Alex Nicolson

#1 - first impressions exceed expectations One of the many perks of arriving with a competitor is that you get to drive down Magnolia Lane. The most famous golf club entrance in golf - a turning off the surprisingly unglamorous Washington Drive - is a beautiful avenue lined by 60 Magnolia trees. Competitors drive down towards the clubhouse (the entrance of which is deceptively small) past the administration offices, courtesy car HQ, and the back of the range. As with so much infrastructure at Augusta, the offices are only in use 1 week in 52, but nevertheless are elegantly designed and painted in Augusta green. Even the curb stones are painted to match. Paul said that the 100 ft pine trees that shaded the parking area “weren't there last year”. Can you imagine the cost of "planting" 100 ft trees?

#2 - the par three course is awesome I had arrived on the Thursday, the day after the Par 3 tournament, but was keen to take a peek. It has the dreamy look and feel of the main course and, in spite of the huge crowds that had been following players the day before, there was barely a pine needle out of place. I was itching to steal a wedge and a couple of balls and have a go. I was advised that this would be a bad idea. What I didn't know is that there is a largely unused 10th hole reserved for playoffs.

#3 - the practice facilities are second to none In 2010, a flat parking lot was converted into the majestic practice area that exists today. A wide hitting area with immaculate turf allows players to hit out to the most engaging and attractive outfield I've ever seen.

Flanked by Augusta's trademark Georgia Pines and assorted flowering borders, the range offers players four greens to aim at, with surfaces so good that on landing, the ball bounces, spins and rolls just as it does on the course. I watched Adam Scott test this out with 80 yard pitches, all landing 2-3 yards past the hole and obediently spinning back to the holeside.

Beyond the greens, the range forks into two fairways. Players were using the left hand one to prepare for the disproportionate number of tee shots that require a right to left ball flight. Incidentally, this course feature which partly explains why 6 of the last 12 Masters tournaments have been won by left-handers. Lefties can cut the ball down holes like 13 - a much easier and safer shot to hit under pressure.

On the left side of the range lie a putting green and three short game greens. The former is relatively flat by Augusta standards, but the others are undulating and demand a full repertoire of spins and trajectories to navigate. On the final day, Tiger, Rory and Zach Johnson were all warming up at the same time. The quality of striking was impressive - Tiger was able to get the ball to check up on a downslope, before it released slowly down to his target. Encouragingly for mere mortals, Johnson shanked a bunker shot and nearly took out one of the attendants.

Attendants periodically sweep balls off the green and the balls collect into barely visible, dustbin sized holes in the swales. They then lift out the balls using submerged baskets - one of the little design details that contributed to my feeling that this is the best-run tournament in the world.

#4 - the players prepare exceptionally well The permanent seated area behind the range facilitated very civilised pre-round viewing of all the players - this way they come to you! Over four days I got a feel for the amount of work that goes on before each round. From stretching in the clubhouse, to about 90 minutes of warm up practice. After a five hour round and time with the media it was a good 7-8 hours a day. The routines didn't change and several players who missed the cut stayed to practise for several hours over the weekend.

#5 - the quality of ball striking The quality of ball striking is a joy to watch and listen to. Whilst all the players consistently find the middle of the club, there are subtle distinctions in sound and flight between players. I saw Scott, Woods, McIlroy, and Mickelson amongst others, but the most impressive striker this week was Dustin Johnson. His effortless power creates an amazing sounding strike and a staggeringly long and accurate soft draw. You would not want to hit balls next to him, but it’s truly a thing of beauty to watch!

#6 - function over form The most important observation to pass on to improvement-seeking golfers is the wide range swing styles; from the "text book" form of Adam Scott to the more individual swings of Bubba, Jiminez and the ultimate winner, Speith. Speith is perhaps the most interesting, as his play is so steady despite his quirky set up (weak left hand grip, his little finger poking out and his head position noticeably at odds with his spine angle).

The take home message from watching Speith et al. was that many of the world's best golfers have clearly made it by pursuing function (skill) over form. Every swing out there looks different from the next. The lesson is this - all golfers should pursue skill and care much less about how their swing looks. Good technique is an individual trait, a by-product of learning how to control the clubface.

