Improving Most Quickly

[iacas]

By far, improve ballstriking. Not only can improving your ballstriking have a trickle-down effect on the rest of your game (putts from 25 feet are easier to make than putts from 35 and 50 feet, getting up and down is easier when you miss in more predictable and thus more appropriate spots), etc.

Improving ballstriking can lead to large leaps and bounds. Improving your putting by 5% is nearly impossible and still only results in 1.5 shots per round. And, again, it's much easier to improve your putting (by more than 5%) by hitting the ball closer...

[alisdair]

I voted mental game. Most of my misses now come when I'm not concentrating. Worse than that, a costly miss on one hole can turn into an anger-induced high number on the next. From what I see around the course, the same thing happens to a lot of other high-handicap players, even those who do a decent job of course management.

Maybe low-handicap players would benefit most from improved ball striking, but I think a lot of mediocre and bad golfers could be much better if they (we) could manage their (our) mental game properly.

[Dr. Slice]

i voted ballstriking. right no with my striking i am all over the place, but whenever i hit a nice crisp shot and it lands on the green and you even get a little backspin. If i could do that everytime i could be a scratch golfer.

but thats definitely not the case.

[jamo]

Ball striking definitely. I improved the most when I improved my driving accuracy (that counts as ball striking, right?) which left me with more fairway shots into the green. That made me put the ball closer to the hole, be it a closer putt or just more GIR's.

[James_Black]

putting.

I'm hitting a lot of GIR but I can't putt at all

[Zeph]

Depends on the player I guess, but for me it is with no doubt ballstriking.

[Shindig]

Ballstriking. I'm putting most of my time into that now. I broke down my last several rounds by just looking at GIR vs score, and the correlation was reasonably strong. On the plus side, just improving my ball striking in the past few weeks has lead to much longer distances with an accompanying increase in accuracy.

I still enjoy putting and chipping practice, and I do them also to make sure my form stays decent.

[Mrd19abhs]

I say mental game/ course mangement for most average golfers because when I make a bad shot it ruins my mental game and then causes blow up holes, also something that kills me is my mental game when playing with other i dont know. also when i try and manage the course and try not to drive par 4's and just use the hybrid and poke it 220 and leave a mid iron into the green i do better than when i kill it and end up in the rough under tne trees.

[jdjanda]

Improving my ball striking has helped enormously, a strong second for me is the mental game. I've been working on half swings to help with ball striking, today 50 wedge shots into the net, then 10 half and 10 3/4 with a 5i then 10/10 with my 3 hybrid.

[jdjanda]

By far, improve ballstriking. Not only can improving your ballstriking have a trickle-down effect on the rest of your game (putts from 25 feet are easier to make than putts from 35 and 50 feet, getting up and down is easier when you miss in more predictable and thus more appropriate spots), etc.

IMHO, I think you sway the poll by coming out with such a strong statement. You do make a good point regarding putting.

[jaykerz]

I voted short game. Nothing worse than 2 beautiful shots, and then chunking a chip and blowing a putt 10 ft. past the hole.

[kurisu]

I voted ball striking. I believe that this is the foundation for the other two points: If you have good ball striking, you gain confidence and you can focus on visualisation, be calmer and actually have time to think about course management.
If your ball striking is shaky, you hit bad shots, which makes it harder to calm yourself down, and, how can you even dare say you have a tactic/course management when you're not sure where your next shot is going to land?
Ball striking also trickles down into short game skills: you need to be sure/confident you can make good contact if you want to actually make that pitch/chip land on the green not too far from the pin, and stick to it.

For me, I'm really really putting sharp focus on building a good repeatable swing first, and when I go on the course, I try to learn as much as I can about things you can't learn on a practice range: how different lies affect your shots, how to compensate. This is just part of ball striking. And I try to enjoy myself as much as possible! (I'm probably the only absolute beginner who LOVES to land in the sand when I'm out playing on the course, because I can't really practice that elsewhere inside Tokyo)
Once I feel that the ball goes where I want it to go on a regular basis, then and only then will I really think about tactics and visualisation.

[Randy4h]

It feels great to drive it long and straight, then to hit the green in regulation. You'll get a par in most cases. Improve your ball striking so that you hit it to 20 feet instead of 30 feet and guess what. You'll still get a par, because the percentage of 20 foot putts made by amateurs is less than 10%.

