In this video Neil Tappin, Digital Editor of Golf Monthly explains:
How can you play better golf without changing your swing with guest Nick Dougherty.
In association with Taylor Made.
How can you play better golf without changing your swing with guest Nick Dougherty.
In association with Taylor Made.
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00:00 How can you play better golf without changing your golf swing?
00:03 That's what we're going to find out in this video and to help us,
00:07 we have a special guest.
00:08 Now most of you watching this will know Nick Doherty from Fronting Up The Sky
00:12 Sports golf coverage,
00:13 but also from his Tea Time Tips videos that he releases on Instagram that have
00:17 been so popular with so many golfers. If you haven't already seen them,
00:20 please do head over and check them out. But by the end of this video,
00:23 we want to give you some inspiration.
00:25 So five simple action points that will help you improve your scores
00:30 without you needing to head to the range and make major swing changes.
00:34 Now the way in which this video is going to work is that Nick is going to play
00:37 three holes here at Wentworth on the West Coast with an amateur golfer.
00:41 This is somebody who's played golf for the last 30 years.
00:44 He's struggling with his game, but he doesn't really have the time,
00:48 or frankly the inclination to head to the range and go through that sort of
00:51 swing rebuilding process. So effectively,
00:55 we're challenging Nick to come up with the easiest and simplest ways to help our
00:59 golfer improve.
01:00 Now the last thing to say is that this video is coming to you in association
01:03 with TaylorMade. They sponsor Nick, and they've also kitted out our amateur golfer.
01:08 Speaking of which, I think it's time to meet the man in question, Mike Harris.
01:12 Okay. So Mike Harris, our amateur golfer for the day, 10 handicapper, right?
01:16 You've been playing golf for 30 years. Is that right?
01:20 And tell us what is it that's going ultimately going wrong with your golf game at
01:25 the moment that you think Nick might be able to help you with?
01:27 I think it's a really interesting one. So like everyone,
01:30 I want to play better golf,
01:31 but I think as I've got older and I realized where golf fits into my life,
01:36 I actually just want to play well in the important rounds when it matters,
01:40 whether it's a medal or a club championships or a trip away with friends.
01:44 And I've also realized that I don't have the time to really invest to get a lot
01:48 better technically. So I suppose I want to limit the mistakes.
01:52 I know my better rounds when I look at my R-cost data would tend to be the
01:56 rounds where I'm not having doubles and trebles in there.
02:00 It's not so much about making loads of birdies.
02:02 It's about I guess playing to my strengths and not making those silly
02:07 mistakes.
02:08 I'm hoping that Nick can offer me some advice on how to make the most of my
02:13 game. How do I guess enjoy golf more?
02:16 And you enjoy golf more by playing I think fewer bad shots.
02:21 So specifically, where do you think is the biggest area?
02:23 Let's call it an opportunity.
02:25 Biggest opportunity probably to be less bad would be in my iron play.
02:30 I'm very inconsistent on my iron play and my short game as well.
02:34 Used to feel like I had a really good short game, completely deserted me.
02:37 It's coming back a little bit,
02:38 but I still don't get up and down anywhere near often enough.
02:43 So let's set Nick the challenge.
02:45 Can Nick help Mike play better golf without swinging the golf club any better?
02:49 Let's go find out.
02:51 [Music]
02:56 [Music]
03:01 Okay. So Nick, you've played three holes with Mike.
03:25 And it's been an interesting experience watching the various different bits of
03:28 advice that you've given Mike along the way.
03:30 And we're going to divide this part of the video up into five different sections.
03:34 And Nick, I wanted to talk to you about in this first section about managing
03:37 stress and nerves,
03:39 because I think part of Mike's issue is that he wants to play well,
03:42 but he's not fussed really about playing well all the time,
03:45 but he wants to play well when it matters.
03:46 So what advice would you give people about managing their nerves around the
03:50 course?
03:51 I think it's an overall mentality.
03:54 And sure, we all want to play well, you know,
03:56 when we go away for that trip or when we play in that club championship or
03:59 whatever it may be. But unfortunately, it's like a wet bar of soap.
04:02 The more we want it, the more it tries to get away from us.
04:04 So I think a lot of it comes down to acceptance. First of all,
04:06 you can only do what you can do.
