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
00:59it
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
01:09was about 14.
01:11Okay. So it's come down quite a lot because of summer and playing a lot of golf. Yeah,
01:16and I've seen you hit the ball quite a bit and I can confirm you hit it very nicely. But
01:20what's,
01:21how's your feeling about where your game is at? What's your strengths? What do you think your
01:24weaknesses are? I think, yeah, golf is good at the moment. I'd say my strength is probably my driving.
01:29I could probably still improve my wedges, chipping and putting. So you're going to have access to
01:34somebody who used to be on the European tour. He's one of the best pundits in the game. What do
01:38you
01:38think you'd like to learn from Nick? What are the questions that you want to answer? Probably a few
01:43questions about being on tour. Oh yeah. I'd say I'm quite interested about that and how hard is it to
01:51get there? Well, it's a very exciting proposition in front of us. Right, let's head out to the golf course.
01:57Okay.
01:57Bye-bye.
01:57Bye, bye.
02:07Bye.
02:18Bye.
02:20Bye.
02:23Bye.
02:27We'd have more tees and you're going to make a circle around. Perfect, two.
02:34It's a little bit more back swing. Using that bounce is the thing, you throw more speed at it
02:38but you keep using the bounce. Get that foot open, get that knee over that foot.
02:44Nice.
02:46That's it, plenty of power into it.
02:49Lovely, what a shot to go down the slope. So the only way,
02:53so you almost want to feel like you're soft in your knees as you go down the slope, yeah?
02:57You're back where the rock is the rock, rock.
02:59So feel that in there, look at the nice thing, step away, not too close to the ball.
03:05Right Nick, so let's start with Josh. We firstly played three holes
03:11and what were your first impressions of the way that Josh hits the ball?
03:13He drives it like I wish I did when I was playing on tour. Phenomenal, really great golf swing,
03:19good attitude as well. I think for Josh the most important stuff was getting the most out of the
03:26skills that he already has. Playing off nine 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 care of
03:36itself. So 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 other
03:46areas.
03:47So what would be the general advice then in terms of strategy? Is there anything in there that you can
03:51offer people that they might be able to take into their own games?
03:53Especially, I think this is helpful for juniors in particular because we all remember being juniors,
03:58those of us that have played from a young enough age. When you get to a level where you start
04:02to
04:02spin the golf ball, it becomes something that's very addictive. To be fair, it's a testament to quality
04:10of strike and Josh has that. But sometimes it will lead him to play a more challenging shot than the
04:16one he needs to. The name of the game is how many shots did it take, not how pretty did
04:21they look.
04:21So I think one of the things with Josh that I wanted to try and instill was pick something that
04:26we could reproduce more regularly with it in terms of shot selection around the greens. So for that,
04:32we use the idea of landing it a set point on the green. Barring something weird going on with the
04:37green like the elephant's graveyard at St Andrews, some of that which might influence your shot,
04:41normal green in front of you. Trying to land it roughly a couple yards on every time
04:45and then using that landing point then to tell us what sort of shot should we be playing here.
04:50So what club. So wherever that flag is in relation to that landing point will tell us
04:54is it tight to it, in which case it might be the 60 degree or for Josh it'd be a
04:5858.
04:59Is it a 52? If there's a whole load of green to work with, like maybe across the 11th,
05:03one of the holes we played today, maybe we get down to nine, eight, seven, you know,
05:08and have a nice simple action, which he does already have. Yeah.
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
05:18things to work on through the winter and stuff. When we made him dial in on competing to land it
05:24in the right place. So competing normally is, did you get it up and down? You know,
05:28whereas we moved it to, can you hit, can you deliver this skill?
05:32Which is hitting those landing points. Got it.
05:34Really good. So if he can do that time and time again, he's going to have an electric short game.
05:39And I'd hazard a guess that Josh will shave a ton of strokes off his game by becoming just really,
05:44really effective at the simple stuff around the green.
05:46Yeah. And what's quite interesting, and I was standing in the background watching all of this
05:49as it took place, is that that element of like having a challenge as you practice,
05:53which is more than just getting up and down, as you say, but actually, can you land it on this
05:56towel,
05:56hit it into this circle on the green? It's something that for a, for a junior golfer is
06:01really going to hopefully engage a little bit more in what you're trying to do.
06:05Practice sucks. You know, it's that, I mean, for, 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 got to work at it. You know, that's how we groom these skills. And so the best thing
06:18we can
06:18do and actually to get the most out of that practice is to make it more performance orientated,
06:23which is what most practice isn't. The most guilty thing I see from amateur golfers of the way they
06:29go about what they do is, is the way they practice. Really poor. And I've been a culprit
06:33over the years as well. Scrape hit, scrape hit, scrape hit. You're wasting your time,
06:37unless you're purely grooving a movement, but even still, it should be conscious. You should be engaged
06:43with it because in the end, you have to engage when you get out here on the golf course. If
06:46I take any
06:47amateur anywhere in the world and put them on that first tee in the BMW PGA to hit that tee
06:52shot,
06:52those feelings, how those arms feel, how they feel inside will feel completely different to if I
06:59said, there's a range, there's no one on it. Here's a couple of hundred balls. Have a good day.
07:02Because bored, almost bored, casual. And sometimes it might not even be good because they're just not
07:07focused at all. But the fact is you do that to prepare for this. If we can bring the pressure
07:13to
07:13the practice and in a fun way as well and create that challenge, then one, it might also shift this
07:19to
07:19feeling more like a fun challenge rather than, oh my goodness, I'm terrified at the club championships
07:23next week for adults, less so for kids, you know, to being like, this is fun. It's a challenge. And
07:28also you're used to having to do it under a bit of pressure. And that means that then when you
07:33step
07:33on that first tee, there is a comfort in thinking, this 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 or to
07:42play in the Masters
07:42or teared up on the first tee at the Open in your home city, like that would be terrifying and
07:47feel
07:47uncomfortable to them. But you get used to it the more you put yourself in that position. So if we're
07:51doing 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
07:59strategy when you're on the golf course and also how to practice as well. Some simple advice there
08:03for Josh and hopefully for you too to help you improve. So there you have it, some really simple
08:07and effective advice from Nick for Josh on how to improve by building a better strategy and then how
08:12to work particularly on his short game. Obviously, Nick is a player who's been there and who's done it
08:18before and having that kind of tour player level insight is something that should really help Josh.
08:23Josh as he continues to improve his golf game and hopefully there's some stuff in there that
08:28should really help you as well. That's it for now from Wentworth. Thanks very much for watching.
08:32We'll see you next time.
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