Adri Arnaus

The talented young Spaniard is an obvious winner in waiting on the European Tour and happy to share a few tips in the meantime...

1 Pitching

Ball position is really important and you need to commit to your trajectory. If you want a high trajectory, put the ball to your left, and if you want it low, put it to your right. It’s very important to put the ball to one side or the other – no middle ground. Then you have to relax your arms, as this allows the face to act naturally. If you’re tense, that’s going to affect your strike.

2 Chipping

I have a feeling around the greens that if I’m hitting a high shot, it’s a fade – so I’m trying to cut the ball with a fade motion. When I’m executing a shot with a bit more roll, it’s a draw. You’ll always face tricky chips, but I try to minimise these by thinking about what side of the hole I want to be on. I’m working backwards. I pick my lines into the greens very carefully, so I know where the trouble is. Then if I do miss, getting up and down is usually more straightforward.

3 Increasing power

The key to hitting it long is being as relaxed as you can with the arms, because that allows the body to be the motor of the swing. If your arms are relaxed, then it makes it easier for your body to do everything – which is what you want. As long as you have a little pause on top and then the body goes, the ball will travel far.

4 Coping with nerves

I have a clear picture of what I want to do and then accept that it will or won’t happen. This is the important bit, because once you accept that, it releases the pressure. A couple of deep breaths in and out also help.

5 Reading greens

It comes down to finding a point in front of the ball – let’s say two feet – and asking yourself the question: if the ball rolls over that point, what’s the speed that I need to apply?

6 Better ball-striking

The quality of my ball-striking comes down to that pause on top. When I do that, it helps me move on to the ball with the right part of the body.

I work a lot on taking my backswing, stopping and then hitting. It creates the right feelings. It’s the key to good rhythm, which I lose if I just hit, hit, hit.

7 Course management

Try to figure out what your average shot is. You obviously don’t want to play for your worst shot, but neither should you be making a choice on what your very best shot will be – at least not most of the time. If you know that your average shot is going to keep you out of trouble – say a 3-wood as opposed to a driver – then play that. You’ll score better, and you can always improve from there.

8 Club selection

Pick a club and swing easy. Even we don’t play for the perfect shot every time; we’re looking at something that will give us a consistent trajectory.

9 Bunker play 10 Holing out

Open the face a touch to let the bounce work. When you’re greenside, long with rhythm is better than short and trying to accelerate.

The longer I keep my head down, the better. I care about my movement and technique, not whether the ball goes in – so it’s a mental thing. I tend to find that focusing on that takes care of the result.