Pelz One-Day School - My Impressions

I took one of the Pelz one-day scoring schools a while back, and thought I'd share my perceptions after a season's worth of practice and playing. As someone who also has a science background, I've appreciated the scientific manner that Pelz has dissected the scoring game. And given his ubiquitous presence in all the golf publications, I thought his scoring school might be a great way to improve.

The Pelz course was a full day, and we had 10 students and two instructors. We started with instruction on hitting pitches and chips, then spent some time hitting shots under the watchful eyes of the teachers. One thing a little odd was that despite all of the stuff taught by Pelz about using 3 different swings and 4 wedges, we didn't talk about any of this in the class. After a couple hours, we then switched to bunker play. Odd thing about the bunker shots is we only used Pelz' bunker board to hit shots to ingrain the feel, but never spent time hitting shots without the board. After lunch, the rest of the day was spent on the putter. We first used impact tape to see how consistent our pattern was, then used the Pelz O-balls and putter clips to show how more consistent strikes rolled better. We also used a little drinking straw aiming device to similarly show more consistent striking. Each student then went through a putter fitting session where they measured the "proper" lie angle and distance between feet and ball.

Looking back on the days activities, there were probably only a couple key items to take away from each element of chipping, pitching, bunker, and putting. These were very simple concepts, and they gave a little booklet to help remember them.

Overall, everything they taught made sense at the time, and I did feel improvement after the end of the day. After playing for a number of months with these tips, I would have to say my scoring has improved a little. Chipping was probably my biggest area of improvement. A funny thing was I thought my putting would be the biggest flaws, but my consistency with the impact tape and rolling the ball was so much better than the other students that the instructors kept using me as an example. While it was nice for the ego, I didn't really get any instruction to improve MY putting.

Looking back on it, would I do it again? No. Although I felt improvement, I think I could have improved just as much practicing by myself as I did in the class - hitting short shots all day long will make one improve even if no teacher. But for even more improvement, I could get 4-5 hours with a really good instructor at one of the top courses in my area for the same cost as the $395 course. After doing a few lessons over the last 6 months, I truly think that the one-on-one instruction would have been much more beneficial than the Pelz teachings. I think that would also have the side benefit of having a coach who really understands my swing and I could easily use them for tune-ups; can't do that with the Pelz team.

Finally, I think that some of Pelz' teachings aren't right for everyone, particularly in putting stroke. I've been trying for several years to focus on the straight back/straight thru style, and feel I've lost some touch. I've recently reverted back to more of an arcing stroke (such as that taught by Utley) and am regaining touch.

To summarize, I think Pelz' research has a lot of insight into scoring, but I don't feel his scoring school was worth the money. There's just no substitute for working closely with a local pro and spending the time to ingrain what they teach you.

Pelz has good theory, but some of his ideas are not practical. In order to move the putter straight back and straight through, I find that I have to manipulate the putter handle continuously through the swing in order for the club head to travel in a straight line. Too much room for error and loss of feel for me. In his book (if I remember correctly), he suggests hitting bunker shots by entering the sand several inches behind the ball and gliding through. This sounds nice, but is only doable in perfect, soft sand (something I don't come across very often on the munis and public courses I play) For the bunkers I play, I find that entering the sand 1-2 inches behind the ball works best (for most bunker shots)

I have Pelz' Short Game Bible, and like it. He emphasizes tempo in the first chapter or two, then seems to lose sight of its importance. He gets caught up in the technical aspects of the short game for the rest of the overly looooong book.

I have gone to several one day schools of "famous" golf instructors over the years.
In the long run:
1.Very expensive
2.Whatever I learned was lost over the following months
3.You never see the "famous" instructor and are taught by his young staff.
4.Always pretty facilities or resorts
5. The only lasting benefit is to mention during casual conversation that at a party during "golf talk" thatI went to "famous" instructor school once. Just like saying I played Peble Beach once (but not saying you shot 130)
6. Will never do it again
7. I wish I had a business like that