Dave Pelz: “Studying the game”

An endless array of shot lengths, lies, trajectories and stopping distances can make your short game confusing. You can simplify all of this, however, by using the next month to practice what I call a “reference” swing. With any wedge, take your hands back to just below hip height using a full wrist hinge and finish all the way through like normal. That’s it. Learn no more, but practice this swing enough to be able to repeat it consistently, with the same backswing length at the same rhythm and with the same follow-through.

After about 30 days, your wedge shot patterns will begin to repeat. Photo by Leonard Kamsler

The trick is to perfect this reference swing with each of your wedges. As you do you’ll learn how high and far each wedge flies your shots, and how quickly each stops upon landing. After about 30 days, your wedge shot patterns will begin to repeat, and you’ll develop a feel for what to expect from each wedge shot for the rest of your career.

By using the reference-swing concept with each wedge you carry (and I recommend you carry four), reference-distance shots will become a strength of your short game. Learn another length backswing to add four more well-controlled shots to your arsenal. Read the rest of this entry »

I teach three fundamentals for setting up to blast shots from sand.

Photo by Leonard Kamsler

The first is to play the ball opposite the instep of your left foot. This forward position allows your wedge to enter the sand behind the ball as it travels along its natural swing arc.

The second is to grip your wedge with its clubface wide open — rotated clockwise 45 degrees — so the flange “bounces” off the sand.

Lastly, aim a little left of your target to compensate for the open clubface, otherwise you’ll miss to the right. Read the rest of this entry »

THE SCRAMBLER: Recreational players get up-and-down after missing the green much less than Tour players, especially from the rough. You can use my "two-target" system to upgrade your short game to nearer Tour level.

Perspective

Short shots are important! My new research using ShotLink to study the games of amateur players like you shows a dramatic gap in scrambling skills between Tour players and you. This is critical since the consequences of missing a shot are not dispersed equally across the four primary shot types: tee shots, approach shots, short-game shots and putts. Read the rest of this entry »

Send your questions to: askpelz@golf.com

The Problem

You always leave wedge shots from uphill lies short of your target —sometimes even short of the green — because your club-head digs into the slope at impact. Read the rest of this entry »

The Situation

You pull three putts in a row, and then push the next two, or some similarly distressing pattern. No matter what you try your putts won’t start on line consistently.

The Solution

Stop putting with the grip you use to hit power shots. You don’t want to hit putts. Instead, angle your wrists slightly downward and move the putter grip out of your fingers and into the lifeline of your left hand. Read the rest of this entry »