In this video, Golf Monthly reader Amanda Rowley gets a golf lesson from Nick Dougherty in this episode of Game Improved.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to Wentworth Club and the second in our three-part series
00:06in which we're going to try to help some amateur golfers shoot lower scores.
00:09Now in this episode, we have Amanda Rowley who is an 18 handicapper.
00:15She's only been playing the game for sort of five or six years,
00:18but she's managed to get her handicap down to 18.
00:21She's going to get the chance to play three holes here on the West Course at Wentworth and then head to the range all with
00:26Nick Doherty to see if Nick can offer her some tips and some strategy advice on how to play better.
00:32Right, let's get started.
00:46Right, so Amanda, tell us a bit. What's your handicap and where's your golf at at the moment?
00:51My handicap at the moment is 17.7, so I play off at my club about 19-20.
00:57I've had quite a good summer of golf.
01:00The consistency is definitely getting better,
01:03but my weakness I would say is my short game and that's down to confidence really. I've just lost my confidence with it.
01:09So you only, I think we're right in saying that you only started playing golf a few years ago.
01:14Yeah, 2016 and then obviously we've had COVID in between, so a few years off.
01:18Okay, so you've come down quickly. Where would you want to get to in the next couple of years time?
01:25I'd love to be,
01:27eventually, single figure if I can ever get there.
01:29I can't see it because I always manage to blob holes every time I go out.
01:33We know how you feel.
01:34But yeah, I mean, I would love to comfortably be able to play off 12-13
01:39and still be able to score well.
01:41So what do you think Nick will be able to help you with the most?
01:44My drive and definitely the short game.
01:46Yeah, some nice simple tips that we'll hopefully be able to take with you onto the golf course.
02:17A little bit like you're going to hit it.
02:19Lovely, isn't it? It feels completely different.
02:21I mean, it's like I'm hitting a high shot.
02:27You're going to feel a tiny bit more this way.
02:29If it's too low, it's going to make us want to sort of hit the ground first.
02:34Nice, that's good.
02:36You're going to feel a tiny bit more this way.
02:38If it's too low, it's going to make us want to sort of hit the ground first.
02:42Nice, that's good.
02:45Nice.
02:46So the swing, depending on the distance, and it's going to have that same flow, whatever it is.
02:52Lovely.
02:53Thank you.
02:54OK, so Nick, you got the chance to play three holes with Amanda
02:58and then spend some time on the range with her.
03:00Good player, strikes it really nicely.
03:02What were the sort of things that you were talking about to try and help her improve?
03:05Well, we talked about a couple of different parts of the game.
03:07One was sort of short game pitching and then the long game.
03:11The long game was the easiest.
03:13These are the sweetest things to work on with people
03:17because it's a gift that gives immediately and was very easy to attain.
03:22So for her, it was something simple.
03:24Whenever there's things to amend that are pre-movement,
03:28they're always going to bear fruit quickly.
03:30Right, OK.
03:31Because it's something that you literally stood over the ball
03:34and I made a slight adjustment as much as it might feel a little bit different.
03:37And it's not drastically different.
03:39And then the rest is you just do what you do.
03:42That's going to be easy to apply.
03:43Once I start saying, well, as we change direction,
03:46I will do anything I possibly can to avoid that.
03:49I may try and provide someone with a general overwhelming feel.
03:53For Amanda, it was really easy.
03:55So the ball flight, I thought the tee was a little low for starters.
03:58But then when I went to check out where she stood to it,
04:00she could see she's got plenty of power, moves well.
04:02You can see that she's strong in the way that she moves the club.
04:05But it was flatter.
04:06So I could see a big improvement could be made with the ball flight.
04:09I noticed that in the 11th.
04:10And when it got to 12, she actually had to improve the ball flight
04:12because of the fact of there's trees in the way.
04:14I was like, how is she going to do it?
04:16And the interesting, this was a classic again, feel versus real thing for Amanda.
04:20Where she thought the ball was in her stance,
04:23actually wasn't where it really was.
04:26So what we did to improve it was I wanted a little bit more tilt
04:29in her upper body, which is what you see with any top player.
04:32When you think about Rory McIlroy, he hits up on it six degrees.
04:35When he's going for the big one, it's a lot of that.
04:37And of course, we're not looking for that.
04:38But what we don't want is either a descending blow, certainly,
04:42even zeroing out.
04:44It put pressure on her as well with the low tee.
04:47You've got to be spot on.
04:48I'm a big fan.
04:49If anything, give it a little bit too much air.
04:51It also means that you can obviously tee it up nice and high
04:54and meet the ball up here.
04:55Whereas if it's at a perfect level when your club's on the ground,
04:58you ain't going to where you should be touching the ground
05:01when you come through the driver,
05:02which inevitably means you're going to be hitting it too low in the face.
05:04So it's going to come out flatter with too much spin,
05:06which means you're losing distance.
05:07So low flight, high spin.
05:09Not good.
05:10We want high launch, low spin, don't we?
05:11Yes.
05:12Hit the top end anyway.
05:13So we simply move the ball further forward in the stance,
05:15which to Amanda felt way forward.
05:18All I had to do was to take a picture and show her.
05:21I said, this is what you were stood to the ball on this last shot.
05:23And of course, it's not forward.
05:24It just looks great.
05:25Yeah, it looks like that's where it should be all the time.
05:28Well, that's where we're going to put it all the time.
05:30And then we're going to have it teed up higher.
