In the third episode of Game Improved, Nick Dougherty offers a lesson to 18-handicapper Andy Edom
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the final episode in our three-part
00:05series in which we're going to try to help some amateur golfers shoot lower scores. In this
00:10episode we have Andy Edom who plays off a handicap of 18 and he's going to get the chance to play
00:15some golf here at Wentworth with Nick Doherty and then head to the range for a one-on-one lesson.
00:21Hopefully there should be some advice both on how to play, how to build a strategy for the golf
00:25course, but also some tips on how to practice and how to swing it a little bit better that
00:29will help Andy but also might help you too. Right, let's get started.
00:47Okay so Andy, thanks for joining us here at Wentworth. What's your
00:50what's your handicap and just give us a sense for where your golf is at right now.
00:54My handicap's 18. It's a little bit variable because I don't get out that often and play
00:59that often so I tend to feel that I manage the ball around the course more than anything else.
01:03Okay so then what are the sort of strengths, what are the weaknesses in your golf game?
01:08Definitely strengths would be wedges and short irons. Generally speaking the longer the club
01:15the more wayward I can get. Right and when we're talking wayward are we talking right or left?
01:19A little bit of both to be true. Right okay so what are you looking then? So you've got
01:23access to Nick, what are you looking for in terms of advice to help you play? Just to basically
01:28straighten me out a little bit, help me hit the ball a little bit straighter. I know I can feel
01:32there's certain parts of my swing that aren't right, it's just the order in which to correct
01:37that. Yeah okay great. Well I think you're with the right person today. Right let's head out
01:41onto the golf course and meet Nick.
02:11It would be in the balls of the feet wouldn't it? Certainly in that more forward side. The top corner
02:26I kick out that way wouldn't I? I need to put the spin on the ball and if I was trying to bend it
02:29the other way even as a right footer I kick this side of the ball and then let me just see that.
02:37So now just feel that path of the other line.
02:41Make me work this way and see how much more turned through the ball I am.
02:47Wrong way so actually you've really got to feel like you're going to drive forward this way and
02:53then you have to find a way to get until you... Okay Nick so let's talk about Andy's golf game.
02:58So first time you've seen him play today we played three holes here on the west course.
03:02What does Andy do well? What does he need to work on do you think? Well he's diligent with how he
03:06goes about his game. I can relate to Andy in terms of he's an overthinker with his game because
03:12he tries so hard and I think that's it's an admirable quality. It's a noble pursuit but one
03:17that's thwarted unfortunately with this game because the more we get invested sometimes
03:21consciously with it the more we get in our own way. I think Andy had a little bit of that going
03:25on. You could see there was to me the nature of how he stood to the ball. It was not over coached
03:31but overthought. It was just like he's ticking boxes in his mind and I know what that feels
03:37like because that's what I've done and ironically it took away a little bit of the flow of him just
03:42getting out of his way and playing golf. So I think for me a little bit with Andy is and it's a
03:47challenge I think sometimes with coaching is help someone get better without making them turn inward
03:52you know in terms of their thoughts because the last thing I need to do is to give Andy 10
03:56different things to go and think about and the problem for Andy was with what we talked about
04:00with his swing. One of them was a pre-swing thing but the sensation I wanted to feel was
04:07in the swing. They're always tougher because it's happening as we're doing it you know.
04:11So I think for him there's a very simple fix that was really important which was
04:17aim straight. For him that was shoulders. So he sets up beautifully every time and then
04:24right before he pulls the trigger he decides to make it more difficult for himself
04:28and gives it one of these with the shoulders. So closing the shoulders what does that do?
04:31Well it completely shifts the way that the club wants to move for starters so from that
04:35very moment then Andy's swing is always working this way and ironically we tend to build
04:41compensations in our swing to make whatever we've got going on work. To him he's not shut though.
04:47In his head he's dead square. He's not though. He's way right with his shoulders because then
04:51when I went on and worked with him on the range and squared him up of course he feels wide open.
04:56Yeah even though he stood like that naturally and it was only right before he pulled the trigger he
05:01gives it the bump with the shoulders like that. So he felt fine to do that first and they thought no
05:05come on we need to get these shut off. So again it's that classic feel versus real thing in the
05:10golf swing and we all again have to deal with this where what we feel very often isn't what is real
05:17out there and so just him seeing me going across his shoulders there with the alignment stick and
05:22saying right come and step away and see what it is so he can immediately come and check on me.
05:26You need that feedback because I'm asking him to buy into something that everything inside him
05:31intuitively is saying that is not right man you got me stood like this now how the hell am I going
05:36to propel the ball down there when you've got me stood this way. You need the buy-in first of all
05:41like this is definitely what's happening. So then how do you then make those adjustments without
05:46becoming too technical without talking about all of those things that can get you quite confused?
