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.

01:58So, you've frustrated that we have my team to go. Yeah, we can get into a golf course and

02:03if you want to start a golf course, into a golf course. Well, we've already done a golf course.

02:04So, you now at the golf course, we can select a golf course and you've got an sleeves in teams to

02:05put what's going on. So…

02:10We'd have more tees and you're going to make a circle around, perfect, two, a little bit

02:35more back swing.

02:36Using that bounce is the thing, you throw more speed at it but you keep using the bounce.

02:40Get that foot open.

02:41Yeah.

02:42Get that knee over that foot.

02:44Nice.

02:45That's it.

02:46Plenty of power into it.

02:49Lovely.

02:50What a shot.

02:51To go down the slope.

02:52So the only way, so you almost want to feel like you're soft in your knees as you go down

02:56the slope, yeah?

02:57You're back where the rock is the rock, rock.

02:59So feel that in there.

03:00Look at the nice thing.

03:01Step away, not too close to the ball.

03:05Right Nick, so let's start with Josh.

03:07We firstly played three holes and what were your first impressions of the way that Josh

03:13hits the ball?

03:14He drives it like I wish I did when I was playing on tour.

03:17Phenomenal.

03:18Really great golf swing, good attitude as well.

03:21I think for Josh, the most important stuff was getting the most out of the skills that

03:26he already has.

03:27Playing off nine is still immense at this age and he's progressing nicely.

03:32He's going to get naturally bigger and stronger so the rest of it should take care of itself.

03:36So 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

03:46in all the other areas.

03:47So what would be the general advice then in terms of strategy?

03:49Is there anything in there that you can offer people that they might be able to take into

03:53their own game as well?

03:54I think this is helpful for juniors in particular because we all remember being juniors, those

03:58of us that have played from a young enough age.

04:00When you get to a level where you start to spin the golf ball, it becomes something that's

04:05very addictive and to be fair, it's a testament to quality of strike and Josh has that.

04:13But sometimes it will lead him to play a more challenging shot than the one he needs to.

04:17The 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.

04:35Barring something weird going on with the green like the Elephant's Graveyard at St Andrews,

04:39something like that which might influence your shot.

04:41Normal 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

04:49here, so what club.

04:50So 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.

04:58Is it a 52?

05:00If there's a whole load of green to work with, like maybe across the 11th one of the holes

05:04we played today, maybe we get down to 9, 8, 7, you know, and have a nice simple action,

05:10which he does already have, but he was picking a shot that was much more basic for him.

05:14But also you could see when I set him up and again this is something sort of tapping into things

05:18to work on through the winter and stuff.

05:20When we made him dial in on competing to land it in the right place,

05:25so competing normally is did you get it up and down, you know,

05:28whereas we moved it to can you deliver this skill, which is hitting those landing points.

05:33Got it.

05:34Really good.

05:35So if he can do that time and time again, he's going to have an electric short game

05:38and I'd hazard a guess that Josh will shave a ton of strokes off his game

05:42by becoming just really, really effective at the simple stuff around the greens.

05:46And what's quite interesting, and I was standing in the background watching all of this as it took place,

05:49is that that element of like having a challenge as you practice,

05:52which is more than just getting up and down as you say, but actually can you land it on this towel

05:56or hit it into this circle on the green, it's something that for a junior golfer

06:00is really going to hopefully engage a little bit more in what you're trying to do.

06:04Practice sucks, you know, it's that, I mean, especially for kids, it's the boring bit.

06:09You know, they want to be out there trying to beat their pals, playing in competitions,

06:13but we've 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

06:20is to make it more performance orientated, which is what most practice isn't.

06:25The most guilty thing I see from amateur golfers of the way they go about what they do

06:30is the way they practice, really poor.

06:32And I've been a culprit over the years as well.

06:34Scrape hit, scrape hit, scrape hit.

06:36You're not wasting your time unless you're purely grooving a movement.

06:40But even still, it should be conscious.

06:42You should be engaged with it because in the end you have to engage

06:45when you get out here on the golf course.

06:46If I take any amateur anywhere in the world and put them on that first tee in the BMW PGA

06:51to hit that tee shot, those feelings, how those arms feel, how they feel inside

06:56will feel completely different to if I said, there's a range, there's no one on it.

07:00Here's a couple of hundred balls. Have a good day.

07:02Because bored, almost bored, casual.

07:05And sometimes it might not even be good because they're just not focused at all.

07:08But the fact is you do that to prepare for this.

07:11If we can bring the pressure to the practice and in a fun way as well

07:15and create that challenge, then one, it might also shift this to feeling more

07:19like a fun challenge rather than, oh my goodness, I'm terrified.

07:22The club championships next week for adults, less so for kids, you know,

07:25to being like, this is fun. It's a challenge.

07:27And 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.

07:38You know, just like if I put someone in a position like I have to win on tour

07:41or to play in the Masters or teared up on the first tee at the Open in your home city,

07:45like that would be terrifying and feel uncomfortable to them.

07:48But you get used to it the more you put yourself in that position.

07:51So if 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

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

08:02Some simple advice 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

08:09on how to 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.

08:18And having that kind of tour player level insight is something that should really help Josh

08:23as he continues to improve his golf game.

08:26And hopefully there's some stuff in there that should really help you as well.

08:29That's it for now from Wentworth. Thanks very much for watching. We'll see you next time.

Lesson With Nick Dougherty To Improve your Game - Episode 1

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