I Need Your Help Teach Me How to Play Links Golf!

Hi guys, Brett Parker here, Handicapped Scratch. Today I've got a brand new video. I've not done anything like this before but basically I need your help. So I've got golf opens this weekend, it is absolutely manic. There's going to be a few of these videos coming up on my channel so if you can help check out my channel now. There's three different opens that are on there at the minute. I need help with Conway Golf Club, Royal St David's Harlock and Presbury Golf Club. So I've never played any of these three and I've got all three in an open this weekend. So stay tuned, this one's going to be Conway. Fingers crossed we can get a decent score going and get a good open result under our belts. So stay tuned and we're going to go through it now. Okay so fingers crossed the mic and the webcam will hold up and work. So the one we're going to look at as I mentioned is Conway Golf Club. This is the one that's going to be in this video. I've got two more videos to come which are going to come out in quick succession because of how packed this open weekend is if you like. So they're going to come out pretty quickly. What I'm going to be using is Game Golf. So if you're unfamiliar with Game Golf it's the little red tags you see on some YouTubers and some pros golf clubs and they tag them on their belt essentially and there's a reader on there. You then upload that online and then it kind of keeps manage of all your online data. I don't use the tags anymore but I do use it for the online data. I think it's a great tool to kind of identify areas in your game which need improvement but also track your scores, track your yardages and things like that. So I'm a big advocate of this, I really like this system, I use it a lot. One of the great features about this is you can go on to for example Conway, you can search for the golf club and then you can have a look at all people's results that they've uploaded onto Game Golf. So I've looked at the last six months, got the best score that I can find which the par of the course is 72, this score was 72. So maybe not the best way to play it but it is certainly a scorable way to play it. So the person I've chosen is a gentleman called Kevin Murphy. Kevin if you're watching thank you very much for uploading this so that I can have a look at it, if not it's just a random guy online so let's take a look. So this certainly isn't necessarily the perfect way to play it like I say but this is a par way to play it. So let's take a look. I don't think we're going to be from blues on the day, they have yellow, blue and white. I think I'm going to be off white, blue's traditionally kept for pros and things like that. So I'm looking on the other screen by the way, the screen I will be looking at for the courses on this one but I have two screens so I'm looking on this one, I have the scorecard up on the screen. So I think I'm going to be from whites, I think he's played from yellows on the day, although I can't tell. Can I click here? Scorecard doesn't actually tell me where he played from, I don't think, well I can see anyway. So we'll assume that he's played from yellows, I think he has judging by the yardages and where the team positions and names are. So I think I'm going to be from whites so it's slightly further and that's what we're going to base it on. So first of all he hit six iron 190 yards, I think blue's going to be back here, hopefully you can see my cursor, blue's going to be back here somewhere, whites is going to be somewhere in here so it's about another 20 yards. I've never played a links course so this is going to be completely fresh and new, it's going to be difficult. Does his six iron go 190 yards or does it go 118, it's rolled on 10-15 yards. That's going to be my kind of tough one to gauge in the short term so I'm going to have to live with it I'm afraid. I've only played links once and I've got two this weekend so I'm going to have to learn pretty quickly. So something like a four or five iron from the whites, maybe even a hybrid three, the hybrid three will come down a little bit softer. These kind of things will be dependent on wind on the day, wind's going to be massive factor in the links, in my opinion it's going to be a massive factor in the links. So four or five, maybe hybrid if the wind's not there. The idea then is to obviously leave yourself short these bunkers on the left, don't bring them into play. He only had 150 yards left after the six iron and the green looks fairly basic. When I say basic I can only see it from a bird's eye view but it looks like the two bunkers short are essentially just going to hit the green and be okay. I'm going to rush through these holes quite quickly, I don't want to bore people too much and go through all nitty gritty on everything. If you want to see that comment down below and in future videos that I make I will go into a bit more detail on it but for now I'm just going to whip through them and try and get your advice as well as kind of get a feel for how the course is laid out. So if you do have any advice, like I said I've never played a links course before so any advice will be massively beneficial. Comment down below if you feel there's something that I'm missing, if you've played this course, if you feel that I need to know something in order to play a links course please, please, please comment down below. But for now let's just go through them. So yeah, four or five iron off the tee, maybe a hybrid straight depending on wind. I will be making notes on all this, I will be watching Rick and Pete's videos, anyone else that's done videos on this and I will be doing as much detail as I can. Conway's website does have flyovers so I will be looking at that as well. Let's move on to the second. So second will play as a 150 yard par 4, it's going to vary obviously on the day based on flag position and tee position, but it looks to me basically don't miss right. If there's a pin short right around