Video summary
The video argues that failing to lower a golf handicap often stems not from flaws in one's swing, but from poor decision-making and a lack of course management. The presenter introduces five specific rules designed to help players shoot lower scores immediately by asking different questions about the course rather than trying to hit perfect shots. Central to this approach is the use of the Smart Caddy GPS app, which provides precise data on distances, green undulation, and hazard locations. By relying on this technology, golfers can make logical choices that minimize risk and maximize their chances of scoring well, proving that strategic thinking is just as important as physical execution.
The first two rules focus on understanding personal yardages and swing tempo. Many players overestimate how far they hit the ball, leading them to use clubs that are too short for the situation; the presenter demonstrates using an eight iron at 90% of his normal swing speed instead of a nine iron at full power to reach the green safely. This adjustment prevents the frustration of trying to hit the ball as hard as possible, which often leads to errors. By accepting a slightly longer club and swinging smoothly with controlled tempo, players can achieve better results without altering their fundamental mechanics, effectively neutralizing the common mistake of swinging too aggressively under pressure.
Course management forms the core of the remaining rules, emphasizing the importance of avoiding hazards like bunkers and water rather than always aiming for the pin. The presenter illustrates how to use GPS data to measure distances to these dangers and decide whether to play a driver or lay up with a shorter club. He also warns against making emotional decisions, such as attempting a "hero shot" when the odds are stacked against you, which often results in costly mistakes like landing in water. Instead, players should aim for the back of the green or safe zones that clear hazards, accepting that missing the pin is preferable to going into trouble. This mindset allows golfers to navigate difficult holes with confidence, turning potential disasters into manageable situations where they can still save par or even birdie.
Ultimately, the video concludes that lowering a handicap is achievable through better decision-making rather than swing changes. The presenter highlights features like automatic shot tracking and slope analysis on the Smart Caddy app, which help players review their rounds and refine their strategies without disrupting play. By adopting these five rules—understanding yardages, swinging at 90% of capacity, managing hazards, avoiding emotional shots, and planning for misses—golfers can significantly improve their scores. The final message is clear: you do not need to be a better hitter; you simply need to be a smarter player who utilizes available data to make the best possible choices on every hole.
Read the full video transcript
If you've been playing golf for a number
of years and your handicap isn't coming
down, I'm going to show you a five
reasons for why it's not. And the
frustrating thing is, none of them have
to do anything with the actual golf
swing. And in today's video, I'm going
to be using Smart Caddy GPS to show you
that making better decisions is going to
make a huge difference to lowering your
score immediately. Because I believe
lowering your handicap right now has
nothing to do with you hitting better
golf shots. You simply need to be asking
the golf course some different questions
than you are right now.
So, I'm going to play today's round of
golf based on five rules. And every
decision I make will be based on one
thing, and that's how do I give myself
the best possible chance of shooting the
lowest scores. And that's not about
hitting the best shot. It's not about
hitting the longest shot, not the shot
that looks best on camera, but the one
that gives me that chance of hitting my
lowest score. And in today's video, I'm
going to give you the opportunity to win
one month's free membership to Smart
Caddy Premium by answering a simple
question. Which golf app gives you GPS
distances, course maps, green
undulation, and auto shot tracking on
your smart watch? All you have to do is
stick your answer in that comment
section below. Right, so we're going to
make use of the information this Smart
Caddy app is providing me. I've got 133
to the middle of the green. It's
suggesting I hit nine iron based on my
own recommendations. Because what you
can do is when you open up the Smart
Caddy app for the first time, you can
enter every club that's in your bag, and
you can enter the yardages that you
think you hit each club. And that's the
important bit, because you really need
to understand your yardages. So, at 131,
I say I hit nine iron. What I'm going to
do out on the golf course is something
different. I'm going to hit eight iron
at 90% of my swing. Because I think one
of the main reasons, and rule number
one, that you aren't lowering your score
is because one, you don't understand
your yardages. You don't understand
exactly how far you hit each club. And
my guess is you probably think you hit
the ball further than you do. And again,
when we do some post-round analysis with
the SmartCaddy app, you'll start to
understand where your misses are and get
a better understanding of what your real
yardages are out on the golf course.
Now, reason number two was mentioned in
reason number one. And I did mention 90%
of my swing capabilities.
So, I found every time I try and hit the
ball as hard as I can, it generally ends
in tears. And I'll say something like,
"I tried to hit that too hard." How many
times have you said exactly the same?
