Golf Lesson: How To Lower Your Handicap

Golf Monthly

In this video, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Trey Niven takes a look at the swing of former Premier League footballer, Jay Bothroyd. Since retiring from football Jay has devoted his time and effort to his golf game and has quickly reduced his handicap. But what does he need to do to reach the next level? We take a look at Jay's swing and the tips and drills that will hep him improve

Transcript

00:00Hey guys, Trey Niven here, Top 50 UK coach.

00:03I'm joined with a very special guest of mine, Jay.

00:07We also got the Out of Bounds show,

00:08which we've been hosting at the minute.

00:10We've just been playing a few holes out at Hadley Wood,

00:13amazing golf course, amazing weather today.

00:16Spotted a couple things in your swing, Jay.

00:18Just a couple?

00:19Just a couple, yeah.

00:20Not giving you too many though,

00:21because I don't want you to get too good.

00:23Oh, well, I need you to show me how good you are.

00:25Okay.

00:26So these tips could potentially get my handicap down.

00:28Which is what now, at the minute?

00:296.7.

00:306.7.

00:31I've done some work in the winter.

00:33Things are looking good.

00:34I'm improving, but obviously,

00:38you say you're a Top 50 golf course coach.

00:40We're gonna get you down.

00:41Show me then.

00:42I think before I give you some tips,

00:43we're gonna get down to five and below.

00:45Yeah?

00:46Deal?

00:47Deal.

00:51Tell you what, Jay, strike perfect.

00:53A little bit right there.

00:55And off balance.

00:55Yeah.

00:56Do you think that's something you see in your game typically?

00:59Yeah, I don't feel confident.

01:01You know, there's some days you turn up and, you know,

01:03you feel good with your driver, but more often than not,

01:06I don't feel confident from tee to fairway.

01:08Yeah.

01:08When I'm on the fairway, I feel really good,

01:10and I think that's why my scores are low.

01:13Yeah.

01:14If I can improve on my tee shot,

01:16I think my score will come down dramatically.

01:18So that's what I struggle with, I think.

01:20Just hit one more drive for us, Jay,

01:21but I think driver's gonna be the one that we look at today.

01:29That's a good shot, actually.

01:33Well done.

01:34So I think, again, you hit some really good tee shots.

01:38You hit, I would say, more shots right than left,

01:42but you can still have a bit of a left miss as well, can't you?

01:45But it's the right shot we gotta probably look at first.

01:48Yeah, it's like that kind of, sometimes I just like,

01:50you know, that kind of knuckleball.

01:52Yeah, yeah.

01:52And it dips around.

01:53Yeah, that one.

01:54Firstly, in that, what's really important to understand,

01:57especially for the people at home,

01:59is if it's a directional miss, say right or left,

02:03what do you think is causing that?

02:05What's the physics, what's happening at impact

02:07to cause that, do you think?

02:08Well, my face is gonna be closed.

02:09A hundred percent, yeah.

02:10So you've gotta go straight to the club face.

02:12Yeah.

02:13If it's right, left, high or low,

02:14it's generally where the loft's pointing.

02:17So you've gotta think, okay, how do we potentially,

02:20if it's low, less loft, if it's right, it's also closed.

02:23So how do we bring that club face back and get it straight?

02:27So I think just looking at your swing out on the course

02:31and just on a video then,

02:32just set yourself up to, as if you was gonna hit one.

02:36Good, hold that there.

02:37And just take the club back to my hand here.

02:40Great, so this part for you, if we slow the video down,

02:43what you saw, you saw your grip start to twist the club

02:46quite a lot early on.

02:48So now he's taken all the loft off the golf club

02:51and actually shut in the face.

02:52So if you did nothing from here,

02:54and let's just say you brought the club back down

02:56with no twist, you can see club face is pointing

02:59in a little bit low.

03:00And then I'll probably do that right.

03:02Yeah, and then you add things in to try and compensate

03:05for that kind of loss of loft and shut club face.

03:08So everything tries to go up.

03:10That's another thing that I feel.

03:11I feel like sometimes I do that.

03:13Yeah, yeah.

03:14Try and combat it.

03:15And then sometimes it works.

03:16Yeah, yeah.

03:17But majority of the time it doesn't.

03:18Yeah.

03:19And you see the bit that goes up

03:20is almost like your part to save yourself.

03:23Yeah.

03:23Because we don't want to over-complicate things.

03:26We want to try and keep it quite simple.

03:27So just think, it's going low right.

03:29I need some loft,

03:30and I need to square the face up a bit more.

03:32Yeah.

03:32So just bring it back to about my hand again.

