Tips On How To Improve Without Changing Swing

  • 4 months ago
In this video Neil Tappin, Digital Editor of Golf Monthly explains:
How can you play better golf without changing your swing with guest Nick Dougherty.

In association with Taylor Made.
Transcript
00:00 How can you play better golf without changing your golf swing?
00:04 That's what we're going to find out in this video and to help us we have a special guest.
00:08 Now most of you watching this will know Nick Doherty from Fronting Up The Sky Sports golf
00:12 coverage but also from his Tea Time Tips videos that he releases on Instagram that have been so
00:18 popular with so many golfers. If you haven't already seen them please do head over and check
00:22 them out. But by the end of this video we want to give you some inspiration so five
00:26 simple action points that will help you improve your scores without you needing to head to the
00:32 range and make major swing changes. Now the way in which this video is going to work is that Nick
00:37 is going to play three holes here at Wentworth on the west course with an amateur golfer. This
00:41 is somebody who's played golf for the last 30 years. He's struggling with his game but he
00:46 doesn't really have the time or frankly the inclination to head to the range and go through
00:51 that sort of swing rebuilding process. So effectively we're challenging Nick to come up
00:56 with the easiest and simplest ways to help our golfer improve. Now the last thing to say is that
01:01 this video is coming to you in association with TaylorMade. They sponsor Nick and they've also
01:06 kitted out our amateur golfer. Speaking of which I think it's time to meet the man in question
01:11 Mike Harris. Okay so Mike Harris our amateur golfer for the day, 10 handicapper. Yeah. Right
01:17 you've been playing golf for 30 years. Correct. Is that right? Yeah. Tell us what is it that's
01:23 going ultimately going wrong with your golf game at the moment you think Nick might be able to help
01:27 you with? I think it's a really interesting one. So like everyone I want to play better golf
01:31 but I think as I've got older and I realize where golf fits into my life I actually just want to
01:37 play well in the important rounds when it matters whether it's a medal or a club championships or
01:42 a trip away with friends and I've also realized that I don't have the time to really invest to
01:48 get a lot better technically so I suppose I want to limit the mistakes. I know my better rounds
01:54 when I look at my R-cost data would tend to be the rounds where I'm not having doubles and trebles
01:59 in there. It's not so much about making loads of birdies it's about I guess playing to my strengths
02:05 and not making those silly mistakes. I'm hoping that Nick can offer me some advice on
02:12 how to make the most of my game how to I guess enjoy golf more and you enjoy golf more by playing
02:18 I think fewer bad shots. So specifically where do you think is the biggest area let's call it an
02:24 opportunity? Biggest opportunity probably to be less bad would be in my iron play I'm very
02:31 inconsistent on my iron play and my short game as well used to feel like I had a really good short
02:36 game completely deserted me it's coming back a little bit but I still don't get up and down
02:41 anywhere near often enough. So let's set Nick the challenge can Nick help Mike
02:46 play better golf without swinging the golf club any better? Let's go find out!
02:51 [Music]
03:22 Okay so Nick you've played three holes with Mike and it's been an interesting experience
03:27 watching the various different bits of advice that you've given Mike along the way and we're
03:30 going to divide this part of the video up into five different sections and Nick I want to talk
03:35 to you about in this first section about managing stress and nerves because I think part of Mike's
03:40 issue is that he wants to play well but he's not fussed really about playing well all the time but
03:45 he wants to play well when it matters. So what advice would you give people about managing their
03:50 nerves around the course? I think it's an overall mentality and sure we all want to play well you
03:56 know when we go away for that trip or when we play in that club championship or whatever it may be
04:00 but unfortunately it's like a wet bar of soap the more we want it the more it tries to get away from
04:04 us so I think a lot of it comes down to acceptance first of all you can only do what you can do you
04:07 can only be the best that you can be with the game that you have and accepting that golf is a hard
04:12 game first of all and you it's going to go wrong you're going to hit shots that don't work out
04:16 you're going to do lots of things right that don't get the results that you expect they're going to
04:19 do there are a few little things that you can do on the golf course that can assist so for instance
04:23 you know one of the things with Mike there was with the putter and he said to me on the 10th hole
04:27 here at Wentworth that the I have the birdie putts and I sort of think yeah I really want these ones
04:32 because I know I need it because it'll get me going but the fact of the matter is you need to
04:36 again accept that every single putt is worth exactly the same if it's for a two or a seven
04:41 we still want it because it's still worth the whole shot so that first of all just a little
04:44 bit of logic you can put that to bed but then after that getting out your own way so for Mike
