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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.
01:50So
01:52so
01:59so
02:01so
02:03in the balls of the feet, wouldn't it? Certainly in that more forward side, the top corner, I'd kick out that way, wouldn't I?
02:11I'd put the spin on the ball, and if I was trying to bend it the other way, even as a right footer, I'd kick this side of the ball and
02:19and then let me just see that.
02:37So now, now just feel that path of the other line.
02:39Make me work this way and see how much more turned through the ball I am.
02:47Long way, so actually you really got to feel like you're going to drive forward this way
02:52and then you have to find a way to get. Okay Nick, so let's talk about Andy's golf game. So first
02:58time you've seen him play today, we played three holes here on the west course. What does Andy do
03:03well? What does he need to work on do you think? Well he's diligent with how he goes about his
03:07game. I can relate to Andy in terms of he's an over-thinker with his game because he tries so
03:12hard. I think it's an admirable quality, it's a noble pursuit but one that's thwarted unfortunately
03:18with this game because the more we get invested sometimes consciously with it the more we get in
03:23our own way. I think Andy had a little bit of that going on. You could see there was to me the nature
03:27of how he stood to the ball, it was not over coached but overthought. It was just like he's ticking
03:34boxes in his mind and I know what that feels like because that's what I've done and ironically it took
03:40away a little bit of the flow of him just getting out of his way and playing golf. So I think for me
03:44a little bit with Andy is and it's a challenge I think sometimes with coaching is help someone get
03:50better without making them turn inwards you know in terms of their thoughts because the last thing
03:54I need to do is to give Andy 10 different things to go and think about and the problem for
03:58for Andy was with what we talked about with his swing it wasn't one of them was a pre-swing thing
04:04but the the sensation I wanted to feel was in the swing they're always tougher because it's happening
04:09and as we're doing it you know so I think for him there's a very simple fix that was really important
04:16which was aim straight. Right okay. You know for him that was shoulders so he sets up beautifully every
04:23time and then right before he pulls the trigger he decides to make it more difficult for himself
04:28and gives it one of these with the shoulders. So closing the shoulders what does that do?
04:31Well it completely shifts the way that the club wants to move for starters so from that very moment
04:35then Andy's swing is always working this way and ironically we tend to build compensations in our
04:42swing to make whatever we've got going on work. To him he's not shot though, in his head he's dead square
04:48he's not though he's way right with his shoulders because then when I went on and worked with him on the
04:53range and squared him up of course he feels wide open. Feels weird. Yeah even though he stood like
04:58that naturally and it was only right before he pulled the trigger he gives it the bump with the
05:02shoulders like that so he felt fine to do that first then he thought no come on we need to get
05:06these shut off. So again it's that classic feel versus real thing in the golf swing and we all
05:12again have to deal with this where what we feel very often isn't what is real out there and so just
05:18him seeing of me going across his shoulders there with the alignment stick and saying right come and
05:23step away and see where it is he can immediately come and check on me. You need that feedback because
05:28I'm asking him to buy into something that everything inside him intuitively saying that is not right
05:32man you got me stood like this now how the hell am I going to propel the ball down there when you've
05:37got me stood this way he needs to but you need the buy-in first of all like this is definitely what's
05:42happening mate. So then how do you then make those adjustments without becoming too technical without
05:47talking about all of those things that can get you quite confused? I think you you first of all explain
05:53that the journey is not one of pure joy and ecstasy in terms of like and I think that's one thing so
05:58I can relate to Andy in terms of I've played four times this year so even when I go out there today
06:02there's a real mixed bag yeah making peace with the fact that there's going to be inconsistency
06:08is one of the greatest freedoms in our game that actually allows me to play way better golf
06:12because when I hit a bad shot I don't do what I used to when I was a tournament professional and
06:16delve in there why do you what oh this was oh this needs a bit and of course it's little things like
06:21this which no one notices it's very often we over complicate in that issue so one of the things
06:27obviously that happened with the movement was that his path was very much inside out and it was reflected in
06:32obviously you see some early extension in there club drifting from inside out as well and you see
06:37the release pattern as well sort of this way over his shoulder so what leading to pushes and hooks