03:34So about waist height, just to there.

03:37Perfect.

03:37I want you to focus on getting that club face

03:40pretty perpendicular to the ground.

03:42So more of like the toe up.

03:44The toe is down.

03:45Less loft.

03:46Yeah.

03:47This is a little bit more.

03:48So this is just really simple, just takeaway piece.

03:50Okay.

03:51You might focus on this little logo here

03:53or your watch.

03:54Yeah.

03:55Pointing up more.

03:55That way?

03:56Yeah.

03:57That's probably overdone,

03:58but I'd rather you over-exaggerate it a little bit

04:01to practice it at the start.

04:02Okay.

04:03So just do that one more time.

04:06Okay.

04:07That's good.

04:08And again.

04:11Good. That looks really good.

04:12Okay. We're going to hit one now.

04:17Lucky try again.

04:18Feel a bit different.

04:19Yeah.

04:20Yeah.

04:21That feels really different actually.

04:23So just ever so slightly feeling that watch up to the sky.

04:33Good.

04:33So that one, it's like the opposite way a little bit now.

04:36Yeah.

04:36Definitely didn't have any of that hook spin on it, did it?

04:39Yeah.

04:40So you can see whatever you change there in that early phase,

04:43change how the face was impacting the ball.

04:46Yeah, exactly.

04:46Yeah.

04:47I'll tell you one thing for me,

04:48that when I, right now, where my game's at,

04:51I just want to see my,

04:55in an ideal world, obviously fairway.

04:57Yeah.

04:57But just down there in play,

04:59even if it was in the rough,

05:00I feel confident from there.

05:02Yeah.

05:03That I can still get to the flag with my irons.

05:05Yeah.

05:05Because I feel my iron play is good.

05:07Yeah.

05:08I'd work on club face really simply.

05:10Don't overcomplicate it.

05:11Yeah.

05:12Just feeling like that watch is pointing up more to the sky.

05:15As simple as swinging back to here.

05:17That's it.

05:18That's right.

05:18And just check where the face is.

05:19Do it again.

05:20That's it.

05:21Just keep it as so simple as that.

05:24Yeah.

05:29Good.

05:30And then you can even rehearse that into a little practice swing

05:33and then hit one.

05:35That's it.

05:36Like Justin Thomas practices that really early part,

05:38doesn't he?

05:39Oh, okay.

05:39Right there.

05:40That's it.

05:41And then you go and hit.

05:42Okay.

05:45And then what I think on top of that,

05:51if you did start to see some go out that way,

05:54what that is, is you're almost your old release.

05:57Like you hanging on to trying to add loft.

05:59So now you can just allow your hands and arms to release.

06:03I'll tell you, for me being a football player.

06:05Yeah.

06:06I respond well to feel.

06:08Yeah.

06:10Like as an analogy, you know?

06:12So for me, when I've seen that my practice swing,

06:16my practice thing feels like my,

06:18that's the way my real swing should be.

06:20Yeah.

06:20So for example,

06:24that's my practice swing,

06:26but I can't replicate that with my real swing.

06:28Yeah.

06:29And that's where I.

06:30But the more you do of that though, in your practice.

06:33So if those last two have gone a little bit left,

06:35add the same first move in,

06:37but react to it,

06:38try and bring it back now through the ball.

06:43Good try.

06:44That was better.

06:45Yeah.

06:46So educate yourself,

06:47like hit different shapes,

06:48like rights and left,

06:49like educate your hands to be able to figure out where the face is.

06:53So the practice for me then would just be like to there.

06:56Yeah.

06:56And then back through square in it.

06:58That's it.

07:00Good.

07:01Happy with that.

07:02Yeah.

07:03No, I can't give you too much.

07:04Cause you might beat me.

07:07Okay.

07:09So a bit of a summary for that one for Jay.

07:11He had a little bit of a low right miss for him as a left handed golfer.

07:15So straight away,

07:16got to go for the club face,

07:17doing anything that we can in that session there to square the club face a bit more,

07:22find a little bit of loft and just help him kind of generate a square impact.

07:26So just,

07:27if you're trying to get your club face a little bit squarer

07:30and trying to find some loft,

07:32I'd start with a grip if you can,

07:34if you can't find it through the grip,

07:36try and find it early on in the swing.

07:39And that's kind of the approach that we went with Jay.

07:41Cause he's kind of got his grip.

07:42He's quite comfy with that.

07:43So got to find it in the swing,

07:45try and see the ball do something a little bit different.

07:47And then after that,

07:49see if you can bring that ball back to where you want it to finish.

07:52.

08:00.

08:09.

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