Why have I always been told to work most on my short game?

[deronsizemore]

Originally Posted by ochmude

If I shot 18 straight bogies I'd cut 15 strokes off my score.  God, I suck, lol.

Well there are exceptions to the rule, of course. If your handicap is accurate at 30, you're probably struggling with slices, tops, chunks, etc. Right? At the point in your game, I think it probably would be more beneficial to get comfortable swinging the club and making more solid contact and getting some kind of consistency in where your ball is going. If it's taking you a lot of strokes to just get to the green, then at that point, short game becomes irrelevant. You're going to score a double or worse and no chance to save a score. I'm not saying don't practice short game at all for you, but once you get to a point where you can get to the green in or around regulation more frequently, that's when working on short game becomes essential. You can turn a lot of those doubles into bogeys and bogey's into pars with a decent short game.

[Shindig]

If I shot 18 straight bogies I'd cut 15 strokes off my score.  God, I suck, lol.

Well, the next few rounds, track where you LOSE shots. I don't mean where you bogey when you could have parred. If you had a three foot birdie putt and miss it, that's a lost shot. Chunked chip? Lost shot. Leave a shot in a bunker? Same. Miss an easy putt? Three-putt because you blew one 15 feet by? Hit a poor chip when you should have done better (e.g., fail to hit the green from a good lie 10 yards off with nothing between you and the pin)? Fat shot in the fairway? Topsies off the tee? Making a stupid decision, like trying to carry water from a bad lie when you need a perfect 3W to carry. See whether the majority ones are long game or shot game, and try to eliminate the pattern of the worst.

[Luckner88]

I practice on short game the most because when you take a break from golfing thats the part of the game that gets hurt the most.  Regaining that "touch" back is difficult and a long process so its always good to stay on top of your short game.  Remember, you score from 100yds and in

[max power]

Do the shots you take that get you to 100 yds out not count as part of your score?

Originally Posted by Luckner88

I practice on short game the most because when you take a break from golfing thats the part of the game that gets hurt the most.  Regaining that "touch" back is difficult and a long process so its always good to stay on top of your short game.  Remember, you score from 100yds and in

[ochmude]

I track my stats religiously.  Long irons are where my game is hemorrhaging.  Used to be driver, and I was losing about 6 balls per round off the tee, but I've been really working my driver at the range, so that's not a problem anymore.  But I shank 3 and 4 irons like it's my job.  Fairway woods and hybrids are no better.  Lately I've taken to hitting a 5 iron (or even a 6 if I'm having a bad day) for my 2nd shot on par 5's simply because I have no confidence in longer clubs.

[Deryck Griffith]

Originally Posted by x129

Here is an article I came across a while back. Basically they take a 14 handicapper and the club pro off the course to play 9 holes. The club pro plays the same shot as the amateur from a hundred yards in. Over those 9 holes, the pro is 4 shots better due to the short game.  To put it another way, this amateur could go from a 14 to  6 or so if he had a better short game.

Look if your long game is at the level that you are dealing with out of bounds, total shanks, 50 yard drives and so on, you obviously need to work on that.  Somewhere when you drop into the low 90s you tend to hit the ball well on most holes.  At that point you can either try to get another 20-30 yard of distance and to be more accurate with your longer clubs or you can focus on scoring.   Both will work. To get down to scratch you need to do both.

This is what I was implying in my post.  For any high handicapper, there is no question that ballstriking is important in playing better golf.

If that same PGA pro in that article played the short shorts of some people I know, their scores would've gone from a range of 101-99 to a range of 95-93 as the PGA Pro would have been saving them bogey's and double bogey's....

[x129]

Of course but if they are not too bad, you have time to recover. For example on a hypothetical par 4, if you miss your drive into the rough, you still have chance (a lower one) to hit an approach shot on the green. If you miss the approach shot, you can still chip it up there for a 3 footer.If you miss the chip, you can still try and sink a 10foot put.  If you miss the 10 footer, you are getting a bogey. If you did a lot of math you could figure out that 100% of  missed par puts result in bogey, 80% of missed chips, and so on.  Obviously if your game is at the level where your hitting 6 from 100 out, the short game shouldn't be your focus yet.

