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.

01:58Look at business.

02:03We'd have more t's and you'd go. You're always going to see what we had in the

02:21league of football because we had our other trampolines in front. No problem. We'd some money

02:24We'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, get that knee over that foot, nice, that's it, plenty of power into

02:47it.

02:48Oh lovely, what a shot to go down the slope, so the only way, so you almost want to feel

02:54like you're soft in your knees as you go down the slope, yeah?

02:57You're back where the rock is the rock, rock, so feel that in there, look at the nice thing,

03:01step away not too close to the ball.

03:03Right 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, phenomenal, really great golf

03:19swing, 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, playing off nine, you know, is still immense at this age and he's progressing

03:32nicely, he's going to get naturally bigger and stronger, so the rest of it should take

03:36care of itself.

03:37So for him, I think it was a little bit more about selection of shots maybe, maybe a bit

03:41more strategy orientated in how he could improve whilst he just naturally develops in all the

03:46other areas.

03:47What would be the general advice then in terms of strategy, is there anything in there that

03:50you can offer people that they might be able to take into their own games 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.

04:07And 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

04:31greens.

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

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

04:40which might influence your shot.

04:42Normal green in front of you, trying to land it roughly a couple of yards on every time,

04:46and then using that landing point then to tell us what sort of shot should we be playing

04:50here.

04:51So wherever that flag is in relation to that landing point will tell us, is it tight

04:55to it, in which case it might be the 60 degree or for Josh it would be a 58, is 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 nine, eight, seven, you know, and have a nice simple

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

05:14him.

05:15But also you could see when I set him up, and again, this is something sort of tapping into

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

05:21When we made him dial in on competing to land it in the right place, so competing normally

05:26is did 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.

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

05:39I'd hazard a guess that Josh will shave a ton of strokes off his game by becoming just

05:43really, 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

05:49it took place, is that element of like having a challenge as you practice, which is more

05:53than just getting it 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 is really

06:01going to hopefully engage a little bit more in what you're trying to do.

06:05Practice sucks, you know, it's that, I mean, especially for kids, it's the boring bit, you know, they

06:09want to be out there trying to beat their pals, playing in competitions, but we've got to work

06:14at 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

06:20make 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 is the

06:30way they practice, really poor.

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

06:36You're 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 when you get out here

06:45on the golf course.

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

06:52to hit that tee shot.

06:53Those feelings, how those arms feel, how they feel inside will feel completely different

06:58to if I said, there's a range, there's no one on it, here's a couple hundred balls, have a good day.

07:02Just bored, almost bored, casual, and sometimes it might not even be good because they're just

07:07not focused at all.

07:09But the fact is, you do that to prepare for this.

07:12If we can bring the pressure to the practice, and in a fun way as well, and create that challenge,

07:17then one, it might also shift this to feeling more like a fun challenge rather than, oh my

07:21goodness, I'm terrified, the club championships next week for adults, less so for kids.

07:26You know, to being like, this is fun, it's a challenge.

07:28And also, you're used to having to do it under a bit of pressure.

07:32And that means that then when you step on that first tee, there is a comfort in thinking,

07:36this isn't as different, sure it's different.

07:39You know, just like if I put someone in a position like I have to win on tour or to play in the

07:42Masters or teared up on the first tee at the Open in your home city, like that would be

07:46terrifying and feel uncomfortable to them, but you get used to it the more you put yourself

07:50in 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 and strategy

07:59when 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 on how

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

08:15game.

08:16Obviously, 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.

08:29That's it for now from Wentworth.

08:30Thanks very much for watching.

08:31We'll see you next time.

Lesson With Nick Dougherty To Improve your Game - Episode 1

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