this area just don't go for it, just go for the middle of the green. So in my eyes it looks like just go for the middle of the green pretty much at any point, unless it's this back right here then I can go to clear all the bunkers and just land in here, it's probably somewhere around 170. But for me just keep it away from the right, so for me being a fader keep it up the left, just fade into the middle of the green seems the most sensible. One thing that I'm going to struggle with is probably the par threes. Par threes in general aren't my strongest suit, with it being links how is it going to react when it hits the par three, how much shorter am I going to have to leave it, there's kind of all these things that I'm going to have to learn and have to learn quickly in the first few holes. The first five six holes is basically on the day going to be damage limitation, if I can get a couple over or level par I will be more than happy with that. It's going to be quite a task, but it is going to be you know something difficult and I will be happy with that if I can get there. I'm planning to do a recap of this so I'll game golf all the stats that I had, putting myself under a little bit of pressure here, but I will recap all the holes and I'll go through the shots that I played, the reasons why I played them and then how I scored and what things I did well and what things I did wrong. So if you'd like to see that comment down below, just put a thumbs up or say yes love please comment. So third hole is a 370, no it's not 340 yard par four, so C is all down the right, he has hit a one iron off the tee and it's finished 224 yards away from where he hit it and I'm guessing he's taken that to just avoid this bunker in the middle, so he's just hit something that goes straight through the middle. I suspect I'm going to be back here a little bit further, so for me it's maybe a three wood, my tendency with the three wood is a little bit of fade, so I think there'll be no danger of me carrying this bunker and the fade will leave it hopefully somewhere in here. Please comment if three wood's the wrong play because it'll run into these bunkers, please comment. I don't think it will, I think it's going to just cover this bunker and run into this kind of area here. From there the green looks somewhat straightforward from the bird's eye view, keep stressing from the bird's eye view, I've not seen this green, looks quite straightforward, just go over the bunkers. These bunkers don't really seem a deterrent for the second shot, more of a stop people driving at it basically. Onto the fourth is a 400 yard par four, he hit hybrid three 230. This looks like quite an interesting hole, it looks like a hole that is designed to punish you unless you're big hitting, so what I mean by that is this seems to be here which is kind of taking three wood driver out the play because if you go offline you're gonna be pretty much dead, but the layup is also littered with bunkers so it seems a bit of a nasty hole this one. If you're a big hitter I can see that this would be somewhat of an easier hole because you could just hit it into this area and you'd be safe either way. It's kind of difficult to gauge, maybe driver is the play, he looked like he was pretty far here, white is more than likely in this area, he hit his hybrid 230. That's right on the edge, that's probably 40-50 yards in there, 280 yards, it is total but I would have to be bouncing it somewhere in this region and it would run through past the heather I'm sure with the roll of a lynx course, but I'd have to be accurate, I'd have to be very accurate. For me I would be playing my bail shot which would be hitting it all the way out here on the left and knowing that this is fading because if I go down the middle and this fades it's just not happening. So for me this is going to be driver, possibly 3-1, it's going to be difficult without actually seeing it. I'm going to recap this after watching Pete and Vic's video and really like you know decide what do they do and then what am I going to do. All of this can change on the day of course, when I get there it's just as much mentally in my head what do I see, do I see this shot, do I see the shot that I've written down or do I feel confident enough to play another shot. I think it's at least a 3-wood, it takes these two bunkers out of play, interestingly here a hybrid 3 and then a 3-wood and still didn't get there, so for me I feel like I want to hit a driver, I don't really want to be leaving myself in a position where I'm still having to hit another 3-wood and still not getting there, so I'd rather take the risk on the driver, aiming up the left and just playing my fade and hope it comes somewhere into this region here. Green seems somewhat protected, somewhat basic sorry, slightly bunker back left but there's plenty of opening to the front, just go at it. Fifth hole is the hardest hole on the course, stroke index 1 is a 440 yard par 4, he hit a 4 iron 220, so again I don't really know if this 4 iron is his 4 iron distance or if it's just the way that the links course rolls, I'm not sure if he is off, I think this is going to be red to here, yellow is white, I think he may be mixing the tees up a bit and then this is probably going to be blues, but he's at 4 iron 220, it's probably 250 to get to those bunkers, I think if I'm where he is, it's really difficult, 250 is, I have to be going in between those bunkers and it's a long hole so I feel like I need to hit my driver, but maybe not, maybe I can put a 3-wood into this sort of area, he hit 7 iron 197, you know I mean I could hit 3-wood just before these bunkers and hit 7 6 iron into the shore and it'll run up, it's kind of difficult to see without being there, approach to the green, it's protected well front so basically all I need to think about is make sure I take enough club to just take those bunkers out of play, I never really want to be taking a club that leaves it short, it's going to be very difficult