04:07 You can only be the best that you can be with the game that you have.
04:10 And accepting that golf is a hard game, first of all, and it's going to go wrong.
04:13 You're going to hit shots that don't work out.
04:15 You're going to do lots of things right that don't get the results that you
04:18 expect they're going to do.
04:19 There are a few little things that you can do on the golf course that can
04:21 assist. So for instance, you know,
04:23 one of the things with Mike there was with the putter.
04:25 And he said to me on the 10th hole here at Wentworth that the,
04:28 I have the birdie pots and I sort of think, yeah,
04:31 I really want these ones because I know I need it because it will get me going.
04:34 But the fact of the matter is you need to again,
04:36 accept that every single putt is worth exactly the same.
04:39 If it's for a two or a seven,
04:40 we still want it because it's still worth the whole shot. So that first of all,
04:44 just a little bit of logic can put that to bed. But then after that,
04:47 getting out of your own way. And so for Mike,
04:49 it was all about trying to have something to think about that takes him away from
04:52 thinking about the meaning of making or missing that putt.
04:56 So we use something really simple for him, which one help is stroke.
04:59 So physiologically, it's a nice thing to do as well.
05:01 And it was the simple act of saying back roll as he hit it.
05:05 So you say back in the backswing roll as you go through,
05:07 because if you're thinking about saying those words, you're then also.
05:11 Are you saying that out loud?
05:12 You can't, I would do, but you know, granted, you know,
05:15 you someone's going to give you a bit of grief in your foreball,
05:18 maybe if you start talking to yourself and you're playing, but the,
05:20 but it absolutely stay inside. Don't take something else.
05:23 You start to focus on it as you're doing it, saying back and roll.
05:25 And it takes your mind away from thinking about the outcome and puts you into the
05:29 process of doing what you're doing.
05:30 So you're not worried about if it goes in because you're just thinking about
05:33 this.
05:33 The great thing about this is you can be a top, top golfer,
05:36 or you can be somebody who's just starting out the game. Managing nerves,
05:40 managing your stress is a really important part of the game that should really
05:44 help.
05:48 Okay. So the next one is about figuring out your yardages and picking the right
05:52 club. And Nick, as a, as a pro,
05:54 as somebody who's done this so many times in the past,
05:57 there's an awful lot more to this. As I discovered,
06:00 as we were working our way around the golf course today, then the kind of,
06:03 I guess most amateurs would maybe give it credit for.
06:05 So what are the things that amateurs should be doing more often than they don't
06:09 currently do to find the right yardage, find the right club.
06:12 Well, find the right yardage would be the first one, right?
06:15 Because a lot of the time, if you use some sort of a range finder,
06:18 or use a smartwatch or whatever you use to get your distance,
06:21 you can get a yardage to a flag, but that's not really it.
06:24 So if the flag for instance, here on 18,
06:26 you're hitting a wedge shot and it's 135 to go to the flag.
06:29 But 135 is not your yardage.
06:31 Most of your yardages need to be your carry distances because you can't say,
06:34 oh, with roll it goes this, because every course you play,
06:36 if it's in the middle of winter and it goes blup,
06:38 or in the middle of summer on a link score,
06:40 so it's going to bounce 15 yards further on, your yardages will always change.
06:43 And hitting a five iron into a green is going to be different to hitting a sand
06:46 iron into a green. So, you know, just having the exact number,
06:49 you need to calculate what that is.
06:50 So if we're hitting a five iron into the last green,
06:52 I'd need to take 10 yards off at least my landing point.
06:56 So if the yardage was 205 to the flag,
07:00 actually my carry yardage is 195 because that's where I need to land it.
07:03 And then you've got to take into account as well, wind direction, slope as well.
07:07 And one of the things I noticed when Mike was on the 11th hole, he had 113,
07:11 I think he had, and I said, well, go on, what else are we working out here?
07:14 And he said, well, it's uphill. And I said, yeah, what's that?
07:18 And you could tell he was like, uh, it's playing further.
07:22 But we need more, right?
07:26 We do need more because the difference between success and failure can be quite
07:29 a fine margin in this game. And I know from having used range finders,
07:33 but also all the years of playing the game within a yard or two, what a slope is.
