Hands down, the best golfing content out there. Not condescending or patronising. Your videos focussing on short game and changing the mindset going into the game have been invaluable for my own journey. Really appreciate it Matt!
Taj's grin when you tell him his swing needs nothing is so pure. Dude is so talented, a little putting/wedge practice (or not playing on 45 degree sloped greens?!) and he'd be a single digit for sure!
You have to be hands down, the best course/club management guy I have ever seen. I used to be a +3 in my youth. Took 15 years off, and just started back up a few weeks ago. I wanted to reacquaint myself with the game and stumbled across your stuff. Really good! Thanks for taking the time to make these. I have binge watched a ton of your videos and when I think about my shot , I am thinking with a South African accent haha
All analysis on point. To Eric Chong's points, I would add #4 (even though we always like to make them in 3's), his calm demeanor is his biggest long-term asset. He wants to learn and doesn't take it too seriously. Keep up the good work!
Great Video and if ever you needed proof of how important a good short game and putting game is, this is it. Taj hits his woods amazingly and I'm sure we all wish we could hit it that well. His tempo is excellent and I imagine a few more rounds/lessons with Matt and he'd hitting some seriously good scores.
I love your constant message that the short game is 1. overlooked and not practiced 2. the easiest way to slash strokes 3. typically the only part of the game that most people can approach the consistency of pros. You speak truth Chief.
Short game, short game, short game. Did I mention short game? The best players (scratch) I play alongside do miss better and have tighter dispersion/accuracy than me (11HC) - but often we end up in very similar places over the course of a round. However, their ability to recover, tidy up and eliminate 3 putts is god-tier by comparison. They always pick the right shot, line, chip/pitch, club and make it look effortless. I often get puzzled why are they scoring so consistently while only looking like playing "steady" golf. Like Adam/NotAScratch they just get it done inside 100yds.
I shot an 87 yesterday playing bogey golf. Rare that I shoot under 90 but helped buy puring my 5 wood and irons to make pro par on 3 of the par 5 holes and also having just a couple of dbl bogey. Always follow our Chief Playa. 👍🏼
Just in time for me to break 90 for the very first time tomorrow! I never thought I would be able to play golf in november in Québec! Last game of the season! Wish me luck playas!
Taj is such a naturally blessed golfer already. That swing and tempo are a joy to watch, I'm honestly a bit jealous. He has effortless distance and is a single-digit golfer in waiting. Zero question that he'll get huge benefits from some lessons to tighten fundamentals on short game and putting. After grinding those learnings in the practice area, there will be a break 80 video next year. It's not even up for debate. Please don't let anyone touch your iron/driver swing, maybe ever actually. It can be looked at later if desired as Eric says. There's a 10-shot better version of Taj waiting to be unlocked in a relatively short span of time, Taj won't believe how quickly he could improve. Get those wedges Taj, get those lessons and practice in. Looking forward to seeing you go low with Matt next year.
I've missed you a lot. Its incredible when you see your putting stats and realise every 3 putt is a stroke lost. Then you learn overall you are 8 shots down due to poor putting. I use a Hank Haney ball marker and it really helps to trust you are lined up correctly. Best lesson I ever spent dollars on was for line and pace lesson.
My game is a lot like Taj’s. Nice off the tee, reliable irons, fall apart inside 75 yards and greens. Thanks for Sharing Taji, see you at the practice greens!
You have your weakness identified already, now practice it until it becomes a strength. It's said to practice short game twice as long as you practice full swings. Good luck.
Game inside 120 most important. I have days when I top several tee shots and long approaches, but scramble a decent enough score by playing well inside 120y. Key for me is knowing your carry distances on your wedges.
Of course not Your best golf but a great vidoe, so honest. We can all recognize ourselves in this. Keep it going. Love the break 75 series. Niclas from Sweden.
I would say both are important but I’ve played my best when my chip and putt game is strong (recovery chips to inside 8 ft and some one putts). Some could say tee ball is just as important, bc if youre scrambling off each tee or taking a drop you’ll always be fighting to make par or bogey at best. I’m going with shirt game!
