Tips On How To Improve Without Changing Swing

How can you play better golf without changing your golf swing? That’s what we’re going to find out in this video, and to help us, we have a special guest Now. Most of you watching this will know Nick Doherty from fronting up the Sky Sports Golf coverage, but also from his tee time tips, videos that he releases on Instagram that have been so popular with so many golfers. If you haven’t already seen them, please do head over and check them out, but by the end of this video, we want to give you some inspiration. So 5 simple action points that will help you improve your scores without you needing to head to the range and make major swing changes. Now, the way in which this video is going to work is that Nick is going to play three holes here at Wentworth on the West Coast with an amateur golfer. This is somebody who’s played golf for the last 30 years. He’s struggling with his game, but he doesn’t really have the time or frankly the inclination to head to the range and go through that sort of swing rebuilding process. So effectively, we’re challenging Nick to come up with the easiest and simplest ways to help our golfer improve. Now the last thing to say is this video is coming to you in association with TaylorMade. They sponsor Nick and they’ve also kitted out our amateur golfer. Speaking of which, I think it’s time to meet the man in question, Mike Harris. OK, so Mike Harris, our amateur golfer for the day 10 handicapper, right? You’ve been playing golf for 30 years. Is that right? Tell us what. What is it that’s going ultimately going wrong with your golf game at the moment you think Nick might be able to help you with? I think it’s a really interesting one. So like everyone, I want to play better golf. But I think as I’ve got older and I realise where golf fits into my life, I actually just want to play well in the important rounds when it matters, whether it’s a medal or a club championships or a trip away with friends. And I’ve also realised that I don’t have the time to really invest to get a lot better technically. So I suppose I want to limit the mistakes. I know. My better rounds, when I look at my Arcos data, would tend to be the rounds where I’m not having double S and trebles in there. It’s not so much much about making loads of birdies, it’s about, I guess, playing to my strengths and not making those silly mistakes. I’m hoping that Nick can offer me some advice on how to make the most of my game. How do I guess enjoy golf more? And you enjoy golf more by playing I think fewer bad shots. So specifically, where do you think is the biggest area, Let’s call it an opportunity? Biggest opportunity probably to be less bad would be in my iron Play. I’m very inconsistent on my Iron Play and my short game as well. Used to feel like I had a really good short game. Completely deserted me. It’s coming back a little bit, but I still don’t get up and down anywhere near often enough. Let’s set Nick the challenge. Can Nick help Mike play better golf without swinging the Golf Club any better? Let’s go find out the OK, so Nick, you’ve played three holes with Mike, and it’s been an interesting experience watching the various different bits of advice that you’ve given Mike along the way. And we’re going to divide this part of the video up into five different sections. And Nick, I want to talk to you about in this first section about managing stress and nerves, because I think part of Mike’s issue is that he wants to play well, but he’s not fussed really about playing well all the time. But he wants to play well when it matters. So what advice would you give people about managing their nerves around the course? I think it’s a, it’s an overall mentality and sure, we all want to play well, you know, when we go away for that trip or when we play in that Club Championship or whatever it may be. But unfortunately it’s like a wet bar of soap. The more we want it, the more it tries to get away from us. So I think a lot of it comes down to acceptance. First of all, you can only do what you can do. You can only be the best that you can be with the game that you have. And accepting that golf is a hard game, first of all. And you it’s going to go wrong. You’re going to hit shots that don’t work out. You’re going to do lots of things right that don’t get the results that you expect they’re going to do. There are a few little things that you can do on the golf course that can assist. So for instance, you know, one of the things with Mike there was with the putter and he said to me on the 10th hole here at Wentworth that the I have the birdie putts. And I sort of think, yeah, I really want these ones because I know I need it because it’ll get me going. But the fact of the matter is you need to again accept that every single part is worth exactly the same. If it’s for A2 or A7, we still want it because it’s still worth the whole shot. So that first of all just a little bit of logic can put that to bed. But then after that getting out of your own way. And so for Mike, it was all about trying to have something to think about that takes him away from thinking about the meaning of making or missing that part. So we use something