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.
How can you play better golf without changing your swing with guest Nick Dougherty.
In association with Taylor Made.
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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