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,
02:03We'd have more tees and you're going to make a circle around.
02:31Perfect. Two.
02:34A little bit more back swing. Using that bounce is the thing.
02:36You throw more speed at it, but you keep using the bounce.
02:39Get that foot open. Get that knee over that foot.
02:44Nice. That's it. Plenty of power into it.
02:48Lovely. What a shot.
02:50To go down the slope. So the only way...
02:52So you almost want to feel like you're soft in your knees as you go down the slope, yeah?
02:56You're back where the rock is the rock, rock.
02:58So feel that in there. Look at the nice thing. Step away, not too close to the ball.
03:04Right, Nick. So let's start with Josh.
03:06We firstly played three holes.
03:08And what were your first impressions of the way that Josh hits the ball?
03:12He drives it like I wish I did when I was playing on tour. Phenomenal.
03:17Really great golf swing. Good attitude as well.
03:20I think for Josh, the most important stuff was getting the most out of the skills that he already has.
03:26Playing off nine, you know, is still immense at this age.
03:30And he's progressing nicely. He's going to get naturally bigger and stronger.
03:34So 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.
03:40Maybe a bit more strategy-orientated in how he could improve,
03:44whilst he just naturally develops in all the other areas.
03:46So 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 their own game?
03:52I think this is helpful for juniors in particular, because we all remember being juniors,
03:57those of us that have played from a young enough age.
03:59When you get to a level where you start to spin the golf ball,
04:03it becomes something that's very addictive.
04:06And to be fair, it's a testament to quality of strike.
04:10And Josh has that.
04:12But sometimes it will lead him to play a more challenging shot than the one he needs to.
04:16The 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
04:25pick something that we could reproduce more regularly with it in terms of shot selection around the greens.
04:31So 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.
04:42Trying 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.
04:49So what club?
04:50So wherever that flag is in relation to that landing point will tell us.
04:53Is it tight to it?
04:54In which case it might be the 60 degree or for Josh it would be a 58.
04:58Is it a 52?
04:59If there's a whole load of green to work with, like maybe across the Eleventh's one of the holes we played today,
05:04maybe we get down to 9, 8, 7, you know, and have a nice simple action, which he does already have.
05:11Yeah.
05:12But 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 to work on through the winter and stuff.
05:20When we made him dial in on competing to land it in the right place.
05:24So competing normally is, did you get it up and down?
05:27You know, whereas we moved it to, can you hit, can you deliver this skill?
05:31Yes.
05:32Which 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 by becoming just really, really effective at the simple stuff around the greens.
05:45Yeah.
05:46And what's quite interesting, and I was standing in the background watching all of this as it took place, is 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 or hit it into this circle on the green?
05:57It's something that for a, for a junior golfer is really going to hopefully engage a little bit more in what you're trying to do.
06:04Practice sucks.
06:05You know, it's that, I mean, for, especially for kids, it's the boring bit.
06:08You know, they want to be out there trying to beat their pals, playing in competitions, but we've got to work at it.
06:13You know, that's how we groom these skills.
06:16So the best thing we can do and actually to get the most out of that practice is to make it more performance orientated,
06:22which is what most practice isn't.
06:24The most guilty thing I see from amateur golfers of the way they go about what they do is the way they practice.
06:30Really poor.
06:31And I've been a culprit over the years as well.
06:33Scrape hit, scrape hit, scrape hit.
06:35You're wasting your time unless you're purely grooving a movement.
06:39But even still, it should be conscious.
06:41You should be engaged with it because in the end, you have to engage when you get out here on the golf course.
06:45If I take any amateur anywhere in the world and put them on that first tee in the BMW PGA to hit that tee shot,
06:52those feelings, how those arms feel, how they feel inside will feel completely different to if I said,
06:58there's a range, there's no one on it.
06:59Here's a couple of hundred balls.
07:00Have a good day.
07:01Because bored, almost bored, casual.
07:04Sometimes 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, and create that challenge,
07:16then one, it might also shift this to feeling more like a fun challenge rather than,
07:20oh my goodness, I'm terrified at the club championships next week for adults, less so for kids.
07:25You know, to 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.
07:37You 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.
07:44Like that would be terrifying and feel uncomfortable to them.
07:47But you get used to it the more you put yourself in that position.
07:50So if we're doing that in our practice, we make the stuff on the course a lot easier.
07:53So there you have it, some really simple and effective ways to think about game plan
07:58and strategy when you're on the golf course, and also how to practice as well.
08:01Some 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.
08:14Obviously, 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.
08:22as he continues to improve his golf game and hopefully there's some stuff in there
08:27that should really help you as well.
08:28That's it for now from Wentworth. Thanks very much for watching.
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