#7 - the best run event in sport Here are just a few of the many things that make me think that the Masters must be one of the best, if not the best run event in sport. They have a team of helpers in the urinals directing the queue through to the next available urinal to minimise queue length. The food concessions operate with a similar flow avoiding the painful waits endured at most events catering for tens of thousands of people. The food and drink is really good (the Barbecue sandwich of pulled pork is exceptional) and impressively good value.

There were so many helpful, smiling people around (volunteers mainly) that the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. It felt more like a big garden party than a sports event. Phones and cameras are banned and although frustrating at first, this keeps you fully engaged in the moment (rather than trying to record it). It's a clever strategy because memento seekers, denied a selfie, head straight for the merchandising tent where I am told the average spend is a staggering fifteen times that of The Open’s.

#8 - the course is considerably harder than it looks on TV The tee shots are long and on some holes, surprisingly tight. With the exception of 1,3, 8 and maybe 17, an imperfectly shaped shot will hit trees early in its flight. I noticed that on 18, the trees have had limbs deliberately cut off on one side causing them to lean inwards, further narrowing the gap to drive through. Mean!

The commentators always tell us that TV doesn't reveal how undulating the greens are. 15 and 16 were actually a bit flatter than I expected, but greens like the 1st and 6th are jaw-droppingly raised and unreceptive, fending off poorly flighted iron shots with ease. The effective landing area of each green is 25% less than the green's outline due to the slopes.

The green quality and speed are well documented and reward good reading and execution but punish errors mercilessly.

Overall it is an incredibly exacting, precise test of your whole game and forces players to play demanding shots. If you get out of position just a little bit, the challenge ratchets up. This is why year after year the cream rises to the top on the leaderboard by the end of the week, just as it did in 2015.

A week to remember I feel so privileged to have had the chance to watch the Masters in person and, thanks to Paul, meet a few people I might not otherwise have met. I even shook hands with Billy Payne, Augusta’s Chairman. I wonder whether he’d let me play next time…?

Alex Nicolson

A rare and precious thing.

Mini Masters putter from the Merchandise area - a perfect first club for the next Rory!

Washington Drive - not quite what you might imagine right outside Augusta National

...a coach can truly help you will make the process of improvement much more fruitful for both the golfer and the coach.

Good coaching isn’t prescriptive

It’s not surprising that most golfers come to a lesson expecting to be prescribed what to do (“hold it like this, swing it like that”) - mass media instruction is all about telling you what to do. The result is information overload, poor performance under pressure and abandonment of any instinctive ability you had for the game. Good coaching, however, leverages your innate learning abilities.

Learning how to learn

Good technique evolves (and in the right conditions can evolve quickly) when the right ingredients for learning are present.  For example; being clear on the underlying task, feeling free to adjust and adapt without the constraints of “what you’re supposed to do”, and immediate feedback from the coach to keep you on track, can produce brilliant results.  

A good coach creates this dynamic and engaging environment in every lesson.  (S)he does not bombard you with information, but, with good questions, (both verbal and in the form of physical tasks) coaxes out the mini struggles required to earn more skill and hit better shots.

Staying on track - longer term

With such a myriad of golf tips out there, it is easy to get distracted from what you were working on.  With regular communication, your coach can ensure you don’t go off the reservation.

Motivation

If your learning is on an upward curve, performance will follow suit, but it’s not a steady journey. There will be bad rounds, and dips in motivation and self belief along the way, but your coach can be an abiding source of encouragement.  

Commitment to the process

If you are a casual golfer for whom better golf is a bonus rather than a source of real satisfaction, taking the odd lesson reactively can be helpful. However, if the game means more to you than that, then both golfer and coach have to make a commitment to the process... A sufficient number of coaching hours, scheduled over the year, spaced around events you might be playing in.  This way your coach knows that you are genuinely in it for the long haul and can ensure you get the maximum return for your efforts. It also means that the whole year isn’t derailed by a temporary loss of motivation.  

Seeing a golf coach simply as a dispenser of information will limit your improvement.  To get the most from your coaching, think of your coach more like a physical trainer. A good coach will motivate and challenge you, give accurate feedback, and progress tasks and exercises by the right amount at the right time... if you invest your time in the process.

