One of the young ladies on the LPGA Tour was being interviewed on the Golf channel a few weeks ago and she made a surprising statement. She said, "I mostly practice my short game. I spend comparatively little time on my irons and driver." Most of the pros on both tours hit 50-70% of their greens in regulation. Only the very best are in the 70% categaory. At 60%, that means in their rounds they are hitting only 10-11 greens. They are chipping to 7/8 greens every day.
Statistically, we hit 14 drivers, 8 chip shots (or more considering par fives) and approximately 30-35 putts per round. Pros do better than that. Ideally, those chip shots, well placed, can mean 8 pars or maybe a birdie now and then.
At my golf course I sometimes work as a Marshall. I see mostly retirees playing golf and they are surprisingly good at their short game. From thirty yards in they are hitting their chip shots close to the pin. At Augusta, this week we are seeing fabulous short games. Some of what we see is incredible.
At another club where I play golf, the high school girls teams come to practice. Their coach has them all working constantly on four foot putts. At a driving range where I once worked in Venice, Fl. the owners son was consistantly working on making ten foot putts. He said you should learn to make ten in a row from ten feet.
My recent experience with the chipping game has revealed that I was bending my left arm somewhere in the back swing which led to some frustrating skulls. I learned to form a solid triangle with both arms and when I held the triangle consistantly throughout the shot I did remarkably better. The same triangle works admirably well in putting.
The next time you go to your golf course simply remember the words "four", "ten" and "triangle". Go early and practice the putts and chips remembering those three words (4, 10 & Try).
RHE
PS - The high school girl's team coach and I were talking one day about my short game and she said, "A long time ago I learned to take my right thumb off the club when chipping." I tried it and it worked amazingly well. That thumb tends to drive the club head into the turf. Lifting it during the back swing helps immeasurably!
RHE
1 comment:
Well, since I really stink at chipping, it seems timely I happened upon your journal. While not out on the course yet, I will be this week and I shall try the 4, 10 and triangle method. Oh, and the right thumb. Now that's an interesting thought. Putting was my strong point last season...who knows if I'll be able to hold onto it this year? One of the things I LOVE about golf is its ever changing play, and my ever changing skills. Keeps it interesting.
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