– Today we're gonna talk
you through the things that have really helped my golf game. – Yes, we're out on the golf course. We're gonna play a few
holes, show you a few shots, and just show you how Mr. Ward has changed in his golfing. It's made him an incredible player. – Well, yes, of course. (upbeat music) – Okay, the course has been
closed in the UK a lot, so it's nice to be out. It's gonna be a little wet, but it's nice to be swinging.
– [Piers] Yes, indeed. – Obviously, tough time at the moment. Coronavirus, so hopefully
we can all move on and get over it pretty fast. (club hitting) – [Pierce] Little bit
hilly, a little bit fady but it's actually perfect. I'm gonna get an iron I think. – [Andy] An iron? – [Piers] Maybe a 2-iron, well. – Iron? – [Piers] You're driving, you're not getting out of bunker, can you? – [Andy] Yeah, I can. (laughing) – [Andy] Nice and it stayed
there, on line with me. Okay so the reason we wanted
to do this video today is Piers has made some
improvements in his game, and I've certainly noticed
him striking the golf ball, hitting the golf ball better. So we thought we'll just
discuss some of the things that he's done and just
share them with you guys and showcase a little bit of
the golf on the golf course. Something a bit different
than we normally do, but be interesting just to chat to Piers and talk about what
he's done with his irons and his driver that's really helped him.
So Piers, what would you say? You've definitely turned a corner with your golf, haven't you? – So yeah, for me, I would say that my golf the last three or four years hasn't been so good. I've had quite a few injuries which doesn't help things, but as a coach, I like
to tinker a lot as well. So obviously we're delivering instruction. We wanna be giving as many different ways of making golfers better. You wanna sometimes
laugh, and I'm very guilty of trying lots of different things. So I definitely thought
I just got to a place where actually my game, I've just been working
that many different things, I kinda lost clarity where it needs to be.
So I thought come on. Let's get clarity of where you wanna be, figure out what you need to do, and go and do it. – That'll be familiar
with a lot of you guys. You end up messing around
with so many things in your golf swing, you go, well, what actually am I working on? (laughing) – Yeah. – So we're just gonna
share some simple things with Piers today, and show you a few shots and hopefully they help. They may help you in some way.
– And all it is just time
spent doing the right things. That's all it is really. – All it is. And also Piers is now a married man. He got married on Saturday. Piers, congratulations. – I did, thank you. – Congratulate Piers down below. He's now a married man. You got your ring on today? – (laughs) No. – He got married Saturday. He's already took his wedding ring off. (laughing) Okay so talk us through them, Piers, some of the changes then that you've made in the, from your, I suppose
your golf swing side of things. – Yeah, do you know what, okay so here's, basically in my golf swing, I've made it more rounded.
I've made it longer, and I've worked on my
pivots over my pelvis. So this is mainly with the irons as well. So basically, my backswing's
getting a little steep and my downswing as a result
was a little bit steep. I wasn't shallowing the downswing. So what I've worked on is
just getting the club here, a little bit more on plane, a little bit more rounded in
the backswing as a result, and definitely longer. And then because of what
I'm doing with my pelvis, it's a lot easier for me
to then shallow the club on the way down.
So I can play a draw now. I was struggling to play a draw. It was only fade I could play. So I'm playing draw again now, and I can still play the fade. – [Andy] So in that
first move away, Piers, the club before was a little bit in front of the hand, wasn't it? Too much there. – Yeah, a bit too much, too much. – [Andy] And just show us
where you wanna be now. So much more in line with the hands there, much more rounded with that club head. Definitely notice the
bottomless swing now. Pelvis, you mentioned the pelvis. Talk us through this then. – Yeah definitely, so what would happen, I mean I didn't sway my golf swing. I definitely have this move
where I move off the ball a little bit this way, but there wasn't really a sway.
