The average golfer hits three-to-four greens in a round.
If your goal is to break 80, you’ll probably need to hit at least nine.
The best players in the world hit 13, on average.
What we’re suggesting today is that you need to focus perhaps 60-70 percent of your practice time on the short game. The average player loses eight to 12 shots per round due to a lousy short game. If those mistakes were cut in half, your handicap would see a huge drop.
Seventy percent of golf shots are played from 100-yards and in so why spend hours on a range beating drivers? You only use that club 14 times in a round, often less.
First priority should be the putter. Have you ever started a practice session by making 20 in a row from five feet? Most of us would be there for hours trying that so maybe you better start off trying to make 10. Get good at putting inside five feet and you’ll shave strokes off your score. Then work to get skilled enough to two-putt from 40-50 feet and that typically involves having to make some five-footers to accomplish that — thus the emphasis on five feet.
When you’re putting improves, it will make chipping and pitching easier. You won’t feel that you have to get it within two feet for an “up-and-down.”
One of the best lines we’ve ever heard was someone watching his buddy hit drivers on the range and said: “Hey, why don’t you go practice your putting — it’s he only club you use three times on every hole!”
How important is the short game? Tiger Woods, while he’s on the mend from his broken right leg, is giving his back-yard short-game practice facility a total facelift.
Think about the most-shown Tiger highlights — the “Better-Than-Most” putt on the 17th at The Players, the chip-in on the 16th at The Masters and the “walk-in-and-point-at-it” putt against Bob May in the PGA Championship.
No drives — all short-game shots.
4 Comments
baxter cepeda
This sound advice has been going around for a while now but still most golfers think 90% their time working on their 500$ drivers will drive success.
Knowledge constantly says 70-75 % on short game; half of that putting.
That is a lot of chipping and putting if a player spends an hour hitting balls on the range. That means 2-3 additional hours on short game…1.5 hours putting alone.
Most people don’t have that time. But that’s not even the problem. Most golfers— if they have an extra hour— will get another bucket. And most likely hit divers again.
This is an issue even with good college players and what not. Majestic shots only to 3 Jack too often.
But if you can just get one more person to learn this, it will all be worth while.
Tom Edrington
After reading the Dave Pelz Short Game Bible, he got my attention when he basically said he could PROVE everything he said in the book and he does…..now I spend majority of my time on the short game, my 280 yard drives (persimmon balata) vanished with my youth; I told someone you lose a yard a year after age 30 and guess what, I hit it 225-230 now, right there with Inbee Park. The short game keeps me coming back.
baxter cepeda
The other day I Left it in the front bunker of a 335 yard par 4 over water with my ol 913…so I still got it at ‘I’m a man I’m 4o’…but it was only good because I hit a nice bunker shot and made the putt.
Actually it was pretty sweet regardless.
Love me some Dave peltz as well Tom. Man does his golf research like no other. Genius. And always generous with the info.
Tom Edrington
Keep up the great work Baxter!