McKee

You can see how a hazard can create apprehension but not how a lack of confidence can?

Take an island green for example. The fact that you cannot miss the green without going in a water hazard puts extra stress on the shot. Therefore it makes it a more difficult shot. Same thing goes if you don't have confidence in your short game. Not being able to get up and down adds strokes to your game just as hazards do. You may not be conscious of it when your about to hit your approach shot but the stress of missing the green is there. Not being confident in your ability to get up and down makes the approach shot more difficult. The pros may not have to chip very often but they still need to be prepared. Most police officers go through their career without ever drawing their gun, let alone firing it. But they still practice, just in case. Players who can't get to the green in regulation would benefit from pitching practice since the full swing is probably a very daunting task for them. It would help them develop some solid, basic technique. Give them a long club and everything goes out the window. I am trying to make a case for why the short game should be practiced as much as the long game. Give or take a few percent. Call me crazy.

Exactly what I am saying. If you are comfortable with your short game, through ample practice, then you will not be afraid to miss greens. Not being afraid to miss greens comes in very handy when trying to hit them. Crazy is a bit extreme guys. Just theories. I am not talking about using "the force" or anything. Geez.

The general definition of yips is "the apparent loss of certain fine motor skills seemingly without explanation in one of a number of different sports". In golf it is mostly associated with putting and I assume you are imagining the yips as a spastic tremor in the hands during a short putt. The yips has many different definitions - I clearly defined it as "a form of anxiety (or fear) which compromises their (golfers) ability to perform". Every golfer has anxiety and every golfer is physically affected by it . Yes, it is an epidemic.

Quote: Unfortunately, your intuition is wrong. The PGA Tour players have better long games than their peers on the Nationwide Tour. Why are players on the PGA Tour? Because they're great ball strikers. Maybe if I type this in bold it'll sink in: in general, GIR is the single biggest determinant of your score . You hit greens with your full swing. You don't hit greens by practicing your ten-foot putts or your bunker shots. I want to try bold... If you practice your ten-foot putts and your bunker shots you will hit more greens because you will not be afraid to make bogey or worse if you miss the green. If fear wasn't one of the most significant factors in weakening a golfers ability to perform than there wouldn't be a small library of golf psychology books out there.

iacas, Wow, you called me crazy. I did not expect you to go there. It seemed like you were taking a stand but now it looks like your generalization is a cop-out.

There is little doubt that the pro who wins the tournament is probably on top of the GIR leader board. But no one person does that every week. It just happens. Look at it this way, why are they all there to begin with? Because they have exceptional short games. Of course they strike the ball amazingly but so do all the other pros waiting in the wings for an opportunity to play in the big show. The only difference is the guys who don't qualify are mediocre putters and chippers. No stats to support this just good old fashioned experience and intuition.

I just wanted to support, with my personal experience, what you said - "I'm not saying that everyone needs to follow the same path". My personal experience proved to me that improving your ball striking and hitting more GIRs can be a result of intense short game practice. By practicing pitching I learned to make better contact, maintain soft grip pressure, and have better timing and tempo, all of which enabled me to strike the full shots better, swing freely and hit more greens. It's tough to give a high handicapper a big club and have them "swing smooth" or "relax". They can develop a great full swing by associating it with a slow, manageable pitch shot. I like a sliding scale for practice percentage. Depending on the individual and the state of their swings. I like changing my practice routine to avoid getting comfortable and complacent. It sounds very much like you are saying "this is how it should be done...60% long game, 35% short shots, 5% putting". Correct? The question is how can GIRs be increased? I would say every aspect of the game - short and long - including fitness would have and equal effect. Short because it nurtures tempo and relaxation. Short because it gives you confidence that you can get up and down if you miss the green. You know what they say, "confidence is key". Then how can someone make the blanket statement that one part of the game is more important and should be practiced more than another? 33 to 48 percent of serious golfers have experienced yips (Mayo Clinic), and these are just the people with measurable hand tremors. Anyone whose anxiety manifests itself physically causing an errant shot is suffering from a form of yips. I would venture to say every golfer has experienced that. I would go as far to say that a professional golfer leaving a birdie putt short out of fear of a three-putt has just experienced the yips - a form of anxiety which compromises their ability to perform. This epidemic warrants practicing putting more than 5% of the time. This has to do with the discussion regarding the simplicity of putting. If it is so simple why is there such risk?