Quote:

Do the shots you take that get you to 100 yds out not count as part of your score?

[5nDive]

Originally Posted by ochmude

I track my stats religiously.  Long irons are where my game is hemorrhaging.  Used to be driver, and I was losing about 6 balls per round off the tee, but I've been really working my driver at the range, so that's not a problem anymore.  But I shank 3 and 4 irons like it's my job.  Fairway woods and hybrids are no better.  Lately I've taken to hitting a 5 iron (or even a 6 if I'm having a bad day) for my 2nd shot on par 5's simply because I have no confidence in longer clubs.

How does this end up working? You summed me up pretty well here too... wondering... would i benefit from going with clubs I'm more confident in and sally-up most times?

[ochmude]

Originally Posted by 5nDive

How does this end up working? You summed me up pretty well here too... wondering... would i benefit from going with clubs I'm more confident in and sally-up most times?

It works great, but it's really difficult from a mental perspective.  You see the little sign on the sprinkler head that says "230" and you want with ever fiber of your being to pull out a fairway wood or a 3 iron or something long.  Guess what, though.  Skulling a wood 20 yards (face it, that's what's gonna happen) will still leave you 210 yards from the green.  Pull out a 6 iron, hit it clean about 150-160 (for me) and leave yourself with a wedge.

[McKee]

Originally Posted by x129

Of course but if they are not too bad, you have time to recover. For example on a hypothetical par 4, if you miss your drive into the rough, you still have chance (a lower one) to hit an approach shot on the green. If you miss the approach shot, you can still chip it up there for a 3 footer.If you miss the chip, you can still try and sink a 10foot put.  If you miss the 10 footer, you are getting a bogey. If you did a lot of math you could figure out that 100% of  missed par puts result in bogey, 80% of missed chips, and so on.  Obviously if your game is at the level where your hitting 6 from 100 out, the short game shouldn't be your focus yet.

Quote:

If a golfer is not capable of making somewhat solid contact with the ball then they should go back a few steps and spend most of their time practicing their pitching .  When I said in an earlier post that practicing the short game will help the long game I should have been more specific.  Pitching is a simple, slow, and manageable way to practice making good contact with the ball.  It involves many of the fundamentals of the long game and can nurture the good habits that are so quickly lost when trying to take a full swing.  Good habits like balance, proper weight transfer, smooth tempo, proper release, lag, and a solid finish can be easily learned in the context of a pitch swing.  Two birds with one stone - developing good full swing habits while practicing your pitching.

[jeffhale08]

Two of the main reasons I really started improving as a player 15 years ago, was the fact that I beat balls with my irons for hours each week and became a solid if not great iron player, the other was I pulled the driver out of my bag and only tee'd off with a 3 wood or a 5 wood at times.  Becoming a better iron player (hitting on average 12 to 14 greens per round) can drop shots as quickly as being a great short game player, but there is little doubt to the fact that on bad ball striking days, my scores drifted from low to mid 70's to mid to hi 70's, occasionally heading into an 80 or 82, because my short game was not as good as it needed to be.  As ar as pulling the driver, just simply put, I kept the 3 wood in play and only lost 20 yards or so from the driver.  As I have gotten older, my short game has gotten better, maybe I am just smarter than I was 15 years ago, but my iron play comes and goes.  I can still get it to the low 70's, but I have to have either a great up and down day or hit 12-14 greens that day to do it.

[5nDive]

Originally Posted by ochmude

It works great, but it's really difficult from a mental perspective.  You see the little sign on the sprinkler head that says "230" and you want with ever fiber of your being to pull out a fairway wood or a 3 iron or something long.  Guess what, though.  Skulling a wood 20 yards (face it, that's what's gonna happen) will still leave you 210 yards from the green.  Pull out a 6 iron, hit it clean about 150-160 (for me) and leave yourself with a wedge.

