mmoan2

Read "Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible." It's a very scientific approach to short game scoring, including the 7:30, 9:00, 10:30 theory. Pelz recommends using 4 wedges - a PW, SW, LW, and XW (64 degree) and makes a good case for doing so. It promotes what Pelz calls a "dead hands finesse swing" for short game shots, but I've found it interesting that Phil Mickelson, who has worked with Pelz for years and is a master short game player, refutes many of Pelz's conclusions. The book was originally published in 1999, but researched earlier than that (Pelz talks about how Tiger Woods is an inferior short game player - ha!). Since then, I wonder if he has changed his tune a bit on some ideas. If you like lots of theory to back up an instructor's conclusions, this book is for you, however, and it is worth the time. I reference it often.

I agree with your progression of how to learn the game, but I think that spending less time on the full swing than putting will never be a score-maximizing ratio other than in the early stages of a golfer's development who doesn't have ambitions of being an expert. You're right - if you play 6500 yard courses and want to maintain a 5-15 handicap forever, you can learn a easy, effortless full swing to hit the ball short and straight and make up for it with superior short game skills and especially putting. However, when you want to play serious golf these days, more power is required to get those GIRs up, which will lead to more scoring. These leads to trying to employ sports science and kinesiology to develop a more powerful, empirically superior swing. Comparing pros to amateurs is a bit unfair in this thread, as I don;t have 40 hours a week to work on my game. 8 a week (not including the weekend round) after work and family duties is a lot for me. If I only dedicated an hour a week to the full swing, 2-3 to short game, and 4 to putting, I truly think getting to a scratch handicap, which is my goal, would take a long, long time, if ever, playing on 7000+ yard courses. Even pro golfers who spend 4-6 hours a week on putting with a personal coach, laser aimers, $400 putters, etc. average about 26 putts a round, and I'm around 31 right now. I know I lose a heck of a lot more than 5 strokes on my tee shots/approaches. I've only been playing seriously for under 2 years, but the first I spent learning almost only short game and putting. I agree that those skills don't erode as easily, as I practice them much less now and they're still passably sharp. I've found mastering a full swing much more difficult, though, and maintaining it a nightmare, even though I only go 3/4 back and put a premium on accuracy. This is a former college baseball pitcher who could throw 90 mph and hit a baseball 450 feet talking. Anyway, only when I'm at scratch and need to get my putts-per-GIR down by 5% and scrambling from like 65% to 68% could I see endeavoring on another all-out putting/short game upgrade that overshadows my need to keep the full swing sharp. I think the 65-25-10 ratio is pretty solid, though I've said that I think at first it should be more like 20-40-40 until the latter two become solid. I hope this approach will serve me well for a long time as I improve, but what do I know...

What about Pelz's concept of a "dead hands finesse" swing? What about almost never playing the ball forward in the stance to avoid fat shots? I totally agree with the 7:30, 9:00, 10:30 concept, but there's much more to the Short Game Bible than that. I've heard several people object to the two Pelz mantras I mentioned. Any comments on them?

Iacas, I'm fairly new to this forum and golf in general (played very rarely in my late teens/early 20s, but only began really playing seriously in late 2010). I must say, though, I'm addicted. I watch TV working on my grip, I take practice swings waiting for my gas to pump, I hit wiffle balls in my living room with wedges, etc. I just spent about 20 minutes trying to find a good thread on maximizing effectiveness of a practice routine on the full swing from 9i-D, but most of them seemed short, dated, or bereft of good info. I notice you seem to be one of the most knowledgeable and sensible people on here so I thought I'd ask outright- could you spare 5 minutes of your time to explain to me what you think a "standard" for good practice should be, or direct me to a thread where I can read about it? I'm about an intermediate player (average in mid-80s) who's improving, but I don;t have lots of money for lessons or even to play anything more expensive than muni courses right now. I know that the only good practice is good practice, and I want to improve at a maximum rate of efficiency rather than spinning my wheels. Thanks for the help, MJM

Shot an 84 on Saturday at a 6,200 yard par 72. Was hoping to break 80, but 3 3-putts and a double on a 130 yard par 3 and another double on a 480 yard par-5 were the end of me. Was running 1 over after 5 holes with the 130 yarder coming up. Pulled a PW hole high left of the green, skulled an easy chip and three putted. So went another fruitless quest to break 80...

