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Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible

ShotScope
Just picked up this book and will start reading it after I'm done with Five Lessons. It looks hardcore with so many pages!!
 
Going out to hit balls today. I won't be able to set up baskets and have someone calling out my distances to the yard, but I'll definitely be practicing the finesse swing and chipping around the green. Looking forward to it!
 
I can attest to the fact that this system is awesome. I was a double digit handicapper before I read it last summer. After a ton of practice and mechanical work, I am down to a 4.1 at last update. I have always driven the ball a mile, but never could hit a wedge close (mainly because of deceleration). This book resonated with me logically and gave me three swings that I had to master. Once I got there, I found that my 60 degree was my most reliable "go to" wedge and I found all three swings produced my most common distances.

The greatest hidden benefit of hitting better wedges is that you putting improved dramatically. You GIR's improve. Everything about this book has changed my game for the better. I no longer fear these shots, I look forward to them.

I find myself a very streaky wedge player. I can hit 8 wedge shots and have no longer than a 6-8ft birdie putt. You convert 50% of those, you are really playing. You convert 75%, you have a round of a lifetime!
 
bigdaddy said:
I can attest to the fact that this system is awesome. I was a double digit handicapper before I read it last summer. After a ton of practice and mechanical work, I am down to a 4.1 at last update. I have always driven the ball a mile, but never could hit a wedge close (mainly because of deceleration). This book resonated with me logically and gave me three swings that I had to master. Once I got there, I found that my 60 degree was my most reliable "go to" wedge and I found all three swings produced my most common distances.

The greatest hidden benefit of hitting better wedges is that you putting improved dramatically. You GIR's improve. Everything about this book has changed my game for the better. I no longer fear these shots, I look forward to them.

I find myself a very streaky wedge player. I can hit 8 wedge shots and have no longer than a 6-8ft birdie putt. You convert 50% of those, you are really playing. You convert 75%, you have a round of a lifetime!
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I spent two hours at the range tonight working on getting on plane and finding my 7:30 finesse swing with my 60° wedge. I don't have the luxury of someone to shag balls for me and call back the distances, but our chipping green has a bit of fairway space that gives you about 35 yards from the end of the fairway to the end of the green. I sat at the end of the fairway and hit a whole bucket of 7:30 swings. The vast majority of the balls were clustered at about 30 yards, so I paced off 30 yards from the back pin and hit another bucket at it, then paced off thirty yards from the front pin and hit another bucket at it. For the last bit I was in the rough, but it actually helped me make smoother contact. I was able to move back or forward three or four paces and then cluster my shots three or four paces forward or behind the earlier shots. The distances were so consistent. There were two other guys chipping from right off the green toward each pin and my shots from 30 yards away were tighter than theirs (my balls were all yellow and theirs were all white). Now I just need to find a place to be able to groove the other swings.
 
I've heard low handicappers say they develop a feel, so they don't need this kind of system. I've also heard the system criticized because it doesn't account for elevated greens and other variants that affect distances
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Silly. You develop feel by having good technique. Some don't need a system because they've practiced enough to get solid technique and then can get good feel. But this system is good technique brewed down so you don't have to spend countless hours searching for it...even if I'm not a fan of Pelz' teachings anymore.
 
True, but what the system does is simplify it and help you to develop that feel. Obviously, to develop great feel, you have to know how far you hit a club with what swing.

I have fully adopted the 4/3 technique and still realize that you have gaps. Knowing what you need to do to fill those gaps is what needs to be done.

For instance, last week, I had a pin that was 65 yards and I know my 60 degree at the 9 oclock gets me to 62 and my 58 at 9 oclock goes 70. Do you need to go shorter with the 58 (a tougher shot in my opinion) or go a little longer than 9 oclock to get there with the 60? I choose the later and left myself with a 4 foot birdie putt.

What I have found is that when you are on with this system, you are making birdies. I had a stretch of 4 rounds earlier this summer where I made 4 birdies in a row! Longest putt was 8 feet. last year, that wasn't happening.

What it did for me was change my entire approach and really helped me to stop decelerating. Lots of practice of the technique makes it automatic, and as a result, increases feel.
 
I'm still reading the book, but so far I like and agree with what I am reading. Had a pretty good day on the course yesterday with my short game. I still a lot of work in front of me, but just reading and taking more confident strokes helped immensely.
 
I was curious if anyone here has been to one of his shortgame academies? I've always wanted to go one.
 
mdbuschsr said:
I'm still reading the book, but so far I like and agree with what I am reading. Had a pretty good day on the course yesterday with my short game. I still a lot of work in front of me, but just reading and taking more confident strokes helped immensely.
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My short game was pretty good this weekend, shame my putting wasn't quite where I wanted it. This system is great for those 35-80 metre shots. I'm so confident on those now it's just so much fun!

Love practicing them as well!


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mdbuschsr said:
I'm still reading the book, but so far I like and agree with what I am reading. Had a pretty good day on the course yesterday with my short game. I still a lot of work in front of me, but just reading and taking more confident strokes helped immensely.
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You had a very good day on the course with regards to your short game. Very good!
 
Xt1ncT-NZ said:
My short game was pretty good this weekend, shame my putting wasn't quite where I wanted it. This system is great for those 35-80 metre shots. I'm so confident on those now it's just so much fun!