04:49 it was all about trying to have something to think about that takes him away from thinking
04:53 about the meaning of making or missing that putt so we use something really simple for him which
04:58 one help is stroke so physiologically it's a nice thing to do as well and it was a simple act of
05:03 saying back roll as he hit it so you say back in the backswing roll as you go through because if
05:08 you're thinking about saying those words you're then also he's saying that out loud you can't
05:13 I would do but you know granted you know you someone's going to give you a bit of grief in
05:17 your forebore maybe if you start talking to yourself when you're playing but the but it
05:21 absolutely stay inside don't take something you start to focus on it as you're doing it saying
05:25 back and roll and it takes your mind away from thinking about the outcome and puts you into the
05:30 process of doing what you're doing so you're not worried about if it goes in because you're just
05:32 thinking about this the great thing about this is you can be a top top golfer or you can be
05:38 somebody who's just starting out the game managing nerves managing your stress is a
05:42 really important part of the game that should really help okay so the next one is about figuring
05:50 out your yardages and picking the right club and nick as a as a pro as somebody who's done this so
05:56 many times in the past there's an awful lot more to this as I discovered as we were working our
06:01 way around the golf course today than the kind of I guess most amateurs would maybe give it credit
06:05 for so what are the things that amateurs should be doing more often they don't currently do to
06:10 find the right yardage find the right club well find the right yardage would be the first one
06:14 right um because a lot of the time if you use some sort of a range finder or use a smart watch
06:19 or whatever you use to get your distance you can get a yardage to a flag but that's not really it
06:24 so if the flag for instance here on 18 you're hitting a wedge shot and it's 135 to go to the
06:28 flag but 135 is not your yardage most of your yardages need to be your carry distances because
06:33 you can't say oh with roll it goes this because every course you play if it's in the middle of
06:37 winter and it goes or in the middle of summer on a link score so it's going to bounce 15 yards
06:41 further on your yardage would always change and hitting a five iron into a green is going to be
06:45 different hitting a sand iron into a green so you know just having the exact number you need to
06:49 calculate what that is so if we're hitting a five iron into the last green i'd need to take 10 yards
06:53 off at least my landing point so yeah if the yardage was 205 to the flag actually my carry
07:01 yardage is 195 because that's where I need to land it right and then you've got to take into
07:05 account as well wind direction slope as well and one of the things i noticed when mike was on the
07:09 11th hole he had 113 i think he had and i said we'll go on what else are we working out here
07:14 and he said well it's uphill and so yeah and what's that and you could tell he's like uh
07:20 it's playing further you know which is right no he's right but but we need more right we do need
07:27 more because the difference between success and failure can be quite a fine margin in this game
07:31 and i know from having used rangefinders but also all the years of playing the game
07:35 within a yard or two what a slope is but a lot of the rangefinders now you can find that or you know
07:40 you can find devices that will give you that sort of information so it was five uphill so it's not
07:44 112 or 113 i think it was 113 it's 118 it was into the wind there as well and so when we play in the
07:52 wind most people any sort of breeze will say it's 10 yards or it's a clever wind you're saying the
07:57 wind's the same strength every time you've played there's been wind at the same strength no it's
08:01 always different but a nice thing you can do you can always use your phone now to find out what the
08:04 speed of the wind is going to be across the day and let's say for instance it is 10 miles per hour
08:08 the wind if it's downwind this is a generalization but it's really close to the truth it's about a
08:13 yard per miles per hour so if it's 10 mile an hour downwind it's going to play about 10 yards less
08:18 okay into the wind though it's double so when if you're playing it into a 10 miles per an hour
08:23 wind it's two yards per mile per hour right so it's 20 into yet most people i'd hazard a guess
08:28 would say well if it's a club down it's a club into and it's not it's double the difference
08:34 and again it's a generalization but it's remarkably close to to being factual in terms of the way that
08:39 a wind will affect the ball so it's really important to calculate those things pick your
08:42 landing point as well know where you want to land it take the slope into all that as well and and
08:46 that gives you a number and only when you've done all that work before you even take the club back
08:50 can you honestly say i know what the distance is and regardless of who you are if you're if you're
08:55 john rahm or or you and i we all have the same ability as john ron before we take move the club
09:02 so we can do this this is not really it's not rocket science no no but but it does take a bit
