Lesson With Nick Dougherty To Improve your Game - Episode 1 - video Dailymotion

Golf Monthly

In the first episode of Game Improved: 10 year-old Josh Jackson gets a golf lesson from Nick Dougherty

Transcript

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 how's your feeling about where your game is at?

01:22What's your strengths? What do you think your weaknesses are? I think, yeah, golf is good at

01:26the 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 best pundits in the game. What do you think you'd like to learn from Nick?

01:40What are the questions that you want to answer? Probably a few questions about being on tour.

01:45Oh yeah. I'd say I'm quite interested about that. And how hard is it to get there?

01:51Well, it's a very exciting proposition in front of us. Right, let's head out to the golf course

01:56for me, Nick.

01:58We'd have more teeth and you go, you're a little bit of a

02:28going to make a circle around. Perfect. Two. A little bit more backswing. Using that bounce

02:36is the thing. You throw more speed at it but you keep using the bounce. Get that foot open.

02:41Get that knee over that foot. Nice. That's it. Plenty of power into it. Lovely. What

02:50a 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. You're back where the rock is. So feel that

03:00in there. Look at the nice thing. Step away not too close to the ball. Right Nick, so let's

03:06start with Josh. We firstly played three holes and what were your first impressions of the

03:12way that Josh hits the ball? He drives it like I wish I did when I was playing on tour. Phenomenal.

03:18Really great golf swing. Good attitude as well. I think for Josh the most important stuff

03:24was getting the most out of the skills that he already has. Playing off nine is still

03:30immense at this age and he's progressing nicely. He's going to get naturally bigger and stronger.

03:35So the rest of it should take care of itself. So for him I think it was a little bit more

03:39about selection of shots maybe. Maybe a bit more strategy orientated in how he could improve

03:45whilst he just naturally develops in all the other areas. So what would be the general advice

03:49then in terms of strategy? Is there anything in there that you can offer people that they

03:52might be able to take into their own games as well? I think this is helpful for juniors

03:55in particular because we all remember being juniors, those of us that have played from

03:59a young enough age. When you get to a level where you start to spin the golf ball, it becomes

04:04something that's very addictive. To be fair, it's a testament to quality of strike and Josh

04:12has that. But sometimes it will lead him to play a more challenging shot than the one he

04:16needs to. The name of the game is how many shots did it take, not how pretty did they look?

04:21So 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.

04:32So for that we use the idea of landing it a set point on the green, barring something

04:36weird going on with the green like the elephant's graveyard at St Andrews, something like that

04:40which might influence your shot. Normal green in front of you. Trying to land it roughly a

04:44couple of yards on every time and then using that landing point then to tell us what sort of

04:48shot should we be playing here? So what club? So wherever that flag is in relation to that

04:53landing point will tell us is it tight to it, in which case it might be the 60 degree

04:57or for Josh it would be a 58. Is it a 52? If there's a whole load of green to work with,

05:02like maybe across the 11th one of the holes we played today, maybe we get down to 9, 8,

05:077, you know, and have a nice simple action, which he does already have, but he was picking

05:13a shot that was much more basic for him. But also you could see when I set him up and again,

05:17this is something sort of tapping into things to work on through the winter and stuff. When

05:21we made him dial in on competing to land it in the right place. So competing normally is,

05:27did you get it up and down? You know, whereas we moved it to, can you hit, can you deliver

05:31this skill, which is hitting those landing points? Got it. Really good. So if he can do

05:36that time and time again, he's going to have an electric short game. I'd hazard a guess

05:39that Josh will shave a ton of strokes off his game by becoming just really, really effective

05:45at the simple stuff around the green. Yeah. And what's quite interesting, and I was standing

05:48in the background watching all of this as it took place, is that that element of like having

05:51a challenge as you practice, which is more than just getting up and down, as you say, but

05:55actually, can you land it on this towel or hit it into this circle on the green? It's something

05:58that for a, for a junior golfer is really going to hopefully engage a little bit more in what

06:04you're trying to do. Practice sucks. You know, it's that, I mean, for, especially

06:07for kids, it's the boring bit. You know, they want to be out there trying to beat their pals,

06:12playing in competitions, but we got to work at it. You know, that's how we groom these skills.

06:17So the best thing we can do and actually to get the most out of that practice is to make

06:20it more performance orientated, which is what most practice isn't. The most guilty thing

06:26I see from amateur golfers of the way they go about what they do is, is the way they

06:30practice really poor. And I've been a culprit over the years as well. Scrape hit, scrape

06:35hit, scrape hit. You're wasting your time unless you're purely grooving a movement, but even

06:40still it should be conscious. You should be engaged with it because in the end you have

06:44to engage when you get out here on the golf course. If I take any amateur anywhere in the

06:48world and put them on that first tee in the BMW PGA to hit that tee shot, those feelings,

06:54how 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

07:07not focused at all. But the fact is you do that to prepare for this. If we can bring the

07:12pressure to the practice and in a fun way as well and create that challenge, then one,

07:18it might also shift this to feeling more like a fun challenge rather than, oh my goodness, I'm terrified.

07:22The club championships next week for adults, less so for kids. To being like, this is fun,

07:27it's a challenge. And also you're used to having to do it under a bit of pressure.

07:30And that means that then when you step on that first tee, there is a comfort in thinking,

07:35this isn't as different. Sure, it's different. You know, just like if I put someone in a position

07:40like I have to win on tour or to play in the Masters or teared up on the first tee at the

07:44Open in your home city, that would be terrifying and feel uncomfortable to them. But you get used to it

07:49the more you put yourself in that position. So if we're doing that in our practice, we

07:52make 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

07:59and strategy when you're on the golf course and also how to practice as well. Some simple

08:03advice there for Josh and hopefully for you too to help you improve.

08:05So there you have it. Some really simple and effective advice from Nick for Josh on how

08:10to improve by building a better strategy and then how to work particularly on his short game.

08:15Obviously, Nick is a player who's been there and who's done it before. And having that

08:19kind of tour player level insight is something that should really help Josh as he continues

08:25to improve his golf game. And hopefully there's some stuff in there that should really help

08:28you as well. That's it for now from Wentworth. Thanks very much for watching. We'll see you

08:32next time.

Lesson With Nick Dougherty To Improve your Game - Episode 1

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