6 Handicap - need a short game training plan

[No Mulligans]

On 10/3/2016 at 3:38 PM, smurfsky101 said:

 

I just wanted to add that you can't rely on the putting strokes lost (yours is 5.59) in Game Golf.  The problem is that Game Golf is using a database of the Game Golf players as a basis of comparisons and too many of those players are not editing their puts after their round.  For example Game Golf might show the unedited putt to be 20 feet when it was actually a 1 footer.  For those of us that edit our putts our data will show a lot fewer long putts made than those that don't edit their putts and fewer long putts made than the database in general.  I hope that all makes sense to you.

Your putts per hole is probable what you want to look at and if you are on average greens you certainly should be aiming for that to average less than 2.00.

[smurfsky101]

Already seeing improvement!

2 9 hole rounds today, got up and down a few times, so 1.67 putts per hole and 1.82 putts per hole to shoot 1 over and 2 over respectively. 2 birdies on each nine, so the putting was working.

 

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/smurfsky101/round/1218446

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/smurfsky101/round/1218775

 

Although to be fair, East Potomac is a very very easy course.

[RH31]

The best short game advice I could give would be to learn how to use the bounce on your sand wedge. Really focus on being the best you can be with this club around the greens before you move on to using various clubs. Learn how to hit it high, low and in between. Practice from every lie imaginable, from almost too good to impossibly buried. Master this club as best you can then move on to the less lofted options.

As far as lessons go, all the short game lessons I've ever gotten were simply the pro teaching his or her method and they were all different. Not a single pro addressed the proper way to use/engage the bounce of my sand wedge. Heck one pro's lesson was to simply focus on where I wanted to land the ball, that's it. If you do take lesson's I hope you have more luck with it than I did. If I had it to do over, I would ask specifically for the pro to teach me  how to pitch the ball effectively onto the green from different lies.

[The Recreational Golfer]

Check this out:

http://swingimprovementweb.uschedule.com/Resources/Articles-Tips

and click on Practice Plan

 

[RandallT]

On 10/14/2016 at 7:39 PM, smurfsky101 said:

Although to be fair, East Potomac is a very very easy course.

Haines Point! Been a while, but we used to play that in high school. Short and open, but smallish greens as I recall.

I'm a bit west of you (as is @DaveP043) in Reston/Herndon area. I play (on the rare occasion i get out this year@) the muni's like Twin Lakes or Brambleton/Algonkian. Dave plays at his club in Stoneleigh, out west past Leesburg on Rt7.

To put short game in perspective, the median pros this year from 20-30yds (short game) are putting the ball 9-10ft from the pin. (no easy up and down).  http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.380.html

The median up/down rate from 20-30yds is about 50%. http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.367.html

The median score from 20-30yds is a bit over 2.5: http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.467.html

Also, @No Mulligans gave a caution above about the putting strokes gained, and I just wanted to clarify that the strokes gained part of GAME GOLF has recently been updated. See here: 

So while that warning was most certainly true for a long time, we do think their October release has helped make their bar charts a more accurate picture of relative weaknesses. It's just one piece of the puzzle, and all the other stats are good to look at too, as @No Mulligans wrote.

Sounds like you're on your way to shaving some strokes, but my gut tells me that putting is your shortest route to instant improvement.  You're getting about 6 short game opportunities per round (based on your stats), but your ceiling is likely around 3 up and downs (you are making about 1.5, based on your 25% success rate). So even if you got to pro level short game, that's about 1.5 strokes?

You're getting 18 opportunities per round to show your putting skills, however. GAME GOLF thinks you're losing over 5 strokes per round.

Maybe an Aimpoint class?

[CarlSpackler]

46 minutes ago, RandallT said:

Haines Point! Been a while, but we used to play that in high school. Short and open, but smallish greens as I recall.

I'm a bit west of you (as is @DaveP043) in Reston/Herndon area. I play (on the rare occasion i get out this year@) the muni's like Twin Lakes or Brambleton/Algonkian. Dave plays at his club in Stoneleigh, out west past Leesburg on Rt7.

Those are the courses I played the most when I lived in Reston back in the 90s. I hope to get back and play them again at some point to see how different they are now. I was a 20+ hcp back in those days.

As far as a short game plan, I like to shoot at three different targets from varying lies (closely mown, sitting up in the rough, buried in the rough, etc.). One flag would be close to the edge of the green with little green to work with, one in the middle, and one at the far end of the green. Move back 5 yards and shoot 10-15 shots at each target again. Then another 5... Then practice bunker shots to short and long flags. You can also vary the lie in the bunker starting with sitting up to fried egg.