But I was definitely getting
my right hip over here more than I would like because I always felt
that if I actually worked when I was swinging back,
that my pelvis moved toward the target. If you've got some of
Justin Rose's swings, and you see that pelvis with
Justin move a little bit towards the target, going in
to the top of the backswing with his irons, that then allows me to
have a little bit more room to shallow my arms and
club on the downswing. So I felt like I just basically
got a little bit more room. The one thing I have
to be careful with that is because I've got a lot of shaft lead that I have to make sure the
ball doesn't go too far back, otherwise I'd be getting crazy big divots.
So the ball goes forward
a little bit as a result. – [Andy] I like it, so the hips are really working a little bit more
this way in the backswing. I think a lot of people can
sort of really learn from that, helping them create a better pivot motion. – Absolutely. – [Andy] Okay, all right,
let's fly one away then, Piers. Second shot here, seventeenth. (club hitting) – [Piers] Now that's kind of what I see. I mean there's no real,
probably a one yard draw. Maybe the wind's helping
it a little bit, but– – [Andy] Not too bad of a divot there. – That's pretty good, yeah, I mean if I get the ball too far back, that divot becomes a lot steeper, but with it being wet like this that's probably what I would like to see on that sort of shot.
But definitely it's amazing how much room I feel I have because my pelvis is there. So if you're someone who
gets a little bit steep on the downswing, you
know, getting your pelvis to do this on the backswing, it could be a game changer for you. It works really well. (laughing) – [Piers] Now Perton
never normally gets muddy, but it did there. – [Andy] Yeah so these are, I
didn't bring them like this. They're actually– – [Piers] Yeah, yeah whatever. – They're actually pretty
wet here in the UK. – [Piers] He never cleans his golf shoes. All right so what you got
a sand wedge, gap wedge? – Yeah, I've got a sand wedge here. It's about 85 yards. – [Piers] Okay. Let's see what you got. – Some temporary greens
here at Perton as well. Keep people going. (club hitting) – [Piers] That's a big
divot from the wet course. – Oh, look at that! (laughing) Now that is a divot. – [Piers] Some people would
like that as a head of hair with a like a ponytail.
– [Andy] Mine went pretty
close there, 30 (murmurs). Oh, hello. – (sighs) I think that was all I had. – [Andy] Good that was a– – That was about as hard
as I'm gonna hit it. – [Andy] A full wack. – Oh, didn't wanna do that. – [Andy] And my new putter as well. Guys, I've got this new Truss here. – What do you think of it
cause you've actually played a bit of golf in California. Did you take it with you? – [Andy] I actually really liked it.
No, no, no I actually forgot it. – [Piers] Okay. – But I played when we went to Spain, and it was, it felt great. – [Piers] Oh yeah cause you– – Cause we won, cause we won, yeah. (laughs) But no, it does, it feels, I mean I love (murmurs) did well with it, but going back to these
straight edges for me, squareness is just, I feel like I can stand
over anything this range, and I just feel I'm just
gonna roll everything in because I've just– – [Piers] I think, I think– – Been on this golf course. – [Piers] Yeah and I agree. I think golfers go back
to what they originally putted with shape wise. I think they often do that. – I'm actually a little bit put off by how dirty my shoes are. All I can see is the mud on my shoes.
– [Piers] I'm gonna come around here to see your ball going in the hole. (soft music) (club tapping) – [Piers] It was gonna go in. – I left it short on purpose. I obviously didn't wanna
get it out of the hole. – [Piers] I kind of
gave you the bird here. For those of you who've
not played Perton before, I think the last, the tee
shots, is really hard. I mean you've literally got– – It is so hard, isn't it? – [Piers] You know,
the fairway, that's it. I'll get the zoom in as much as I can. So a slightly forward tee
here, so it's not so bad. But the fairway is literally
this, par five (murmurs) right. It's the trouble on the left
is quite easy to get into, and you've got trees all down the right.
So you've gotta hit a good tee shot. – The wind's off the left today, so that means you can sort
of hit it in the bunker and hopefully that wind– – [Piers] It's a good wind, isn't it? Cause the trouble on the left
is that's the lost ball stuff, so as you say, hit it down
the left side of the fairway, and let the wind just sort of
push you back to the middle. (club hitting) A little bit too much on the wind.