Let me explain. Golfers who fight against “coming over the top” to combat a slice are probably letting the real villain (an open clubface) slip away.  Or golfers who battle their knee dip through impact might be missing the fact that lack of width in their swing is the bad guy.  In both cases, the compensation is currently helping them, and vilifying it would make things a whole lot worse.

However, when you truly interrogate the title question, you can start to look at the chain of events in your golf shots more objectively. Somewhere along this chain is a point which most influences whether a good shot or a bad shot will happen.  The source might be within the swing or earlier: setup, concentration, or clarity of task for example.  

Good coaching can help make you aware of things that might have escaped your attention, but it is strongly in your interests that you are not spoon-fed solutions, if you want even a shred of independence and resilience on the course. When you are practising and playing you can start to build a much sharper sense of cause and effect.  By hitting balls free from swing thoughts and judgement, you’ll be surprised what things begin to pop up on your radar, allowing you to sense the distinctions between good and bad shots more keenly.

Golfers, perhaps low on both time and belief in their own ability, consume ready made solutions - tips that worked for someone else - rarely understanding the underlying problem or whether it is even relevant to them. Perhaps more than any other sport, golfers believe they must seek answers outside themselves.

“Just tell me what to do”, is a common request made of golf coaches, but spoon-fed answers do you a disservice. Learning this way leaves you ill-prepared, lacking in independence, and helpless when things go wrong (which, in golf, is inevitable).

Questions - both verbal and physical

Whilst some of the skill of golf is to do with information - like picking the right club based on yardage, much of the true essence of the sport lies in pure physical learning. Physical learning needs physical questions - tasks or challenges for your body to adapt to by trial and error. This is language the body understands, and it can pull golfers towards ever more efficient and trustworthy swings.

This series of articles is designed to share some of the best questions you can ask yourself, or your coach, in order to access your innate abilities and ensure your efforts to increase your enjoyment of the game really do the job.

Why are questions the answer?

We have evolved to solve problems, not to absorb data by rote. Great questions engage the brain.

Inherently, learning and building skill require some sort of struggle.

Questions ensure the solution is personal, relevant, and owned by the player.

Quick fixes and solutions are temporary, great questions are timeless.

Questions empower - they force you to look inwards at your own experience and knowledge.

Questions encourage targeted trial and error, to find the strategy that is best for you.

Questions add focus. Golf is flooded with information, 99.999% of which is irrelevant to your game. Questions cut through the irrelevant.

Great questions give responsibility to the player.

This series of articles aims to show you how deep your well of natural ability can go when you are asked the right question (verbal or physical) at the right time.

The full collection of questions will be compiled into a digital book. Please register your interest in this or our coaching services and events here.

It is situated up in the hills about fifteen minutes drive from the west coast (not far from Royal Westmoreland). A combination of this height, the remnants of an old sugar cane plantation estate, and chunks of dense forest provide the raw ingredients for stunning views and a truly memorable course.

When I visited a temporary clubhouse (above) was being used in anticipation of a new one (due to start construction in December 2014) For an interim clubhouse it was charming, with the feel of family home. Boasting a swimming pool, a decked veranda and appetising view over the 9th and 1st holes. The service provided by the team is in similar vein. Headed up by Director of Golf, Ben Hatch (previously of the Wentworth Club), everyone is courteous and helpful, but with that lovely Bajan quality - that of genuine, unaffected warmth and humour. A useful tonic if you return to the clubhouse with a slightly bruised ego.

I had a little warm-up on their impressive practice facilities. Tour pro treatment with pyramids of balls and an expansive short game area which gives you a taste of the challenges awaiting you in the course.

The course itself is a knock-out. From the first to the last green, Apes Hill is one of those rare layouts without a weak hole. I didn’t find the driving especially tight but placement is key. The real joy/challenge depending on how well you’re playing is the approach shots. Often you are playing from sloping fairways which add another consideration when targeting well protected greens.