05:51I think you you first of all explain that the journey is not one of pure joy and ecstasy in
05:56terms of like and I think that's one thing so I can relate to Andy in terms of I've played four
06:00times this year so even when I go out there today there's a real mixed bag yeah making peace with
06:04the fact that there's going to be inconsistency is one of the greatest freedoms in our game that
06:10actually allows me to play way better golf because when I hit a bad shot I don't do what I used to
06:15when I was a tournament professional and delve in there why do you what do oh this was oh this
06:19needs a bit and of course it's little things like this which no one notices it's very often we
06:24over complicate in that issue so one of the things obviously that happened with the movement was that
06:29his path very much inside out and it was reflected in obviously you see some early extension in there
06:35club drifting from inside out as well and you see the release pattern as well sort of this way over
06:40his shoulder so what leading to pushes and hooks yeah so if the face matches up to that direction
06:44that he's swinging it it's a block to the right and of course if the face is actually square it's
06:47the hook which is going to make him want to swing even more to the right hand side which of course
06:52we know is welcome to golf so in essence we have to get a feeling for let's be square that's going
06:58to feel rubbish make peace with that feels rubbish today not forever just today and know it takes
07:03huge discipline go on the range do the reps ignore where it's going you have no right to care where
07:09that's going because one you're not really focused on it because you're not playing golf you're
07:12playing pretty swings but we're practicing pretty swings that's what we're doing at the moment with
07:15this i'm just going to go drill it that's what it feels like that's what it feels like that's what
07:20it feels like and you can break that up with then going right i'm going to hit a normal shot i'm
07:23going to play to this flag go through my normal routine because what we want to do is do the stuff
07:28that requires us to step outside the way because if i get used to practice a swing but then also
07:33say yeah but i need you to hit it close as well yeah not going to work so well well if i say to
07:37you all you have to do and we did this with him i wanted to try and feel hitting these nice little
07:42low fades because it was forcing him to want to have to move better with his lower half which again
07:47was something we talked about synchronization trying to feel so it's a nice simple drill as
07:51you take it halfway back you step forward which gets you using to feel and of course you don't
07:55get halfway back people tend to get up here when they actually do it which is like the golf swing
07:59because in essence with every good player it starts with a move as this is finishing off into
08:04that left side don't want him thinking about that and then from there from having that better feeling
08:10of being into that left side a little earlier rather than he was more back here and this way
08:15and was almost feeling like we're moving a little earlier into that left side you wanted to try and
08:19feel that nice little feeling of hitting a low cut and i like things like that because if i say to
08:24you how would you hit a low cut we've all got a feeling of i'll be like i'd be like that i just
08:28i hit it that way and so it provides a feeling rather than a right so we need to get the club
08:33there and then in this position then you want to feel like a you know i think that stuff makes it
08:38way too complicated so we hit some horror show shots which is good because it shows me he's
08:43really tapping into that so for me it's sort of let's get in amongst the weeds get really ugly
08:49get a bit of time doing that on the range get really comfortable being uncomfortable and then
08:53we go right done we get in we do the work then we leave and we go and play the game
08:57so then nick let me ask you somebody of andy's um level in the game what um strategy advice would
09:03you offer having a plan for what you're going to be all about in the golf course is more important
09:07i think for players of the handicap when you're at 18 you're in that beautiful zone where some
09:12days you can it can be a game changer of a day but you always have the chance to go in and have
09:17one of those shocker days as well so i think making it nice and simple have a plan with your
09:22coach is really good um so andy's a great example of this have a plan for how you're going to make
09:26the improvements but when you go out go out to play well yeah there's so many things at 18 handicap
09:31you can dabble with and play with and try this and try that my experience is most of the time
09:36we get worse too much going around the head and then we end up going oh god i'm thinking about
09:41too much how many times you heard oh i'm thinking about too much well don't have your plan stick to
09:45your plan and strategy you know you save so many shots around take a joy from thinking like a top
09:51level pro you might not be able to hit rory shots but you can think like you know so that means like
09:56when you go in there with your three wood in this stuff is rory going in there with his root because
10:01if he ain't you shouldn't you know and i think that's one of the things we can say is that you
10:04know you won't necessarily always be able to hit the shot you want to but we can make the right
10:08decision about it and knowing where your strengths are as well picking being more responsible in what
10:14we pick having a good strategy that takes some of the risk away and for for an amateur golfer at 18
10:19handicap that could be like let's not hit the hero shot because that's screaming an eight if
10:22it doesn't come off let's play it smart let's make a nice five and it takes discipline that
10:27because of course we all want to hit the shot that allows us to you know the shot that makes
10:31feel a million dollars but if it's in a comp you have an amount of your mates whack away yeah if
10:35you're in a comp and you're serious about wanting to improve your handicap do that do the right
10:40thing and start making the right decision because it's what the top players yeah yeah so there you
10:44have it if you want to get better at golf and who doesn't then you've got to commit to it you don't
10:49have to be technical but you do have to commit to what you're trying to do hopefully that helps
10:52okay so there you have it that's our look at andy's game and nick's tips to help him improve
10:57obviously with andy he needs to make some technical improvements but what's great about
11:02the advice that nick is offering is that yes it's clear to see those technical improvements that
11:07need to be made but the advice needs to be as simple and practical and usable as possible
11:12hopefully that's what andy got from it if you're in a similar category with your golf game then
11:16using some of that advice to help you as well should really make a big difference but that's
11:21it for now for wentworth thanks very much for watching we'll see you next time