really simple for him, which one help is stroke. So physiologically it’s a nice thing to do as well. And it was the simple actor saying back roll as he hit it. So you say back in the back string rolls you go through because if you’re thinking about saying those words you’re then also you’re saying that out loud. You can’t. I would do but you know granted you know you someone’s going to give you a big grief in your fore ball maybe if you start talking to yourself and you’re playing but the but it absolutely stay inside. Don’t take something you sound to focus on it as you’re doing it saying back and roll and it takes your mind away from thinking about the outcome and puts you into the process of doing what you’re doing so you’re not worried about if it goes in because you’re just thinking about this. The great thing about this is you can be a top, top golfer or you can be somebody’s just starting out the game, managing nerves, managing your stress is a really important part of the game that should really help. OK, so the next one is about figuring out your yardages and picking the right club and Nick as a as a pro, as somebody who’s done this so many times in the past. There’s an awful lot more to this, as I discovered as we were working our way around the golf course today, than the kind of, I guess most amateurs would maybe give it credit for. So what are the things that amateurs should be doing more often than they don’t currently do? To find the right yardage? Find the right club? Well, find the right yardage would be the first one, right? Because a lot of the time, if you use some sort of a range Finder or use a smart watch or whatever you use to get your distance, you can get a yardage to a flag. But that’s not really it. So if the flag for instance here on 18 you’re hitting a wedge shot and it’s 135 to go to the flag or 135 is not your yardage, Most of your yardages need to be your carry distances because you can’t say oh with roll it goes this because every course you play, if it’s in the middle of winter and it goes or in the middle of summer on a links score, so it’s going to bounce 15 yards further on your yardage was always changed. And hitting A5 iron into a green is going to be different to hitting a sand iron into a green. So you know just having the exact number you need to calculate what that is. So if we’re hitting A5 iron into the last green, I’d need to take 10 yards off at least my landing point. So if the yardage was 205 to the flag, actually my carry yardage is 195 because that’s where I need to land it. And then you’ve got to take into account as well, wind direction, slope as well. And one of the things I noticed when Mike was on the 11th hole, he had 113, I think he had and I said we’ll go on what else are we working out here? And and he said, well, it’s uphill. I mean, so yeah and what’s that? And you could tell it’s just like it’s playing further, you know, which is right. No, it’s right. But but we need more, right? We do need more because the difference between success and failure can be quite a fine margin in this game. And I know from having used range finders, but also all the years of playing the game within a yard or two, what a slope is. But a lot of the range finders now you can find that or you know you can find devices that will give you that sort of information. So it was 5 uphill, so it’s not 112 or 113. I think it was 113. It’s 118. It’s into the wind there as well. And so when we play in the wind, most people, any sort of breeze will say it’s, oh, it’s 10 yards or it’s a clever wind. You’re saying the wind’s the same strength Every time you’ve played there’s been winds, the same strength. No, it’s always different. But a nice thing you can do. You can always use your phone now to find out what the speed of the wind is going to be across the day. And let’s say, for instance, it is 10 mph, the winds, if it’s downwind. This is a generalisation, but it’s really close to the truth. It’s about a yard per mile per hour. So if it’s ten mile an hour downwind, it’s going to play about 10 yards less. OK into the win though it’s double. So when if you’re playing it into a 10 miles per an hour wind, it’s two yards per mile per hour. So it’s 20 into yet most people I’d hazard a guess would say well if it’s a club down, it’s a club into and it’s not, it’s double the difference. And again it’s a generalisation but it’s remarkably close to to being factual in terms of the way that a wind will affect the balls. So it’s really important to calculate those things. Pick your landing point as well, know where you want to land it. Take the slope into all that as well and and that gives you a number. And only when you’ve done all that work before you even take the club back can you honestly say I know what the distance is. And regardless of who you are, if you’re if you’re John Rahm or or you and I, we all have the same ability as John Rahm before we take move the club. So we can do this. This is not really, it’s not rocket science, but but it does take a bit of learning and remembering to do the right processes. So for Mike there, we just said well, make it easier to have more control because actually as much as the total number we’ve