Chris, Where can I get access to that neat scoring chart I see you've used, and so many other people here seem to use. I made an Excel spreadsheet doing the same thing, but it seems that you guys beat me to it. Thanks, MJM

3-over on an 18-hole par 3 course. 5 bogeys and 2 birdies. Short game is getting there...

If Tiger is still blowing tournaments, especially majors, like he has been this year after the PGA is over in 2013, I will write him off as never again returning to peak form. However, if history repeats itself, it was really only after 2 years under Butch - beginning in 1997 - and 2 years under Hank - beginning in the end of 2005 - that his swing changes took full effect and he became dominant. If we dismiss most of 2011 under Foley due to injury, it's been about 2 years now since he started working with him, and he's still a 3-time winner on tour and the (second now?) leading money winner. Progress is clearly there, but he really needs to figure out his driver, distance control on approaches from 150>, and of course improve the putting, in that order. It wasn't putting that killed him in the PGA, it was the first two, and his inability to shape his shot in the crosswinds. Sure, he missed a lot of putts, but he made plenty as well, and its a lot easier to make an 8 footer - which Rory had plenty of because the rest of his game was so sharp - than a 15-20 footer, which Tiger had several times and missed by millimeters. Tiger also saved par from 10+ feet several times, and his short game was actually very good. You can only go to the well so many times from 10+ feet, though, I don't care if you're Ben Crenshaw, Brad Faxon, or Tiger Woods. I hope he returns to some semblance of 2000 or 2007. Rory is ready to explode, will be better than Phil ever was, and it'd be great to watch Tiger and Rory go head-to-head for a couple of years. For now, Tiger 3.0 will continue to tease us with an "almost there" result. If he's 38 and has had 3 years to figure it out, we'll have to live with a second rate Tiger Woods forever. Which, BTW, will probably win 2 or 3 times a year to easily eclipse Sam Snead's victory record, and grab another major and compete in several others. I just wish he had the confidence to hit miraculous shots like he once did. Like at the Canadian Open in 2000, or at Pebble Beach with a 7-iron in thick rough from 200 yards, etc.

Read the book, and it got me to thinking about Tiger now after watching him melt down at the PGA just like most other majors this year. Tiger starting really changing his swing under Butch in 1997, and it wasn't really until the middle of 1999 - a period of 2 years - where it clicked, and then he went bananas in 2000. Tiger started working with Hank in late 2003 and it wasn't until 2005 - a little less than 2 years - where he started to click with that swing, and then from 2006 - 2009 I think he had the best years of his career. He didn't win as many majors as under Butch, but he still won his fair share, and his overall winning percentage was astounding. I think at one point from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2008 he won like 60% of all 12 tournaments he entered. If his knee didn't disintegrate, who knows what 2008 would've looked like? Tiger really just started working with Foley in early 2010, and if we count most of 2011 as a wash due to injury, it's really only been about 2 years since he's been healthy under Foley. In other words, if the trend continues, the Fed Ex Cup stretch here in 2012 and 2013 are when he should be on schedule to begin performing at peak level under this swing. Of course, he is pushing 37 and has had major knee surgery several times, but I really hope Tiger can come back to peak form because I think Rory is ready to explode and then we'll finally have a titan vs. titan golf world to look forward to for a couple of years. We always hoped that Phil vs. Tiger would be that kind of rivalry, but it wasn't really that close. Also, everyone is pointing to Tiger's poor putting as the major reason he's not as good as he once was, and although I agree it needs some work, putting did not kill him during this PGA. It was his continued inconsistency with the driver and distance control on approaches that killed his chances. While Rory was sinking 5-8 footers like there was no tomorrow in the last round, Tiger was missing 15-25 footers by inches. He stuck 2 10 footers to save par and missed a 40 foot eagle putt by about 2 millimeters. On the back 9, he drove one par 5 into an unplayable lie, and when he drove the other par 5 in the fairway, he snap hooked the 3 wood approach into the sand dunes. 2 bogeys that the old Tiger would've made birdies. Anyway, let's see what the future holds...

Phoenix, AZ in the summer after 9 AM is just silly. I just happen to live there. I teed off at 1PM last week and it was 112. I lost 9 pounds in one day, had heat stroke an was cramping up so badly I couldn't walk until 2AM that night. Damn, I must love this game!

