00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to Wentworth Club and the first in a
00:04special three-part series in which we've got three normal amateur golfers and we're going to give
00:10them to Nick Doherty for the day to see whether Nick can help them play better golf. So we're
00:15here at Wentworth and we're going to head out onto the west course, they're going to play
00:18three holes with Nick and then they're going to get some individual one-on-one lesson time
00:22to see what advice Nick can offer them to help them shoot lower scores. So our first golfer
00:28is a 10-year-old junior who plays off a handicap of nine, very impressive golfer. The question
00:33is how will Nick help him improve? Let's go and find out.
00:47Right Josh, so first question, what's your handicap? I'm off nine. And how long have you been playing
00:54for? Because you're only, what, 10 years old? Yep, so I've been playing since I was two. And I take it
01:00your handicap has come down pretty quickly this year. So we're filming this in end of September.
01:04What would it have been at the start of the year, do you think? So start of the year, it was about 14.
01:11Okay. So it's come down quite a lot because of summer and playing a lot of golf. Yeah, and I've seen you hit the
01:17ball quite a bit and I can confirm you hit it very nicely. But what's, how's your feeling about where
01:22your game is at? What's your strengths? What do you think your weaknesses are? I think, yeah, golf is
01:26good at the moment. I'd say my strength is probably my driving. I could probably still improve my wedges,
01:32chipping and putting. So you're going to have access to somebody who used to be on the European
01:36tour. He's one of the sort of best pundits in the game. What do you think you'd like to learn
01:40from Nick? What are the questions that you want to answer? Probably a few questions about being on tour.
01:44Oh, yeah. I'd say I'm quite interested about that. And how hard is it to get there? Well,
01:52it's a very exciting proposition in front of us. Right, let's head out to the golf course.
01:57Me, Nick.
01:57Me, Nick.
02:27Have more tees and you're going to make a circle around. Perfect. Two. A little bit more
02:35back swing. Using that bounce is the thing. You throw more speed at it, but you keep using the
02:40bounce. Get that foot open. Yeah. Get that knee over that foot. Nice. That's it. Plenty of power into it.
02:49Oh, lovely. What a shot. To go down the slope. So the only way, so you almost want to feel like you're
02:54soft in your knees as you go down the slope. Yeah. You're back where the rock is the rock, rock.
02:59So feel that in there. Look at the nice thing. Step away, not too close to the ball.
03:05Right, Nick. So let's start with Josh. We firstly played three holes. And what were your first
03:12impressions of the way that Josh hits the ball? He drives it like I wish I did when I was playing on
03:16at all. Phenomenal. Really great golf swing. Good attitude as well. I think for Josh, the most important
03:24stuff was getting the most out of the skills that he already has. Playing off nine is still immense at
03:30this age and he's progressing nicely. He's going to get naturally bigger and stronger. So the rest of it
03:36should take care of itself. So for him, I think it was a little bit more about selection of shots, maybe.
03:41Maybe a bit more strategy orientated in how he could improve whilst he just naturally develops in all
03:46the other areas. So what would be the general advice then in terms of strategy? Is there anything in
03:50there that you can offer people that they might be able to take into their own game as well?
