Short Game Experiment

[noefi13b]

High handicapper here who is actually trying this out.... right now

I have spent the last two weeks only practicing my short game and shot by best round on any course by 3 strokes and shaved 7 strokes off my best at this particular course....

My range routine now consists of no club longer than an 8 iron.... I do take 1 longer club (could be anything from 5 iron to driver) and hit no more than 5 balls at random intervals.... aside from that its all wedges and short irons....

My "normal" long game is pretty average with good drives only going about 200-220 yards so I previously spent heaps of time with the big stick trying to gain distance but I didn't get any longer and it took ages for my scores to drop, it was really inconsistent...

Just finshed reading one of Bob Rotella's books and it advises to only practice short irons EVER..... I thought what the hay! So I made a concious decision to give it a go for 3 months.....Two weeks in and I am very happy....

One last thing... despite rarely hitting a long club (iron or wood) at the range they are also getting better.... not longer just more consistent....

Cheers,
Dek

[BigMikey]

Just wondering if you only practiced putting and chipping around the green for a month if your golf scores would go down? yes, thats right, no driver, fairways woods, longer iron, mid iron practice at the driving range but just putting and chipping off the green and playing 18 holes.

I would have to say it would at any handicap level. Most high HDCP'ers have very low scrambling percentage and a lot of 3 putts. Really it all depends on what the persons statistics are. If they are 0/14 in fairways then they can't ignore that statistic but if they can get on or close to the fairway I think you have a great solution.

[ks8829]

I played yesterday and had on of my best up and down rounds getting up 8 out of 14 attempts or 57% along with 27 putts.

I shot 80 for a total score but my short game save me.

38 in the front
1 bogies
1 double bogie
1 birdie
6 pars

42 in the back nine
2 bogies
2 double bogies
5 pars

11 fairways hit
6 total greens hit