The Value of Short Game

The following is a chart showing the number of greens in regulation for every level golfer.   

PGA Tour player: 11.7

+1- to +3 Handicap: 12.6

0 Handicap: 11.8

3-5 handicap: 10.2

6-9 Handicap: 8.5

10-14 Handicap: 6.9

15-18 Handicap: 5.1

20-24 Handicap: 3.5

25-29 Handicap: 3

What does this tell us?  Well, a few things: but before we go any further, let’s clarify this point:  The + and 0 handicaps miss fewer greens in regulation than the top players in the world for a few reasons:  less course difficulty, home (familiar) playing rounds, and much less pressure with virtually no one watching-for starters…So what does this this chart tell us?

1. The very best players in the world miss more than six greens a round in regulation!

2. The scoring average for those players is around 70!!

3. Of the six to seven greens that tour players miss, they get down in two shots 67% of the time!!!

4. By comparison, the three to five handicap players, good club golfers to be sure, average six to seven more shots a round ON THEIR HOME COURSE, without the course difficulty, the pressure etc.

5. Of the six greens that Tour players miss, they get up and down four of them!

6. It’s not unlikely that the scratch players, very often the club champion in any given club, would get three to four shots a side from a tour player just to be competitive!  

The value of short game is so underrated by most golfers, they fail to see its significance.  If you go to any driving range, if there are 10 people practicing, it’s likely seven to eight of them are working on full swings when we know that almost 70% of the game is played from 50 yards into the green.  

In my career it is likely I have given some 35,000 golf lessons and without an ounce of exaggeration I’ll bet 30,000 to 32,000 of them have been on the full swing! Why? It’s hard to say why but I think when most people come for a lesson, they are not really asking to be a better golfer, rather to just hit the ball better. They fail to realize that to lower scoring, short game improvement is a must! Chipping, pitching, greenside bunkers and putting are the ways to lower your scores - IF that be your goal. Maybe it isn’t, I would not know that? But be prepared: If you come to my lesson tee, we will surely spend at least a part of it on your game from 50 yards into the hole!

One way to think about your game improvement might be this: most golfers are limited in full swing improvement area. If I can get a student 30% improvement in ball-striking, he/she might go from four GIRs to six! That would still leave him/her missing 12 greens a round. The point is obvious: Chipping, pitching, bunkers and putting constitute a vast majority of your scoring. Take lessons to improve mechanics and get out and spend a LOT of time practicing on and around the green.