It's a proverb. Big difference. And he is supporting his stress with statistics. Teaching only the short game is not a bad thing, it won't be brushed over in 15 minutes but instead worked on in a detailed and diligent manner. I went to his school and it was amazing for me. Aside from my major short game improvement I had the greatest leap in overall ball striking since I was a kid. "On the other end of the spectrum, there are players who have truly scrutinized the data to find holes in their game. I spent a long time on the range talking stats with Chris Stroud , a young Texan looking to make his name on the PGA Tour. He prints out all of his ShotLink numbers at the end of the year and analyzes them with his coaching team to figure out his weaknesses. This year, he noticed his putting, chipping, and bunker play were lacking, so that's where he put in the majority of his practice time." Should we tell him to just hit more GIRs? These guys are trying to shave off a fraction of a stroke per round. They will look at every part of their game for improvement. These studies you are talking about, it seems like they only pertain to professionals. Are you saying the statistics should also apply to the high handicappers you experience? I understand what you are saying. The short shots are physically the easiest shots in golf. But, short shots, because of their simplicity, contain a dynamic of stress that can be paralyzing to people who are prone to phobias. As you get closer to the hole and the shot gets "simpler" the greater the fear of an embarrassing mistake. In some, this fear can grow to become an anxiety disorder commonly known as the yips . The yips are not "on or off" but can vary in degree - any amount of fear that contributes to missing a simple shot is a form of yip. "We're in a golden age for golf research because the PGA Tour has opened ShotLink's books to researchers. Two professors at the Wharton school, for example, looked at 1.6 million tour putts and concluded that professional golfers are risk-averse . They examined putts for par and putts for birdie from the same distances and discovered that pros make the birdie putts less often. They suggest that pros leave these birdie putts short out of fear of making bogey, and then calculate that this bogey terror—and the resultant failure to approach birdie putts in the same way as par putts—costs the average tour player about one stroke per tournament."

You know what they say, "the short game is the first to go". Since Pelz's statistics are biased and every opinion expressed here is influenced by personal experience is it safe to say there is no objective answer to this conundrum? To say that chipping and putting are "easier things" is biased. The short shots are considered the most feared parts of the game (biased Pelz survey) and can develop nasty anxiety disorders.

I trust his numbers and have no desire to be skeptical. 15 minutes, really? Is that not trivializing the short game?

http://www.lvrj.com/golf/hitting-long-is-fun--but-short-game-more-important-99448189.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/08/masters-2011-luke-donald - some other article - What Pelz discovered was that full club PEIs for a given player are essentially the same. A player with a 5.4% Driver PEI (250 yard drive --> 13.5 yard error) has about the same PEI of 5.6% with a 9-iron (130 yard 9i --> 7.6 yard error). The range of full-swing PEIs went from about 5% to 9%. The wedge PEIs went from 13% to 26%. Putting PEIs varies from about 5% to 10%. He found that the large errors for wedges was a result of distance control. Full-swing shot errors are mainly attributed to direction. The player mainly misses the target left or right but has very little error in distance. For instance, a player may hit a 150 yard shot and miss it 11 yards left but only be 1 or 2 yards long or short. Wedge shot errors are mainly attributed to distance. The player mainly misses the target long or short but has very little error in direction. Have you ever hit that 80 yard wedge shot that is all over the pin yet it falls 9 yards short or long? To Pelz, his results amplified the importance of the wedge game. He found no correlation between full-swing shot errors and money made. In fact he noted that the lowest full-swing PEI over a 3 year period was from a player that didn't make much money and fell off the tour. He did, however, find a strong correlation between money earnings and wedge PEIs.

That is what I mean by devaluing.

If statistical data collected by a research scientist is "cooked" and the details of Sean's round yesterday are "pointless" then it seems your point of view is unshakeable. What amazes me is the degree in which the short game has been devalued in the presence of the long game. It can't be because short game practice is tedious and boring? Or perhaps because a great short game is not as impressive as a straight tee shot? It's fun to play with high handicap strangers when your having a great long game day. They could care less if you five-putt every green (best to pick up after two) as long as you stripe it down the middle and hit the green. The moment you miss a green they say "he's human" - in other words "not professional" - and lose interest. Could moments like these influence our practice regimen? That stunning short game of his is what kept him from shooting 80. It allows him to swing freely so when he does miss the green it was not because of fear of making bogey. He may not be working on his short game now but I am sure he put a lot of time into developing it. Salvaging a bad round with a great short game is just as noble, and necessary, as shooting 67 and never touching a chipper. BTW - making 5 birdies and not three-putting has a lot to do with short game.