Although improved ball striking will reduce your handicap for sure, the FASTEST route is through the short game and putting. There are more "wasted" strokes within 50 yards of the green than anywhere else. Turn those 3-4 strokes into 2 and you've immediately saved 1-2 strokes. Accomplish that on 5 holes per round, and that's a 5-10 stroke lowering of your handicap +/-.

[ks8829]

Hands down short game and putting! you can miss a drive and still salvage a par with a good short game and putting. If you are asking in general, most people would greatly benefit more with a good short game and putting.

[Phil McGleno]

Easy question. Ball striking. Why even list a poll - you know the answer, Erik. Pros might "make their money" on the short game but they've already got their ballstriking to the place they need it to be.

Although improved ball striking will reduce your handicap for sure, the FASTEST route is through the short game and putting. There are more "wasted" strokes within 50 yards of the green than anywhere else. Turn those 3-4 strokes into 2 and you've immediately saved 1-2 strokes. Accomplish that on 5 holes per round, and that's a 5-10 stroke lowering of your handicap +/-.

You're full of it. Hit the green and you'll immediately save those strokes too. Even the world's best scramble only about 65% of the time.

Improving ballstriking not only allows you to hit the ball straighter, but longer too. Improved ball striking will leave you with a club or two less into greens, and since you're more accurate, you can easily - easily make up for that 65% scrambling rate (if you're as good as the average PGA Tour pro, and you're not gonna be). You hit six greens a round, but you scramble about as well as you're going to: of 12 greens missed, 5 you fail to get up and down, that's 15 shots right there (assuming it's only three). If you hit ten greens a round and get up and down only 40% of the time, that's 15 shots again for five missed greens. The latter a) doesn't require you to have a PGA Tour-level short game, doesn't require you to hit as many greens as a pro, and c) gets the same results while not even counting the shots you'll save by being closer to the hole on greens you hit. Erik said it already, too: ball striking isn't just about hitting greens, it's about being able to know where you'll miss, too, which leads to better misses in better spots, which is a big part of the reason why pros have a higher up and down percentage to begin with - their ball striking leaves them in better spots. They know a shot won't over-draw or over-fade or come up short or long in certain situations that would put them in jail.

Hands down short game and putting! you can miss a drive and still salvage a par with a good short game and putting. If you are asking in general, most people would greatly benefit more with a good short game and putting.

Yeah, and if you don't miss the drive so badly to begin with, you don't have to rely on something that's a worse-than-50/50 chance at saving par (because you're probably not going to be left with just a simple pitch or chip for your third).

Anecdotal evidence is fine, and you go on believing it. It may even be right for you... but for the average golfer, nope. They hit the ball like crap.

[tm22721]

By far, improve ballstriking. Not only can improving your ballstriking have a trickle-down effect on the rest of your game (putts from 25 feet are easier to make than putts from 35 and 50 feet, getting up and down is easier when you miss in more predictable and thus more appropriate spots), etc.

Agreed, ballstriking. Especially when you experiment with a new dynamic like this one that has finally gotten me into single digits. Radical stuff though you will be attacked for straying from the gospel.

[Randy4h]

Easy question. Ball striking. Why even list a poll - you know the answer, Erik. Pros might "make their money" on the short game but they've already got their ballstriking to the place they need it to be.

You're entitled to your opinion there, Butch (or whoever). I'll stick with the short game and putting. I guess all those idiots like Dave Pelz just don't know what they are talking about when they say the quickest way to lower scores is through improving the short game. Guess they are full of it , too.

[sean_miller]

You're entitled to your opinion there, Butch (or whoever). I'll stick with the short game and putting. I guess all those idiots like Dave Pelz just don't know what they are talking about when they say the quickest way to lower scores is through improving the short game. Guess they are full of it , too.

I voted on this yesterday - ballstriking - because if somebody improves their ball striking, they will likely be improving club/ball contact with their short game shots as well. Including chips, pitches, and putts. Assuming their distance control is improving as well.

I disagree that good ball striking inerently leads to better misses and better leaves though. If only ball striking improves, without any improvements in the short game/ putting or course management, the player might be firing at sucker pins and short siding themselves on a regular basis. In reality, all three are related. I believe that becoming a good ball striking is the hardest of the three, so Joe Average should always practice with ball striking in mind. I also believe that practicing hitting pitches and knockdowns is really good for improving ball striking.