– Yeah it'll be towards the trees, just the edge of the trees on the right, but let's talk then Piers about
your couple of adjustments. Now was it right that these adjustments were mainly off the back of
the lesson with Leadbetter? – With the– – [Andy] With the setter. – With the drive, 100%, yes. So what it was, I've always been, I kind of have this, I'm not comparing myself
to Henrik Stenson, but I always had this
sort of move off the ball, so I would if in fact if I just go here. So I would move off the ball like this, and there would be some up
and down, sideways movement, more than I would want in my golf swing.
And I, my posture, I
think it's cause I'm tall. I've got long levers. I was always, I always felt more powerful with a little bit more leg flex. I felt like I could get into
the ground a little bit more, but it was amazing. When I actually got my
balance points better, so basically when I stood taller, then my legs were straighter. So I was actually balanced better. When I swing now, it's
a lot more of a rotation of the body that I feel, and I don't feel that
I'm going up and down. When I videoed myself, I'm
not going up and down as much. So you think of it that
way and you go, well, hopefully that can make an improvement. The one thing that happened
when I first did it and still to a degree now is I feel a little bit
less mobile as a result because I'm always used to this, but by standing tall, I feel less mobile, but then I look at the
speeds that I'm getting. I look at the distance that I'm getting.
They haven't really
changed, and actually– – [Andy] And you're more mobile. – Yeah I would say I think so. – [Andy] Just a feeling, isn't it? – Yeah, I still don't feel that yet, but I think definitely
when you look at things and look at them deeper, then yes I definitely am. – [Andy] So it just shows
you, you said it then Piers. – So the new one. – [Andy] Yeah your new one. So his legs are a little bit less flexed. Now I think a lot of
guys that we see, Piers, have so much flex in their legs that they just lose up on. This is probably where you
were at the start before. – I say I was probably
something like this. – [Andy] And then you'd
sink into that right leg at the start. – So I'd move like this. The club would almost still be there. I would move like this, and then I would be sort of
an upward motion at the top.
And look, some of these things are fine. But if you feel that you
wanna do some changes, and for me, it was massively different. I think a couple of times I've played where I've had the best
driving rounds I've had for almost 20 years in the
last sort of six months. So, yeah I'm trying to think. Dubai, Dubai when we
played Bernd Wiesberger. That was brilliant, you
know, on a golf course. – [Andy] So you're really just getting the rotation work in earlier, as opposed to that sinking and
upward and downward movement.
– Yes, absolutely. So it is from here exactly that. So I feel, and because the
swing's longer as well, and I, so I've actually
worked on lengthening it. So often now, I'll have practice swings that look like that. So it's almost like I'm
trying to stretch out my body, but that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm actually having these
long practice swings to get the, and it's not
so much a bigger turn.
It's just a longer arm swing which has a lot more power. You gotta maintain power, Andrew. It's the most important thing you've got. – [Andy] You have maintained power. – Yes. – [Andy] Cause you're getting older. (laughing) – No, no, no, no, nothing to do with age. – [Andy] Stop talking and just hit it now. – Okay let's get on with it. – [Andy] You talk for too long.
Let's just give it a rip then there. – Okay. – [Andy] Sun's coming out now as well. – Yeah it's actually, it's amazing how much warmer it is. (club hitting) That might be a little
tight on that breeze now. – [Andy] Yeah, it's kept
me company over there. – [Piers] Yep, similar to you. – [Andy] Just sociable
and it's less work too on camera, Piers. We'll keep the camera together. – Which it was still a lovely strike. – [Andy] It was very nice. Well done. – Thank you. Well, I suppose the one
good things is the wind's off the left.
