Time to work on short game

[HawkeyeMS]

Many of you will know I've been having monthly lessons working on my swing.

A couple of weeks ago I blew a cut through slack short game and I've just done it again with a net 71 in the monthly medal.

I can honestly say, tee to green I've just played the best round of golf of my life, period, but it counts for nothing if you can't get the ball in the hole.

I've always thought my short game was OK but in need of improvement. The problem is I'm now striking the ball so well my short game is being exposed for what it is and it isn't as Ok as I thought.

So time for some hard work on my short game and maybe then my handicap will come down to where I think it should be.

 

[EaseNgrace]

Sounds like my game exactly. Week in week out I set up a level par round with my driving and iron play, but end up +10 or worse as a result of my terrible short game. It's embarrasing, so yes I think some short game lessons are due for both of us.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I putted great today with 6 single putts (offset by two 3 stabs mind) but every single attempt was a good line and speed and even the two I raced four foot past had a good look. My chipping was pretty tight which pleased me as I'd worked hard on it. If I could learn to play a par 3 I'd be back in business.

Short game skill is the key to low scores as the low handicap guys on here will tell you and can turn a mediocre ball striking day into a reasonable score. Might be worth investing in a chipping lesson

 

[HawkeyeMS]

short game lesson happening in 2 days Homer.

Was it your club champs today? Did you make the cut?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

No - read my par 3 post. Used all my shots up on the threes and so only dropped 8 other shots including a double. Net 78 and 75 got in. Hit the ball great on the par 4 and 5's

 

[Nikki]

Best way to work on it is on a par three course...

 

[Imurg]

Don't you find that there's almost always one part of the game that goes on holiday for a week or two, comes back refreshed only for another part to catch a plane?
Its a rare day when all parts of the game are at the same place.

 

[RGDave]

a net 71 in the monthly medal.
I can honestly say, tee to green I've just played the best round of golf of my life, period, but it counts for nothing if you can't get the ball in the hole.

I'm surprised to hear this. Do you make a lot of pars with 1-putts?

 

[RGDave]

Don't you find that there's almost always one part of the game that goes on holiday for a week or two, comes back refreshed only for another part to catch a plane?
Its a rare day when all parts of the game are at the same place.

This is true....but if I hit a lot of GIR, I'll take 36 putts.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

a net 71 in the monthly medal.
I can honestly say, tee to green I've just played the best round of golf of my life, period, but it counts for nothing if you can't get the ball in the hole.

I'm surprised to hear this. Do you make a lot of pars with 1-putts?

Lets put it this way. I only hit 6 greens in regulation, which isn't great but holding greens at the moment is pretty difficult. Of the 12 I missed, 10 of them were no more than a yard off the green and most of them because they didn't hold and ran off. 8 of those 10 were no more than 20 feet from the pin - I got up and down 4 times and on two of those I holed 6-8 footers after either leaving it short or knocking it past. I'm probably being a bit hard on myself as I'm counting the fact that I was just of the green in 2 on 2 par 5s and failed to get up and down for birdie but it's the same short game that stuffed me.

Of the 6 greens I hit in regulation I 3 stabbed for bogey twice.

I hit 9 fairways of 13, 2 of the ones I missed were because I either hit it through the fairway or because our 7th slopes left and is almost impossible to hold at the moment. The ones I hit were centre cut, no just hanging on but straight down the middle.

The shot that I'm really struggling with is the short chip, maybe 15ft with a yard of fringe. If I put I leave it short, chip it goes long and yesterday I had 7 of those and made par twice. If I've got a longer chip and more green to work with I'm more successful.

It's tough to explain just how well I hit the ball yesterday without you guys understanding what I've been working on but yesterday was pretty close to what I'd describe for me as perfect.

The thing is, my short game yesterday was no worse than usual, I've always known I struggle with short chips but I don't normally hit it that close

 

[HawkeyeMS]

OK, now I'm confused. I just put yesterday's round into SS2. Using default values for each category, this is my handicap for key categories...

FIR - 1
GIR - 6
Par Scrambles - 9
Birdie conversion - 8
Putts - 8

So all the important stats, infact all stats, were at least 2 lower than my official handicap, yet I know that with a better short game I could easily have shot a PB

This is exactly why I gave up with stats.

It's still short game lessons for me for the forseeable future.