Sky Sports' Nick Dougherty, left, and Andrew Coltart at the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this year.
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Nick Dougherty has provided greenside tips, such as how to hit lag putts and chips. Strategy tips, such as how to approach a shot if it doesn’t suit your eye and how to execute overall course management. Detailed tips, such as his latest #teetimetips on Instagram, where he discusses hip rotation on the driver.
Honesty tips, too.
The former European Tour pro and current Sky Sports analyst was asked how to hit fairways by Abe7096 on Instagram. A straightforward question. Which got a straightforward answer.
“Seriously. Where’d you get them? Where’d you find these people?” Dougherty said on the video. “Abe, if I knew how to do that, mate, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you, would I? Because if I knew how to hit even half the fairways, I’d still be playing golf. I used to be on this tee, people all around, ‘Dough-er-ty, Dough … .’
He pumped his arms for emphasis. Then continued.
“No, OK, they weren’t cheering my name, but still, people watched me as a pro golfer. Now, it’s just me and Gary behind that stupid little camera doing these stupid little tips, always pretending we’re going to get better at the game, when really, we’re going to suck forever. OK, so, Abe, I don’t know, mate. I don’t know.”
Dougherty, of course, was having fun.
When he shared the video on Twitter this week, he used it to promote his latest collection of tips.
“Now that golf is open all over the UK and Ireland, Series 10 of #teetimetips starts again this week.. simple tips to hopefully make golf a little less complicated and a lot more fun…and after a time of reflection..pure honesty too,” he wrote, adding the winking emoji.
When he initially shared the video, on Instagram in late March, he used it to provide a laugh as the coronavirus shutdowns began.
“Welcome to #teetimetips series 10, this is your series to be taken for what it is, a golf community gathering to keep each other going, learn a bit about the game and maybe have a giggle along the way at my expense…” he wrote.
Dougherty added that Abe7096 would eventually get an answer.
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.