05:32And it's a very subtle movement.
05:35The shift obviously creates a much easier position to find that up strike.
05:39And also for her, it's a very easy, natural way to get away from a little bit more.
05:44She's not a lot, ever so slightly over the top.
05:47Just moving this way a little bit will help to encourage that.
05:50Again, without having to think about it.
05:51Not trying to do anything funky.
05:53And she got that change pretty quickly.
05:55Immediately.
05:56And the drives were the best drives that we saw all day.
05:58The ball flight was great.
05:59It was strong.
06:00It was long.
06:02That was, again, hitting the drive that she was using today.
06:06And you wouldn't change anything about that.
06:08That's as good as it gets.
06:09So, I think that was a really…
06:11I mean, it's so easy to change.
06:13And then we did some stuff with the short game as well,
06:15which was when you get out of the heavy lies,
06:17the instincts for everybody really,
06:20I need to lift it out of that lie because it's gnarly.
06:23And how is it going to come out?
06:24But ironically, the lifting thing is something that moves the sternum back usually.
06:30And if nothing else, certainly shallows out the attack,
06:32which means you come through more grass,
06:34which means it won't come out.
06:35So, ironically, we have to make peace with going down into the ground.
06:39And it's the club, not me, that gets the ball out of the grass.
06:42But going in through that grass as well, we had to make peace with,
06:44got to hit it harder.
06:45A bit like out of a bunker shot.
06:46A bit like I talked with Josh there as well today.
06:48You've got to have more speed.
06:49Just trust, have more speed.
06:51Have more speed and it is better.
06:53Not enough speed will create way more problems.
06:55Yeah, and that's why you've got to practice these shots.
06:56You've got to convince yourself that it's the way to play it.
06:58Absolutely.
06:59And she demonstrated practicing that straight away.
07:01And I think for her as well, getting a feeling for the pace.
07:04And we talked about controlling distance is something she battles with.
07:07So, we talked about trying to match it on both sides.
07:10Because, again, that becomes easy, right?
07:11Yeah.
07:12Same there.
07:13So, it's quarter, quarter, or half, half, or three quarter, three quarter.
07:17And a rhythm, though, like that, that stays the same.
07:19Whereas, if I'm always going to be different,
07:22sometimes short and quick, sometimes longer and slightly slower,
07:24how do you know?
07:25Really hard to judge the pace.
07:26Whereas then, if I've got the same feeling all the time,
07:28I can stand next to her.
07:29Well, that's why we see the guys, sometimes top players,
07:32being next to the ball and feel the shot like that.
07:34Because they know exactly that pace.
07:36And then they're going to step in and just recreate it.
07:38And it makes it so much easier.
07:40Again, not an overly complicated thing for her to apply.
07:43And she did so beautifully as well.
07:45So, I think she made some really big strides with that.
07:47And then, what about in terms of game plan and strategy?
07:50Amanda seems to me to be getting better quite quickly.
07:54So, how do you adjust your game plan as an improving golfer?
07:59How should she be thinking when she's out on the golf course?
08:02I think, again, resisting the urge to force it along
08:06and building her way around the golf course,
08:08playing to your strengths, is a great way to get better.
08:11And you could see that today a couple of times
08:13when we looked at how to play the hole.
08:16I think, for instance, like the 11th,
08:18where she was hitting up the hill,
08:20picking the shot that gives you the most amount of room.
08:22So, I think that's a strategy that applies across the board,
08:24regardless of ability.
08:25But having the patience that you're naturally going to get better each time
08:28and you'll be able to alter your target lines as you go.
08:31But make it easy.
08:33Don't put yourself under the cush to make it harder than it needs to be.
08:38Even though you think,
08:39Oh, I think I can play that shot now.
08:41It's like, that's fine in practice.
08:43But in tournament stuff, play smart.
08:45Because generally the best players,
08:47and it's the biggest ever misconception about Tiger Woods,
08:50is that we think, well, this is a box office golfer,
08:52of which there's never been another like it.
08:54One of the most conservative golfers of all time.
08:56Is that right?
08:57Very rarely went at the flag,
08:59in terms of if it didn't fit in his dispersion pattern.
09:02Right, yeah.
09:03Never took a risk.
09:04Played smart.
09:05Always picked the right side of the hole to give him a buffer.
09:07So, playing smart gives you room for error.
09:10And if he needed to do it, and he was arguably one,
09:13if not the greatest ever,
09:14certainly one of the top two with Jack,
09:16then we should probably take a note from that.
09:18And we probably play too aggressively at times.
09:20So playing within ourselves,
09:22as much as it's sometimes fun to go for the hero shot,
09:24and I'm a big advocate of that.
09:26When push comes to shove, if we're talking handicap,
09:28let's play smart.
09:29Yeah, so there you go.
09:30If you want to get your handicap down,
09:32then sometimes that patience,
09:34it sounds easy, but it requires a lot of discipline.
09:36It's well worth giving it a go.
09:38So there you have it.
09:39That's our look at Amanda's game,
09:41and Nick's advice to help her shoot lower scores.
09:44I think the key thing here is,
09:45the advice coming from Nick,
09:47really simple, really effective.
09:49Hopefully it's something that Amanda can take forward
09:51with her game to help her shoot lower scores.
09:53And hopefully there's some bits in there
09:55that might help you as well as you play golf in the future.
09:58But that's it for now from Wentworth.
10:00Thanks very much for watching.
10:01We'll see you next time.