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In the third episode of Game Improved, Nick Dougherty offers a lesson to 18-handicapper Andy Edom
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the final episode in our three-part
00:05series in which we're going to try to help some amateur golfers shoot lower scores. In this
00:10episode we have Andy Edom who plays off a handicap of 18 and he's going to get the chance to
00:15play
00:15some golf here at Wentworth with Nick Doherty and then head to the range for a one-on-one lesson.
00:21Hopefully there should be some advice both on how to play, how to build a strategy for the golf
00:25course, but also some tips on how to practice and how to swing it a little bit better that will
00:30help
00:30Andy but also might help you too. Right, let's get started.
00:47Okay, so Andy, thanks for joining us here at Wentworth. What's your handicap and just give us
00:52a sense of where your golf is at right now? My handicap's 18. It's a little bit variable because
00:57I don't get out that often and play that often so I tend to feel that I manage the ball
01:01around the
01:02course more than anything else. Okay, so then what are the sort of strengths, what are the weaknesses
01:07in your golf game? Definitely strengths would be wedges and short irons. Generally speaking,
01:14the longer the club, the more wayward I can get. Right, and when we're talking wayward,
01:18are we talking right or left? A little bit of both, to be true.
01:21Right, okay, so what are you looking then? So you've got access to Nick, what are you looking
01:24for in terms of advice to help you play? Just to basically straighten me out a little bit,
01:29help me hit the ball a little bit straighter. I know I can feel there's certain parts of my swing
01:33that aren't right, it's just the order in which to correct that. Yeah, okay. Well, I think you're
01:40with the right person today. Right, let's head out onto the golf course and meet Nick.
02:23See in the balls of the feet, wouldn't it? Certainly in that more forward side. The top corner,
02:26I'd kick out that way, wouldn't I? And if I was trying to bend it the other way, even as
02:30a right
02:30footer, I'd kick this side of the ball and then let me just see that. So now, now just feel
02:38that
02:39path of the other line. Make me work this way and see how much more turned through the ball I
02:45am.
02:47One way, so actually you really got to feel like you're going to drive forward this way
02:52and then you have to find a way to get. Okay, Nick, so let's talk about Andy's golf game. So
02:58first
02:58time you've seen him play today, we played three holes here on the west course. What does Andy do
03:03well? What does he need to work on, do you think? Well, he's diligent with how he goes about his
03:07game.
03:08I can relate to Andy in terms of he's an overthinker with his game because he tries so hard. Right.
03:13Yeah, and I think it's an admirable quality. It's a noble pursuit, but one that's thwarted,
03:18unfortunately, with this game because the more we get invested sometimes consciously with it,
03:22the more we get in our own way. I think Andy had a little bit of that going on. You
03:25could see
03:25there was, to me, the nature of how he stood to the ball. It was not overcoached, but overthought.
03:32You know what I mean? It was just like he's ticking boxes in his mind and I know what that
03:37feels like
03:37because that's what I've done and ironically, it took away a little bit of the flow of him just
03:42getting out of his way and playing golf. So I think for me, a little bit with Andy is, and
03:46it's a
03:47challenge I think sometimes with coaching is help someone get better without making them turn
03:51inward in terms of their thoughts because the last thing I need to do is to give Andy 10
03:56different things to go and think about. And the problem for Andy was with what we talked
04:00about with his swing. One of them was a pre-swing thing, but the sensation I wanted to feel was
04:07in the swing. They're always tougher because it's happening as we're doing it.
04:10You know, so I think for him, there's a very simple fix that was really important, which was aim straight.
04:18Right, okay. You know, for him, that was shoulders. So he sets up peacefully every time and then right
04:24before he pulls the trigger, he decides to make it more difficult for himself and gives it one of
04:29these with the shoulders. So closing the shoulders, what does that do? Well, it completely shifts the
04:33way that the club wants to move for starters. So from that very moment then, Andy's swing is always working
04:37this way. And ironically, we tend to build compensations in our swing to make whatever
04:43we've got going on work. To him, he's not shot though. In his head, he's dead square. He's not
04:49though. He's way right with his shoulders. Because then when I went on and worked with him on the
04:53range and squared him up, of course he feels wide open. Feels weird. Yeah. Even though he stood like
04:58that naturally, and it was only right before he pulled the trigger, he gives it the bump with the
05:02shoulders like that. So he felt fine to do that first. And then he thought, no, come on,
05:05we need to get these shut off. So again, it's that classic feel versus real thing in the golf swing.
05:11And we all, again, have to deal with this where what we feel very often isn't what is real out
05:17there. And so just him seeing of me going across his shoulders there with the alignment stick and
05:22saying, right, come and step away and see where it is. He can immediately come and check on me.
05:26You need that feedback because I'm asking him to buy into something that everything inside him
05:31intuitively saying, that is not right, man. You got me stood like this now. How the hell am I
05:36going to propel the ball down there when you've got me stood this way? He needs to, you need the
05:40buy-in first of all. Like this is definitely what's happening, mate.
05:43So then how do you then make those adjustments without becoming too technical, without talking
05:48about all of those things that can get you quite confused? I think you first of all explained that
05:53the journey is not one of pure joy and ecstasy in terms of, and I think that's one thing. So
05:58I can
05:58relate to Andy in terms of I've played four times this year. So even when I go out there today,
06:02there's a real mixed bag. Making peace with the fact that there's going to be inconsistency is one
06:08of the greatest freedoms in our game. That actually allows me to play way better golf because when I
06:13hit a bad shot, I don't do what I used to when I was a tournament professional and delve in
06:17there.