Golfers should spend the most of their time just working on being more talented.

Quote: Originally Posted by iacas Would you rather have a great short game and miss 18 greens in regulation or be a decent but not great putter and hit 18 greens in regulation? For me, a great short game, no question. And by short game I mean everything inside 100 yards. In your scenario I would say missing 14 GIR would be fair, at least give me the par fives? I am a short game fan for two reasons - it requires so much mental steadiness to execute delicate shots under pressure (something I want), and it will be there for you when you are old and stiff. As a kid I could hit fairways and greens all day then miss every three footer. It was a really sad case of anxiety on those "easy" shots. Now I look forward to playing under pressure, I can make those little shots, and all thanks to working on my short game. Whatever, apples and oranges. Quote: And as a short game teacher exclusively, there's no possible way Dave Pelz cooked those numbers a little.... right? I don't know what he is cooking but it smells pretty good to me. I am thinking about every 10 handicap golfer I know and they are all pretty good ball strikers. I can easily imagine them losing 2 shots due to serious long game errors and 8 shots to mistakes inside 100 yards - chunks, blades, three-putts, and an overall lack of touch. These are also guys whose bodies will not allow them to strike the ball much better without some serious physical training. This is another factor to throw into the equation - do they need to hit balls or do they need to get a personal trainer? Some people just hit a physical wall with ball striking and the only way to shave strokes would be to work on the short stuff. But I am not sure that everyone here agrees that the definition of short game is everything inside of 100 yards. Maybe that is why Dave Pelz calls it the scoring game.

When playing under pressure and struggling I used to find myself going down the list of swing fixes, ending up with a round where no two drives looked alike. Eventually I identified what was different under pressure - grip pressure, paralysis in my left side, and the right side trying to compensate. I abandoned all swing thoughts except "soft hands", I use the practice swing to engage and wake up the left side of my body, I align myself to a specific spot and then just let it go where ever it wants to go. Because of the adrenaline I may still get off to a rocky start but if I stick to this routine it always comes through. Everyone has their own physical reaction to pressure but I think that tight grip pressure is the most common ailment. Along with psychological turmoil, tight hands are a result of trying to steer the ball and not trusting the swing.

If a golfer is not capable of making somewhat solid contact with the ball then they should go back a few steps and spend most of their time practicing their pitching . When I said in an earlier post that practicing the short game will help the long game I should have been more specific. Pitching is a simple, slow, and manageable way to practice making good contact with the ball. It involves many of the fundamentals of the long game and can nurture the good habits that are so quickly lost when trying to take a full swing. Good habits like balance, proper weight transfer, smooth tempo, proper release, lag, and a solid finish can be easily learned in the context of a pitch swing. Two birds with one stone - developing good full swing habits while practicing your pitching.

Zeg, I can't think of a better way to get your point heard than telling everyone they are wrong and follow it up with a dancing banana. You have some great points but what I got from this thread was that some people just don't think they should practice their short game as much as their long game. Regardless of your particular problem with the game, shouldn't both the short and long game be given at least an equal amount of respect ? I think it would be wise to stop these shenanigans and just spend an equal amount of time on every aspect of the game. Isn't that what the pros do? Since we are not "the pros", and we don't have 40 hours a week to work on golf, then we will probably work on whatever we feel is the weakest part of our game. Since our time is valuable wouldn't it be nice to work on one thing and know that at the same time it is benefiting another part of our game? I know that working on my pitching can help my power swing in many ways. But making full swings at the range is just that.

