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Golf Tips We All Learn About Initially Then Forget
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Apr 1, 2025
In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA professional and Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Katie Dawkins. They discuss some of those simple lessons we all get taught when we first pick up the game but that we all forget! These are the simple and effective tips that can make a huge difference to your scoring potential. Katie's advice should help you from tee-to-green!
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Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to West Hill Golf Club
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and this video in which we're going to take a look at the seven tips that every golfer forgets
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Now these are all things that you'll pick up as you play golf over the years
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the really simple stuff that can actually make a big difference to your scoring but that from time to time we all forget. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Katie
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Dawkins, she's a PGA pro, she's one of the Golf Monthly top 50 coaches and she's going to talk
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you through everything you need to know and it should help you in all areas of the game from tea
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to green. Right let's get started. Right so for our first one we're going to talk about the speed
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of your swing and in particular the tempo of your golf swing. Katie what do people forget here? I
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think people tend to forget that this is a golf swing it's not a golf hit. Right. And I think
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that's probably the key thought for a lot of people to kind of bank in the
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memory banks because actually the fact the act of the golf swing suggests that
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there's a natural flow to it there's a natural swing back and swing through the
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problem people tend to find is that they've got lots of swing thoughts going
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on in there in their minds and that tends to stunt this nice natural rhythm
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that we're looking for in the golf swing so you tend to find people thinking about stuff too much and therefore even if you're a decent sports person you've
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got a good ability to hit a ball with a racket, a club, a bat, whatever you happen to be using
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that can sometimes disappear just because you're overthinking it and you're trying to hit it and
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trying to force the ball to do what you want it to do. It's such a good point. I think my specific
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issue on this, I think, is that I tend to start getting too aggressive when I'm on the golf course
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under pressure, start snatching at it a little bit too much. So most people watching this will
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know tempo really important so how do people practice it how do you make sure that you don't
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go too far wrong i think it's important to have something that you can take out on the golf course
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with you because like you said there's situations out there where you need a little bit of restraining
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perhaps so you actually need just to calm things down a bit so a really good drill to do that is to
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actually maybe do one of your practice swings or just your sole practicing with your feet together
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because what that does is it starts to create this lovely, free-wheeling, chilled-out tempo
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If you go at it like a bat out of hell with your feet together, guess what
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You fall over. So you're throwing yourself off balance. Okay, so if you are somebody like me who has a tendency to snatch at their shots a little bit too much
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that feeling that you're hitting and not swinging, try to incorporate that into your pre-shot routine
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okay so we have reached the inevitable part of this video which we're going to talk about
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alignment and most golfers watching this will know how important it is and yet there'll be a lot of
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people watching this that don't do it correctly every time and that's because they're forgetting
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something what is it that golfers tend to forget about aiming properly i think the biggest thing
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golfers tend to forget with alignment is they forget that it's not their body that's lined up
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to the target, they're on those old train tracks. So the ball and the target are on one train track
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your feet, knees, hips and shoulders are on the other. So in theory you're running parallel to your target
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but the problem is when a lot of people set up to the ball is they look down their shoulder
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and they tend to kind of shuffle themselves and aim themselves at so they skewed themselves across the line Yes So what the process How do you get it right time and time again So you need to build it into your pre routine
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So you need to stand behind the ball, use your club almost like a ruler
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point it at your target, pull the club down and pick yourself a mini target just in front of the ball
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It's so much easier to get yourself lined up on those train tracks because you can see the tracks down there
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When we're looking up at the target, it's much easier to have a little shuffle, do a little dance and immediately you've pushed yourself offline. So having a mini target is
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probably my biggest tip for this and being able to aim yourself to that is much much easier than
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the longer one. Yeah and it's so important so if you can just do what Katie said and get it right
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more often chances are you'll also start making better swings, better contacts and just generally