03:53Especially, I think this is helpful for juniors in particular, because we all remember being juniors,
03:58those of us that have played from a young enough age. When you get to a level where you start to spin
04:02the golf ball, it becomes something that's very addictive. And to be fair, it's a testament to quality of
04:10strike. And Josh has that. But sometimes it will lead him to play a more challenging shot
04:16than the one he needs to. The name of the game is how many shots did it take, not how pretty did
04:21they look. So I think one of the things with Josh that I wanted to try and instill was pick something
04:26that we could reproduce more regularly with it in terms of shot selection around the greens. So for that
04:32we use the idea of landing it a set point on the green. Barring something weird going on with the
04:37green like the elephant's graveyard at St Andrews, something like that, which might influence your
04:41shot. Normal green in front of you. Trying to land it roughly a couple of yards on every time
04:45and then using that landing point then to tell us what sort of shot should we be playing here. So
04:50what club. So wherever that flag is in relation to that landing point will tell us is it tight to it,
04:55in which case it might be the 60 degree or for Josh it would be a 58. Is it a 52? If there's a whole
05:01load of green to work with, like maybe across the 11th one of the holes we played today,
05:05maybe we get down to nine, eight, seven, you know, and have a nice simple action, which he does
05:11already have. But he was picking a shot that was much more basic for him. But also you could see
05:15when I set him up and again this is something sort of tapping into things to work on through the winter
05:20and stuff. When we made him dial in on competing to land it in the right place. So competing normally is
05:26did you get it up and down, you know, whereas we moved it to can you hit, can you deliver this skill,
05:32which is hitting those landing points. Got it. Really good. So if he can do that time and time
05:36again, he's going to have an electric short game. I'd hazard a guess that Josh will shave a ton of
05:41strokes off his game by becoming just really, really effective at the simple stuff around the
05:46greens. Yeah. And what's quite interesting, and I was standing in the background watching all of
05:48this as it took place, is that that element of like having a challenge as you practice, which is
05:53more than just getting up and down as you say, but actually, can you land it on this towel or hit it
05:56into this circle on the green? It's something that for a, for a junior golfer is really going to
06:01hopefully engage a little bit more in what you're trying to do. Practice sucks. You know, it's that,
06:06I mean, for, especially for kids, it's the boring bit. You know, they want to be out there trying to
06:11beat their pals, playing in competitions, but we got to work at it. You know, that's how we groom these
06:16skills. And so the best thing we can do and actually to get the most out of that practice is to make it more
06:21performance orientated, which is what most practice isn't. The most guilty thing I see from
06:27amateur golfers of the way they go about what they do is the way they practice. Really poor.
06:32And I've been a culprit over the years as well. Scrape hit, scrape hit, scrape hit. You're wasting
06:36your time unless you're purely grooving a movement, but even still, it should be conscious. You should be
06:42engaged with it because in the end, you have to engage when you get out here on the golf course. If I
06:46take any amateur anywhere in the world and put them on that first tee in the BMW PGA to hit that tee shot,
06:53those feelings, how those arms feel, how they feel inside will feel completely different to if I said,
06:59there's a range, there's no one on it. Here's a couple of hundred balls. Have a good day.
07:02Because bored, almost bored, casual. And sometimes it might not even be good because they're just not
07:07focused at all. But the fact is you do that to prepare for this. If we can bring the pressure to
07:13the practice and in a fun way as well and create that challenge, then one, it might also shift this
07:19to feeling more like a fun challenge rather than, oh my goodness, I'm terrified the club championships
07:23next week for adults, less so for kids, you know, to being like, this is fun. It's a challenge. And
07:28also you're used to having to do it under a bit of pressure. And that means that then when you step
07:33on that first tee, there is a comfort in thinking, this isn't as different. Sure, it's different.
07:38You know, just like if I put someone in a position like I have to win on tour or to play in the Masters
07:42or teared up on the first tee at the Open in your home city, like that would be terrifying and feel
07:47uncomfortable to them. But you get used to it the more you put yourself in that position. So,
07:51if we're doing that in our practice, we make the stuff on the course a lot easier.
07:54So, there you have it. Some really simple and effective ways to think about game plan and
07:59strategy when you're on the golf course and also how to practice as well. Some simple advice there
08:03for Josh and hopefully for you too to help you improve. So, there you have it. Some really simple and
08:07effective advice from Nick for Josh on how to improve by building a better strategy and then
08:12how to work particularly on his short game. Obviously, Nick is a player who's been there
08:17and who's done it before. And having that kind of tour player level insight is something that
08:22should really help Josh as he continues to improve his golf game. And hopefully, there's some stuff in
08:27there that should really help you as well. That's it for now from Wentworth. Thanks very much for
08:31watching. We'll see you next time.
Comments