Pro Golfers Know Working on Short Game Goes a Long Way [NYT]

[nevets88]

Obviously the writer never heard of 65/15/10, but yes, the short game is important.

Quote

“I enjoy hitting drivers because I can just get out there and hit it as hard as I can, and you’re on the driving range, it’s going to go semi-straight,” Day said. Some of his short-game sessions, he added, have ended with him walking away “kind of pulling my hair out” and feeling as if his No. 1 ranking is a mirage. “Like, yeah, I’m the best player in the world,” he said, scoffing.

I kind of disagree, there is nuance to the driver. It just happens really fast.

Quote

“Swinging the driver as hard and fast as you can is probably the least nuanced part of the game, so that generally gets most of the attention from the recreational player,” said Harry Arnett, the senior vice president of marketing and brand management for Callaway Golf. “But all golfers come to the cold, hard realization that dedication to the complete game through the bag is the only sure way to lower their scores dramatically.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/sports/golf/pro-golfers-know-working-on-short-game-goes-a-long-way.html?ref=golf

[iacas]

I charted the number of players practicing on the putting green, short game area, and practice range. I discounted the number of people chatting (or else the putting green would be vastly over-stated, as it's basically the Tour's "water cooler") at several times during the Memorial last week.

It was close to 65/20/15. It favored putting slightly more than short game, but that's mainly because some players will hit short game shots as part of their warmup on the practice range, and not all practice the short game before they go play 9 or 18 holes in a practice round. They'll hit some extra shots out there on the course, though.

[DaveP043]

Quote

“The hard thing about trying to improve something like that when it is one of your weaknesses is to actually get up and do it, because it really sucks trying to work on weaknesses at the start,” he said. “But as you slowly do it over time, it gets better and better and better, and then becomes a lot more exciting.”

This seems to me to be the important thing, to figure out where your weaknesses are and work to improve them.  And working on a weakness isn't fun, because you're facing your "failures" head on.  Its more fun to do the things that you're good at.  Who wants to do the things he's not good at?

[Patch]

Speaking as an amateur, I don't practice my long game as much as I probably  should. My tee to approach game is my weakest area. One problem for not devoting more practice time to my long game is the lack of real grass practice conditions available.  

 For me it is so much easier to practice my short game stuff from 80 yards and shorter. My home course actually has an 80 yard shot in their practice area. Since my 80 yard full swing sort of mimics my metal wood swings, it's a two birds with one stone type of deal. Yes, I know the difference between steeper, and flatter swings. That said, most of my practice time is 10-15 yards from off the green, and putting.

To make my practice sessions more interesting, I will add in the tougher stuff. Practicing easy pitches, chips, and putts tend to bore me a little. When I say easy, I mean straight stuff, from good lies. Give me an uneven lies, and/or  breaking putts to work on anytime. 

What ever works for the golfer is my motto. Golfers who play, and practice alot, stay familiar with their games. This makes for more consistant, lower scores. 

[pumaAttack]

Working on the short game is important because its so much about feel and touch.  If you have brick hands and can't judge a carry distance, you aren't going to score well.  There isn't much to really practice but really just work on that feel.

Hank Haney said a pretty ignorant statement the other day. "The only people you see on the chipping practice area are the people with the chipping yips."  Or you know, it could be people who enjoy that aspect of golf, people who are working on a new technique or people who are developing a feel for the different types of shots and when to play each one.  

I see so many people double chip or leave themselves with terrible putts that cost them strokes every round.  I hardly ever see those people practice their chipping.

[iacas]

3 hours ago, pumaAttack said:

Working on the short game is important because its so much about feel and touch.  If you have brick hands and can't judge a carry distance, you aren't going to score well.  There isn't much to really practice but really just work on that feel.

Feel is a matter of having the proper technique. Everyone has a pretty good sense of touch. Bad mechanics mask it.

[pumaAttack]

19 minutes ago, iacas said:

Feel is a matter of having the proper technique. Everyone has a pretty good sense of touch. Bad mechanics mask it.

 

I can't agree with that part...

I have played with plenty of people that will chip and putt across the width of a green simply because they have no sense of touch.  They hammer the ball way to hard and don't think it should go that far.  Or the opposite, they literally take 4 pitches to get a ball to the green from 50 yards out.  Touch is learned from experience and practice.

