Erik van Rooyen

The South African won his first European Tour title at the Scandinavian Invitation in August. Here, he shares some of the secrets of his success

1Chipping Use less loft! A lot of amateurs go straight for the 60° when chipping. I watched Francesco Molinari winning the BMW PGA Championship last year and he actually used the putter a lot. Don’t be scared to use the putter just because you’ve missed the green.

2Increasing power Often when you try and swing harder you don’t hit the centre of the face. I’ve started working on my legs a little bit better to get more power from the ground. If you take Rory, for example, he really squats into it. He uses the ground a lot and shoots straight back up, which helps with clubhead speed. Use the ground force a little bit better to increase speed.

3Reading greens We’re lucky as pros that we get green books, which show you the amount of slope on the green. If there’s four degrees of slope, you’d use four fingers – and that’s really accurate. However, it’s a bit of an art. Feeling slopes in your feet comes into play, as does how hard you want to hit it.

4Better ball-striking One thing to always focus on is good rhythm, good tempo. Hit some shots on the range where your only focus is hitting the middle of the face. It’s easier said than done, but it’s very important.

5Beating a slice In most cases with amateurs, the slice comes from the over-the-top movement. Try and feel like you’re swinging the clubhead a little bit more and hit balls with your feet together. Keep your balance and hit the ball with your arms because that will allow the clubhead to catch up.

6Course management My caddie and I talk about zones. We’ve got a green zone, a red zone and a yellow zone, and that helps me paint the picture of where I want the ball to go. The green zone is where we want to hit it, the yellow zone is still okay and the red zone is dead. Visualise the shot you want to hit.

7Bunker play It’s important to use the bottom of the club, the bounce. Open the face as if you’re going to balance a glass of water on it and hit a couple of inches behind the ball. Open that face as it allows you to hit it with a lot of speed and the ball will pop up.

8Holing out What helps for me on putts inside five feet is picking a small target, like a blade of grass or a spot on the back of the cup. That helps me line up and focus really small, which means my miss is going to be really small.

9More wedge spin Spin is to do with contact. Learn how to open the face a little bit. If you open the face, it’s going to create a bit more friction on the ball. Then you’ve got to hit the middle of the face.

10Practice Amateurs don’t have a great idea of how to practise. They get a drill, do that for about a hundred balls and then go and play. All they think about is the drill stuck in their mind. Hit ten balls with the drill, step away, then take five balls and just hit some shots. Then come back and try and do the drill for a few more and then step away again. This will allow you to couple that skill of hitting golf shots with the drill that you’ve just practised.