long enough shot over the water to

really get your attention you can play this up the right hand side and a lot of golfers

would be well advised to do that pitch it on and make par that way yeah but i want to focus

on going for it and hitting that long iron or that hybrid into the green I want to talk about

technique and what's the key to playing this shot well the biggest thing obviously we've got a

perfect line because we're in the fairway because the fairways here are fantastic um I think the

biggest thing that we need to think about is making sure that the club makes contact with

the ground in the correct spot okay and for a lot of people you know ground contact is generally

happening sort of back here so there's a lot of you know golfers hanging pressure backs moving the

sort of arms away from the ground and or raising up a little bit to avoid hitting the ground here

and that's why you know a lot of golfers pick it clean off the top hit the thin shots hit the fat

shots it's top shots um and really if we want to strike the ball really nicely then we've got to

hit the ground but we need to hit it in the correct spot which is always target signing your golf ball

Right, ball first, ground second. Exactly. That's the order that you're looking for

So give us a tip or a drill to help people focus on that then. I would say for most people

they need to make sure that their weight is forward towards the target. So whether you're going to go with hybrid or an iron

so I mean, for the distance that we have here, 180, that's about my six iron distance

Okay. You know, there's plenty of golfers who, you know, might not even sort of hit that 160 carry with iron

So, yeah, you know, if you need to hit hybrid, hit hybrid. Hit the club that is going to carry the distance you need

As always, you know, we know what it is to the flag. We know what it is to the carry. You know, if we know what it is to the back of the green

Which I can tell you. It's 195 to the back. So, you've got a bit of room there

For every golfer there, well, we've got 15 yards behind the flag. So, really, what we need to do is pick our 190 club

Yes. And hit that one. Okay so what's our tip for striking the ground? So from this one here, so I'm going to go with iron

so I'm going to give that there to you and the key to it as I said is weight forward. So from

this point of view here, for most golfers from the top of the backswing the pressure can shift

into the trail side and then stay there so we have the ability to hit the ground here and to avoid

that we raise up, we early extend, we separate the elbows, flick it at the wrist. So this is all

raising the circle that the club is moving on away from the ground

away from the goalball. What we actually want to do is feel that from the top of the backswing

we shift towards the target. So we shift the pressure more in for me, the left, if you're a lefty

to your right. And we maintain that movement constantly and maintain fairly straight arms

so extended arms, so the club will then want to hit the ground more over here

Well, that's going to give you your ball turf strike. that's going to give you the biggest opportunity to get that quality of strike

Yeah, and if you start doing it, you will immediately notice what a big difference it makes with the quality of the contact

Huge difference. We can't just talk about this shot forever, Jen. You're going to have to hit it for us. Okay

So, taking my aim. Squaring that face in there. And then for me, I mean, I'm always a little bit more left side of pressure anyway

into the setup position. So I'd probably be maybe, I don't know

60%, 65% into my left side address anyway with irons. You know, a lot of people maybe can drift

You see a lot of it to the right. So I'm going to be a little bit more into the left-hand side

try and stay nice and stable in the backswing and then shift the pressure, try and get that ground contact over there

I just started that fraction to the right. It's drawing though. Yeah, it's coming round

Yeah, so nice and safe. I'm on the green, but a slightly longer shot

than ideally I would have liked. But I've got an eagle putt. Yeah, so I mean, whatever you would do in this scenario

whether you'd go for it or play it safe, it's worth practising this shot that Jen is talking about here

because, again, if you can develop that skill set, it really can come in handy

So we have a classic risk and reward scenario, one that many golfers will face, you know

in the majority of rounds of golf they play. And the question is, how aggressive do you want to be

How close do you want to pitch this ball to you to get it close to the flag? What should people be thinking about here, Jed

Don't try and keep it this side of the flag is what I would say

Right, OK, yeah. You know, hitting it to six feet to ten feet is a good result

But bear in mind, there's still ten feet the other side as well, which gives you more root

More root. The classic one is literally trying to sort of be too cute with it and dumping it in the bunker

Yeah. And that's why it is such a fearful shock for most golfers. And I guess the key here is to assess the lie

That's why we've got two golf balls laid out. Obviously, we've got one which is, you know, it's not lying too bad

It's very close to the edge, but it's, you know, it's not a bad position to be in. And then this one here, you know, this is really nestled down

So this is a really difficult one to judge in terms of how it's going to come out

and sometimes these come out sort of really dead, other times they'll fly on and release a lot