09:07 of learning and remembering to do the right processes so for mike there we just said we'll
09:11 make it easier have more control because actually as much as the total number we've got now is
09:15 correct for how it's playing we need to hit a shot that we can make get there without having
09:19 to swing out of our shoes especially into the wind so i mean there are some mistakes in there
09:23 that i know that i make and i'm sure many of you do too picking the right club there is more to it
09:28 than just saying ah that's a one club wind use some of nick's tips there should really help
09:32 okay so the next one nick is kind of it feels a bit more technical but it's something that everyone
09:43 needs to get right and can do probably better talk us through the first you can talk through
09:48 the importance of posture if you've got poor posture and for most of us especially me i'm
09:52 terrible for it because i do it when i'm sat in a chair as well i'm this way i just switch off i
09:56 come in this way and when i'm tired i naturally go like this and then that goes to the golf course
10:00 then when i'm on the course next minute i'm stood like i'm you know 85 years of age and everything's
10:05 constricted when when we get into this position nothing wants to turn properly so we end up with
10:10 lots of arms he swings so i really like this because if nothing else it means that you can
10:14 turn up and feel the same every time it's like a reset button and it's a super simple one i like it
10:20 because one it's easy to do but also super easy to visualize is the goalkeeper posture i really
10:26 really like it so if you were you know most sellers about to step up and take a penalty
10:30 and you're on the goal line how would you stand to take that you know receive that penalty you'd
10:35 have the weight naturally in the balls of the feet run a little bit of a slope here so it's
10:38 more challenging but you'd have the weight naturally towards the balls of the feet so
10:41 you'd be athletic there would be a little bit of bend in the knees there'd be a nice little angle
10:44 the correct angle in the lower part of the spine there through the bum and then when the chest
10:49 would be nicely up the chin would be slightly off the chest but you wouldn't think of any of that
10:52 whereas you go for lessons sometimes and you might get a pro and you'll be like a bit of that bit of
10:56 that bit of that get that knee twisted and next week you're like okay how's that and oh my god
11:01 is this all i've got and of course you're rigid because you're trying you're trying aren't you
11:05 but what about those people who feel like physically there's something restricting them
11:08 if you think well you know i can't get into that position you are there we don't have to get there
11:13 we can just do our best to get into a position that allows us to move as well as we can you have
11:17 to play around what you have in the locker and a great coach will do that for you yeah but we can
11:23 you know you still have to make the effort to be the best that you can be right still have it if
11:26 it's causing pain it's no good yeah so i mean finding the right posture vitally important
11:31 as nick says hopefully that's simple and effective give it a go okay so for this part we're going to
11:40 talk about short game uh nick what did you think of mike's short game firstly i thought you know
11:45 what i really liked about it was there was the shot on the 12th where the pro shot so the right
11:52 shot which is a dangerous way to label it was landing it on the green bit of check roll it
11:58 down to the hole because otherwise you had to play deal with this upslope to judge then onto the flat
12:03 then onto the downslope seemed harder but actually mike was just i don't i'd look at it and think oh
12:08 i don't really fancy it there's the tip in itself like if you don't like it then it's probably not
12:13 going to work because you're going to start to go down that hole yeah and almost to the degree where
12:17 you before you've hit it thinking i know i'm going to be annoyed at myself because this isn't the
12:20 right shot because i don't fit i don't like this i knew i'd do that you know if that's the if that's
12:24 what comes out your mouth i knew i'd do that that's on you because you had a choice if you knew you'd
12:29 do it why'd you do it no one said you have to play this game a certain way that's your choice
12:34 and there's a great satisfaction from doing it your own way all the guys on tour do it that way
12:37 yeah you know they've all got a different strategy and and he played this lovely and beautiful shot
12:41 as well you know with a low iron and just scamp it up the bank because he was comfortable and
12:46 something that's a bad decision with commitment will always do better than something that's a
12:50 good decision without commitment right i'd always try and land it a yard in the green you can do it
12:54 two yards can be anything you want but i always try and think i'll land it a yard on the green
12:57 you know uh like i did on the 10th hole that was all the shot sort of puts me there yeah i didn't
13:03 execute perfectly but i was all in with the commitment to it then where the flag is tells
13:07 me what club to play now if it's right there and it's only sort of three or four on the green it's
13:10 that 60 degree definitely because i've got any room if it's another 10 feet on it might be a 56 or
