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.
01:57Maynag.
01:58Okay.
02:13Alright, so we'll start with our next time.
02:17Bye, everybody.
02:19Bye.
02:19Bye, everyone.
02:20Bye.
02:27We'd have more tees and you're going to make a circle around, perfect, two, a little bit
02:35more back swing, using that bounce is the thing, you throw more speed at it but you
02:39keep using the bounce, get that foot open, get that knee over that foot, nice, plenty
02:46of power into it. Lovely, what a shot. To go down the slope, so the only way, so you
02:53almost 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. So feel that in there, look at the nice thing,
03:01step away not too close to the ball. Right Nick, so let's start with Josh. We firstly
03:08played three holes and 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
03:19golf swing, good attitude as well. I think for Josh, the most important stuff was getting
03:25the most out of the skills that he already has. Playing off nine, you know, is still immense
03:30at this age and he's progressing nicely. He's going to get naturally bigger and stronger.
03:35So the rest of it should take care of itself. So for him, I think it was a little bit
03:38more
03:38about selection of shots maybe, maybe a bit more strategy-orientated in how he could improve
03:44whilst he just naturally develops in all the other areas.
03:47So what would be the general advice then in terms of strategy? Is there anything in there
03:50that you can offer people that they might be able to take into their own game as well?
03:53Especially, I think this is helpful for juniors in particular because we all remember being
03:57juniors, those of us that have played from a young enough age. When you get to a level where
04:01you start to spin the golf ball, it becomes something that's very addictive. To be fair,
04:09it's a testament to quality of strike and Josh has that. But sometimes it will lead him to
04:14play a more challenging shot than the one he needs to. The name of the game is how many
04:19shots did it take, not how pretty did they look. So I think one of the things with Josh
04:23that I wanted to try and instill was pick something that we could reproduce more regularly with it
04:29in terms of shot selection around the greens. So for that, we use the idea of landing it
04:34a set point on the green, barring something weird going on with a green like the Elephant's
04:38Graveyard at St Andrews, something like that, which might influence your shot. Normal green
04:42in front of you, trying to land it roughly a couple of yards on every time and then using
04:46that landing point then to tell us what sort of shot should we be playing here. So what club?
04:50So wherever that flag is in relation to that landing point will tell us, is it tight to it?
04:55In which case it might be the 60 degree or for Josh, it'd be a 58. Is it a 52?
05:00If there's a
05:01whole load of green to work with, like maybe across the 11th, one of the holes we played today,
05:05maybe we get down to nine, eight, seven, you know, and have a nice simple action, which he does
05:11already have. But he was picking a shot that was much more basic for him. But also you could see
05:15when I set him up, and again, this is something sort of tapping into things to work on through the
05:19winter and stuff. When we made him dial in on competing to land it in the right place. So
05:25competing normally is, did you get it up and down? You know, whereas we moved it to, can you hit,
05:30can you deliver this skill, which is hitting those landing points? Got it. Really good. So if he can
05:35do that time and time again, he's going to have an electric short game. And I'd hazard a guess that
05:40Josh will shave a ton of strokes off his game by becoming just really, really effective at the
05:45simple stuff around the greens. Yeah. And what's quite interesting, and I was standing in the background
05:48watching all of this as it took place, is that that element of like having a challenge as you
05:52practice, which is more than just getting up and down, as you say, but actually, can you land it
05:56on this towel or hit it into this circle on the green? It's something that for a junior golfer is
06:01really going to hopefully engage a little bit more in what you're trying to do. Practice sucks.
06:06You know, it's that, I mean, for, especially for kids, it's the boring bit. You know, they want to be
06:10out there trying to beat their pals, playing in competitions, but we got to work at it. You know,
06:14that's how we groom these skills. So the best thing we can do, and actually to get the most out
06:19of that
06:20practice is to make it more performance orientated, which is what most practice isn't. The most guilty
06:26thing I see from amateur golfers of the way they go about what they do is the way they practice.
06:31Really poor. And I've been a culprit over the years as well. Scrape hit, scrape hit, scrape hit.
06:35You're wasting your time unless you're purely grooving a movement. But even still, it should be
06:41conscious. You should be engaged with it because in the end, you have to engage when you get out
06:45here on the golf course. If I take any amateur anywhere in the world and put them on that first
06:49tee in the BMW PGA to hit that tee shot, those feelings, how those arms feel, how they feel inside
06:56will feel completely different to if I said, there's a range, there's no one on it. Here's a couple of
07:01balls. Have a good day. Because bored, almost bored, casual. And sometimes it might not even be good
07:07because they're just not focused at all. But the fact is, you do that to prepare for this. If we
07:12can
07:12bring the pressure to the practice, and in a fun way as well, and create that challenge, then one,
07:18it might also shift this to feeling more like a fun challenge rather than, oh my goodness, I'm terrified
07:22the club championships next week for adults, less so for kids, you know, to being like, this is fun,
07:27it's a challenge. And also you're used to having to do it under a bit of pressure. And that means
07:32that then
07:32when you step on that first tee, there is a comfort in thinking, this isn't as different. Sure, it's
07:38different. You know, just like if I put someone in a position like I have to win on tour or
07:41to play
07:42in the Masters or teared up on the first tee at the Open in your home city, like that would
07:46be
07:46terrifying and feel uncomfortable to them. But you get used to it the more you put yourself in that
07:50position. So 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 when
07:59you're on the golf course and also how to practice as well. Some simple advice there for Josh and
08:04hopefully for you too to help you improve. So there you have it. Some really simple and
08:07effective advice from Nick for Josh on how to improve by building a better strategy and then
08:12how to work, particularly on his short game. Obviously, Nick is a player who's been there and
08:18who's done it before. And having that kind of tour player level insight is something that should really
08:23help Josh as he continues to improve his golf game. And hopefully there's some stuff in there that should
08:28really 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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