In this video, Neil Tappin shares some handy tips to help you find your golf ball more often and avoid costly penalty strokes.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club and
00:04this video in which we are going to offer some advice to help you search for and find
00:09golf balls that you've hit into a little bit of trouble. Now we all do it from time to
00:13time where we hit tee shots or other shots into difficult areas of the golf course to
00:17find your ball in and actually there are some really good practical tips that will help
00:21you find your ball more often than not and that's what we're going to go through in this
00:25video. Guys if you're new to the Golf Monthly channel please do hit the subscribe button
00:29to make sure you don't miss any of our videos. Hit the like button if you like what you're
00:32watching but let's take a look at the seven best tips to help you search for and find your
00:37golf ball. Now this tip relates to keeping a very close eye on your ball whenever you hit
00:55it into trouble. Now it sounds incredibly obvious doesn't it but the truth is whenever you hit a
00:59bad shot the temptation is to look away in frustration or to think about what you've just
01:04done wrong in your swing that's caused you to hit such a bad shot but that's not going
01:08to help you find the golf ball. The only way you're going to find your golf ball is to keep
01:11a very close eye on exactly where it's gone. In this scenario I've just hit a bit of a slice
01:17here off the 15th tee at the London Club. I know it's up the right but because I turned away
01:22and discussed I have absolutely no idea where it's finished. So keep watching your ball very
01:26closely until it lands so you get all the information that you need. If you need to walk over to the
01:32side to get a better view of exactly where the ball's gone. In this scenario it's gone over
01:35a little mound on the right hand side I can probably see a bit more of its flight if I walk over to this
01:40side of the tee. All of those things they might seem small they might seem obvious but they will make
01:44a big difference if you've hit your ball into trouble. Whenever you've hit your ball into trouble
01:53you will of course need to get a good idea of how far you've hit it. I think the big mistake
01:58I see in this scenario is that people tend to overestimate how far they've hit the ball. Often
02:03you'll find yourself searching for somebody's ball in the group and they're looking in an adjacent
02:08area to where the other players are who've hit them straight down the fairway when in fact
02:12they've hit a slice and chances are if you've hit a slice the ball will not go as far so just
02:16be realistic about how far you've hit the ball. If you're looking for a push shot or a slice shot
02:22take a bit of yardage off. That's always a sensible idea. Alternatively if you have hit a hook then
02:27perhaps it might have gone a little bit further but do remember also that if the ball's gone into an
02:31area like this with some really thick long grass there's not going to be any run on it either so
02:35as you can see here my playing partner's hit a really good drive that's just ended up in the right
02:39hand semi on this hole. My ball which was further right than that was a bit of a slice there's some
02:44thick grass in here it's never going to have gone as far as that drive there so just having a sort
02:50of a sensible approach a common sense approach to how far you've hit the ball whenever you've hit it
02:55into trouble might well help you identify a better area to search for your ball in and it might just
03:02yield the results you're looking for.
03:16Now whenever you've hit your ball into trouble it is really important that you get a very good line
03:21on where that ball has gone. Now I'm on the 16th hole here on the international course at the London
03:25Club and I've hit a hook off the tee. My ball has gone just over the left-hand edge of the bunker that
03:32I think you can probably see there at the end of the fairway. Now by having a really really good line
03:36on it and by knowing that the ball's gone over just that left-hand edge I've got a much better chance
03:40of finding it. Now it might well be that you pick out a spot on the horizon whether that's a
03:44electricity pylon, a church spire, a tree, whatever it is pick something out that's really easily
03:51identifiable and as specific as possible so that when you get into the area to search for your golf
03:56ball you can pick out that spot once again and you should be able to have a much better idea of where
04:02your ball has come to finish. Now it's not essential under the rules of golf that you do this but we
04:11would always advise that you put an identification mark on your golf ball. This is my Titleist Pro V1X number
04:17two and I put two green dots above the Titleist on both sides of the golf ball. That means that if I
04:23do hit the ball into an iffy area and chances are there are going to be other Titleist twos over in
04:29that area I know exactly which ball is mine. It can be one of those things that can really help sort of
04:34clear up any unwanted confusion whenever it comes to the rules of golf you really want to avoid
04:38any confusion so when it comes to searching for and finding your golf ball I'd say it's always a good
04:43idea to put a unique identification mark on your ball.