if the pin's short here, if the pin's at the front I'm going to have to be bouncing this short on the bunkers and hoping that I catch one properly and it goes through the avenue, so again that's going to be something I'm going to need to look at on the YouTube videos and also the flyovers as well as actually on the course deciding myself, so 6 is a 180 yard par 3 again varies depending on tee position and also on the green, par 3s I tend to brush over a little bit because it's very much for me how I feel on the day, how far is the distance on the day, how far, what does it feel like on the day, what's the wind like, all these things are on the day, it's very much an isolated thing, all I'm really looking at is is there anything I need to avoid, so for this all the dangers at the front with the two bunkers just taking off club, if it's short I have plenty of opportunity to land it short and roll it up based on the bird's eye view, there may be some sort of hill there that I can't see, so again comment down below if you have any advice on any of these holes just comment the hole and then the advice that you would give, so comment hole 5 never hit a driver because it's absolutely ludicrous, I'm trying to rush through these holes I don't really want this video to go on for absolutely ages and bore people, this is more me just kind of quickly going over things and then hopefully getting your advice back and give me some advice on how to play some of these holes, so seventh hole is a 440 yard par 4 stroke index 5 with the seed on the left, this hole will suit me quite a lot, he hit his driver for the first time on this hole it went 260, I'm guessing this is blue on possibly an alternative tee, white could be a little bit further back he might be off white it's quite difficult to tell, but for me this suits me a lot, there's loads of space out to the left when I say that the whole ocean's out there or the sea I know it's all out there, but for me that's great I can hit it way out to the left I know that my ball is going to come back towards the right, my miss is never left it's always right I can just take the left side out all together, touch wood, because if I come back after the review and say that I've left the ball in the sea on the 7th then yeah you'll know what happened, but generally everything goes right so for me I can aim way down the left and just take hopefully I'll get a decent roll and get across the path and then approaching into the green other than really long and you know wet, only short left it seems to be the problem so that doesn't seem to be too much of an issue, moving on to 8, so again he went driver again I'm guessing he was down when this one he went 260 up 7 and 320 down 8 so I'm guessing wind was in his favor coming back down 8, again this is going to be a massive factor wind on the day is so difficult to judge links courses like this not only because of the dips and hollows but also the wind, wind is the massive factor so it'll be interesting to see what the wind is like on the day, so 8 driver I can see why he's done that downwind he's basically taken all of these bunkers out of play again it's going to depend on the day if wind's into face maybe I can hit a driver short here or three wood here if the wind's helping I'm doing exactly what he's doing and going into this open space, entering the green it just seems protected from either side essentially just go through the gap it's kind of difficult to say avoid this avoid that when there's something both sides, on to 9 is the first par 5 on the course it's 525 yards it's the second easiest hole on the course he hit three wood 120 yards so I'm guessing he didn't hit that one as well as he would have liked, what would I have played so he's here he's at 280 to here let's say so maybe it's 250 to carry these bunkers it's all going to be dependent on wind if this is into wind even if it's into wind or downwind I suppose the only difference here is if it's downwind going up the hole then I could quite easily take a drive up the left fade it off it should clear these bunkers quite comfortably if it's into wind then it shouldn't be a problem I can still hit a driver and I'll just come up short of the bunkers if it's crosswind that's where it starts becoming an issue because if it's coming off the left then I need to aim so far left that I could end up in these bunkers you know it's kind of difficult if it's off the right again it'll probably play more like it's interface because I'll be fading it into the wind we'll stall it a little bit so feel like a driver on this hole but again it will depend on the day big danger here this is the obviously to stop people laying up in certain areas so I will have to look at these on the videos and try and see if I from say Rick and Pete's videos whether I can see these bunkers to get a brush and all one thing I'll also be doing is on my phone I can start playing this course and then start picking points and they'll give me distances almost creating like my own course guide just so I can work out right if I'm just short of these bunkers on these three here how far is it to the next one and I can kind of just make a mental note of this so it's really useful for things like that yeah more than likely a layup I think what did he have he had from his third shot 130 200 240 so he had about 250 yards from this point here unless it's downwind and I've cleared these bunkers I'm not going for this green ever basically his fourth shot was his gap wedge from 100 oh yeah it's gap wedge from uh roughly 110 something like that um yeah something like that roughly one tenth of the flag or middle of the green from these bunkers so I'll be laying up more than likely unless it's downwind and just playing to play as a three shot birdie rather than a two shot and causing myself more trouble green seems straightforward if I can just keep the ball in play um green seems straightforward enough okay on to the back nine uh tenth to par five again