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 play
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 help
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 around the
01:02course more than anything else. Okay, so then what are the strengths, what are the weaknesses in your
01:08golf game? Definitely strengths would be wedges and short irons. Generally speaking, the longer the
01:14club, the more wayward I can get. Right, and when we're talking wayward, are we talking right or left?
01:19A little bit of both, to be true. Right, okay, so what are you looking then? So you've got access to
01:24Nick, what are you looking for in terms of advice to help you play? Just to basically straighten me
01:29out a little bit, help me hit the ball a little bit straighter. I know I can feel there's certain
01:33parts of my swing that aren't right, it's just the order in which to correct that. Yeah, okay.
01:38Great. Well, I think you're with the right person today. Right, let's head out onto the golf course
01:42and meet Nick.
02:12See in the balls of the feet, certainly in that more forward side. The top corner, I'd kick out that
02:27way, wouldn't I? I'd put the spin on the ball and if I was trying to bend it the other way,
02:30even as a right footer, I'd kick this side of the ball and then let me just see that.
02:34So now just feel that path of the other line. Make me work this way and see how much more turned
02:44through the ball I am. One way, so actually you really got to feel like you're going to drive
02:51forward this way and then you have to find a way to get into it. Okay Nick, so let's talk about Andy's
02:57golf game. So first time you've seen him play today, we played three holes here on the west course.
03:01What does Andy do well? What does he need to work on, do you think?
03:05Well, he's diligent with how he goes about his game. I can relate to Andy in terms of he's an
03:10over-thinker with his game because he tries so hard. And I think it's an admirable quality,
03:15it's a noble pursuit but one that's thwarted unfortunately with this game because the more
03:19we get invested sometimes consciously with it, the more we get in our own way. I think Andy had a
03:24little bit of that going on. You could see there was, to me, the nature of how he stood to the ball,
03:29it was not over-coached but over-thought. It was just like he's ticking boxes in his mind and
03:36I know what that feels like because that's what I've done and ironically it took away a little bit
03:40of the flow of him just getting out of his way and playing golf. So I think for me a little bit with
03:45Andy is, and it's a challenge I think sometimes with coaching is, help someone get better without
03:50making them turn inwards, you know, in terms of their thoughts. Because the last thing I need to
03:55do is to give Andy 10 different things to go and think about. And the problem for Andy was with
03:59what we talked about with his swing, one of them was a pre-swing thing but the sensation I wanted
04:06to feel was in the swing. They're always tougher because it's happening as we're doing it, you know.
04:11So 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 beautifully 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 these
04:29with the shoulders. So closing the shoulders, what does that do? Well it completely shifts the way that
04:33the club wants to move for starters. So from that very moment then Andy's swing is always working this
04:38way and ironically we tend to build compensations in our swing to make whatever we've got going on work.
04:45To him he's not shut though. In his head he's dead square. He's not though, he's way right with his
04:50shoulders. Because then when I went and worked with him on the range and squared him up, of course he
04:54feels wide open. Feels weird. Yeah, even though he stood like that naturally and it was only right before
05:00he pulled the trigger he gives it the bump with the shoulders like that. So he felt fine to do that
05:04first and they thought no come on we need to get these shut off. So again it's that classic feel
05:09versus real thing in the golf swing and we all again have to deal with this where what we feel
05:14very often isn't what is real out there. And so just him seeing of me going across his shoulders there
05:21with the alignment stick and saying right come and step away and see where it is. He can immediately
05:25come and check on me. You need that feedback because I'm asking him to buy into something that
05:30everything inside him intuitively saying that is not right man. You got me stood like this now.
05:35How the hell am I going to propel the ball down there when you've got me stood this way?
05:39He needs to, you need the buy-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?
05:47It's hard. Without then talking about all of those things that can get you quite confused?
05:51I think you first of all explain that the journey is not one of pure joy and ecstasy in terms of like
05:57and I think that's one thing. So I can relate to Andy in terms of I've played four times this year.
06:01So even when I go out there today there's a real mixed bag. Making peace with the fact that
06:06there's going to be inconsistency is one of the greatest freedoms in our game. That actually allows
06:11me to play way better golf because when I hit a bad shot I don't do what I used to when I was a
06:15tournament professional and delve in there. Why do you, oh this was, oh this needs a bit, and of course it's
06:20little things like this, which no one notices. It's very often we over complicate in that issue.
06:26So one of the things obviously that happened with the movement was that his path was very much
06:30inside out and it was reflected in obviously you see some early extension in there, club drifting from
06:36inside out as well and you see the release pattern as well sort of this way over his shoulder.