[Groucho Valentine]

Ballstriking comes and goes. A solid short game stays with you and is a nice security blanket for the times you don't hit good shots in a round. I dont know why a lot of players practice short game so infrequently. Drivers and 5 irons don't put the ball in the hole. 

48 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

 

I can't agree with that part...

I have played with plenty of people that will chip and putt across the width of a green simply because they have no sense of touch.  They hammer the ball way to hard and don't think it should go that far.  Or the opposite, they literally take 4 pitches to get a ball to the green from 50 yards out.  Touch is learned from experience and practice.

I agree with this, too. Mechanics are just a part of it. 

[billchao]

55 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

 

I can't agree with that part...

I have played with plenty of people that will chip and putt across the width of a green simply because they have no sense of touch.  They hammer the ball way to hard and don't think it should go that far.  Or the opposite, they literally take 4 pitches to get a ball to the green from 50 yards out.  Touch is learned from experience and practice.

Or their technique sucks and it's impossible to consistently control the speed of the ball with it.

I've seen plenty of people take long backswings and try to slow down to the correct speed to hit the ball with, and plenty of people who barely take a backswing and try to accelerate to the right speed. You can't really develop the proper touch if your technique does not allow you to use feedback and learn distance control easily.

Not everyone has a world-class sense of touch, but everyone has a good enough sense of it to play decent golf if they had better technique.

[pumaAttack]

3 minutes ago, billchao said:

Or their technique sucks and it's impossible to consistently control the speed of the ball with it.

I've seen plenty of people take long backswings and try to slow down to the correct speed to hit the ball with, and plenty of people who barely take a backswing and try to accelerate to the right speed. You can't really develop the proper touch if your technique does not allow you to use feedback and learn distance control easily.

Not everyone has a world-class sense of touch, but everyone has a good enough sense of it to play decent golf if they had better technique.

 

I think thats an issue related to touch... They don't know how hard to swing so they decelerate because they aren't confident that their ball will land where they want.    They don't have a good sense of touch and have to try and adjust mid swing.  If they were confident in their touch, they would just swing without worry.

21 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

Ballstriking comes and goes. A solid short game stays with you and is a nice security blanket for the times you don't hit good shots in a round. I dont know why a lot of players practice short game so infrequently. Drivers and 5 irons don't put the ball in the hole. 

I agree with this, too. Mechanics are just a part of it. 

Exactly.  I think all of this talk about distance being key is way overblown.  Doesn't matter how far you hit if you can't get up and down for birdies and pars.  

Look at the recent USGA study, distance has pretty much been the same as always.  It really isn't that big of a factor.  Scoring touch around the green is.

[Patch]

5 hours ago, pumaAttack said:

Working on the short game is important because its so much about feel and touch.  If you have brick hands and can't judge a carry distance, you aren't going to score well.  There isn't much to really practice but really just work on that feel.

Hank Haney said a pretty ignorant statement the other day. "The only people you see on the chipping practice area are the people with the chipping yips."  Or you know, it could be people who enjoy that aspect of golf, people who are working on a new technique or people who are developing a feel for the different types of shots and when to play each one.  

I see so many people double chip or leave themselves with terrible putts that cost them strokes every round.  I hardly ever see those people practice their chipping.

Folks like Haney are only as good as their students' talent. I have a couple of his books collecting dust some where. 

44 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

Ballstriking comes and goes. A solid short game stays with you and is a nice security blanket for the times you don't hit good shots in a round. I dont know why a lot of players practice short game so infrequently. Drivers and 5 irons don't put the ball in the hole. 

I agree with this, too. Mechanics are just a part of it. 

I agree with your "solid short game" remark. Mine is pretty solid, and it saves me many times during a round. 

Edited June 8, 2016 by Patch

[Golfingdad]

5 hours ago, pumaAttack said:

I see so many people double chip or leave themselves with terrible putts that cost them strokes every round.  I hardly ever see those people practice their chipping.

You'll hardly ever see me practicing my short game as well - but I'm pretty good at it.  I take a handful of shots at the beginning (and sometimes end) of each practice session and a handful of shots during each warm up session, and that is pretty much it.

Also, don't forget that we all have a finite amount of time to practice whatever we want.  So even if my short game isn't "perfect," how much of that time do I really want to devote to getting myself out of trouble at the expense of the same amount of work trying to avoid getting into trouble in the first place?