got now is correct for how it’s playing, we need to hit a shot that we can make get there without having to swing out of our shoes, especially into the wind. So I mean, there are some mistakes in there that I know that I make, and I’m sure many of you do too. Picking the right club, There is more to it than just saying, ah, that’s a one club win. Use some of Nick’s tips. There should really help. OK. So the next one, Nick is kind of feels a bit more technical, but it’s something that everyone needs to get right and can do probably better. Talk us through the first. You can. Talk us through the importance of posture. If you’ve got poor posture, and for most of us, especially me, I’m terrible for it because I do it when I’m sat in a chair as well, I’m this way. I just switch off. I come in this way and when I’m tired, I naturally go like this. And then that goes to the golf course. Then when I’m on the course next minute, I’m stood like I’m, you know, 85 years of age and everything’s constricted When when we get into this position, nothing wants to turn properly, so we end up with lots of arms. We swing. So I really like this because if nothing else, it means that you can turn up and feel the same every time. It’s like a reset button and it’s a super simple one. I like it because one, it’s easy to do, but also it’s super easy to visualise is the goalkeeper posture. I really, really like it. So if you were, you know, MO Salah’s about to step up and take a penalty and you’re on the goal line, how would you stand to take that, you know, receive that penalty? You’d have the weight naturally in the balls of the feet. We’re on a little bit of a slope here, so it’s more challenging, but you’d have the weight naturally towards the balls of the feet, so you’d be athletic. There would be a little bit of bend in the knees. There’d be a nice little angle, the correct angle in the lower part of the spine there through the bum. And then when the chest would be nicely up, the chin would be slightly off the chest. But you wouldn’t think of any of that. Whereas you go for lesson sometimes and you might get a pro and you’ll be like a bit of that, a bit of that, a bit of that, get that knee twisted in it. And next to me you’re like, OK, how’s that? And Oh my God, is this all I’ve got? And of course you Ridge it because you’re trying, you’re trying, aren’t you? But what about those people who feel like physically there’s something restricting them. If you think, well, you know, I can’t get into that position, You are there. We don’t have to get there. We can just do our best to get into a position that allows us to move as well as we can. You have to play around what you have in the locker and a great coach will do that for you. Yeah, but we can. You know, you still have to make the effort to be the best that you can be and still have it. If it’s causing pain, it’s no good. Yeah. So I mean, finding the right posture, vitally important, as Nick says, hopefully that’s simple and effective. Give it a go. OK, so for this part we’re going to talk about short game. Nick, what did you think of Mike’s short game? Firstly, I thought, you know what I really liked about it was there was the shot in the 12 where the pro shot. So the right shot, which is a dangerous way to label it, was landing it on the green bit of check. Roll it down to the hole because otherwise you have to play deal with this upslope to judge. Then onto the flat, then onto the downslope. Seemed harder, but actually Mike was just, I’d look at it and think, oh, don’t really fancy it. There’s the tip in itself, Like if you don’t like it, then it’s probably not going to work because you’re going to start to go down that hole. And almost to the degree where you before you’ve hit it, thinking, I know I’m going to be annoyed at myself because this isn’t the right shot, because I don’t feel I don’t like this. I knew I’d do that. You know, if that’s the if that’s what comes out of your mouth, I knew I’d do that. That’s on you because you had a choice. If you knew you’d do it, why’d you do it? No one said you have to play this game a certain way. That’s your choice and there’s a great satisfaction from doing it your own way. All the guys on tour do it that way, you know. They’ve all got a different strategy. And he played this lovely, beautiful shot as well, you know, with a low eye in and just scampered up the bank because he was comfortable. And something that’s a bad decision with commitment will always do better than something. That’s a good decision without commitment, right? I’d always try and land it a yard on the green. You can do it 2 yards, it can be anything you want, but I always try and think I’ll land it a yard on the green, you know, like I did on the 10th hole. That was all the shots sort of put to me there. I didn’t execute perfectly, but I was all in with the commitment to it. Then where the flag is tells me what club to play. Now if it’s right there and it’s only sort of three or four on the green, it’s that 60° definitely because I haven’t got any room. If it’s another 10 feet on, it might be a 56 or 52°, it’s across the other side of the green. It might even be A5 iron or something like that if you’ve