And the reason number two I think you're
not lowering your golf scores is because
you're constantly swinging at 100%. And
I think what you should try and do is
keep a tempo of 90% of what you normally
swing.
So, we're going to keep it nice and
smooth. I've gone up a club. I'm looking
away in the hope that that lands
somewhere on the green, which it did. I
was suggested nine iron. I went with
eight iron. I swung at 90% of my swing
capabilities. I kept it smooth. I kept
it controlled. And all it meant was a
change in club and keeping that swing
tempo nice and smooth. And that's reason
number two you're not lowering your
scores. Stop trying to hit it as hard as
you can. Now, rule number three is very
much about course management and
understanding that you don't necessarily
have to play driver off every tee, you
know, you can choose other clubs. And
that largely be down to you
understanding with what is down fairway.
Now again, I'm going to go to the
SmartCaddy app and I'm going to zoom in.
And I'm going to look what is down that
fairway. What are the hazards I'm trying
to avoid? And in this case, we've got
some bunkers left and right. And then
need to see what yardage are those
bunkers and what yardage do I need to
get to go beyond them. Now, if I feel
like I've got enough in my driver to go
beyond those hazards so take them out of
play, then of course that's the right
decision. But if it sits on a borderline
where maybe if I don't quite get it
right, I'm in one of those bunkers, then
the sensible thing to do is drop down to
a club that's short of them.
Go to your forward, go to your seven
wood, lay up short, and make sure you
don't encompass hazards that are having
a negative impact on your game. So for
me, I take a look I look where the
bunkers are, I see the yardage and I see
that I can clear a couple of hundred
with my driver, so I'm still going to go
with it. Let's hope it's the right
decision.
That's a solid ball and
I mean irrelevant of the right decision
making, that's right down the middle,
but I can see that's cleared the two
bunkers in terms of the carry, so it was
a confident shot. I knew that I didn't
have any concerns about bringing those
bunkers into play and took any
negativity out on my mindset.
So the first point to mention, I love
this feature of being able to measure
your drives out.
Especially when it's a good one that is.
So we got Well, we got 245 carry,
which basically meant we took the
bunkers out of the equation by about 20
yd or so, so that was a right decision.
But then I'm looking this way and I've
got a pond that sits pretty much all the
way across the front of the green.
Now, I've got 122.
Now, I want to rule number four is stop
making emotional decisions as they call
them. And that's basically can come from
a number of different reasons. If you're
in a group and you feel like you've got
to take this shot on and to be fair at
120 yd, I know a lot of people would be
comfortable. It might be a bit different
if we'd have asked that question at 150
yd.
When you're looking at the pond in front
of the green,
all carry, no room for a bailout, no way
to control your miss, then this becomes
an emotional decision because, you know,
in front of your pals and you think,
well, if I bail out and nudge it a bit
further forward.
It doesn't look too good. So, what you
do,
your 150 out, you take that shot on, you
take the hero shot on.
You take your seven iron, which needs a
100% swing, which is what we've already
discussed. And between the two errors,
it's a complete balls-up because we
don't get it quite right, you end up
coming short, and you're splashing into
the pond. It's a real waste of a shot,
and it's a very easy drop. And then all
of a sudden, you've got a little bit of
a nail-biter in front of that pond yet
again. So, stop making emotional
decisions. And if you are going to take
this shot on at 123 to the pin,
you'll notice there's another number
there that says 138. That 138 is to the
back of the green. So, please make a
decision, a logical one, not an
emotional one, and play your club at
138, maybe even 140. And worst-case
scenario, we go long, and we still take
that pond out the equation. We navigated
our way to the green safely enough, so
we cleared that hazard. But, I'm still
only on the front half of the green.
That was despite going up a club,
swinging smooth at 90%, so we took into
account the other things we talked about
earlier on. Then we get to the green,
and I'm on I'm on the SmartCaddy app
again, and I'm just looking at this uh
green analysis and the slope. What it
tells me on this sort of central bit is
pretty much on the flat, but we've got a
slope going off slightly to that
left-hand side. And I think I'd pretty
much agree with that.
And then the other thing I want to told
you about is a real interesting auto
shot tracking element that is on uh
SmartCaddy.
Oh, he's got it.
