Short Game Tips, How It Benefits Your Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Short Game Tips, How It Benefits Your Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

Having a good short game is something that a better player really relies on. If you’re new to golf you might think that when you go down to the driving range all the best players are hitting drivers. That’s not probably the case for the better golfer. When you notice the guys that are leading the tournaments, the guys with the lowest handicaps and the guys that are winning on the tally often is the short game that makes the difference, the ability to be able to get up and down from difficult positions to save a par. If you can learn to develop a good short game early on in your golfing career, you’ll be far, far better golfer than these guys who hit a booming drive, with the big drives going over 250 yards. Having a good short game is the best way to bring your handicap down.

I truly think that having a good short game helps me with my iron play as well because if I’m a 150 or a 180 yards back from the green, I’ve got a long or mid-iron in my hands, I’m relatively comfortable hitting that shot because I know if I get it on the green I should make a par, but also I’m confident that if I miss the green as long as I didn’t missed it in a difficult position I should be able to chip and putt majority of the time but I think there are lots of golfers that fail. Unless that I hit the green from a 180 yards out, they’ve got no chance of making a par because they know as soon as I missed the green they’re going to duff a chit and then three putt up for a double bogey and then we’ll blame that missed iron shot on the fact that it made a double bogey when actually it’s the fact that they don’t have a very good short game that’s causing them problems.

So if I stand in the middle of the flyway now with my sixth sign I’m quite confident I make a smooth, more fluid swing up, probably I’ll actually hit the ball better. But if I have missed the green I’m confident I can get up and down, majority of the time to save par. So improving your short game could be the route to improving your confidence round throughout your whole game. Work on a good short game and your handicap will come down.

 2012-04-30

Having a good short game is something that a better player really relies on. If you’re new to golf you might think that when you go down to the driving range all the best players are hitting drivers. That’s not probably the case for the better golfer. When you notice the guys that are leading the tournaments, the guys with the lowest handicaps and the guys that are winning on the tally often is the short game that makes the difference, the ability to be able to get up and down from difficult positions to save a par. If you can learn to develop a good short game early on in your golfing career, you’ll be far, far better golfer than these guys who hit a booming drive, with the big drives going over 250 yards. Having a good short game is the best way to bring your handicap down.

I truly think that having a good short game helps me with my iron play as well because if I’m a 150 or a 180 yards back from the green, I’ve got a long or mid-iron in my hands, I’m relatively comfortable hitting that shot because I know if I get it on the green I should make a par, but also I’m confident that if I miss the green as long as I didn’t missed it in a difficult position I should be able to chip and putt majority of the time but I think there are lots of golfers that fail. Unless that I hit the green from a 180 yards out, they’ve got no chance of making a par because they know as soon as I missed the green they’re going to duff a chit and then three putt up for a double bogey and then we’ll blame that missed iron shot on the fact that it made a double bogey when actually it’s the fact that they don’t have a very good short game that’s causing them problems.

So if I stand in the middle of the flyway now with my sixth sign I’m quite confident I make a smooth, more fluid swing up, probably I’ll actually hit the ball better. But if I have missed the green I’m confident I can get up and down, majority of the time to save par. So improving your short game could be the route to improving your confidence round throughout your whole game. Work on a good short game and your handicap will come down.