Love practicing them as well!


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I came across a Pelz TruthBoard (a putting training aid) and made my own versions of it. I had already downloaded plans for it from another site, but having the original in hand allowed me to get some good measurements. I've been practicing with them regularly. I made a three footer as well as a six foot version. My putting the other day was not great, but I felt like I had a real chance at every putt I stood over. That was a different feeling for sure. I speant the day reading too much break into the cup and burning edges.

Chunkylover77 said:
You had a very good day on the course with regards to your short game. Very good!
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So you're saying my long game stunk? Yeah, you are right it was a little off. :confused2:
 
Just reading this thread has given me some great ideas for my next trip to the range... Now I have to go buy the book....
 
Just purchased this book, excited to read it.
 
heard so many good things about this book. i should get one since its also my weakest part of the game

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I posted in another thread that this book, along with Bob Rotella's "Golf is Not a Game of Perfect", totally transformed the way I looked at golf. I didn't make serious cuts into my handicap until I learned how to properly hit full shots, but having a strong short game was helping me get the most out of what I had.

The book is VERY technical, but anyone who thinks Pelz is trying to take feel and touch out of the short game is really missing the point. He is giving you a road map to develop feel and touch. I have strayed from a lot of his teachings over the years as I find what works for me. I still use the 3 x 4 system, and I have my yardages taped to my clubs (although I think I will switch to the SCOR bag tag method). But now I adjust ball position a lot based on the type of swing I'm trying to make, while Pelz prefers you open the clubface instead. I've also made my finesse swing a lot more like my regular swing.
 
Just got this book in the mail today, about to open it up and hopefully get through a few chapters tonight. Short game is my favorite part of golf, so I'm really excited. Will post my thoughts after I'm done reading it.
 
An important component of what he is teaching here, in addition to the 3 x 4 system, is having a different swing with the short game. It involves adjusting your grip to "deaden" the hands, and to eliminate "coiling" in the backswing. You don't want to get wristy or powerful with these swings, just nice, smooth, consistent swings. The book is so much more than the 3 x 4. If you have trouble getting out of bunkers- this is THE book for you. Once I started following the instructions in the book for sand play I was actually surprised how easy bunker shots could be. Chipping, pitching, aiming, sand, hitting out of shallow water- just like Prego- IT'S IN THERE.
 
Just got the book based upon THPers. So far, interesting, and you're right Pelz does go into the science behind his theory. Never heard of the PEI before: percent error index
 
If anyone wants my copy, post here and PM me and I'll media mail it off.
 
Wakerider grabbed it.
 
Thanks Nuevo, the crazy thing is I had just walked out of a bookstore looking for it when I saw your post on TapaTalk. It worked out well for me that they didn't have it.

THP is just awesome.
 
Reading through this thread earlier inspired me to drag the Short Game Bible out again for another read. I have referred to the book from time to time, but its been at least 10 years since I sat down and tried to read it from cover to cover. Back then, some of the stuff was so technical that I barely even tried to understand it. But now, after 10 or 12 years of really paying attention to my short game, some of his overly technical stuff makes perfect sense and just confirms tidbits I have been picking up in my subconciously all this time.

For example, chapters 7 and 8 are about pitching and chipping (Pelz only calls a shot a "pitch" shot if it is shorter than 30 yards or so. Longer than that he calls it a "distance wedge" shot). Anyway, those chapters are full of charts and data showing how to hit off of and into various slopes, with or against the grain, when to use trajectory vs. spin, yada, yada, yada. Too much info for someone just getting introduced to the Pelz system. As I was reading chapter 8 earlier today, though, it was just "Yep, I've noticed that" or "Good point, I should keep that in mind". Its good stuff, and Pelz even says in those chapters that a newbie probably won't yet understand all of it.
 
I'm reading this right now and am enjoying it. Sort of undecided as to what I'll take from it to the course/practice area, but it's very interesting. I like technical and analytical books, so it's right up my alley. I feel like my finesse game is pretty decent compared to my full swing game, but I do realize I have a ton of room for improvement.
 
Hawk said:
I'm reading this right now and am enjoying it. Sort of undecided as to what I'll take from it to the course/practice area, but it's very interesting. I like technical and analytical books, so it's right up my alley. I feel like my finesse game is pretty decent compared to my full swing game, but I do realize I have a ton of room for improvement.
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I read most of it a few years ago. Like you said, it's interesting. I'm not sure what I really took from it though. I used to practice what was in there, but stopped.
 
I'm about 75% of the way through this book. I started reading it after my shoulder surgery in December since I couldn't play.

Nothing really ground breaking but it is good to have all the thoughts and ideas in one place with a consistent way of explaining things.

There is one thing that I actually took away from this book that has changed my game. He discussed a technique that high handicappers can use to improve their chipping and start to ingrain what ball first strikes should feel like. He suggested choking up on the club all the way to the end of the grip and straightening your right pointer finger along the shaft and bracing it. This technique prevents you from using your wrists and hands too much and encourages ball first contact.

I no longer hit chips fat or skull them. This alone has improved my short game significantly. I've become quite deadly with this technique and can typically get within 6 feet of the hole a good percentage of the time.
 
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