I'm guessing these run parallel to each other so you're going up one and then back down the other seems to be what it is so for him this looks like it's going to have been downwind it's a one iron 200 yards he's hit 540 yard par four at five sorry um so he's hit a one iron down the middle okay so this one seems like quite straightforward par four par five basically there's a lot of right so you've got three bunkers as well as excuse me alder gloss and heather and a bunker on the left as well as preventing you from going straight this way interestingly if this is downwind could I hit my driver over this corner and into this space it's really difficult to kind of judge a course that you've never played never seen I've seen Rick and Pete do these videos but I never actually watched the course vlogs um I've watched plenty of their other just never watched this conway one a bit silly really but um I will be watching it before I go so be interesting to see can I hit driver into this kind of gap sort of thing here or do I need to he's hit one iron 200 yards do I need to hit hybrid four iron you know kind of into this sort of area um if I get there it doesn't seem long at all so he's hit 200 yard one iron did he go from the backs no I don't think he was from the backs I think he's from yellows here so it'd be a little bit more maybe I need to hit something about 230 ish but then it's only going to leave me maybe 160 yards into a par five yeah this is a real birdie opportunity for me this is just playing as a long par four and let's see if I can make an eagle here guarantee birdie green looks fairly open all the layup area looks fairly open if I get into any sort of danger just from bunker left which you know is easy enough to I say easy enough don't say things like that should be easy enough to avoid 11 385 yard par four uh so yeah he's coming off the fronts again now he's not playing off yellows I think this is going to be yellows whites blues probably back here somewhere so I think he's playing off yellows there he is driving on this one 290 I think he's done that this is possibly helping him again and it just takes out these two bunkers again it's going to depend on wind if wind's straight into my face here you know I'll measure the distance to the bunkers and if I feel that I can just hit my driver into it and it'll just come up short then I'll do that and possibly hit a three wood if the the wind's kind of in the middle and I don't not sure if I can carry those bunkers just hit three wood up it's not going to be too much left in I can't remember what the yardage was now 385 fire 230 40 50 yard three wood you know I've only got 130 and it's just a little bit of a nine or a wedge so I'm not too worried about that greens protect on both sides twice so this is a really difficult green I don't like greens like this it's difficult you can't take enough club to get over it because left and right is still causing trouble and if the pins at the front it's very difficult to land this tight and close so um yeah that one will be a difficult one I'm just gonna hit a good shot basically 12th hole is a 503 yard par five he hit his driver again so 326 yards again I think wind is assisting him here slightly I think he's at the front yeah so I think that's going to be yellows whites and then blues going to be back here so I can see where he's done driver if the wind is assisting him he takes all these three bunkers out of play and then it just leaves him again this is going to be dependent on what the wind conditions are like on the day for me looking at it it looks like a driver to me down this left sort of area I don't see it being an issue to clear this course with my driver even further back but I should be hitting over here fading it off this bunk is the thing that worries me this does work me I suppose I could hit my driver at this bunker here fade it off knowing to clear this one in most scenarios that's difficult I could also do a three up lay wood a lay wood three would lay up to here and then lay up again the only negative to that is par five obviously is a nice opportunity to score by laying up here I essentially take my ability to eagle it out of play and would be laying up on the next shot as well so I would like to get my driver out here you know he left um yeah driver and then pitching wedge into a par five that's the situation I would like to be in but obviously it all depends on the day basically so um yeah we'll see um yeah going up into the the green lay up area looks like this could be in a danger so if I have laid up with a three wood or if the driver's into wind I need to be aware of this I think if I hit a three wood or a driver into here I would just hit my three wood again knowing that this area looks fairly clear looks some sort of heather here and some sort of heather here but if it's into wind and I've laid up to about here I'm not expecting to get anywhere near the screen so I suspect to be in here which is quite wide open um and then put it in if not driver just play into the green bunker right don't go anything on the right side basically so 13th hole is a 175 yard par three as I mentioned before par three is a very much feel the only things I need to be worried about are the two bunkers short left and short right just make sure to take enough club to get there and also this could be an opportunity if the pins at the front I can land it short and roll it off it spins in the middle what's your advice there would you as a links course would you land it short and then roll it up even if it was in the middle or would you just be throwing it the whole way it's kind of difficult I'm really looking forward to this course though it's a links course it looks like an absolute gorgeous links course right on the oceans right on the sea in the ocean um yeah I'm really looking forward to this course a lot so onto 14 is a 500 yard par five there's quite a few par fives on here which is nice it's very scorable and you've got an opportunity