Length ain't everything

Last Wed. I played the south course in Churchville NY, a Parks golf course.  Nice and long but very open with very little in the way of hazards save for the rough and trees.  I hooked up on the first tee with an Asian dude that weighed about 150 lbs soaking wet.  Off the first tee he lets' it rip and I mean he had like 50 yds left in.  I wanna say the first hole on the south course is about 339 yds maybe.  So anyways as the round progressed this guy could out right smack the ball.  Consistently out drive me throughout the 9 holes I played with him.  Save for the long par 5's he usually had a club or 2 less than me into the greens and he hit woods the same and his irons the same.  Long.  But the deal here is he had 0 short game.  I mean he couldn't putt to save his life and within pw or 9 iron distance usually over the green consistently.  I crushed him in score.  I might bogey a hole he would double it or triple it or worse.  Just about every single hole.  I would par he would bogey.  Just made me realize more than ever that getting on inside 3 shots or 4 at worse ain't such a bad thing if you can putt decent and get up and down around the fringe.  Which I can.  Ok that's it.  thanks

I hit a lot shorter than most of my golf mates, however I've found that it's not a big issue. On a 300m hole, hitting 100m 3 times consistently is just as good as hitting 250m, 100m and then 50m back the other way because you've overshot the hole!

If anything, hitting shorter than everyone else just moves the focus onto more strategic playing, ensuring your shots will not only add up to the required distance, but also trying to choose your lies for subsequent shots.

Putting > Chipping > Pitching > Approaching > Driving

That's how Tiger built his game, from shortest to longest.  300-yard drive and a 3-foot putt count for the same amount of strokes, yet I bet all golfers agree one means much more than the other.

What evan said. One of the golf magazines a year or so ago did a study that concluded the nearer to the hole you are the more important the stroke is to your final score.  There was also another article that studied what minimum distance off the tee with a driver is necessary to play par golf off most courses (not 7700 yard like the pros play).  I don't remember the exact number but it was somewhere around 220 yards.  So there is hope for us old guys.  But having said that if you have a good short game and can hit the ball 300 years off the tee and keep it in the short grass, you're certainly ahead of the game.

The short game is everything, if you are more than two putting, you are eating up strokes.

It's true. Watching someone make putts for up and down pars, when you're 3-jacking for bogey is very demoralizing. I've been on both sides of the equation in matches. It's a rush rolling in a putt to steal a hole you had no business still playing. The hole is not over until the ball falls into the cup, and the strokes get tougher as you approach the green and the small fidgety muscles take over. .

My short game has gotten much better in the last year or so. That being said, I'm all too familiar with the demoralizing feeling of pounding one 320, having a 50-yard shot in, and chunking it, then pitching on and two-putting for bogey. What it did teach me was a valuable lesson in course management. About a year ago I learned that I don't have to hit driver on every par 4. I'm more comfortable hitting a 3 or 4-iron and having a full 8, 9, or wedge in than a half wedge.

Basically, power is nice, but if you can't take advantage of it, what's the point?

And that meaning can change rather quickly especially if you hit a 300 yard drive on the green and miss a 3 foot putt, or miss any 3 foot putt in general, lol.

queue the touchy people who will get mad that you noticed he was an Asian man....

You should just try to get the ball in the hole in 1 shot every time. It's so much easier than putting.

That guy sounds exactly like me, even the asian part.  Too many 3 putt par's to show for it.  However, that was closer to how I started the game up to 2 years ago, my short game is pretty decent now after all the refocused practice.  However, where it really turned around was the course strategy.  I now play by the thought, if I can't get within 10 yards of the green, lay up the tee shot to a full short iron/wedge.  I can depend on those full swing numbers much more than a shot where I need to shave off distance and get artsy.  If you're distance control is a bit shaky that day, your whole scoring that day is shaky.  Once I figured this out, I just started bleeding strokes off my scores, birdies falling like mana from the heavens, all that good stuff.  That, and making sure that 2nd putt falls.

I don't hit as far as my playing partners either but I have noticed that they take driver I take 5 wood there is only 10 or 20 or so yards between us but i tend to have a full shot to the green where they are between clubs. I also have a target area off the tee and so on, where as a lot of guys I play with just go out to smash it as far as they can every time.

Best thing I was told 'its not how, its how many'

No foul - he did not make any Asian stereotypes. Now if the OP had posed a calculus problem to him...

What?  I only said Asian cause he is.  Korean I think cause his name was Kim.  He was small but pounded the mack daddy all day long.  His short game sucked and he knew it and said so.  My long game ain't so long but my short is decent, pretty much so and he said that.  Take that first hole I hit it in from 100 yds and missed the green by about 5 yards.  He went over the green by about 5 yds.  I pitched to 2' and he pitched to about 12'.  I saved par and he didn't by 2 strokes.  That's how the round went.

All year I've been bitching at myself and on here about my lack of distance since I picked the game back up.  Basically this thread is about that, me loosing distance from when I quit 12 yrs ago but playing with a guy that absolutely hit dead center just about every time and long.  The short game is everything.  I also found that on longer par 4's and 5's I can usually hit my 7 wood and put myself into position where I have a full shot with a wedge or sw.  I don't have alot of 3 putts either and I am accurate with my irons, not long mind you but accurate.  thanks

Yeah I should have expanded even more to say that if you really want to turn bogeys into pars or pars into birdies. Its all about your 100m and less game, if you can lay it up within 5-10ft a good amount of the time, and 1 putt or 2 putt those. Your score will drop pretty significantly. Of course I'm no pro at this, its just my short game is where I've always put my emphasis in, especially chipping.

I'm glad the thread was about golf !!!.......It's not how you get there it's the score at the end.

good thread it beats the hell out of i hit it 350 yards on average threads.

So why bring up his weight etc?  Wouldn't it be just fine to explain how you faced a guy who could get on the green with birdie chances all day.. yet couldn't putt worth a damn?

I'm trying to find the connection between describing this gent.. and his short game.