06:40So what leading to pushes and hooks? Yeah so if the face matches up to that direction
06:44that he's swinging it, it's a block to the right and of course if the face is actually square,
06:47it's the hook, which is going to make him want to swing even more to the right hand side,
06:51which of course we know it's welcome to golf. So in essence we had to get a feeling for let's
06:57be square, that's going to feel rubbish. Make peace with that feels rubbish today, not forever,
07:02just today. I know it takes huge discipline. Go on the range, do the reps, ignore where it's going.
07:08You have no right to care where that's going because one you're not really focused on it because
07:11you're not playing golf, you're playing pretty swings, but we're practicing pretty swings,
07:14that's what we're doing at the moment with this and you're just going to go drill it in. That's what
07:18it feels like, that's what it feels like, that's what it feels like and you can break that up with
07:21then going right, I'm going to hit a normal shot, I'm going to play to this fly and go through my
07:25normal routine because what we want to do is do the stuff that requires us to step outside of the
07:29way because if I get used to practice a swing but then also say yeah but I need you to hit it close as
07:35well, it's not going to work so well. Whereas if I say to you all you have to do and we did this with him,
07:40I wanted to try and feel hitting these nice little low fades because it was forcing him to want to
07:44have to move better with his lower half which again was something we talked about synchronization,
07:49trying to feel so it's a nice simple drill as you take it halfway back you step forward which gets
07:53you using to feel and of course you don't get halfway back, people tend to get up here when they
07:58actually do it which is like the golf swing because in essence with every good player it starts with a
08:02move as this is finishing off into that left side. You don't want him thinking about that.
08:07No. And then from there from having that better feeling of being into that left side a little
08:11earlier rather than he was more back here and this way and was almost feeling like we're moving a
08:17little earlier into that left side you wanted to try and feel that nice little feeling of hitting a
08:21low cut and I like things like that because if I say to you how would you hit a low cut we've all got
08:26a feeling of I'd be like I'd be like that I'd just I'd hit it that way and so it provides a feeling
08:32rather than a right so we need to get the club there and then in this position then you want to feel like
08:35that goes you know I think that stuff makes it way too complicated so we hit some horror show shots
08:41which is good because it shows me he's really tapping into that so for me it's sort of let's
08:46get in amongst the weeds get really ugly. Spend a bit of time doing that on the range. Get really
08:51comfortable being uncomfortable and then we go right done we get in we do the work then we leave
08:56and we go and play the game. So then Nick let me ask you somebody of Andy's level in the game what
09:02strategy advice would you offer? Having a plan for what you're going to be all about in the golf course
09:06is more important I think for players of the handicap when you're at 18 you're in that beautiful
09:11zone where some days you can it can be a game changer of a day but you always have the chance
09:16to go and have one of those shocker days as well so I think making it nice and simple have a plan with
09:22your coach is really 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 yeah there's so many things at 18 handicap
09:31you can dabble with and play with and try this and try that my experience is most of the time we get
09:37worse too much going around the head and then we end up going oh god I'm thinking about too much how
09:41many times you heard oh I'm thinking about too much well don't have your plan stick to your plan
09:46and strategy you know you save so many shots around take a joy from thinking like a top level pro
09:51you might not be able to hit Rory's shots but you can think like him you know so that means like
09:56when you go in there with your three wood in this stuff is Rory going in there with the three because
10:01if he ain't you shouldn't you know and I think that's one of the things we can see is that you know
10:04you won't necessarily always be able to hit the shot you want to but we can make the right decision
10:08about it and knowing where your strengths are as well picking being more responsible in what we pick
10:14having a good strategy that takes some of the risk away and for for an amateur golfer at 18 handicap that
10:19could be like let's not hit the hero shot because that's screaming an eight if it doesn't come off
10:23let's play it smart let's make a nice five and it takes discipline that because of course we all
10:28want to hit the shot that allows us to you know the shot that makes us feel a million dollars but
10:32if it's in a comp if you're having a mark with your mates whack away yeah if you're in a comp and you're
10:37serious about wanting to improve your handicap do that do the right thing and start making the right
10:41decision because it's what the top players yeah yeah so there you have it if you want to get better at golf
10:46and who doesn't then you've got to commit to it you don't have to be technical but you do have to
10:50commit to what you're trying to do hopefully that helps okay so there you have it that's our look at
10:54andy's game 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 it's clear to
11:05see those technical improvements that need to be made but the advice needs to be as simple and
11:10practical and usable as possible hopefully that's what andy got from it if you're in a similar
11:15category with your golf game then using some of that advice to help you as well should really
11:19make a big difference but that's it for now for Wentworth thanks very much for watching we'll see you next time