07:37 But a lot of the range finders now you can find that, or, you know,
07:40 you can find devices that will give you that sort of information.
07:42 So it was five uphill. So it's not 112 or 113.
07:46 I think it was 113. It's 118. It was into the wind there as well.
07:50 And so when we play in the wind, most people,
07:52 any sort of breeze will say it's 10 yards or it's a clever wind.
07:56 You saying the wind's the same strength every time you've played,
07:59 there's been wind at the same strength. No, it's always different,
08:01 but a nice thing you can do,
08:02 you can always use your phone now to find out what the speed of the wind is
08:04 going to be across the day. And let's say for instance,
08:06 it is 10 miles per hour, the wind. If it's downwind,
08:09 this is a generalization, but it's really close to the truth.
08:12 It's about a yard per miles per hour. So if it's 10 mile an hour downwind,
08:16 it's going to play about 10 yards less. Okay. Into the wind though, it's double.
08:20 So when, if you're playing it into a 10 miles per an hour wind,
08:23 it's two yards per mile per hour. So it's 20 into.
08:26 Yet most people I'd hazard a guess would say, well, if it's a club down,
08:31 it's a club into, and it's not, it's double the difference. And again,
08:34 it's a generalization,
08:35 but it's remarkably close to being factual in terms of the way that a wind will
08:39 affect the balls. So it's really important to calculate those things,
08:42 pick your landing point as well. Know where you want to land it,
08:44 take the slope into all that as well. And that gives you a number.
08:47 And only when you've done all that work before you even take the club back,
08:50 can you honestly say, I know what the distance is.
08:52 And regardless of who you are, if you're, if you're John Rahm or you and I,
08:58 we all have the same ability as John Rahm before we move the club.
09:01 So we can do this. This is not really, it's not rocket science,
09:05 but it does take a bit of learning and remembering to do the right processes.
09:09 So for Mike there, we just said, well, make it easier,
09:11 have more control because actually as much as the total number we've got now is
09:15 correct for how it's playing,
09:16 we need to hit a shot that we can make get there without having to swing out of
09:19 our shoes, especially into the wind.
09:21 So, I mean,
09:22 there are some mistakes in there that I know that I make and I'm sure many of
09:25 you do too. Picking the right club,
09:27 there is more to it than just saying, ah, that's a one club wind.
09:30 Use some of Nick's tips there, which should really help.
09:37 Okay. So the next one, Nick is kind of, it feels a bit more technical,
09:40 but it's something that everyone needs to get right and can do probably better.
09:46 Talk us through the, first you can talk us through the importance of posture.
09:49 If you've got poor posture and for most of us, especially me,
09:52 I'm terrible for it because I do it when I'm sat in a chair as well.
09:54 I'm this way. I just switch off. I come in this way. And when I'm tired,
09:58 I naturally go like this. And then that goes to the golf course.
10:00 Then when I'm on the course next minute, I'm stood like, you know,
10:03 85 years of age and everything's constricted. When,
10:06 when we get into this position,
10:07 nothing wants to turn properly so we end up with lots of armsy swings.
10:11 So I really like this because if nothing else,
10:13 it means that you can turn up and feel the same every time.
10:16 It's like a reset button and it's a super simple one.
10:19 I like it because one it's easy to do,
10:21 but also it's super easy to visualize is the goalkeeper posture.
10:25 I really, really like it. So if you were, you know,
10:28 Mo Salah is about to step up and take a penalty and you're on the goal line,
10:31 how would you stand to take that, you know, receive that penalty?
10:34 You'd have the weight naturally in the balls of the feet.
10:37 We're on a little bit of a slope here, so it's more challenging,
10:38 but you'd have the weight naturally towards the balls of the feet.
10:41 So you'd be athletic. There will be a little bit of bend in the knees.
10:43 There'd be a nice little angle,
10:44 the correct angle in the lower part of the spine there through the bum.
10:47 And then when the chest would be nicely up,
10:50 the chin would be slightly off the chest, but you wouldn't think of any of that.
10:52 Whereas you go for lessons sometimes and you might get a pro and you'll be like
10:56 a bit of that, a bit of that, a bit of that, get that knee twisted in it.