04:51Okay so the next one is a really important one and it relates to how you go about searching for
04:56your golf ball. Now this is the 13th hole on the international golf course here at the London club
05:00and I've hit a slight pull off the tee and I know that my golf ball is somewhere behind me in amongst
05:06these trees and the long grass. Now having got a good line on my tee shot I know it's in line with that
05:12tree that you can see behind me but where exactly I don't know. Now if I'm carrying my golf clubs which
05:18I am today then I would walk from the tee into the area that I think I've hit my ball on the line
05:23of the shot. Effectively at some point I should sort of run into my golf ball I should see it as I walk in
05:29on that line. Now that's not always going to be possible of course because sometimes you're going to
05:33be playing in a buggy or you're going to be using a trolley and in those scenarios what I'd say is a good
05:38idea is to pull up roughly adjacent to the area you think your ball might be in, walk into the rough
05:44and by looking back towards the tee and looking forward towards the tree I'm effectively retracing
05:50the line of the shot. I can then walk forwards and hopefully I should be able to find my ball.
05:56Some really simple stuff there but when it comes to searching for golf balls in difficult areas
06:00that's the sort of stuff that can make all the difference.
06:07So if the sun was out for this shot which I appreciate it's a bit in and out of the clouds
06:10then I'd be hitting directly into the sun and it can be really really difficult to see where the ball
06:15goes. You make a swing at the ball you look up to see where it's gone and suddenly you're blinded by
06:19the sun you can't see where it's gone. In this situation it always makes sense just to have a word
06:24with your playing partner and say do you mind just keeping an eye on this one just to make sure that
06:29your playing partner isn't you know practicing his grip or checking his sort of backswing while
06:34you're hitting because if that does happen and you lose sight of it and your playing partner hasn't
06:39seen it at all you could end up losing a ball that actually was perfectly findable in the first place.
06:59In the latest set of revisions to the rules of golf that were released by the R&A and
07:04USGA at the beginning of 2019 they decided to remove the penalty for accidentally moving your
07:10ball while searching for it so if you're somebody that's played golf for many years you might think
07:14to yourself oh if I accidentally step on my ball or hit my ball with my club while I'm searching for
07:20it I'm going to get a penalty shot that is now not the case so my advice to you would be get in there
07:25have a good look for it feel you know move the grass around with your feet that will really help
07:29you uncover the ball in difficult areas especially if you're playing in the autumn when leaves are
07:33coming down off the trees the ball can go underneath those leaves can be very annoying you can lose a
07:38ball in some really sort of findable areas. Now if you do happen to accidentally move your ball so
07:45my ball's just here and if I'm searching for it I accidentally move it like that I don't get a penalty but
07:51I must replace the ball to its original position so I'd simply pick it up and then I know exactly
07:58where it was but if I didn't know exactly where it was then I'd have to sort of guess to the best of
08:02my knowledge where it was originally situated which was just in there and now I can carry on knowing
08:08that I've not broken the rules so the advice here is very simple if you're searching for your ball
08:13search for it get in there move the grass around try and find it and if you move it simply put it back to
08:18its original position. So there you have it that's our list of seven tips for how to search for and
08:23find your golf ball whenever you hit it into a spot of bother on the golf course I hope you found that
08:28useful guys before you go hit the pause button and let us know if you have any tips for searching for
08:33golf balls that you think might be helpful to other people I think it's always useful to share
08:37those ideas around but that's it for now from the London club thanks for watching and we'll see you next time
08:48you