HOW'S YOUR SHORT GAME?

As “The Wedge Guy”, and President of a wedge making company, you all know that the short game and scoring is where I keep my mind focused most of the time. That’s because I truly believe that to help golfers score better, that’s where it’s going to happen. I’ve written that I really don’t care much for the men’s professional game anymore, and find the ladies to be much more entertaining and relevant to the way the “rest of us” play the game. Sheesh, the Accenture Match Play is being contested on a course that approaches 8,000 yards!!! And almost all the tour courses these days are 7,300-7,500 yards. That’s a full thousand yards longer than most of us play our courses.

But I digress. What I’m writing about today is the true importance of the short game to your scoring . . . regardless of your skill level. Those tour players are generally deadly when they get inside 125 yards or so. After all the bomb and gouging and spraying drives 300 yards in all directions, most of them have such refined short games that they can and will get it up and down a great percentage of the time once they finally get within “shouting distance” of the flag. Sure, they chunk one every once in a while, but most of the time, their skills are borderline magical.

At EIDOLON, we’ve been talking about what influence even a scratch golfer of reasonable length would have on your game if he played only one portion of it for you. I’m going to toss out an idea for a two experiments for any and all of you to try when you get a chance.

Experiment #1. The Effect of Better Driving.

In this one, whether you do it for nine holes or a full round (even better), the idea is to gauge the impact that a better driving game would give you. Go out for a leisurely round of golf and place the ball in Position ‘A’ off the tee on every par 4 and par 5. Give yourself a second shot from the center of the fairway, ten yards closer to the green than you normally play from with your own drives. Then play your ball all the way to the hole, and see what you shoot. Bear in mind here, however, that even the best drivers on tour only hit about 2/3 of the fairways, and those are not the longest hitters. So having a second shot from dead center and long on every hole isn’t realistic, but it will be fun to see just what you shoot from there.

Experiment #2. The Effect of A Better Short Game.

This one is to determine what impact a more precise and efficient short game could do to your scores. And you can do this after any round of golf you play. When you are through playing and have added up the scores, paid off or collected the bets and finished the “after round activities”, reflect on your round and do this little math exercise. Regardless of how many strokes it took you to get there, substitute what this performance average would have done to your actual score:

• From 125 yards to 100 yards - 2.9 strokes
• From 100 yards to 50 yards - 2.7 strokes
• From 50 yards to 10 yards - 2.5 strokes
• From 10 yards and in - 2.3 strokes

In other words, if you hit your second shot on the first hole to greenside, you’d have a 4.3 on that hole. On the second hole, a par five, you were 85 yards out after your second shot, you get a 4.7. On the third, you hit it OB off the tee, then drove it inside 125, you get a 5.9. Get it?

I’m really curious to see how you guys do on this. It will be fun to see the numbers come in. And then, imagine what such a short game would do to your handicap this year. We’re going to make it our mutual goal to get you there, OK?

* The Wedge Guy's views and opinions are his own do not necessarily reflect those of SkyGolf.



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Terry Koehler is "The Wedge Guy" and President of SCOR Golf- The Short Game Company.

Click here to learn more about Terry.