Great stuff! I like the course management focus and having Taj, a subscriber, along is just great as he's probably about my level. Got a lot out of this one! It's also super cool you brought a subscriber out for a bit of a lesson. edited for a request: in a future video, could you go over your thought process and detail the marks you were putting on your little notebook?
Playa in chief - Re: the early question: I feel the game in & around 100/yrds is more important. One can hit a tee shot with any club ... generally a reliable/comfortable one (Heck in 2020 I played either my 6i or 3w off the tees and dropped 10 hcp)... however it's difficult to play the game inside 150/yrds with anything lower lofted than a 9 iron or wedges (skill level is a factor of course). Thank you for more great content brother !! I appreciate you and your methods ✌
"The game inside PW range is more important" Obviously there will be caveats to this, like some of the comments here, where people say if their tee game is off, it destroys their game. However, you have to be much more precise and consistent with your game inside 100yds than you do off the tee. Your tee ball can often land anywhere within a, what, 15+yd radius (as long as you are landing in areas free from danger) and you can have a great second shot. Heck, I've had tee shots on par 5s that have went 30 yards and still had chances to make birdie. Mainly because I can hit a fairway wood or whatever on my next shot and if its clean, can still go 250-275yds. Accuracy and distance control become exponentially more important the closer you get to the hole. On your tee shot, if you want to hit it 275y but it only goes 240y, more often than not, it just means you have a slightly longer next shot into the hole. However, if you miss your 100y shot by the same 10-15% that can mean the difference between being on the green or off the green, easily adding another stroke (or more) to your score that hole. The 15-50y pitch/chip shots, sand shots, and shots outta THICC greenside rough are often the hardest to control and get the feel for, so either reducing them or practicing them A LOT becomes very important. Those feel shots and less than 100% power shots are often ones that come out way too short or way too long. Further, getting to the green, as we often saw with Taj, under or just misreading putts all the time can have disastrous effects on your score. It doesn't matter if the shot is 300yds or 5 inches, a stroke is a stroke. The stat of "# of strokes inside PW range" is EXTREMELY telling. And thank you for putting this together. Obviously, landing on the green and then two putting from inside PW is the goal. But even getting there in 2 and 2 putting much of the time will be okay. And I can tie that back to some of your other videos where chipping and putting should be at least 2 hours for every one hour you spend hitting bombs on the range.
@@metalheads-golf You may have guessed wrong. Simply stating rock on brothers \m/ Nothing else ;) I'm from the 70's. I remember the origins of the symbol friends ✌
Par 4 or 5's, Being able to get off the tee to a safe position (fairway), at a desired length is important, but the 2nd (GIR) and 3rd shots (lag putt close to pin or chip to one putt range) are your scoring shots. A great drive ruined by a top, a thinned shot, or laying a hunk of sod over the ball will set you up for higher scores than an ok drive with a good 2nd and 3rd shot. Just my take...
Leisure golfer flushing 250 with driver off the tee everytime “can you fix my swing” the playa is way too humble!!! 😂 if that was my driver my golf mates would NEVER hear the end of it!!
This video is perfect for me. I drive like a 1 handicap (via shotscope), but score like a 15 handicap. I put myself within 150 on basically every hole no matter if I hit 4 iron or driver off of the tee, but still score poorly. The thought process of missing a green and treating gir as gir+1(bogey becomes Par) seems so simple, but I'm definitely going to try that. My good holes will hopefully remain good and then my blowup holes will hopefully be limited to bogey or double at worst!
Well sir if you want to play from 125-150 into greens (which I also like by the way) and is often the case regardless which tees I play...then there is only a couple tjings you need: 1. Find the clubs that go 115, 125, 135, 145, 155 or whatever split you need but be brutally honest with your distances. Then practice those exclusively at the range to get the confidence with them and also during practice rounds and on executive par 3 courses. 2. Miss the greens correctly if you have a one way 'miss' and forgive yourself BECAUSE 3. Understand that a scratch golfer hits only 8-10 greens a round, single handicap hits 6-10 and 10 handicap might hit 3-4 GIR. And the best single digit handicappers you will meet at the course will be hitting 5 greens per round and chipping and putting from easy chipping areas where there is a lot of green to work with.