Just a thought: For someone like me who only really started playing golf two years ago (and I'm 37), I think the 65-25-10 ratio should be slanted more toward short game and putting initially. Maybe around 40-40-20. I got a hold of the "Dave Pelz Putting Bible" and it inspired me to really concentrate on short game, and even though I've come to disagree with several of the techniques advocated in that book, developing my short game early on built a solid foundation for me so that now I only really need to practice my relatively solid short game minimally to keep it sharp. This point really hit home for me when I was playing a 9-hole executive course about a year ago with this big, strong 20 year-old kid. The kind of kid who hit 7-iron at a 200 yard uphill flag, but if he missed the green by 10 yards, he would chili-dip his first chip and two-putt to make double-bogey while I would hit a weak fade with a 3-iron, end up 30 yards short, but then pitch to within 15 feet or closer to have a good chance at par. On the 9th hole - a 320 yard par 4 - this kid drove his tee shot OVER the green, hit a handicap sign in the parking lot, had the ball bounce back into play and land on the fringe. I hit a hybrid about 190 yards with my weak fade just off the fairway. To make a long story short, he skulled his chip and ended up with a bogey and I parred the hole. I was very proud of my short game work on that day. Anyway, my point is that I think putting and short game are two building blocks that are invaluable when one is just starting out, and should be emphasized early on. Furthermore, I think my proper ratios will change in the near future as well. Now, my ratio is probably right around 65-25-10, but I think that when I become more consistent in the power game, I will probably spend far more time fine-tuning my putting stroke, as going from 32 to 29 putts a round will be a big deal as my handicap shrinks.

I get the point about grooving your swing using a net, and that worrying constantly about ball flight can be counterproductive and even detrimental, but I still think the best feedback one can get about your swing is ball flight. I used to practice my wedges in my living room using wiffle balls, and after a while I got so good hitting them at a little piece of construction paper I had taped to my wall that I thought I was the next Tom Kite, only to go to the range and find out that I was ballooning them, occasionally with a weak fade (after all - if the wiffle ball goes two inches to the right of the construction paper in a 13 foot room, it doesn't look so bad, but that same shot with a 110 yard gap wedge is a gross mishit), taking no divot. If anything, ball flight gives you the CLEAREST picture of just how wrong you are. This is all based upon the assumption that you are working on your swing alone with no feedback devices. If I had a personal coach and a better video camera than the one on my old Samsung cell phone, I could have the best of both worlds. Hitting into a net can be helpful, but at some point there ain't nothing like the real thing.

Thanks, y'all. Can't wait to take some of this advice.

Almost my first eagle on a par 4. 450 yard par 4- 310 yards down the middle with driver 140 yard 9 iron uphill to within 8 inches of the cup. Tapping in for birdie - priceless... I guess that means my two best shots of the week were on the same hole!

All, How does one go about getting an official USGA handicap rating? Thanks for the help, MJM

Pelz Golf also sells these clips for $19 that mirror the "gate drill" They come in 3 sizes. If you can hit 10 straight in a row using the "super pro" clip, you are a stud putter.

Buy the putting track endorsed by Phil Mickelson from Pelz Golf. $50 that will ultimately save you more strokes than you can count. My putting has always been pretty strong, but this thing works wonders. It helps you hit every putt straight and on the sweet spot, which in turn helps you read greens better because you know if you missed it wasn;t because you hit it off-center, but misread the green. Last night I was sinking 25 footers or putting them within inches like Ben Crenshaw. I sank 3 25 footers in a row and the two I missed were less than 6 inches away. The only thing it can't do for you is help you with your speed. For that, I suggest a lot of lag putting from 50 feet or so, mixing in uphill and downhill putts to boot. With a smooth stroke and practice getting 50 footers close, it's amazing how much easier it is to get the speed right on 10-15 footers. Oh, and pratice. a lot. These days I find sinking a 30 foot bender much more rewarding than a 300 yard drive down the middle. They're both pretty cool, though :)

Tiger Woods -2 Luke Donald +1 Lee Westwood +2

Goals for 2012: Break 80 in consecutive rounds by summer's end. When that happens, I'll start playing from championship tees occasionally. Get a handicap rating by end of year. Break 75 from mid tees. Get short game handicap down to near 0. Increase consistency on mid-long irons. Consistently drive 280+ hitting more than 50% of fairways. If this all happens, I may just treat myself to some fitted name-brand clubs rather than the clones I play (which are pretty darn good, BTW - thanks Gigagolf) for Xmas. Good luck all!

Shot an 81 on my third 18 hole round in ten years. From the white tees, though. Only 5 GIR. My short game was the bomb!