The key is just committing to how far you want the ball to fly through the air

Right, okay. So if we think of A to B is where the ball is to where it lands and B to C is then out of your control Okay So we concentrate

on the length and the type of motion that's going to move the ball from its lie

to the green and then, you know, if you get, from that lie especially

if you get quite lucky it lands softly and it ends up close then great

but you're better off with the putter in your hands than just keeping this wedge in your hands

in your next shot. Definitely. Definitely. So talk us through have you play it then so you assess the lie yeah you're trying to pitch the ball past the flag are

you on the flag um i would be looking at this and i would be looking at trying to sort of pitch it

close enough to the flag um i'd be thinking of about maybe two or three feet short of the flag

so try to carry it all the way okay so play this one for us so from here um this kind of lie here

is it's a kind of lie where if you were a really good or skilled bunker player you could play like

a bunker shot okay um and play that sort of flop shot which everybody likes to see um if you're not

so skilled playing the bunker shot you can still play that type of flighted shot but just take all

the risk out of it that's the shot i need to know how to play okay so that shot there is really just

taking your setup to where your your target is there and then we're going to open the club face

to give ourselves more loft. So I've got my sand wedge here, which is a 54 degree

but now by the time I've opened it up, that's getting closer to 58, 60

What I'm going to do now is I'm going to move around to my right

so I bring my club face more to the target. So from there, you see the ball position from this angle

actually looks like it's right in line with sort of the inside of my left foot

but the reality is it's still quite central. Yeah. So I've now got the club face pointed at the target

So I've got my loft preset. I don't need to do anything. I can literally just keep my arms nice and extended

move them back, and then just rotate the torso through. Just allow the loft to slide underneath and just pop it into the air

Yeah. So it's the length of swing now for the distance that it needs to go

Okay. So from here now, keeping the pressure of the body into the left-hand side

and then just moving arms back, chest through, and just committing to it

You see how it just pops up in the air, it's landed about a foot short, it's ran on, it's probably about nine feet away but I take that every day

Yeah and I think it shows that you can get yourself into a bit of a fix here if you start to really get too aggressive

Having that mindset of getting the ball back in play, giving yourself a putt for par, it could make all the difference to your scoring

okay so the final hole here on the international course at the london club it's a par five just

over 500 yards jed i think for a lot of golfers they will have a hole at their home club where

they know that if they get a really good drive away they might be able to get to the green in

two whether that's along par four or par five on this occasion the crest of the hill that you can

see over there in front of us i've lasered it's telling me it's about 235 to get over that crest

of that hill so if you can do that jed you'll get up to the you'll have a good chance so how do you

add a bit of extra distance to your drives without losing control i think the key is and modern

driving rangers and all the gadgets that we can have now is we've got a lot more data about what

we can do ourselves knowing your club head speed is an important one because relative to your speed

your launch conditions are the most important things, as well as where we strike the golf ball on the club face

So if you're a slower swing speed player, you need a higher launch angle

and a little bit more spin then is not too bad. As that club travels faster through impact

then the launch will come down a little bit, spin needs to come down so you can optimise your conditions

to maximise your distance. Bear in mind, if you miss the middle of the club face

then that's going to cost you energy. You're going to be spinning it up a bit probably, aren't you

So how do you achieve those launch conditions then? Is that something you do at set-up

Yeah, so set-up and again, you know, certain players when they've got a really fast speed

they can add the ball a little bit further back in the stand so not quite hit it as up so hit it down

but I would say generally for the majority of players who are swinging the club, say, under 100 miles an hour with the driver

then a ball position which is a little bit further forward launching it a little bit higher is key

It's like now, we're into a little bit of a breeze here. So a lot of people would want to tee it down

Well, teeing it down is going to lower your launch, going to increase your spin. It actually has the opposite effect

It makes it shorter into the wind than actually hitting it further

Yes, okay. So go on then, show us what the correct address. So from here now, I've got the ball teed up

fracking higher than normal. If you were to sort of address ball

almost in line with sort of left foot there, from here, keeping the ball there

and just opening the width of your stance. So the ball now, especially from my perspective, looks like it's sort of out here

And from there, that's going to give me the opportunity then to have a little bit more upward angle of attack

hitting the ball a fraction above the centre of the club face and then trying to optimise them launch conditions

And I guess one of the keys here is to ensure that your upper body doesn't, you don't end up trying to sort of

your upper body's not getting on top of the ball, it's staying centred over your stance. Not leaning back, but sort of staying centred, right

Yeah, it's almost trying to keep your head stable, keep your centres aligned

So your lower body is still going to drive forward, your pressure is still going to drive forward. But especially where the ball position is there, you'll be on the impact

That's going to help you with that upward delivery. Okay, go on then, hit it for us. Okay

What a shot. Beautiful. We'll take that one. you've carried the cusp of that hill comfortably you'll be able to get up in no problem at all

I think it goes to show just get those those basics right at address get the strike right

it should be able to add a few extra yards so there you have it that's our look at the seven

risk and reward scenarios that every golfer will face hopefully Jed's advice there will help you

think a bit smarter to ensure that when you do want to take on the risk involved in these shots

you've got the technique and you've got the skill set to be able to do it because it could help with

your overall scoring. But that's it for now from the London Club. Thanks very much for watching. We'll see you next time