– That is a good thing. (laughing) It means I'm gonna
actually go for it today. – [Piers] Yeah, well you got about 190. – I reckon I got probably
200, maybe 190, 200. – [Piers] Okay. – Five iron, I'm gonna
see if I can start it just left of the fir tree there if that is a fir tree or
whatever it is, or pine. And then a little fade. Actually quite a big fade, and let the wind ride it as well. – [Piers] You gonna go left of that, yeah? – I'm gonna go left, so my
face is gonna be pointing left of that tree. – [Piers] It'll be
higher than that as well by the time it gets to it? – Yeah. – [Piers] Yeah. – But I'm still gonna
keep it a little lower. – [Piers] You are keeping, okay you are keeping it a little lower. – Yeah it's gonna be like a punch slice. (club hitting) – [Piers] Nice, nice. So yeah, aiming well left and feeling like you're playing
a bit of a punch as well? – Yeah, just ball back, narrow stance, just a bit more of a, yeah
more of a punch shot really.
– [Piers] Okay, tidy, tidy. Now I haven't got that luxury. Well, I could. – [Andy] There's a gap there. – [Piers] There's definitely
a gap, of course there is. – [Andy] There's a gap. You can do it. – [Piers] There's always a gap. – [Andy] You can do it. – So I'm not going low. I'm going high. – [Andy] You're going high? – Yeah. This is a perfect window for my iron. (laughing) Trust me. – [Andy] Okay. – Trust me. – [Andy] Good luck. So he's trying to go up there where there's branches everywhere. – Yeah they're not bad branches though. – [Andy] Oh they're not bad branches. They're okay. – No. – [Andy] Are they good branches? – They're nice branches, yeah. (club hitting) It hit a bad branch. – [Andy] It hit a bad branch. I don't know where the ball went. – Do you see it? – [Andy] No, I don't
know where the ball went. – It's probably on the green
about three foot from the flag.
– [Andy] It probably is, yeah. (laughing) So here's our advice, guys. If you're in a tournament, don't do that. (laughing) If you're in a tournament, chip out on the side of the fairway,
take your medicine, and give yourself an opportunity because that there, actually I can see it. I can see it, Piers. – [Piers] You got it? – It's about 40 yards just there. So Piers has just hit it. (soft music) Here, you're a very lucky boy, Piers. You still got a shot. – Not really, no. It's same as a chip out, isn't it? It's worth the, I mean I would
guess at the yardage here. What would you think that is? – [Andy] Into the breezeway.
– 120? – [Andy] That is 120 into the breeze. I reckon he's playing 135. – Okay. (club hitting) – [Andy] That looked clean. – Was a little bit too clean, sit. 52, 58? – 58, I'm just gonna play like a dead hands shaft
high chip shot, here. (club hitting) – [Piers] Sit a bit, sit a bit, yeah nice. – [Andy] Okay, Piers,
what kind you got there? You got like a wedge? – Yeah a pitching wedge. – [Andy] Do you wanna just chip and run? – Chip and run. It's gonna start quickly, get it moving forward as much as we can. (club tapping) – [Andy] Sit down, sit down. – Woops, oh, that little jag at the end. – [Andy] Okay, go on then,
see if we can roll this in. – Okay stop it going in, Andy. I don't wanna get my hand in the hole. Good par. – [Andy] Yeah it's good par, well done. – All right, for birdie. Just, just strange isn't it– – [Andy] I was reading,
reading the green then. – [Piers] Isn't it strange
what we're going through at the moment, this.
Yeah it was going in. It was going in. – Thank you, I'll take the birdie there. – [Piers] Don't even shake hands. Don't even shake hands. Yeah, it is strange what's going on, so look, if you are watching this and you're not able to play
any golf at the moment, hopefully we will be able
to get out there soon. And hopefully you are
staying safe as well. – Yes, it's a bit of a different
video for us to do today, but it's nice to be on the
golf course in some fresh air and not be, I suppose this is, in some
way, a social distance.
– [Piers] Yes. – Keeping away from everybody
as well which is good, so guys I hope you enjoyed that. Whatever you're up to, wherever you are, stay safe, stay healthy, and let's get through this
over the next few weeks as fast as we can and back to normal. – Absolutely, absolutely. – Thanks for watching. Leave any comments and
questions down below about his game and maybe
even about my game. We could do maybe another one of these, – Yeah we should. – talking about my swing as well. – We should. – When it's warmer. – Yes, when it's warmer please. – See you soon. – Cheers guys..