10:58 And next week you're like, okay, how's that? And oh my God, is this all I've got?
11:02 And of course you're rigid because you're trying, you're trying, aren't you?
11:05 But what about those people who feel like physically
11:07 there's something restricting them?
11:08 If you think, well, you know, I can't get into that position, you are there.
11:11 We don't have to get there.
11:13 We can just do our best to get into a position that allows us to move
11:15 as well as we can.
11:16 You have to play around what you have in the locker.
11:19 And a great coach will do that for you. Yeah.
11:21 But we can, you know, you still have to make the effort to be the best
11:25 that you can be, you can still have it.
11:26 If it's causing pain, it's no good.
11:27 Yeah. So, I mean, finding the right posture, vitally important, as Nick says,
11:32 hopefully that's simple and effective. Give it a go.
11:34 OK, so for this part, we're going to talk about short game.
11:41 What did you think of Mike's short game firstly?
11:45 I thought, you know what I really liked about it was there was the shot in the 12
11:48 where the pro shot, so the right shot,
11:52 which is a dangerous way to label it, was landing it on the green.
11:57 Bit of check, roll it down to the hole, because otherwise you had to play a deal
12:00 with this upslope to judge, then onto the flat, then onto the downslope.
12:03 Seemed harder.
12:04 But actually, Mike was just like, I look at it and think,
12:07 oh, I don't really fancy it.
12:09 There's the tip in itself.
12:10 Like, if you don't like it, then it's probably not going to work
12:13 because you're going to start to go down that hole.
12:15 Yeah. And almost to the degree where you before you've hit it, thinking,
12:18 I know I'm going to be annoyed at myself because this isn't the right shot
12:20 because I don't fit, I don't like this.
12:22 I knew I'd do that.
12:23 You know, if that's what comes out of your mouth, I knew I'd do that.
12:26 That's on you because you had a choice.
12:28 If you knew you'd do it, why'd you do it?
12:30 No one said you have to play this game a certain way.
12:32 That's your choice.
12:34 And there's a great satisfaction from doing it your own way.
12:36 All the guys on tour do it that way.
12:37 Yeah. You know, they've all got a different strategy.
12:39 And he played this lovely and beautiful shot as well,
12:42 you know, with a low iron and just scamp it up the bank because he was comfortable.
12:46 And something that's a bad decision with commitment will always do better
12:49 than something that's a good decision without commitment. Right.
12:51 I'd always try and land it a yard on the green.
12:53 You can do it two yards, can be anything you want.
12:55 But I always try and think I'll land a yard on the green,
12:57 you know, like I did on the 10th hole.
13:00 That was the shot sort of gets me there.
13:02 Yeah, I didn't execute perfectly, but I was all in with the commitment to it.
13:05 Then where the flag is tells me what club to play.
13:08 Now, if it's right there and it's only sort of three or four on the green,
13:10 it's that 60 degree.
13:11 Definitely, because I've got any room.
13:13 If it's another 10 feet on, it might be a 56 or 52 degree.
13:17 It's across the other side of the green.
13:18 It might even be a five iron or something like that.
13:20 If you've got a nice lie to do it. OK.
13:22 But what I'm always doing is land it in the same place.
13:24 So then all I need to do is have done enough practice and hit enough shots,
13:27 which most of us have.
13:28 So now roughly how far would a seven iron run if I landed it there?
13:31 Roughly how far would my sand iron run or my 60 degree run if I landed it there?
13:35 Which doesn't take a lot of work.
13:36 But what it does, it takes away all that indecision of where do I land it?
13:40 What sort of shot? How high should I hit it?
13:42 You just think, well, I've got to land it there and it's got to roll to there.
13:45 So that would be a 52. Nice.
13:48 So often people reach for too much loft.
13:50 Actually, it's a higher tariff shot with that sort of club.
13:53 Yeah, for me, it's the simplicity and the commitment.
13:56 And if you can do both of those things, no doubt about it,
13:59 you'll get up and down more often.
14:00 So Nick, the final area to talk to you about then is a bit of strategy
14:08 and a bit of course management,
14:09 something that you covered quite a bit with Mike during that that three whole period.
14:13 What was the sort of general advice that you're giving Mike?