And the par threes will test anyone’s metal. The signature hole is probably the 12th (see pic below), and is one of the best holes I have ever played. When I took in the view the first time, it was so good I actually laughed. The Caribbean acts as a stunning backdrop to this 225 yard monster. Imaginative bunkering and slopes protect a large green and the surrounding landscape is more like something from Jurassic Park than a golf course.

The 12th started my favourite run of holes through to the equally intimidating 16th. The views over this stretch are truly spectacular (see 13th green below) and if you come through them on handicap you’ll be doing cartwheels down the last two holes.

As a coach I strongly advocate that golfers “stay in the present” by noticing their surroundings and really engaging with the shot at hand. One of the great effects of playing this course was just how naturally that came. On each hole your attention is grabbed by what lies around you and in front of you. So much so that your mind is much less likely to wander. What a great way to spend a few hours.

I cannot recommend playing Apes Hill enough. Comfortably the best in Barbados and arguably the whole of the Caribbean.

4th Hole, Par 3

Alex Nicolson PGA

Understanding of “correct”

Comparison against what is actually happening

Adjustment

The reason that many golfers lose their way is that although adjustments are plentiful, these can quickly become directionless shots in the dark.  Without the first two components, hopping from one swing thought to the next is pot luck - and fast track to inconsistency.  But this needn’t be the case. When I coach, I guide golfers through these stages to try and maximise the chance that effort will be rewarded with more skill.

Decoding improvement - 3 steps

1 - Understanding of “correct” - the task

It is commonly perceived that there is a “correct” swing technique which we all need to adopt.  The reality is there are in fact many ways of setting up to the ball and moving your body to hit great shots.  However when it comes to the bat and ball physics of impact, what has to happen to hit the desired shot is nicely clear cut . So if there is one thing that really needs to be “correct”, it’s our perception of what the ball needs to do, and how the club needs to travel to make it happen.  “Impact concept” as I call it, is the task underlying each golf shot.

If the brain becomes crystal clear about what the true task is behind the shot at hand, you’d be amazed how quickly your body can move towards more effective technique.

However, we have found that over 90% of established golfers have inaccurate or vague impact concept - and it has been silently thwarting attempts to improve, perhaps since they first picked up a club.

Whether the goal is a sweetly struck iron, or drive with a draw, when vagueness is replaced with clarity, possibilities open up.  The game instantly seems less mystifying.  I have often found that even 30 year old slices can be turned into soft draws simply by clarifying impact concept. To give you a flavour try our impact IQ test. Link.

2 - Comparison to what’s actually happening - awareness

Then we move to the second stage. Most golfers will have theories about how their body might be misbehaving in the swing, but once the clubhead goes out of sight, few have any idea what it’s doing. Given the clubface is what hits the ball, this is a big problem.  However by learning how to sharpen your awareness of how it is moving as you swing, you can begin to make meaningful comparisons.  And meaningful comparisons lead to meaningful adjustments.

3 - Adjustments

This is where the fun starts.  Fuelled by the motivation a golfer gets with clear purpose and awareness you can find out how you best can make adjustments to get the club to do what you want more effectively.

The most common way of making adjustments is a conscious, body focused thought like “keep my head still”, or “clear the hips”. These are referred to as an internal focus.  However (and this is a big however), there are other ways of directing your attention that can trigger the adjustments required to get you closer to hitting the shot you intended.

When golfers become aware there is a choice, and focus their attention externally (e.g on the club, ball or target) they discover that positive adjustments can occur automatically, as a by-product of focusing on the task.  In this case, good technique comes “for free”.

When I coach I want to find out which method works best for the golfer, as it will remove another obstacle to learning.

The gateway to skill building

If your golf has a gap in either impact concept or awareness, then adjustments will be hit or miss.  However when all three steps are attended to (in any game area) so begins a much more enjoyable journey and better shots.  There are the gateway to skill building.

Experiencing this kind of coaching

If you would like to try this refreshing approach to golf improvement I offer both an introductory session 1-2 hrs. To translate this into sustainable skill I’d recommend one of two programmes, either a course of x7 one hour lessons or the comprehensive Skill Builder programme which is a more intensive route. Email for me more information or to discuss your golfing aspirations further. I am based at Worplesdon Golf Club, Surrey, UK.

Alex Nicolson