So I'm Teaching My Kid to Play…

[Bonvivant]

@Cut4, thanks for the response. I know a lot of parents that think their kid is the best at everything, but when it comes down to it, they are just above average. Sounds like your son is the one in millions that actually is at that top level. It sounds like he has the capability to do great things in many places. Golf and hockey may "work together" where you live, but if he wants to continue to be elite in hockey, or become elite in golf, choices have to be made. That might be him picking golf and getting a membership to a year round range, or a simulator for the house and dropping hockey, but it sounds like he loves that quite a bit.

[mclaren4life]

23 minutes ago, iacas said:

Didn’t say you did.

???

He didn’t say that.

Sorry I misread his statement. Doing too many things at once. 

[Cut4]

didn't think it would happen this soon, but the boy beat his dad today. stuck a 5 iron to inside 2 feet on a par 5 (502 yards from the ladies tee's he was playing) to make birdie and shoot a 39. He's moving to the seniors tee's tomorrow! 

[Sandy Lie]

On 7/17/2020 at 10:41 PM, Cut4 said:

My 10 year old played a couple of rounds last year and loved it, which gave me the ammo required to get a club membership past the wife. He's been playing with 10 year old Ping Moxie's, but I recently got him a junior F9 driver. Scores are dropping like a stone. I recently moved him from Women's (2700) to seniors (2950) tee's. He's an elite level hockey and baseball player, so hitting the ball hard has been natural for him. As the other kids tell him, "he hit's bombs". He recently won the club junior championship for the 10-11 age group with a 46 (9 holes), which was before his new driver (legit 35 yards further). He's now been bitten by the bug, and we're playing 4 times a week. He has recently learned the value of putting, but his short game is absolute garbage. if he doesn't hit his approach to 10 feet it's a guaranteed double bogey. Gotta find a way to get past this.

He wants to play more tournaments. At what point do I say "then lets work on your short game!) When he plays with kids his age, he just overpowers them, but I'm sure there's plenty of kids that hit it longer than him, and either way, that won't last forever. On the other hand, He's my ticket to getting away with playing 4 days a week, and he's won enough pro-shop money to buy his own golf balls. 

By the way, is there anything better in life than playing a friendly but competitive match against your child? On friday's we play a skins match, and tonight on 18 he stuck his 3rd shot on a 465 yard par 5 to 3 feet to make birdie and take the match. That meant Taco Bell for dinner. 

Short game, short game, short game.  For the past three years at Pinehurst watching these US Kids play practically all of the bomb the ball. But the top players have all phases of the short game.  This years US Kids start this week.  I was on course #2 yesterday. The tee box is right next to the 1st green on #4.  Here’s these two kids on the first green no clubs in their hands walking all around the green just rolling balls to learn the breaks from different directions and yes they were writing everything down.  Saw them one more time and they were doing it on all greens.  Also played with a 18 year old girl on #2 yesterday. She had a tremendous short game.  She is a great putter, read the greens really well.  Missed one fairway all day. Birdied 3 of the par 5’s with great chips. On 18 she missed the Green right side. Had to chip over the deep right side bunker to a back pin!  Hit it to 2 feet.  So yes the short game was key to her tidy 75.  And she just graduated from high school and is off to Samford University on a full golf scholarship.   I would say emphasize the short game early in any young player.

[Sandy Lie]

And you may want to consider this: 

National Junior Golf Association

 

[iacas]

2 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

Short game, short game, short game.

Full swing, full swing, full swing.

2 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

For the past three years at Pinehurst watching these US Kids play practically all of the bomb the ball.

FWIW, these are already the "top players," so they make the full swing stuff look easier than it does for all other juniors their age(s). So, a big part of what got them to Pinehurst to begin with is their full swing — the fact that they can bomb it and hit the green quite often with an 8I or whatever.

That's why people thought that putting is what mattered on the PGA Tour… until we got the data that exposed it as untrue. People continue to be bad at seeing the partial shots saved: another green hit to even 40 feet is worth a fraction of a shot to a green missed at 40 feet, particularly in a bunker or some thick rough.

2 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

The tee box is right next to the 1st green on #4.  Here’s these two kids on the first green no clubs in their hands walking all around the green just rolling balls to learn the breaks from different directions and yes they were writing everything down.  Saw them one more time and they were doing it on all greens.

Well that's just course prep. It doesn't speak to how much time to devote to practicing.

2 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

Missed one fairway all day. Birdied 3 of the par 5’s with great chips.

You may be overlooking the fact that she had to be in a position to chip the ball on the par fives for her third shot(s).

Compared to the full swing, putting and chipping are the easier skills. They have the least Separation Value®.

2 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

So yes the short game was key to her tidy 75.

That's unlikely to be the case.

---

And look, @Sandy Lie, I'm just sharing what I consider to be facts here. We know a lot more about how to score in golf than we did even a decade ago, and it's not the short game. Yes, your short game can "save you" and help you shoot 74 on days when you'd otherwise shoot 79 or 80, but it's not going to be why you shoot 68 or 72 regularly.

Shooting good scores requires hitting greens. On 14 of the holes on the course, that requires a tee shot and at least a second shot, and on the other four a good iron or hybrid, typically.

The old saying that actually had some merit wasn't "drive for show, putt for dough," it was "two things don't last very long in this world: dogs who chase cars and pros who putt for pars." Hit greens, give yourself birdie putts.

The best rounds I play… I don't need my short game much. And by "I" I mean "everyone."

Again, I'm not saying don't practice your short game. Practice it the appropriate amount, and if it is a glaring weakness, practice it more.

But the full swing is both more important AND more difficult.

[Shindig]

4 hours ago, Sandy Lie said:

Short game, short game, short game.  For the past three years at Pinehurst watching these US Kids play practically all of the bomb the ball. But the top players have all phases of the short game.  

You know what really helped my short game recently?  The same thing that probably helps these kids' short game:  leaving much shorter chips and pitches than before, and in better places.  But that wasn't the result of short game practice.