14:16 I think taking medicine is the is the best one, you know, in terms of scoring.
14:20 So often the big numbers come because we won't accept that we've made an error
14:24 and we try to get it all back straight away when you do hit it in trouble.
14:27 Looking at the lie, damage limitation.
14:30 OK, horrible lie, like Mike's ball there in the in the heather.
14:33 Awful lie. Tree in front of us.
14:37 Well, yeah, yeah, the shots, the low one under the tree.
14:39 But you can't physically come out of that.
14:41 You can't lift it out of that, which needs loft.
14:44 Yeah, you need to keep it under that.
14:45 So just because you want it, Mike, fortunately, bud, you can't have it.
14:49 So the first job is get it out of that, which means we can't do that.
14:53 So now we have to make our decision.
14:55 You've made that strategy shift before you've ever gone to,
14:57 you know, pull the club out the bag. OK, that's the plan.
14:59 I have to take it on the chin. That's what's happened.
15:01 Chip it out. And then you build from there.
15:04 Whereas the eights and nines and, you know, whatever else it may be,
15:07 come from that we tried to do more.
15:08 And it's only worth a shot the same as the one you hit off the tee.
15:11 So, you know, I think that's really important.
15:13 The other shot we looked at when we were in there with Mike,
15:16 we had the opportunity, if the lie was clean, I think it's a nice little tip,
15:19 just a bonus one, if you're punching out through trees,
15:21 when you're punching out through trees and there's a gap, don't aim for the gap.
15:25 Picture a flag in the distance.
15:27 It might be in the middle of the gap,
15:28 assuming that's where we're going right in the middle of the gap.
15:30 It's amazing how often we miss it when we just try and steer it through the gap.
15:33 Right. Because we start to steer it like this towards it,
15:35 rather than if it was a flag, we wouldn't try and steer it down the line.
15:38 We'd make a swing towards the flag.
15:40 So be really precise when you're picking a spot
15:42 that's through a gap in the trees that you're aiming for and then let it all hang out.
15:46 Because if you aim small, miss small sort of mentality.
15:48 And I think it will help people to find their way through that gap more often.
15:51 So there you have it. Play smart, shoot lower scores. Simple.
15:55 So that's us finished, Mike.
15:57 You've played your three holes with Nick.
15:59 From what I could see, just so much really helpful information in there.
16:03 What did you find to be most useful, do you think, of the stuff that Nick was telling you?
16:08 So it's really interesting.
16:09 There was so much good stuff that I actually had to make some notes
16:12 on my phone and write it all down.
16:15 I guess the most technical thing that Nick said, two things were check my alignment
16:20 and I know I need to do that better.
16:22 I tend to stand a bit closed.
16:23 And then with my posture, he gave me the really cool tip of,
16:26 and I used to be a goalkeeper when I was a kid,
16:28 have that goalkeeper posture ready to try and save a penalty.
16:32 So those are two things that are really easy to remember.
16:35 Don't need to do anything, change my swing.
16:37 He talked as well about if I start to overthink, concentrate on your breathing.
16:42 He said if you are breathing and in as you're addressing the ball and out as you swing,
16:47 that's actually what you'll then think about.
16:49 You're not thinking about all the technical stuff.
16:50 He just said be in on every shot.
16:52 And I think what Nick was saying there is just really commit to it.
16:55 Have a line, have a target and then commit to the shot.
16:58 Don't don't poke it. Don't be nervous.
17:01 Last question then, Mike.
17:02 So ten handicapper.
17:04 Of all the advice that Nick has given to you then,
17:08 what does success look like for you?
17:11 I think success would be playing under my handicap,
17:16 whatever that handicap was at that given point, in a round that really mattered.
17:22 So there you have it.
17:23 That completes our look at how you might just be able to shoot lower scores
17:27 without changing your goal swing.
17:29 Some fantastic advice from Nick Doherty.
17:31 As I said at the beginning, if you haven't checked out Tee Time Tips,
17:34 do go over to Nick's Instagram, have a look.
17:37 You'll find loads of great information on how to do everything better
17:40 in the golf game, frankly.
17:42 But that's it for now from Wentworth.
17:44 Thank you very much for watching. We'll see you next time.
17:46 [Music]