to score in in plenty of places so here three words from what looks like one of the forward tees I'm suspecting to be back here 220 yards I can see why he's done that with these bunkers I think from where I'm going to be it's going to be very difficult to cover these bunkers so that's going to be a danger it's danger for me at all points it'll probably be from back here a three one knowing that I'm going to come short one big danger for me is all this course on the right I can't take the right side of the course I'll play because I don't play well it's not I don't play but I don't like to play the draw shot um and I certainly in competition practice at this moment right now I will not be playing a draw shot so um it's very difficult for me to take that right side of course I'll play so it'll be a fave for me at these bunkers and hoping I'm not hoping making sure that I don't go far enough right to lose the ball so um there'll be three words did I say three would I it will be three words I think uh of the left put it into this sort of area making sure I take this side of the course I play by aiming far enough left um and then from there what did he hit here another three word 220 and just came a little bit short um I think similar sort of play will be in order really I'm fully expecting these bunkers to be absolutely beautiful and in great condition so I'll be hitting three wood three wood and if I end up absolutely flushing one and going in one of these bunkers they'll be in good condition I can get up and down so yeah three word three word seems to play um if it's into wind or I don't feel confident hitting my three word off the deck then I can always play probably even like a six or a seven into this sort of area and then play from there so I can play as a three shot quite easily but I'll be looking to play 15 is a 150 yard par three again varies um all the dangers at the front so just takes enough club to take a lot of our play 16 is a four no sorry 360 yard par four um again I think he's not quite played it as far back as it should be I thought not should be but I think I will be playing it as I think I'll be playing from here hopefully not from the blues he hit six iron 175 and then a seven iron in from there he obviously didn't hit a seven iron very well but it was 150 ish and with a seven iron looks like quite a straightforward hole although it does say a stroke in deck six so that concerns me slightly I'm assuming this space in here is going to be very very narrow with course on both sides so yeah there that'll be three wood hybrid for me um and then playing from there two seconds um from there on 17 uh 390 yard par four stroke index two so this is going to be a very difficult finish we have stroke index six on 16 2 on 17 and 8 on 18 so that's going to be a very difficult finish um so 17 is a 390 yard par four he hit seven iron six iron a little bit short again this seems very very tight course on both sides you know you're pretty much dead on either side so I can see why he's hitting six iron in there hybrid four iron three wood if I've been hitting it well this is going to be dependent on the day but you know I can very much see myself doing just pushing a six or five iron up there trying to get a decent amount of distance and just keeping it in play very much on this course I can see with all the heather and course and things keep the ball in play and you will score so yeah I can definitely see myself doing something like this actually yeah seven iron off the two sorry not six iron um so seven iron six iron here so I can very much see myself doing something exactly the same uh approaching the green it's protected both sides but it's wide open from the front so I can not don't have to worry too much about that I can land anything sure and just allow it to run up and don't see much too much trouble with that keep saying too much trouble I'm gonna be in so much trouble in the day so 18 is a 375 yard par four again I don't think he's played it from the backs but he's been from there I think I'm cutting the corner slightly I can see myself in a three word I can this little course push here fade it off and then you know leave myself in this sort of area maybe a little bit further up in here um and there's nothing to say about that green just hit the green um you protected list protected left protected right don't go short so there's not much I can say about that just hit the green and make a score um so yeah that's the Conway golf course um for anyone that's unfamiliar with Conway golf course it's the northwest side of Wales an absolutely beautiful course just youtube it and you will not be disappointed at all sorry if I've rushed through this video a little bit I really didn't want it to go on for too long I'm not sure how long it's been going now but I think it's probably close to 10 to 15 minutes maybe even longer please comment down below any feedback on Lynx courses on this course in particular and please go over and check out my channel there will be other videos coming up on there will take david's and press free so if you've played either of those courses I would much appreciate any feedback or any pointers that you've got on those courses as well as this one please comment down below if you do have any feedback just comment the whole and what feedback is or links for an overall piece of advice if you like this video give it a like comment down below do you want to see the uh the review of this as well I will be doing it I will put the pressure on myself and I say I will do it unless the score's in the hundreds then you can all get stuffed I'm not putting that off I'm kidding I will do the review and I will show you the video so stay tuned for that like I say go and check out my channel if you're not a subscriber it's completely free to do so just click that red button down below give this video a like and I will catch you in the next video hi guys Brett Parker here I'll get into exactly what it is but basically