No. But again, that's a real interesting
device on
analyzing greens. But, I've recorded
every shot on this back nine with the
help of SmartCaddy. And when I say with
the help is that I don't have to do
anything. There's an auto shot tracking
element in there. Every time I swing a
club, the watch recognizes that, the app
recognizes that,
ticks away, whole shot shot 1 2 3 and so
on and so forth. And all I do at green
side is then, when I leave the green, I
confirm the score is as
um it has sort of suggested. So, it's
really, really clever. But, that's a new
addition. So, if you are, as I
understand, uh an existing user of
SmartCaddy, then I suggest you go to the
App Store and do a bit of an update
because that's a new feature. And I
mean, it's a
>> It's a game changer, isn't it? You don't
have to do nothing.
>> Hit your shots and let it count away.
Okay, so, rule number five, and again,
hugely important,
it's called managing your miss. And what
I mean by that can be well, can be seen
on the 16th here at Portal. Great par
three, but it's got a few problems we've
got to contend with. It's 170 to the
flag,
but between me and the flag is a pond, a
little pond front left that you can't
quite see, and that's where SmartCaddy's
going to help you out with pointing that
out. There's also a bunker that we can
see on the right hand side as well. So,
there's a lot of danger in the front,
and then I also don't want to go left
because we've got some tall trees to
contend with. So, what you would
normally do, or what I'm guessing you do
at 170 yd, you get your 170 club, you
stand up, you aim straight for the pin,
you give it a good old whack, and then,
oh my word, things go wrong. You go
short, so you end up in the pond, or you
end up in the bunker. You pull it left,
you end up in the trees, and you're
reloading. What you've not considered is
what are the alternatives for going for
that flag, and how do I manage my miss
properly? Now, on the face of it, this
looks like a fantastic shot, and don't
get me wrong, the end result is really
good. We've got 12-15 ft for birdie.
But, the reality of it, that was a bad
shot that I just hit. But, because I
managed my miss well, I didn't end up in
them trees, which is where it would have
been if I started the ball off by aiming
at the flag. In all honesty, when I was
back there, I was aiming at the big oak
tree that we could see right of the
bunker. I've got a tendency to pull the
ball a little bit left, and that's what
I don't want to do when I've got a pond
and I've got trees that I'm worrying
about. But, I was prepared to manage the
miss because if I went straight at the
tree, I also took plenty of club to mean
that I got to the second half of the
green, and I'm happy to have made a chip
on from there rather than the
alternative, which would have been if I
start this at the flag and I pull it
left, it's either pond or into the
trees. So, to be honest with you, it
wasn't the intended result and it got
far better than it should have done, but
I do feel it was a perfect example of,
well, utilizing the information from
Smart Caddy.
And I was going to say turning it into a
birdie. You know what the Smart Caddy
app, you know, is so cool because and
this probably the best example of
understanding course layout and and
managing your game accordingly. The 17th
at Portal has got a few hazards as you
can see, mainly water,
um but you can pinpoint every one of
those hazards in terms of yardage. And
like I said, you should be able to
manage your game and choose the right
clubs. I can't stress strongly enough
everything you've seen so far in this
video. Adopt into your own game or at
least some of them and just see what
kind of impact it has because you don't
have to swing the club any difference,
you just have to, yeah, make some better
decisions. But, I love that thing and
again, how bright is the screen? So, my
round's over and I played to my handicap
without hitting what I would call a
really good shot for the full 18 holes.
And that's all down to decision-making
and living by the five rules that I
suggest you try and adopt when you're
faced with certain situations. So, slow
that swing down a little bit, make sure
you're choosing the right clubs, make
sure you're navigating your way away
from hazards. And one final word for
Smart Caddy, I hope you all got involved
in that comment section. Don't forget
that question we answered. Very simple
and straightforward. But if you do get
in that comment section, somebody from
Smart Caddy will be in touch to see
about that 1 month free membership. And
I've got to say I've been hugely
impressed with what it does. It's very
intuitive. It gives you a lot of
information and a lot of feedback. And
it's very easy to access the
information. So it doesn't interrupt
your round. You're not scrambling
around. It's a quick look at the watch.
Maybe a little bit of a flick around if
you want to find some distances to
hazards. But it's very very easy and
doesn't get in the way, which is again
something that I think is important when
you're playing your round of golf.
Anyway, that's me done. It's how to play
golf
shoot lower scores without changing your
golf swing by living by five simple
rules when you're out on the golf
course.
Good luck.