WATCH: Magic match play strategy tips – three fantastic ways to beat your opponent

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Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal at the Ryder Cup

Mike Weir’s International team are completely up against it in this week’s Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Club after losing the first session 5-0.

There have been 14 editions of the Cup and the Internationals have lost 12 of them.

Worse yet, they’ve lost each of the last nine and it’s now looking like 10.

Weir needs to bolster the confidence of his 12 players and to improve their match play strategies.

But how do we improve our ability to win head-to-head duels on the golf course?

PGA professionals Andy Proudman and Piers Ward, better known as MeAndMyGolf, coach England’s Aaron Rai who is on track to make his Ryder Cup debut for Europe next year.

Who better to provide three top tips to improve your match play skills?

In this video a MeAndMyGolf viewer asks: “I play a lot of match play golf. Can you give me some tips or skills on match play strategy to help me beat my opponent?”

Piers challenges Andy to deliver the tips in just 60 seconds and he does just that.

“Tip number one,” says Andy, “is to make sure that if you hit a bad shot, have two reactions.

“Either you laugh or you do nothing because the last thing you want to do is react poorly to a bad shot.

“That is only going to give your opponent confidence and that is the last thing you want to do in a match play situation. So make sure you practice that.”

Tip number two?

“In-between shots you’ve got to take charge of your body language,” he says.

“Especially if you’re playing poorly, make sure you’re standing nice and tall, shoulders back, noticing what is around you.

“The last thing you want to do is have a poor posture, with your head down, because again that is going to give your opponent confidence.”

And tip three?

“Intimidate your opponent,” he says, “but in a nice way.

“If you hole a putt, make sure you show some emotion, passion and actually celebrate.

“This again could affect their confidence and it will certainly enhance yours.”

READ MORE: Presidents Cup: how to play foursomes, the fastest format in golf

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