Here are a couple of ways that practicing my short game improved my long game... 1. I must admit that I went to the Pelz 3-day short game school. After many hours of practicing the synchronized swing I was finally able to comfortably stroke , not strike , my pitch shots. These are some pitch shot techniques that I learned - Emphasis on a good finish, facing the target, weight on your left leg, with the arms in front of your chest Hips and shoulders turning back and through together, no turn against the hips (finesse swing) Stroking the shot, not hitting the ball This kind of work really illuminated the fatal flaws and tendencies in my long game. I learned more about my swing with these short shots than I ever did pounding balls. The swing wasn't a blur. With 50 yard pitch shots I could really feel, and have control of my sway, flip, jab, tempo, path, etc. Even with shots as short as 15 yards I try to turn and face the target, transfer my weight to my left leg and finish with my arms in front of me. It's a very smooth swing and did wonders for my timing. It encouraged me to use my whole body to hit shots, not my hands. Now when I make a strong turn against my hips, a power swing, I am confident because of the tempo and timing I learned from short game practice. 2. It's just much easier to hit irons when you are not afraid of missing the green.

Tomboys, If a beginner golfer needs to learn to play well enough to not be completely embarrassed in front of their boss then I can understand the need to spend the majority of time practicing the long game. As far as score goes, the short game is what gets the ball into the hole. To choose between two blanket statements regarding "what should be practiced more, the short game or the long game?", it really depends on the situation. Unless you are a dribbler, more often then not it is the short game that will lower your scores. If your biggest concern is score then it is a great short game that will help relieve the stress from your long game and therefore help produce better power shots. If hitting perfect long shots is most important then you risk becoming a great range player. I think there is a value issue here. People we play with tend to notice how far and straight we hit the ball and not our score. It is this impression on our peers that many golfers use to define themselves. Whether you are a fan of Dave Pelz or not here are some documented facts - "From a percentage standpoint, the worst performance in golf is the 40-yard pitch shot," he said. "If you put a golfer 40 yards from the green, the percentage he will miss the pin by is the largest of any shot in golf. (Amateurs) hit 40-yard shots worse than they hit drives, worse than they hit sand shots. It was a dramatic realization for us ... Even the tour players, though they don't chunk them fat or skull them (like amateurs), they are still less accurate from 40 yards than they are from 100 or 200. It's across the board, the worst performing shot in golf." - Dave Pelz According to Pelz, 80 percent of a golfer's handicap is determined by what happens within 100 yards of the green. According to Pelz, These are the top ten most feared shots in golf: Short Putts , Greenside Sand, Tight Lies, Downhill Lies, The High, Soft, Cut-Lob Shot, Buried Lies In The Sand, Hitting Through Trees, The Greenside Pitch, Against The Wall, Lag Putts

Maybe we should do what Ben Hogan said and just eliminate putting from golf??? No. I understand that the short game is the most stressful part of golf and the game would be a lot easier if we didn't have to deal with it. The fact is - it is a great short game that gives you the confidence to swing freely at the ball. Practicing your short game will help you hit better iron shots. Having a mediocre short game just puts added pressure on your approach shots as well as your tee shots. Learn to love practicing the short game and getting up and down from everywhere.

I did not begin to make putts of a decent length until I actually started using the line on the ball, or a spot in front of the ball, and setting my body parallel to that line. It would be luck if I made anything when I vaguely set up to the putt and tried to see the line while standing over the ball. I figure if I set up consistently, with my feet, shoulders, and hips parallel to that line on the ball then that is the best I can do. From there I just hit it with the best stroke possible, keep my head down for a second or two, and hope for the best. If I don't make any putts I don't feel bad since I gave them all the best opportunity to go in.

Since you say you have a sharp swing that thunks I would recommend trying the slowmo drill. It is a very relaxing drill especially since you don't expect to hit the ball well. Take any club, or a long iron if you are feeling brave, and make a full swing - but only try to hit the ball about half the distance it should normally go. All the way back, all the way through into a full finish. The key is to have a very uniform tempo, just like a regular swing but in slow motion. No sudden moves and not much acceleration. Make sure to stay relaxed, no tension, and let your arms just hang with gentle grip pressure. This drill is hard at first but it gets easier and will show you some of the tendencies you have during the swing - things that occur during the blur (weight, release, transition, etc). It will also help smooth you out, especially in the transition area. I always had a phobia of being conscious during my swing. Those down swing thoughts caused me to have sudden movements and mini spasms that led to some awful golf. The slowmo drill was therapy for me. The more time I took during the slowmo drill the more I got over the panic, the more I learned about my swing flaws, and the better my tempo became.