got a nice light to do it. But what I’m always doing is landing in the same place. So then all I need to do is I’ve done enough practice and hit enough shots, which most of us have. So now roughly how far would A79 run if I landed it there? Roughly how far would my Sandine run, or my 60° run if I landed it there? Which doesn’t take a lot of work, but what it does, it takes all the way. All that indecision of where do I land it, what sort of shot, how high should I hit it? You just think, well I’ve got to land it there and it’s got to roll to there, so that would be a 52. Nice. So often people reach for too much loft. Actually, it’s a higher tariff shock with that sort of sort of club. Yeah. For me it’s the simplicity and the commitment and if you can do both of those things, no doubt about it, you’ll get it up and down more often. So Nick, the final area to talk to you about then is a bit of strategy and a bit of course management, something that you covered quite a bit with Mike during that that three holes period. What, what was the sort of general advice that you’re giving? Like I think taking medicine is the is the best one, you know in terms of scoring. So often the big numbers come because we won’t accept that we’ve made an error and we try to get it all back straight away. When you do hit it in trouble, looking at the light damage limitation. OK, horrible lie like Mike’s ball there in the Heather awful Lie tree in front of us. Well, yeah, yeah, the shots, the low one under the tree, but you can’t physically come out of that. You can’t lift it out of that, which needs laugh, but keep it under that. So just because you want it, Mike. Fortunately, bud, it can’t have it. So the first job is get it out of that, which means we can’t do that. So now we have to make our decision. You’ve made that strategy shift before you’ve ever gone to, you know, pull the club out the bag and OK, that’s the plan. I have to take it on the chin. That’s what’s happened. Chip it out. And then you build from there. Whereas the eights and nines and you know, whatever else it may be come from that. We tried to do more and it’s only worth a shot, the same as the one you hit off the T So, you know, I think that that’s really important. The other shot we looked at when we were in there with my with the opportunity, if the lie was clean, I think it’s a nice little tip, just a bonus one. But if you’re punching out through trees, when you’re punching out through trees and there’s a gap, don’t aim for the gap. Picture a flag in the distance might be in the middle of the gap, assuming that’s where we’re going, right in the middle of the gap. It’s amazing. Often we miss it when we just try and steer it through the gap because we start to steer it like this towards it rather than if it was a flag, we wouldn’t try and steer it down the line, we’d make a swing towards the flag. So be really precise when you’re picking a spot that’s through a gap in the trees that you’re aiming for and then let it all hang out because if you aim small, miss small sort of mentality and I think it will help people to find their way through that gap more often. So there you have it. Play smart, Shoot, lower scores, simple. So that’s us, finished. Mike, you’ve played your three holes with Nick from what I could see. Just so much really helpful information in there. What did you find to be most useful, do you think of the the stuff that Nick was telling you? So it’s really interesting. There was so much good stuff that actually had to make some notes on my phone and write it all down. I guess the most technical thing that Nick said, two things were check my alignment and I know I need to do that better. I tend to stand a bit closed and then with my posture he gave me the really cool tip of and I used to be a goalkeeper when I was a kid, have that goalkeeper posture ready to try and save a penalty. So those are two things that are really easy to remember, don’t need to do anything changing my swing. He talked as well about if I start to overthink, concentrate on your breathing. He said if you are breathing and in or as you’re addressing the ball and out as you swing, that’s actually what you’ll then think about. You’re not thinking about all the technical stuff. He just said being on every shot. And I think what Nick was saying there was just really commit to it. Have a line, have a target and then commit to the shot. Don’t, don’t poke it, don’t be nervous. Last question then, Mike. So 10 handicapper of all the the advice that Nick has given given to you then what does success look like then for you? I think success would be playing under my handicap at whatever that handicap was at that given point in a round that really mattered. So there you have it. That completes our look at how you might just be able to shoot lower scores without changing your golf swing. Some fantastic advice from Nick Doherty. As I said at the beginning, if you haven’t checked out tea time tips, do go over to Nick’s Instagram. Have a look. You’ll find loads of great information on how to do everything better in the golf game, frankly. But that’s it for now from Wentworth. Thank you very much for watching. We’ll see you next time.