Long game, long game, long game

[Robobum]

Caught the end of an interesting debate on Twitter involving Eduardo Molinari and some other golfing names.........

Molinari went against what most of us think and, backed up with a shed load of stats, declared that it is all about the long game.

Practice, according to him, should be 70/ 30% in favour of the big dog and friends.


Which, if you think, about it makes a lot of sense. There are lots of examples of poor chippers and putters who have won a shed load. Westwood, Vijay, Gonzo off the top of my head.......

Interesting reading

 

[virtuocity]

There's definitely arguments for this Robo even at my end of the handicap scale. The common advice given to newbies on here is "practise your short game". What's the point in getting up and down from 50 yards every time if you slice your driver 60 yards off the tee and take 4 shots to get within 50 yards of the hole?!!

After starting club golf at the start of the year, it's only now that I've started working on short game seriously.

 

[pokerjoke]

To me its both,but I would go 70/30 in favour of short game.
Whats the point of driving the fairway only to duff a chip and 3 putt
from 50 yards.
Weve all done it.

 

[duncan mackie]

if you are going to slice it 60 yds all the time you clearly won't have need of a short game....

however, even if you just play it 180 onto a fairway instead of slashing at it with a driver, then another 160 instead of going for it, and had an even half decent short game - you would be off single figures.

put another way, and in the context of Molinari, you need to hit the fairway from the tee but if you can hit it further (on the fairway or otherwise in play) then you have a significant advantage.
if you can't putt you won't win, and if you drop a shot most times you miss the green you probably won't make the cut - but you had an advantage!

 

[G.U.R]

At the mid handicap range I would personally go 50/50 as I know if I drive poorly that can rack up shots quickly the same as three putts can.

 

[Tommo21]

Thats fine for the good pros because they hit so many more greens. I don't and never have, no matter how much I put into my long game. So, I worked on the area that gave me results....the short game.

I was always a good 7 or 8 HC player. Only when I worked on my short game did I get down to 5 and that was only a few years ago and I've been playing since the early seventies.

 

[JustOne]

Practice, according to him, should be 70/ 30% in favour of the big dog and friends.

Easy to say when your short game is already of pro standard.

Amateurs tend to drop even more shots around the greens than they do off the tee/fairway...... they make a lot of 6's even though they can get on just about every green in max 3 shots if they played smartly.

 

[Pin-seeker]

Surely it's a personal thing,spend more time practicing what ever part of your game needs it.

 

[Snelly]

Easy to say when your short game is already of pro standard.

Amateurs tend to drop even more shots around the greens than they do off the tee/fairway...... they make a lot of 6's even though they can get on just about every green in max 3 shots if they played smartly.

Good point JO. I agree with you on this. Different for the pros...

 

[Khamelion]

My short game ain't that bad, could be better, but it's not bad. My Putter is okay, again could be better but I can live with it for the time being.

However my driving is appaling and I know that if I can hit a ball off the tee straight rather than into the cabbage I will lower my score. I know when I master my driver I will hit it a long way forward instead of a long way to the right.

So Molinari does have a point.

 

[jimbob.someroo]

Personally I reckon the shots I am currently dropping are about 50/50 long and short.

I might take 2-4 shots penalty shots for OOB or in a hazard, and I may miss 2-4 putts which I should be holing (or fail to get up and down).

Interesting though to hear this side of the argument coming from a pro.

 

[diablo333]

If your only getting 159yds off the tee on the par 4 and 5's but are able to hit well with your irons and putt well from any distance, 1 or 2 putts being the case. Does it matter if you enjoy your game?
My weakest point is off the tee, if pro's struggle shows I'm not on my own.

 

[BoadieBroadus]

i've always been tempted to agree with this long game theory though my pro disagrees.

but partly we should factor in the enjoyment of the game isn't necessarily all about scoring. if i'm going to make a 5 on a par 4 would i rather:

a. hit a cracking drive on to the fairway, a crisp iron to the green, but in a tricky spot. run my first putt 5 feet by and then lip out the par putt or,

b. heave a drive short and into the rough, advance a mid iron to about 60 yards short of the green. wedge on and two putts.

both are 5's, but i'd enjoy a. much more than b.

 

[hors limite]

If you are a relatively inexperienced player and are striving to improve, a big factor, in my own (sorry) experience, is confidence.
Get away your tee shot well and you approach the next in a completely different frame of mind than when you have duffed it 40 yards or sliced it into the thick stuff.

If I drive fairly well, somehow the rest of the game seems to some extent to look after itself. Drive poorly and it's the dreaded downward spiral of trying to force distance from bad lies and doomed recovery efforts that Seve would have given a miss.

I realise very well how important the short game is but get that tee shot away and the game doesn't feel so blooming hard!

 

[Foxholer]

What would he suggest Lee Westwood works on?

 

[JustOne]

What would he suggest Lee Westwood works on?

He's done better than all of us.... so whatever he fancies. I'd swap, even if it DOES mean finishing 2nd in a few majors :thup:

 

[Foxholer]

He's done better than all of us.... so whatever he fancies. I'd swap, even if it DOES mean finishing 2nd in a few majors :thup:

That wasn't the question!

 

[sev112]

Depends on what you are aiming for
If,min the pro tours, you are interested in keeping in approx contention most weeks, then I guess long game consistency is important
If you want to win in the pro game, I guess you need to be hot with your short game and putting

 

[chrisd]

When I first started playing I concentrated much more on the long game and trying it hit fairways as I figured that if it took, say, 6 shots to get on the green then my short game wasn't going to save me. It worked for me I believe and once my driving to mid irons were more consistently in play and I found the rhythm of chipping didn't take too long to improve as I at least felt comfortable with clubs in my hand.

 

[JustOne]

That wasn't the question!

"Whatever he fancies" was my answer.

What answer would you have liked me to put? I can re-write it