13:17 52 degree it's across the other side of the green it might even be a five iron or something like
13:20 that if you've got a nice lie to do it okay but what i'm always doing is land it in the same place
13:24 so then all i need to do is i've done enough practice and hit enough shots which most of us
13:28 have so now roughly how far would a seven iron run if i landed it there roughly how far would
13:32 my sand iron run or my 60 degree run if i landed it there which doesn't take a lot of work but what
13:37 it does it takes away all that indecision of where do i land it what sort of shot how high should i
13:42 hit it you just think well i've got to land it there and it's got to roll to there so that would
13:46 be a 52 nice so often people reach for too much loft actually it's a higher tariff shot with that
13:52 sort of sort of club yeah for me it's the simplicity and the commitment and if you can
13:57 do both of those things no doubt about it you'll get it up and down more often
14:00 so nick the final area to talk to you about then is a bit of strategy and a bit of course
14:08 management something that you covered quite a bit with mike during that that three holes period
14:13 what was the sort of general advice that you're giving like i think taking medicine is the is the
14:18 best one you know in terms of scoring so often the big numbers come because we won't accept that
14:23 we've made an error and we try to get it all back straight away when you do hit it in trouble
14:27 looking at the lie damage limitation okay horrible lie like mike's ball there in the um in the
14:33 heather awful life tree in front of us well yeah yeah the shot's the low one under the tree but
14:40 you can't physically come out of that you can't lift it out of that which needs loft yeah you need
14:44 to keep it under that so just because you want it mike fortunately bud it can't have it so the first
14:50 job is get it out of that which means we can't do that so now we have to make our decision you've
14:55 made that strategy shift before you've ever gone to you know pull the club out the bag okay that's
14:59 the plan i have to take it on the chin that's what's happened chip it out and then you build
15:03 from there whereas the eights and nines and you know whatever else it may be come from that we
15:08 try to do more and it's only worth a shot the same as the one you hit off the tee so you know i think
15:12 that's really important uh the other shot we looked at when we're in there uh with my other
15:16 opportunity if the lie was clean i think it's a nice little tip just a bonus one but if you're
15:20 punching out through trees when you're punching out through trees and there's a gap don't aim for
15:24 the gap picture a flag in the distance it might be in the middle of the gap assuming that's where
15:28 we're going right in the middle of the gap it's amazing how often we miss it when we just try and
15:32 steer it through the gap right because we start to steer it like this towards it rather than if it
15:36 was a flag we wouldn't try and steer it down the line we'd make a swing towards the flag so be
15:41 really precise when you're picking a spot that's through a gap in the trees that you're aiming for
15:44 and then let it all hang out because if you aim small miss small sort of mentality and i think it
15:49 will help people to find their way through that gap more often so there you have it play smart
15:54 shoot lower scores simple so that's us finished mike you've played your three holes with nick
15:59 from what i could see just so much really helpful information in there what did you find to be most
16:06 useful do you think the stuff that nick was telling you so it's really interesting there
16:10 was so much good stuff that i actually had to make some notes on my phone and write it all down i
16:15 guess the most technical thing that nick said two things were check my alignment and i know i need
16:21 to do that better i tend to stand a bit closed and then with my posture he gave me the really
16:25 cool tip of and i used to be a goalkeeper when i was a kid have that goalkeeper posture ready to
16:31 try and save a penalty so those are two things that are really easy to remember don't need to
16:35 do anything changing my swing he talked as well about if i start to overthink concentrate on your
16:41 breathing yeah he said if you are breathing and in as you're addressing the ball and out as you
16:47 swing that's actually what you'll then think about you're not thinking about all the technical stuff
16:50 he just said be in on every shot and i think what nick was saying there is just really commit to it
16:56 have a line have a target and then commit to the shot don't don't poke it don't be nervous
17:02 last question then mike so 10 handicapper yep of all the the advice that nick has given given to
17:08 you then what does success look like then for you i think success would be playing under my handicap
17:17 whatever that handicap was at that given point in a round that really mattered so there you have it
17:23 that completes our look at how you might just be able to shoot lower scores without changing your
17:29 golf swing some fantastic advice from nick dirty as i said at the beginning if you haven't checked
17:33 out tea time tips do go over to nick's instagram have a look you'll find loads of great information
17:39 on how to do everything better in the golf game frankly but that's it for now from wentworth
17:44 thank you very much for watching we'll see you next time