[pumaAttack]

2 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

You'll hardly ever see me practicing my short game as well - but I'm pretty good at it.  I take a handful of shots at the beginning (and sometimes end) of each practice session and a handful of shots during each warm up session, and that is pretty much it.

Also, don't forget that we all have a finite amount of time to practice whatever we want.  So even if my short game isn't "perfect," how much of that time do I really want to devote to getting myself out of trouble at the expense of the same amount of work trying to avoid getting into trouble in the first place?

Yeah, but you DO practice it.  I am talking about people that NEVER practice, or merely hit a chip shot before the round waiting on the tee box.

Do you think you could maybe turn more pars into birdies or bogeys into pars if you spend a few more minutes working on the short game?  Surely putting a chip shot to within 5 feet consistently will knock strokes off your game.  Especially if before you double chipped or left yourself a 30 footer downhill.  

[billchao]

35 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

I think thats an issue related to touch... They don't know how hard to swing so they decelerate because they aren't confident that their ball will land where they want.    They don't have a good sense of touch and have to try and adjust mid swing.  If they were confident in their touch, they would just swing without worry.

No, it's a technique issue. You can't learn how to hit the ball the proper distance consistently if your stroke does not allow enough control for you to repeat it well.

It's not just about swing length, it just happened to be one example I picked. If someone pulls all their pitches and delofts the face at impact, they are always going to have launch and spin control issues. Same if they flip at the ball too much and are prone to chunks and skulls. They're not blading pitches because they lack touch.

[Hardspoon]

44 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

  Look at the recent USGA study, distance has pretty much been the same as always.  It really isn't that big of a factor.  Scoring touch around the green is.

The USGA study showed how average distance has changed over time. It didn't equate that with scoring.

What do you mean by "It really isn't that big a factor"?

 

[pumaAttack]

4 minutes ago, billchao said:

No, it's a technique issue. You can't learn how to hit the ball the proper distance consistently if your stroke does not allow enough control for you to repeat it well.

It's not just about swing length, it just happened to be one example I picked. If someone pulls all their pitches and delofts the face at impact, they are always going to have launch and spin control issues. Same if they flip at the ball too much and are prone to chunks and skulls. They're not blading pitches because they lack touch.

I guess we agree to disagree.  

I think that touch can have a huge impact and that touch can be improved with practice.   Not everybody has the exact same swing mechanics, but they can still get good results.  Too much emphasize is placed on mechanics around here sometimes.   There is still an art to golf.

Just now, Hardspoon said:

The USGA study showed how average distance has changed over time. It didn't equate that with scoring.

What do you mean by "It really isn't that big a factor"?

 

Umm, it isn't that big of a scoring factor.  The longest hitters on tour aren't winning every week. It's the people who can get up and down and putt well for that week.  Those are the winners on tour week in and week out.  

If distance was so important DJ and Rory would win every week.

[Hardspoon]

3 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

Umm, it isn't that big of a scoring factor.  The longest hitters on tour aren't winning every week. It's the people who can get up and down and putt well for that week.  Those are the winners on tour week in and week out.  

If distance was so important DJ and Rory would win every week.

That's completely incorrect. If you are actually interested in this kind of thing, you should read "Every Shot Counts" by Mark Broadie.

6 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

I think that touch can have a huge impact and that touch can be improved with practice.   Not everybody has the exact same swing mechanics, but they can still get good results.  Too much emphasize is placed on mechanics around here sometimes.   There is still an art to golf.

Agreed on the "art", but it is tough to divorce that from mechanics, isn't it? I think "touch" is the ability to instinctively understand what mechanics are required for a shot (speed, angle of attack, engagement of bounce) and deliver those mechanics without having to think about it. "Touch" is only as valuable as its ability to create the mechanically correct swing.

 

[DaveP043]

7 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

 The longest hitters on tour aren't winning every week. It's the people who can get up and down and putt well for that week.  Those are the winners on tour week in and week out.  

I'm sure others will bring the actual statistics, but I'd bet that the winners are most often the guys who hit the ball closest to the hole in regulation.  That's full swing mechanics.  Sure, sometimes a great putting week will overcome average ball-striking, but I'll take the guy who averages 15 feet in regulation over the guy who's averaging 25 feet.

In the OP, the issue was Jason Day recognizing that his short game was weaker than his full swing, and dedicating the time and effort to make it better.