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playing golf a little bit better. OK, so we've come down to the green here, and Katie, we're talking about chipping
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What do people forget to do in a situation like this? I think the biggest problem people have when it comes to shots out on the course around
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the greens is they choose the wrong club. Right. So I think there's that idea that because I'm chipping, I need to look good, and they
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want that Seve-esque sort of high floaty shot that's going to land right by the flag and
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and zip back and stop. That's not reality. Reality would be, if I was to give you a ball and throw it to the flag
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Go on then. Yeah, right. I'm not going to go up and over like that because I've got no control over it
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The bounce is going to be more unpredictable. Everything's just a little bit more dangerous
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My safest possible option would be to almost play lawn bowls, basically
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So I'd roll it on the first available bit of green. It would run to the flag
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Yeah. So then what I'd want you to do out on the golf course
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It's kind of put into your hand the club that best fits that carry and roll
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So for me, that went low and rolled out, so it'd probably be something like an A time
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The majority of people would not be choosing an A time from here. Well, I think that they possibly just automatically grab the lob wedge or the sand wedge
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whatever shot they're facing around the greens. I know that I'd probably have a tendency to do that a bit from time to time
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just immediately pick the club. You just want to look the best you can possibly look, and for a lot of people, that's the ball in the air
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But what's interesting about this, Katie, is that you're saying, Work backwards, figure out what the shot looks like, the best, most reliable looking shot, what it looks like, and then pick your club
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So with this little short chip, this almost tick-tock action, I can afford to mishit it a little bit and still get away with it
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I think that's the important bit. Go on then, mishit it for us and get away with it. That's the important, mishit it and get away with it. Oh, great
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So all I'm going to do is just that little tick-tock, bounce it on that top bit and let it roll around
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This is good. You told me to mishit it and I said no
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No, you did it perfectly. But I think the point remains, keep it simple, it's the best way to do it
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Posture. It's something that I think most golfers understand how important it is to have a nice athletic posture
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yet the amount of golfers that you see out on the course who have stood over the ball not looking particularly athletic
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Why is it so important to get right firstly, Katie? It's so important to get right because posture, good posture gives you good balance, which
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in turn gives you control in your golf swing. And we want control in our golf swing, right
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We don't want to stand there in a position where we're rocking about the place. And this
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is what happens when the position that you setting up in is poor You setting up in a state of almost sitting down or sometimes tipped over too much But the one we see the most is the sat back kind of slightly lazy posture almost
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What you've got there is you've got the weight on the heels. So you're going to swing the club back and you're going to be rocking around, rocking all over the place
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What we want to see is a more of a planted onto the balls of the feet and the ability to actually be in balance as you come back to the ball
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Good posture to begin with is usually going to mean better posture as you hit the shot
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Poor posture, you're just not going to introduce any of the bigger muscles so you're not going
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to get that lovely rotation and that lovely weight transfer through the ball
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So what's a good tip, what's a good checkpoint to make sure you're in the right posture? You could stand in front of a mirror at home and actually take your posture if the mirror's
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there, take your posture, set yourself up, have a look, go yeah alright that's great
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but we want something we can take onto the golf course. and going through almost a little routine in their heads
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but that can introduce tension. In good posture, you should be able to
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a bit like you're about to return to serve in tennis, you should be able to give your heels a little tap
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That tells us we're ready to run somewhere, tells us we're athletic. If you're setting up to the ball and you try and do that
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and you think, oh blimey, I'm rocking back already because I can tap my toes
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If you're a toe tapper, your posture's lacking athleticism. It's a really simple tip
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and if you do have issues with your posture over the ball, then maybe introduce that into your pre-shot routine
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It could make all the difference. Okay, so we're going to talk about bunker play
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And obviously, the two biggest mistakes are either leaving it in the bunker or thinning it over the back
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The lesson that people forget here is that the bunker shot, the greenside bunker shot
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is the only one in which you're not trying to make contact with the ball first, right
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Exactly. and I think this is the thing is that we don't want to hit the ball first
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we want to hit the sand behind the ball so it floats out on that lovely cushion. So it's really important here that we address the part we want to hit