06:17Why do you, what do you, oh, this was, oh, this needs a bit. And of course, it's little things
06:21like
06:21this, which no one notices. It's very often we overcomplicate in that issue. So one of the things
06:27obviously that happened with the movement was that his path was very much inside out and it was
06:31reflected in, obviously you see some early extension in there, club drifting from inside out as well.
06:37And you see the release pattern as well, sort of this way over his shoulder. So what leading
06:41to pushes and hooks. Yeah. So if the face matches up to that direction that he's swinging it,
06:45it's a block to the right. And of course, if the face is actually square, it's the hook,
06:48which is going to make him want to swing even more to the right hand side, which of course we
06:52know
06:52is welcome to golf. So in essence, we had to get a feeling for let's be square. That's going to
06:58feel
06:58rubbish. Make peace with that feels rubbish today, not forever, just today. I know it takes huge
07:03discipline, go on the range, do the reps, ignore where it's going. You have no right to care where
07:09that's going because one, you're not really focused on it because you're not playing golf,
07:12you're playing pretty swings, but we're practicing pretty swings. That's what we're doing at the
07:15moment with this. And you're just going to go drill it in. That's what it feels like. That's what
07:19it feels like. That's what it feels like. And you can break that up with then going, right,
07:22I'm going to hit a normal shot. I'm going to play to this flag and go through my normal routine
07:25because what we want to do is do the stuff that requires us to step outside of the way.
07:30Because if I get used to practice a swing, but then also say, yeah, but I need you to hit
07:34it
07:34close as well. It's not going to work so well. Whereas if I say to you, all you have to
07:38do,
07:39and we did this with him, I wanted to try and feel hitting these nice little low fades because
07:43it was forcing him to want to have to move better with his lower half, which again was something we
07:47talked about synchronization, trying to feel. So it's a nice, simple drill as you take it halfway
07:52back, you step forward, which gets you using to feel. And of course you don't get halfway back.
07:56People tend to get up here when they actually do it, which is like the goal swing, because in essence,
08:00with every good player, it starts with a move as this is finishing off into that left side.
08:05Don't want him thinking about that. And then from there, from having that better feeling of being
08:10into that left side a little earlier, rather than he was more back here and this way, and we're almost
08:16feeling like we're moving a little earlier into that left side, you want it to try and feel that
08:19nice little feeling of hitting a low cut. And I like things like that, because if I say to you,
08:24how would you hit a low cut? We've all got a feeling of, I'd be like, I'd be like that.
08:28I'd just, I'd hit it that way. And so it provides a feeling rather than a right. So we need
08:33to get
08:33the club there. And then in this position, then you want to feel like, you know, I think that stuff
08:38makes it way too complicated. So we hit some horror show shots, which is good because it shows me he's
08:43really tapping into that. So for me, it's sort of, let's get in amongst the weeds, get really ugly,
08:48spend a bit of time doing that on the range. Get really comfortable being uncomfortable.
08:53And then we go, right, done. We get in, we do the work, then we leave and we go and
08:57play the game.
08:58So then Nick, let me ask you, somebody of Andy's level in the game, what strategy advice would you
09:03offer? Having a plan for what you're going to be all about in the golf course is more important.
09:07I think for players of the handicap, when you're at 18, you're in that beautiful zone where some days
09:13you can, it can be a game changer of a day, but you always have the chance to go and
09:17have one of
09:17those shocker days as well. So I think making it nice and simple, have a plan with your coach is
09:22really good. So Andy's a great example of this, have a plan for how you're going to make the
09:26improvements. But when you go out, go out to play well. There's so many things at 18 handicap you can
09:31dabble with and play with and try this and try that. My experience is most of the time we get
09:37worse,
09:37too much going around the head. And then we end up going, oh God, I'm thinking about too much.
09:41How many times have you heard, oh, I'm thinking about too much. Well, don't have your plan,
09:45stick to your plan and strategy. You know, you save so many shots around, take a joy from
09:49thinking like a top level pro. You might not be able to hit Rory's shots, but you can think like,
09:55you know, so that means like when you go in there with your three wood in this stuff,
09:59is Rory going in there with a three wood? Because if he ain't, you shouldn't.
10:02You know, and I think that's one of the things we can see is that, you know, you won't necessarily
10:05always
10:06be able to hit the shot you want to, but we can make the right decision about it. And knowing
10:10where your
10:11strengths are as well, picking, being more responsible in what we pick, having a good
10:15strategy that takes some of the risk away. And for, for an amateur golfer at 18 handicap,
10:19that could be like, let's not hit the hero shot because that's screaming an eight. If it doesn't
10:23come off, let's play it smart. Let's make a nice five. And it takes discipline that because of course,
10:27we all want to hit the shot that allows us to, you know, the shot that makes us feel a
10:31million
10:31dollars. But if it's in a comp, if you haven't done that with your mates, whack away.
10:35Yeah. If you're in a comp and you're serious about wanting to improve your handicap, do that,
10:39do the right thing and start making the right decisions because it's what the top players will
10:42do. Yeah. Yeah. So there you have it. If you want to get better at golf and who doesn't,
10:47then you've got to commit to it. You don't have to be technical, but you do have to commit to
10:50what
10:50you're trying to do. Hopefully that helps. Okay. So there you have it. That's our look at Andy's
10:55game and Nick's tips to help him improve. Obviously with Andy, he needs to make some technical
11:01improvements, but what's great about the advice that Nick is offering is that yes,
11:05it's clear to see those technical improvements that need to be made, but the advice needs to be
11:09as simple and practical and usable as possible. Hopefully that's what Andy got from it. If you're
11:14in a similar category with your golf game, then using some of that advice to help you as well
11:18should really make a big difference. But that's it for now for Wentworth.
11:22Thanks very much for watching. We'll see you next time.
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