Idk what it is with golf. Maybe just a huge mind game. But i broke 90 1 day and then next 80. The course i play is par 34 and i got 36 and 43. My drives go 220 , i tend to slice but not bad , i play the slice and if im lucky the side spin doesnt send the ball off in the rough. My approach game is almost mint . Its just long par 4s that give me trouble . Golf is such a commitment. But i love it
Every playa would love to have Taj's driver!!! My gir 140 and in is about 70%, so if I get my upper bag dialed in more I'm hoping to consistently break 80.
I'm a 12 handicap but playing more like a 16 right now. and have a 110-115 swing speed with my driver. I find how I perform off the tee impacts my round the most. Inside wedge range, isn't where I blow up. My best rounds are when my tee shots get in play, but it pains me to not hit driver with the distance I have available. If I put away the driver and the anxiety of not hitting driver causes me to hook (or top, or duff) my what should be a safe "6 iron" off the tee and then it compounds throughout a round, "oh well this rounds over - not breaking 80 today, might as well just hit driver..." Would love to see how you would approach training someone like me with high speeds, but still a mid handicap. As a newer golfer, almost all the advice on RU-vid channels about using more club then you think you need doesn't apply to me, I am always long on approach, never short.
easy - i would just tell you to play 10 rounds with no driver in a row and leave the driver at home. any resistance to it means you would not really want to score lower you will lose your headworms quickly leave the driver at home though - no temptation to hit it allowed better yet, play only irons, play irons and 3 wood, play half a bag, play 6 iron down, play 7 iron and a putter, play 77SP 7 wood, 7 iron, sand wedge putter. Won't take long to learn to score
Yooo I’m new to the game I’ve been playing for 5-6 months I’ve dialed my game in pretty quick but with how much I have to work and what not it sometimes creates bad habits like playing rush ball so the way you really think ab every shot helps me. I’m almost breaking 90 consistently but I can really be around 10 or under without all the little fuck ups I have. Id love you play w you tho!
I know people like to say inside pitching wedge is important. I actually categories other as 8-pw should get you close if not on the green, then short game and putting is crucial! If you’re chipping from around the green, you should be 1 putting a lot more often just by putting the chips close. Instead people will chip and 2 putt or even worse 3 putt. Most important part is pitching, chipping, putting.
I think Taj would benefit from watching Mister One Putt's videos to get more idea of putting strategy/ method. His putting stroke is a bit tentative with arm or wrist pull on the follow through. I recently changed to a Kotahi grip fitted to my putters. Using that grip with the "palms up" ( see BJM videos on YT) grip position was a great improvement for me, but it probably isn't a universal solution. Maybe even an armlock putter might assist his stroke. Mike Melaska has a few useful putting videos too.
The thing with golf is that the last touch into the hole counts just as much as that 300 yard bomb... And that 300 yard bomb can go waaaay off line because gteh dispersion gets so big
Think he tries to hit his high lefted wedges a bit hard, seems to just go up and then he's thinking he needs to stripe them to reach. Could be wrong, but it's a problem I have too. Certainly don't drive like him though, great swing! 😅
You have to get the ball in play off the tee. If you can’t do that you are probably not going to break 100. Once you can get the ball in play you need to be able to have only 3 strokes inside PW range to break 90.
@@GolfSidekick True. They do exist. However, I was really surprised when I found out that even these wedges like the Vokeys, which are considered super luxurious are not even forged. Imagine Titleist would introduce regular irons at a similar price point which are cast. The golf community would go crazy about it... BTW I love your recent traveling Thailand episodes!
@@GolfSidekick 0:21 you show a graph. Which makes me feel like an extra crappy golfer considering I drive the ball so well but have such a poor short game.
Taj need to check the swing weight of his iron, wedges and putter. Let's suppose Taj's driver has a swing weight of D1, his irons will need to be at least D2, the wedges and putter at least D3. Taj's scoring clubs is too light in swing weight, and that's why he has trouble controlling them.