06:42yeah so if the face matches up to that direction that he's swinging it it's a block to the right and
06:46of course if the face is actually square it's the hook which is going to make him want to swing even
06:50more to the right hand side which of course we know it's welcome to golf so in essence we had to get a
06:55feeling for let's be square that's going to feel rubbish make peace with that feels rubbish today
07:01not forever just today I know it takes huge discipline go on the range do the reps ignore
07:07where it's going you have no right to care where that's going because one you're not really focused
07:11on it because you're not playing golf you're playing pretty swings but we're practicing pretty
07:14swings that's what we're doing at the moment with this I'm just going to go drill it in that's what it
07:18feels like that's what it feels like that's what it feels like and you can break that up with then going right
07:22I'm going to hit a normal shot I'm going to play to this flag and go through my normal routine because
07:26what we want to do is do the stuff that requires us to step outside of the way because if I get used
07:31to practice a swing but then also say yeah but I need you to hit it close as well yeah not going to
07:36work so well whereas if I say to you all you have to do and we did this with him I wanted to try and
07:41feel hitting these nice little low fades because it was forcing him to want to have to move better with
07:46his lower half which again was something we talked about synchronization trying to feel so it's a nice
07:50simple drill as you take it halfway back you step forward which gets you using to feel and of course
07:55you don't get halfway back people tend to get up here when they actually do it which is like the
07:59golf swing because in essence with every good player it starts with a move as this is finishing
08:04off into that left side you don't want him thinking about that and then from there from having that
08:09better feeling of being into that left side a little earlier rather than he was more back here and this
08:14way and was almost feeling like you're moving a little earlier into that left side you wanted to try
08:19and feel that nice little feeling of hitting a low cut and I like things like that because
08:23if I say to you hit how would you hit a low cut we've all got a feeling of I'll be like I'd be like
08:28that I'd just I'd hit it that way and so it provides a feeling rather than a right so we need to get the
08:33club there and then in this position then you want to feel like a you know I think that stuff makes it way
08:38too complicated so we hit some horror show shots which is good because it shows me he's really tapping into
08:44that so for me it's sort of let's get in amongst the weeds get really ugly spend a bit of time doing
08:50that on the range get really comfortable being uncomfortable and then we go right done we get in
08:55we do the work then we leave and we go and play the game so then Nick let me ask you somebody of Andy's
09:01level in the game what strategy advice would you offer having a plan for what you're going to be all
09:05about in the golf course is more important I think for players of the handicap when you're at 18 you're in
09:10that beautiful zone where some days you can it can be a game changer of a day but you always have the
09:16chance of going and have one of those shocker days as well so I think making it nice and simple have
09:21a plan with your coach is really good so Andy's a great example of this have a plan for how you're
09:26going to make the improvements but when you go out go out to play well yeah there's so many things at
09:3018 handicap you can dabble with and play with and try this and try that my experience is most of the
09:36time we get worse too much going around the head and then we end up going oh god I'm thinking about
09:41too much how many times you heard oh I'm thinking about too much well don't have your plan stick to
09:45your plan and strategy you know you save so many shots around take a joy from thinking like a top
09:51level pro you might not be able to hit Rory shots but you can think like 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
10:04you know you won't necessarily always be able to hit the shot you want to but we can make the
10:08right decision about it and knowing where your strengths are as well picking being more responsible
10:13in what we pick having a good strategy that takes some of the risk away and for an amateur golfer at
10:1818 handicap that could be like let's not hit the hero shot because that's screaming an eight if it
10:22doesn't come off let's play it smart let's make a nice five and it takes discipline that because of
10:27course we all want to hit the shot that allows us to you know the shot that makes feel a million dollars
10:32but if it's in a comp if you haven't met me mate 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
10:45at golf and who doesn't then you've got to commit to it you don't have to be technical but you do have
10:50to commit 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 category
11:15with your golf game then using some of that advice to help you as well should really make a big
11:20difference but that's it for now for Wentworth thanks very much for watching we'll see you next time
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