Dave Pelz: “Studying the game”

Most golfers don’t open their wedge enough before they attempt to blast shots from sand, because they don’t know how far it’s supposed to be opened. That’s about to change.

Body aimed two steps left of target. Clubface aimed slightly right of target

The photograph at right depicts the perfect sand setup. The line through the ball points directly at the flagstick (my target because the green is flat). This is the direction I want the ball to fly. The line across my toes points two steps left of the flagstick. That’s the line for my body alignment and swing path. I don’t swing across the ball to the left, but rather I aim left and swing along my body line. The dashed line shows that I’ve positioned the ball off the instep of my left foot, allowing my natural swing arc to enter the sand behind the ball and bottom out under the ball. Read the rest of this entry »

Early in my career, I had the chance to play several rounds with Jack Nicklaus. On these occasions I studied his putting intently, because he was killing me on the greens. One thing that consistently caught my eye was how he held his finish and watched his putts roll out. It didn’t take me long to realize something: Good putters learn from both their makes and their misses. You can watch Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on today’s Tour do the same thing: they store information in their memory banks about how their putts roll versus how well and in what direction they stroke them.

Holding your finish is good for your game.

The main benefit from holding your finish comes from internalizing the feel of the stroke you just made, and then correlating that feel with its result, good or bad. This system works because the feel of your stroke is still strong in your system. Once you stand up or move your feet, the feelings of your stroke disappear.

Holding your finish will also help keep your body still and improve the consistency of your stroke. I’m sure you’ve been told to not move your head until you hear the putt drop, but I don’t like that advice. Instead, rotate your head while keeping the rest of your body still, so you can watch the ball roll and get a feel for your stroke. You’ll learn how solid your stroke was, if your ball speed was good or bad, and whether your line allowed for the proper amount of break.

Holding your finish is such a good idea, I can’t believe more golfers don’t do it. I’m sure it will improve your putting over the coming years. Read the rest of this entry »

The USGA has created a new rule to limit the backspin performance of grooves on lofted clubs. The rule downsizes groove volume and limits edge sharpness for all grooves manufactured after January 1, 2010 so they’re equal to or less than the previously approved V-groove dimensions. PGA Tour players must use wedges conforming to the rule beginning 1/1/10. The ruling will decrease backspin and increase stopping distances pros typically achieve from grassy lies, and place more of a premium on hitting fairways. Read the rest of this entry »

If you take a close look at your game, you’ll find that you make most of your two-foot putts, but begin to miss a significant number of putts somewhere between three and six feet from the hole. Everyone does.

Even with perfect aim you'll miss if you don't hit the sweet spot.

There’s a combination of things that lead to putting inaccuracy as you get farther from the hole. Where you aim your putterface and how firmly you stroke the putt are major factors. Then there’s the break due to the slope, and the speed and quality of the green. But you know all this: After a few years of playing the game, your aim became instinctive, you developed the touch to create the proper energy in your stroke for good putt-speed control, and the knowledge of just how much your putts tend to break at the speeds you roll them became ingrained in your DNA.

A factor you may not be paying attention to, however, is the quality of your impact. The precise location of the strike on your putterface influences both the amount of energy transferred to the putt and its starting direction. There’s only one small point on any putterface that’s truly “sweet” — the point on the strike area that results in zero putter-head rotation and maximum energy transfer at contact.

To see if you’re stroking putts on the sweet spot, place a piece of impact tape on the face of your putter and roll 30 different-length putts on the practice green. If your impact pattern is less than 3/8 inch in diameter and near your putter’s sweet spot, that’s good. If it’s larger, or centered away from the sweet spot, you need to practice with a feedback device called the “Teacher” clip (visit pelzgolf.com) to train your putting stroke for solid impact. And I promise: Groove a sweet-spot stroke and you’ll see sweet putting results! Read the rest of this entry »

MY BOYHOOD BUDDIES, MIKE AND MIKE, were the kind of little rascals who shot spit-balls at teachers. They skipped A-block history, slept through Spanish and showed less pulse in biology than a dissected frog.

Nearly half a lifetime later, both have somehow become successful. But they still struggle with the fundamentals: writing, ‘rithmetic and reading greens. Their sand and wedge games are even worse. Watching Little Mike hit lob shots is like watching Shaq shoot free throws. Big Mike flails in greenside bunkers like a sexually frustrated orangutan.

dave pelz golf instruction

Like most average students — and average golfers — neither Mike had ever sketched a plan for self-improvement. Until this winter, that is, when they traded in their dunce caps for sun visors and flew to Florida for a three-day Dave Pelz Scoring Game School.

A poor pupil myself, I opted to join them. Childhood rivalries run deep, and I couldn’t let those bozos get the leading edge. The Pelz school, which opened in 1985, now has eight locations around the country, all of them born from a simple premise: most golfers go about the game bass-ackwards. We rush off to the range, pound drivers till our palms bleed, then light out for the course, fully expecting to shoot lower scores.

Proof that we rarely do isn’t merely anecdotal. It’s a scientific truth proven by Pelz, a former NASA engineer who has approached the subject with the single-minded focus of a…NASA engineer. Having spent the past three decades tracking golfers and compiling statistics, Pelz has concluded that 60 to 65 percent of all shots occur within 100 yards of the hole, and that 80 percent of strokes lost to par take place from within that same distance. Drive for show; chip, pitch and putt for dough. Read the rest of this entry »