Dave Pelz: “Studying the game”

Seeing PMik again after a few weeks off

It was really great to see PMik again after a few weeks off, and on Wednesday I enjoyed walking 18  holes at Hazeltine National with him. The course was fairly dry after 5+ inches of rain on last Saturday night. Although the course seemed to be playing nicely, the bent grass greens have been taken over by probably 65% poa annua, and will probably cause some tough putting in the afternoons all week. This will happen because as the ball goes from bent to the poa surface, the little white blooms of afternoon-growth poa can deflect or bounce the ball up or push it off-line.

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Hole #3 - 633 yards

Welcome to Chaska, Minnasota, and Haseltine National Golf Club - site of the 2009 PGA Championship. If Monday was any indication, the local community is really supporting this tournament - big crowds early on Monday were already on site to watch Tiger Woods teeing it up at 6:45am. Tiger had several thousand followers and that is a rare crowd for an early Monday morning at any golf tournament.

Lets take a closer look at Hazeltine National:

Length: This course is looooooooooooong. Especially now after lots of recent rain, it is playing really long. Here is the tee-box sign from Hole#3 - a 633 yard par 5.

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If you’re familiar with my philosophies, you know how seriously I take the scoring game, and how important it is to your overall score. My research on putting and wedge play is now stretching into its fourth decade, so that’s the area where I can help you the most.

Playing the ball forward in your stance to pitch the ball higher is a no-no.

Of course, there isn’t enough room here to cover everything I’ve discovered in more than 30 years—we’ll save that for future issues of GOLF Magazine. (Look for the new “Pelz Files” beginning in September.) What you can learn right now, however, are the must-have elements of creating Tour-like touch from 100 yards and in. It’s the same information I give to students in my Scoring Game Schools, and it can help you, too.

It’s your bad shots and weaknesses—not your strengths—that largely determine your scores. Take what I know, make it your own, and turn 2006 into your best season ever. Read the rest of this entry »

Follow the tips below, practice 30 minutes a week and you’ll see lower scores right away. Read the rest of this entry »

Test the high pitch against the 8-iron chip. Photo by Leonard Kamsler

Picture this: You’re faced with a shot to a pin 50 feet away. You have no bunker to carry, a clean fairway lie, lots of green to work with — a pretty easy shot. You could use almost any club in your bag. Which one should you reach for?

The truth is, there is no single answer. But there is a best way for each golfer, and you need to learn which way is best for you. Look at my example at left and note the putts resulting from five shots hit two different ways: lofted pitches with a sand wedge and running chips with an 8-iron.

The question is not which shot ends up closer on average, but which shot leads to more one-putts. That’s a crucial distinction that many golfers don’t recognize. When your shots end up within three feet of the hole, you’ll one-putt almost all of them. When they end up four to nine feet from the hole, you’ll miss about half, and from more than 10 feet, you’ll two-putt the vast majority. Read the rest of this entry »