Good stuff, seems worth trying next time out. I don't keep a wood in my bag; usually it's 2 hybrid or 3 iron mishits from here. I agree that the tough part will be putting aside the ego that thinks I can make the shot I want. (Which probably happens <10% of the time).

[Stretch]

Two of the main reasons I really started improving as a player 15 years ago, was the fact that I beat balls with my irons for hours each week and became a solid if not great iron player, the other was I pulled the driver out of my bag and only tee'd off with a 3 wood or a 5 wood at times.  Becoming a better iron player (hitting on average 12 to 14 greens per round) can drop shots as quickly as being a great short game player, but there is little doubt to the fact that on bad ball striking days, my scores drifted from low to mid 70's to mid to hi 70's, occasionally heading into an 80 or 82, because my short game was not as good as it needed to be.

Well 12 to 14 GIR should see you carding between 71 and 67 if you're even an average putter. And doing that hitting a 5 wood off the tee ... much respect!

[Shindig]

Well 12 to 14 GIR should see you carding between 71 and 67 if you're even an average putter. And doing that hitting a 5 wood off the tee ... much respect!

I suspect the 95 - 2*GIR breaks down around here. He'd have to make a good number of birdies off those GIRs to get those numbers, even if he got up and down most of the rest of the time.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Well 12 to 14 GIR should see you carding between 71 and 67 if you're even an average putter. And doing that hitting a 5 wood off the tee ... much respect!

If he's an average putter, or below average (more like real life average - not internet golf forum average) I suspect 14 GIR would get him about 70-73. Not everyone putts as well as the average TST poster.

Also - I got that he used his 3-wood and occasionally a 5-wood.

[Leftygolfer]

If your hitting 8-10 greens and your not in the mid to low 70s, your making some big numbers somewhere or your shortgame isn't near what your long game is.  I've had my best round I had in a couple of years, hit 8 greens, 79, had a triple and a double.  I didn't make anything outside of 5 feet but didn't miss anything short either.

I just don't agree having a quality short game isn't long-term improvement in scoring.  To me, it is the thing that doesn't leave me as often as my full swing.  I feel like if I can just get around the green, I can make a par at worse a bogie.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Leftygolfer

If your hitting 8-10 greens and your not in the mid to low 70s, your making some big numbers somewhere or your shortgame isn't near what your long game is.  I've had my best round I had in a couple of years, hit 8 greens, 79, had a triple and a double.  I didn't make anything outside of 5 feet but didn't miss anything short either.

I just don't agree having a quality short game isn't long-term improvement in scoring.  To me, it is the thing that doesn't leave me as often as my full swing.  I feel like if I can just get around the green, I can make a par at worse a bogie.

It depends on where you're missing the greens, where you're hitting the greens, and how well you chip and putt.

I shot a 35 once by hitting zero greens and I've shot > 40 hitting 7 greens. One round a couple years ago I shot 43, 37. I hit 6 greens on the the front (43) and only 1 green on the back (my only bogey on the back side - 3-putt). You can't really say what someone is shooting because of how many greens they're hitting without more information about that player and their course. Sure, there are trends, and the professional players stats point in certain a direction, but in the real world there are lot of ways to get it done.

[Leftygolfer]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

It depends on where you're missing the greens, where you're hitting the greens, and how well you chip and putt.

I shot a 35 once by hitting zero greens and I've shot > 40 hitting 7 greens. One round a couple years ago I shot 43, 37. I hit 6 greens on the the front (43) and only 1 green on the back (my only bogey on the back side - 3-putt). You can't really say what someone is shooting because of how many greens they're hitting without more information about that player and their course. Sure, there are trends, and the professional players stats point in certain a direction, but in the real world there are lot of ways to get it done.

Yeah,

I see what you mean. But if you are routinely hitting 8-10 greens, and your above a 5, you really need to improve your short game.  Also if your hitting that many greens, your misses should be in fine places.  Other than score, GIR is the most important stat that determines a player.