short game vs long game!

[JML22]

With a good short game you could hit like 789 down the fairway and come out better than with a semi decent long game, mnissing greens with 8 irons then a chip/2-3 putt

[The Recreational Golfer]

Long game. The only time I break 80 is when my swing is clicking. My short game doesn't save me when I waste strokes getting to the green, or when my swing leaves the ball outside up and down range.

My short game gives me 81s and 82s, but my swing gives me the 78s.

[sean_miller]

Short game to me includes all shots 80 yards in. I've never met someone who had an "impeccable" short game yet struggled off the tee. I've met plenty of people who thought they did though.

[$2 Nassau]

For me it's long game without a doubt, that's where most of my strokes are wasted. I've always believed that for the double digit handicapper like myself the long game is where strokes are lost most often, and the most improvement can be obtained. Most disagree though. I've never practiced short game, ever, and was able to get down to a 10 fairly quickly by just worrying about my swing and trying to hit greens.

[chilly]

My game is still such that I just don't know. Shot 84 yesterday which is a solid round for a 13hcp. Got up and down five times, which is good for me...but also bombed a couple drives that setup birdies to help "erase" some double bogeys I had sprinkled in there.

[double_j]

Your long game has to get the point where you aren't constantly losing stupid strokes (OB, unplayables, 5 ft chunks) before even the best short game can save you.

Basically, nothing has to be really excellent to get your index below a 10, all you need to get to a single digit is to have a passable long game (meaning that you can generally keep the ball in play off the tee and get, at worst, within less than a full wedge of the green in regulation on most holes), and a pretty good short game (i.e, almost all chips from 50 yards and in end up on the green, you rarely three putt, and you can get up and down 50% of the time when you're within 10 yards of the green).

[saevel25]

Well my thought on this would be, everybody should learn the basic understanding of the short game.

1) How to get out of the bunker to somewere on the green towards the hole
2) How to hit the basic chip and run
3) How to hit pitch shots

These three things, everyone should know the basics, they learn this and they should be able to cut alot of strokes off there game. But if they can't get off the tee, than yea, go learn the long game.

right now, i am not to concerned with my long game, its serving me well. I am really hitting the driver and long irons good. One round, i was 2 over with two holes to play (only play 9 holes), 17th hole, I go drive in the fairway right were i want it, the right side that makes my shot angle going away from trouble. I pull my wedge a bit and end up middle left, just short of the back left bunker. I go on and take 5 more strokes with in 30 feet of the hole. Because i duff my first chip, then i chip on to about 7 feet (very touchy downhill chip, hard to stop it close, were i wanted to be the first time). I am pissed, and i thought, do not leave this short, i bash it 4 feet up the hill above the hole. 3 putt for 7.

If i had the short game and actually did things technically right, at worst i would do bogey.

It depends on the person, each person should learn there own weaknesses

[birdiedream]

Most people chip/pitch about 20 times a round. In addittion, you will have around 34 putts. That is 54 strokes right there. I believe you can lower your score more quickly working with your short game than spending time on improving your full swing. Of course, ideally we should spend 60% of your time on the short game and 40% of your practice time on the full swing. However, most people spend about 80% of their time on the full swing. How do I know this? At the range, you will see 4 or 5 people working on their full swing for every person who is working on putting or chipping.

For me, I spend about 60% of my practice time on the full swing. I should reduce it to about 30% and my score will be lower. In addition, I will save a lot of money too.

[bwdial]

It really depends on the skill of the golfer.

High handicappers probably should focus on their long game initially. I played with a couple of guys the other day who made extremely inconsistent contact in the long game, so they had already burned five to seven strokes before they had gotten on the green. At that point, Seve's short game wouldn't have helped. Had they been able to hit the ball 175 yards off the tee and keep it on, or near the fairway, and get it near the green in regulation, then a good short game could have an effect. However, when your "putt" for double bogey is coming from 100 yards out, all the short game prowess in the world isn't going to help.

On the other hand, low handicappers that are able to get close to - or on - pretty much every green in regulation are going to profit much more from a deft short game.

[BallStriker]

Sounds obvious, but to get to a high level you need both.....assuming you could place your "skill level" for each of the long game and short game on a scale of 1-10 and you could make any combination you want with a maximum of 16 total.......I think the best player would be someone being an 8 out of 10 with the long game, and an 8 out of 10 on the short game.

Long way to say...........if your long game is currently stronger than your short, work more on your short....if vice versa, vice versa.

[FenderStrat62]

For me, a lot of the time I'm doing one or the other well (for my standards). I'm either hitting the ball well off the tee and losing strokes around the green, or my short game and putting are clicking and I'm bad off the tee. It seems that when I'm mediocre with my driver, I can recover from it well enough that it doesn't hurt me as badly as when I waste strokes around the green. But, when my long game is very good, it can cover up a lot of mistakes.

So, I guess like everyone has said, it's a balance.

[VMAN]

short game and basic recovery shots can cover a lot of mistakes....short game vote here.

If you're hitting the ball OB and into hazards then you need to work on your long game, but to break through certain handicap plateaus it does come down to the short game.

[Tugglife2]

  bwdial said:

It really depends on the skill of the golfer.

Lots of good posts in this thread but this one gets my vote for the best. I really feel like this is spot on.

[sean_miller]

  Tugglife2 said:

Lots of good posts in this thread but this one gets my vote for the best. I really feel like this is spot on.

\

I agree. A lot of low cappers have no problem keeping it between the ditches so they take that for granted.

[brgolf]

long game is a priority for these reasons:

greater risk of penalty strokes

greater risk of one bad shot leading to another

the need to hit GIR above all else

[JWL1957]

I played single digit golf for many years and cannot say that I ever did anything particularly well. On days when my swing really sucked, I always tried to focus on missing to the right spots for EZ up and downs. I always played with the belief that if I got it up and down 50% of the time...... I would be looking at a 80-81. Most golfers I play with seem to think that they have to hit perfect shots every time and they come unravelled after a few bad holes.

[wedgewizard]

  birdiedream said:

However, most people spend about 80% of their time on the full swing. How do I know this? At the range, you will see 4 or 5 people working on their full swing for every person who is working on putting or chipping.

I see the same thing at my local range.

But you must remember that a lot of guys practice their chipping and putting at home. You don't need much space to practice those skills, but you really need a range to practice your full swing.

[Zeph]

I don't practice the short game and putting at all. I improve all the time on the short game and the green, but it is just not where I lose most of my shots during a round. My main goal is to find a) the fairway and b) the green. Once I get that sorted out, I can start working on the short game if I need to.