Stop Wasting Shots from Inside 100 Yards, Golf (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Stop Wasting Shots from Inside 100 Yards, Golf (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

We often talk to golfers about how they can improve their scores most people that play the game want to improve once again their handicap down and if you ask a lot of people why and how they should improve, they will often tell you that they should improve their short game and my short game is not very good and that’s where my scores go missing. Yet when they go to practice they take the driver out and they start bashing the driver again and they are not practicing with the wedging and pitching and chipping like they possibly should.

So part of my job is I am try and to explain people how much that short game costs them. And there is a really good exercise I would like you to consider doing next time you go out and play. After you have hit your tee shot walk down to your golf ball and just mark off for either one of score card or just in your head do I have a good second shot that I can get towards the green? If the answer is yes that’s fine that counts as a tick. If the answer is no because you have put yourself in a hazard or you are in the trees you have to chip out sideways that counts as a no. And that shot is effectively going to cost you one more. So a bad tee shot has cost you one more, a good tee shot doesn’t cost you anything.

Then again when you get yourself inside 100 yards, like distances of – 30 yards, 40 yards, 50 yards, 60 yards, 70 yards, 80 yards and so on, mark off how many shots you feel you have wasted from inside of 100 yards. Now I think from inside 100 yards you are certainly able to take three shots, one pitch or chips shot on to green and two putts maximum. So if you have taken more than three shots or if you have missed a chip or a pitch or a putt that’s very short range that felt like a wasted shot, put that on the score card make a mental note of that one as well. Then at the end of the round add up how many wasted shots that I have because my tee shots were bad and add up how many wasted shots did I have because my chip, pitch or putting was bad. Look at those two columns now and I would be thinking that short game is at least double the cost of the long game certainly for most people that’s the case they might have hit three or four bad tee shots, two or three might have cost them a penalty shots or chip out sideways, but that chipping, pitching and putting has probably cost them at least double. So why is that person going back to the driving range and hitting the driver the next week, they should be going out on to the chipping and putting green, working on the shots that is costing them the problems, working on the 100 yard pitches, the 50 yards and the 20 yards chips, working on getting up and down more, working on the putting more.

So look at what’s costing the most in the golf course and replicate that in your practice sessions. You have to hit a few tee shots and a few long irons but don’t waste hundreds and hundreds of balls and lots of time, lots of your precious time in practice on those long shots if the short game is costing you the most. So mark it down either in your head or on your score card what costs you the most work on that little simple exercise and improve that part of the game.

 2012-07-12

We often talk to golfers about how they can improve their scores most people that play the game want to improve once again their handicap down and if you ask a lot of people why and how they should improve, they will often tell you that they should improve their short game and my short game is not very good and that’s where my scores go missing. Yet when they go to practice they take the driver out and they start bashing the driver again and they are not practicing with the wedging and pitching and chipping like they possibly should.

So part of my job is I am try and to explain people how much that short game costs them. And there is a really good exercise I would like you to consider doing next time you go out and play. After you have hit your tee shot walk down to your golf ball and just mark off for either one of score card or just in your head do I have a good second shot that I can get towards the green? If the answer is yes that’s fine that counts as a tick. If the answer is no because you have put yourself in a hazard or you are in the trees you have to chip out sideways that counts as a no. And that shot is effectively going to cost you one more. So a bad tee shot has cost you one more, a good tee shot doesn’t cost you anything.

Then again when you get yourself inside 100 yards, like distances of – 30 yards, 40 yards, 50 yards, 60 yards, 70 yards, 80 yards and so on, mark off how many shots you feel you have wasted from inside of 100 yards. Now I think from inside 100 yards you are certainly able to take three shots, one pitch or chips shot on to green and two putts maximum. So if you have taken more than three shots or if you have missed a chip or a pitch or a putt that’s very short range that felt like a wasted shot, put that on the score card make a mental note of that one as well. Then at the end of the round add up how many wasted shots that I have because my tee shots were bad and add up how many wasted shots did I have because my chip, pitch or putting was bad. Look at those two columns now and I would be thinking that short game is at least double the cost of the long game certainly for most people that’s the case they might have hit three or four bad tee shots, two or three might have cost them a penalty shots or chip out sideways, but that chipping, pitching and putting has probably cost them at least double. So why is that person going back to the driving range and hitting the driver the next week, they should be going out on to the chipping and putting green, working on the shots that is costing them the problems, working on the 100 yard pitches, the 50 yards and the 20 yards chips, working on getting up and down more, working on the putting more.

So look at what’s costing the most in the golf course and replicate that in your practice sessions. You have to hit a few tee shots and a few long irons but don’t waste hundreds and hundreds of balls and lots of time, lots of your precious time in practice on those long shots if the short game is costing you the most. So mark it down either in your head or on your score card what costs you the most work on that little simple exercise and improve that part of the game.