Dave Pelz: “Studying the game”

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 »

Do you have difficulty hitting crisp pitch shots that stop close enough for a realistic one-putt? If not, and you routinely take a divot behind the ball, or you try to pick them clean, I can help you. Hitting behind the ball puts too much grass between it and the clubface, while picking it cleanly produces a lower trajectory off the bottom edge of your wedge with little or no backspin.

Position the ball like normal, brush the ground, and leave a scuff, not a divot

The next time you practice try my “brush the grass” drill. Before you hit your first shot, make at least 20 pitch swings without a ball and look at your divot after every one. Make sure your wedge smacks the ground on each attempt, but doesn’t dig into it. If you think about “brushing” the grass, you’ll feel your wedge kiss off the ground at the bottom of each swing. In 20 tries you should be able to make your divot look like the bottom photo at right, where the grass is brushed (scuffed) but no dirt is taken from the ground. After you complete the drill, continue to practice your pitches, making a good “brush” practice swing before you hit each shot, until the real shot leaves only the same kind of brushed-grass divot. When you do this correctly, you’ll see crisp ball contact on or about the third or fourth groove up the face of your wedge, a nice amount of backspin and makeable putts.

Take it to the course: When you’re in a pitch situation on the course, call up the brushed-grass image and lay your wedge clubface slightly open so the sole bounce can brush the ground. Then, make three practice “brush” swings. Make sure your grip is light and relaxed (but not floppy loose). If the leading edge of your wedge keeps taking dirt divots, open the face a little more. When you’ve successfully “brushed” the grass two consecutive times without a divot, move in and immediately pitch the ball onto the green with the same swing. Read the rest of this entry »

If breaking putts of six feet or less give you problems, consider these three things:

Middle-road break (normal speed), high-road break (die speed)

1. The faster you roll a putt, the less it will break. The slower you roll it, the more it will break.
2. The three break/speed options are: The high road (at die-in-the-hole speed); the middle road (normal speed); and the low road (jam-in speed).
3. It’s important to choose a break/speed combination and commit to it even before you make your practice strokes.

Committing yourself to one of the three break/speed options may seem like an obvious thing to do, but many golfers don’t even know they have options. Most players make a cursory read of the slope, then assume the middle-road break and normal speed for almost every putt. That’s hardly the attention your putts deserve if you’re interested in making more than your fair share. Read the rest of this entry »