Short Game Practice

[Adjani]

"80% of all lost shots to par occur from within 100 yards" - Dave Pelz

Considering this statistic; i wondered how many players here realise how important a good short game is to lower their scores, and how many actually work on it.

If you do, maybe share with us some of the drills, practice exercises and target routines you use to improve your putting, chipping, bunker play and pitching.

 

[RGuk]

"80% of all lost shots to par occur from within 100 yards" - Dave Pelz

Yes....no doubt....it's going to be a pretty poor professional player who's not within 100 yards!!

As for the rest of us......I don't know.

I do however appreciate the need for amateurs to be able to hit the green from under 100 yards to ensure bogeys at worst. I'm fairly secure with this, but certainly not good enough to get close that often. I think articles about "hit it close and save par" are the worst items in golf instruction sections.....the difference between h'cap players and scratch golfers isn't just a little improvement in technique, it's hours and hours of practice and skill, and imagination and so on.

I practice pitching quite often, normally 30,50 and 70 yards. I tip out a tube of 21 balls and experiment with low/high/soft/hard wedge shots.

What really gets my goat though is clubs that "ban" chipping around the green and then don't provide another green. I think a dozen or two chip n runs before a game can tell you so much.

 

[TonyN]

I work on my short game, I actually enjoy it. I could easily spend a whole day in on a green knocking bump and runs in with a 7 or wedge. I could also play the 100 yard shots all day to a green too. I believe my play around the green is what keeps my scores from ballooning, its my long game (that I hate practicing) that lets me down.

We would be here all night if I told you all the drills I do, but it mainly just comes down to getting familiar with the types of shots to play and how to play them correctly. A good technique is a must, no good having an imagination with out technique, its like a having a rifle and no ammo.

 

[viscount17]

I like and need to practice my short game. the problem is we don't have the space to do it. just one small pitching green allowing at most 20-30 yds, wedged into a corner between 1st tee, practice green and the lake.
Even when you do get on it you often find yourself edged out when the pros bring classes of juniors.

 

[RGuk]

I could easily spend a whole day in on a green knocking bump and runs in with a 7 or wedge. I could also play the 100 yard shots all day to a green too.

I joined a club (playing off 19) and they had the best practice greens of any club I've been a member of. One for putting, one for chipping and pitching that had been properly designed. I often practised long enough to see folk tee of on the 1st and arrive back to put their clubs in the car after 18.

In the first comp I played there, I managed a gross 82, 10 over par.....without any work on my long game. If I could get back to this standard, I reckon I could play off 8 or 9 again, easy. Trouble is I don't have the time or the facilities any more.

Important for me is not the GOOD results (getting down in two) but ensuring I don't do silly things from short range.

 

[USER1999]

Don't really practice much, and when I do, I am rubbish. On the course however, this is probably the best bit of my game. Just natural talent I guess. Sorry guys, no secrets to share.

 

[Herbie]

I work on my short game the most, I have a very good short game especially chipping and putting,a good example of the benefit of a good short game was my last round of golf.

My h/c 9 (was 7 a yr ago)
My shots off the tee were poor, even lobbed the tee shot onto other fairways as well as into the light rough frequently. I would say I only hit 5 decent tee shots all round, only hit 1 of the par 3 greens during the round and on the par 5s played recovery shots on all the par 5s.Par 4s were hit and miss at begining.

A good short game great chipping and 31putts managed to give me a gross 80 from what was a bad day for me.
Without my short game it would have been a messy score.

When my short game decides to go on holiday for a while thats when I start shooting towards mid-80s and above.

 

[MVP]

Short game rules! its what i like to practice most..usual i practice the ladder chipping with different clubs!

 

[terryb]

My short game has been rubbish on the course and there is little chance to practice as the putting green is for putting only. So I decided to go for a lesson last week & found myself improving significantly as the pro took me through the process in a structured manner but am now not able to put this into practice on the course for at least 2 weeks due to other commitments.

By then it will have gone pear-shaped again

 

[markwarne]

The short game is most definitely my weakness and something that I will be working on with lessons over the winter.

I have looked back over the last year and pretty much all of my practice has involved getting the drivers and long / mid irons better and completely ignored the short game. When left with 100 yds and less, I am a complete mess.

I play off 25, but on Saturday, all I heard after every tee and fairway shot from a guy in our 4 ball was "bandit", which is certainly what I don't want to be labelled with. That said, I put my card in a was exactly at handicap.

It just can't empasise enough the short game.

 

[Adjani]

For those with the time and facilities to work on their short game, i think it is very important to set up a structured, target based routine.

I use a scoring system for my short game practice.

eg - Putting - using 15 balls at 3 or 5 targets/holes, i focus and make every putt count; when all the balls have been hit, i calculate the total distance in feet each and every ball has missed by. I make a note of this and work on trying to lower that score each time.

i use the same system for chipping, bunker play and short pitch shots.

Longer pitch shots (50yds - 110yds) are scored purely by hitting the very small practice green i use.

Rather than just knocking balls at the pin or near the hole, i find using a target/scoring routine does focus the mind to be more accurate, more clinical and more precise.

 

[haplesshacker]

As mentioned on another post. I had my first par 3 18 holes at the club this weekend. Deceptively difficult. I was thinking par half the holes, a couple of birdies and few bogies, and 1 blow up. Oh my. It was not to be. But an interesting exercise non the less. We've said that we'd do the par 3 course every other week as our winter short game practice.

It was Murph and Sammeeebee who showed the way on the short game at Crowborough. Made me realise just how important it can be.

 

[USER1999]

Mainly because we couldn't hit a green between the two of us. GIR, one (can't remember which of us, but it was poor).

 

[haplesshacker]

Maybe your GIRs were off the mark, but the up and downs in general were very good, well except the odd 9 inch miss!!!!

 

[USER1999]

I have forgotten that. A bit like Jack Nicklaus, I never three putt, and I never miss short ones either.

 

[Parmo]

At the range I use there are two mat bays with cover and its 50 yards from there to the chipping green, I am now a master at the 50 yard lob shot, 40 or 60 yards I am struggling its just so bloody soggy to practice on grass, better in the bay a flask of coffee, 20 cigs and 100 balls to wack

 

[vig]

Hoola hoops!

3 targets on the green

 

[Herbie]

I often watch people practice chipping and many have a few balls but take the shots from the same place and same routine, I tend to kick 4 or 5 balls to different spots with different distances and try get them all close togeather near the hole or target in use. Comming out of the stance and moving is what you do on the course, like wise you get a different lie every time, I feel its better to practice this way.

On the practice area I take my bag and do what I do on the course as routine, take out club, play a shot, then change to another club for the next.

Then I finish with a nuber of wedge shots from a static location.

Though it doesnt affect all golfers, the rigid location repetitive practice does affest some and some of those, end up with fantastic 9 iron or wedge shots in a round but get very wayward with the others in the bag (depending on which club they have favoured in practice.

 

[Adjani]

I tend to kick 4 or 5 balls to different spots with different distances and try get them all close togeather near the hole or target

totally agree herb

Forgot to mention in my original post, all the shots i play are from different positions, lies and random distances.

If you want to knock shots off your game, practice the short stuff.

 

[evita4]

Hoola hoops!

3 targets on the green

I find it particularly difficult pitching into the beef flavour ones.