Has anyone tried this before?

I have been complaining about my driving for months now, and feel it's the weakest part of my game.  A buddy of mine told me that I can make up for it by practicing my short game more, and I laughed at him and told him my short game was pretty good, it was my driver that costs me the most strokes.

He didn't believe me, so we made a bet.  I would play 9 holes standard and keep score.  Then I would play the same 9 again, but this time I would get 3 balls off the tee, then pick the best one out of the 3 and play in from that ball.  This would confirm how I would play if I usually got the ball in a good position off the tee.

The 1st 9 I shot a 43 and hit 3 fairways.

The 2nd time around, I shot a 38.

At the end of the round, he agreed that my short game is very good, I really need some help off the tee.

So in my mind, my driver is costing me around 10 strokes per round.  I'm really happy with my irons and short-game, this just confirms that I need to go work with my instructor on the big stick and fairway woods to get those scores down.

If you need a really good short game to make up for a poor long game, how are you ever going to improve? Short game makes a difference, yes, but the long game is where you need to get better at your handicap. It is by far the best way to improve your scores. Additionally, working on the short game is easier compared to the full swing, way easier. If you want to drop a couple of shots, sure, work on the short game. If you want to improve down into the single digits and improve your overall game, work on your swing. Focus on being able to hit fairways and greens, that's where the low scores lie.

I 100% agree with you after my experiment today.  Except for the 1 sand save I didn't get, and the 8' putt that I lipped out, I would have shot par for the course with a decent drive.  I am happy with my irons and short game and need to dedicate some time to getting out in the fairway better off the tee.  I think I proved this to myself today through my experiment.  I'm losing a lot of shots from not hitting the fairway, more than anywhere else in my game.

I have a similar problem with my game, except instead of my drives, it's my irons. I can usually hit drives straight and fairly long, (usually around 275-285) but my irons are so inconsistent. I never get how I can hit my driver, which is usually one of the hardest clubs to hit, but I can't hit my irons. I always work on my short game since it's FREE, but I guess I should focus on my irons a lot more, and see what happens then.

If I were losing 10 shots a round because of my driver, I'd probably hit 3 wood off the tee instead.

It always helps when your hitting well off the tee. You'd rather hit an easy 8 from the fairway into the green than a hard 6 from the thick stuff.

Short game is where you make up strokes, but the drive is what starts the process.  When I drive the ball in the fairway or at least not into trouble is when I play my best.  I have a very solid short game, so hitting a fairway and then getting a ball on the green or just off the green and I'm on my way to a solid score.

I've argued with a friend for years that the best way to improve your score is to improve your short game, but he contends it is to improve your swing.  To an extent I get what he is saying, if you don't get off to a good start on a hole, you can't expect to end well.  My dad always says it only takes one good shot to make the hole successful, which I get also, I'm a lot better at making a good shot with a wedge or a chip or a putt than I am with a 4 iron out of wet, long rough!