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so we're actually addressing the sand behind the ball. OK, so talk us through how you do it
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So it's important to almost think of the ball as being sat on a fried egg
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so the ball is the yoke, essentially. Just draw a couple of little circles. Obviously, not allowed to do this in real play for obvious reasons
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but draw a couple of circles around the ball and you can even give yourself three circles in a row
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almost like traffic lights. Practice hitting the right bit of sand. So if I was to have a little
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practice traffic light if you like. So I'm going to set myself up, swing back, swing through and
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take the whole thing out. What I'm then going to do is set myself up to the back of the egg where
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the ball is and again almost try and repeat it so I'm just letting the ball get in the way but
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I'm aiming to hit the back of that egg. Perfect great shot and you'll notice I mean that description
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there that Katie's given is so simple it's something that every golfer can do but you do need to practice these things. Trust it and practice it it should help
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Okay so our next one is about grip pressure and this is starting to feel actually a bit like a
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a personal counselling session for me because I know that under pressure I have a tendency
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to really squeeze the grip and strangle the grip and I know that's not good but can you
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explain to everyone why it not good So the first thing is you not alone Probably 90 of the people that I teach are strangling the club Now the effect that this has on your ability to get back to that ball is huge
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The reason being, if you're holding the club in an appropriate manner, an appropriate amount of pressure is being applied
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you're holding it almost like a tube of toothpaste with the lid off, so that would be quite a good way of remembering it
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What people tend to do is they tend to go from setting themselves up, holding it all right
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and then suddenly the squeeze comes in. So you've got a nice relaxed hold where the club's on the ground
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Check out what my club face does when I squeeze it. That's literally down to me strengthening my grip
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My forearms are contracting and therefore shortening. And lo and behold, you can imagine the shots that you're going to get from that
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If you've got an iron in hand, you're likely to hit, I would think, you're likely to hit fins, maybe tops
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Absolutely, yeah, you are. But also it's the impact that it has on your rhythm
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which we've talked about before. you want that free easy swing you want that lovely flow to your golf swing yeah so as Katie said a
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nice light grip pressure it'll help your rhythm it'll help all sorts of different things in your
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golf swing okay so the number one tip on our list that golfers forget is they forget to aim at the
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middle of the green in particular when the flag is cut tight to one side or another so imagine for
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a second that the green behind katie and i here imagine that flag is tucked just over the bunkers
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on the right hand side appreciate it's not today but imagine that it is that's a really dangerous
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flag yeah especially when you consider katie you've got so much room to aim out on this green
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haven't you and we've all said it we've all got up there and gone damn it i'm in the bunker look
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how much room there is on the left yes and for some reason we tend to go at tiger line at the
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flag stick. Something that will really help you to avoid this and remind you that actually
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the middle of the green, you want to be on the middle of the green because you're never going to get a really long putt, you're never going to be too far from the flag are you
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No. But it's just a safe place to be. But a way that you can do that is actually pay attention
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to what's behind the green. So for example here we've got two tall fir trees just to
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the right of where our flag is but that's centre of the green. I'd be thinking about
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aiming at those and use that as my marker as my part of my pre-shot routine
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Draw my attention to what's at the back. It lifts you up body language wise so
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you're looking up. You're visualising a decent shot because you're going at
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something that's beyond the green. And it takes your attention away from any
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trouble that might be sneaking around in the foreground. Come on Katie let's
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finish off with a good shot shall we? So that flag let's be honest is in a pretty
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good spot. Not giving you any excuses here. Yeah, right. No pressure. Lovely shot. Nice
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high, soft draw. Very easy. And I think it goes to show that if you're out on the golf course
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and you're thinking about how to compile a score, maybe just have one round of golf where you just
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aim at the middle of the green. So forget about where the flag is. See what it does to your score. It might just help. Okay, so there you have it. That's our look at the seven tips that every
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golfer. If you've enjoyed the video, please do hit the like button. If you have any questions
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or any comments, leave them below. But that's it for now from West Hill
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Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time
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