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What is the most important part of the game?

What is the most important part of the game?

  • Putting

    Votes: 32 32.3%

  • Tee ball

    Votes: 11 11.1%

  • Short game

    Votes: 32 32.3%

  • Iron game

    Votes: 8 8.1%

  • Mental game

    Votes: 26 26.3%
  • Total voters
    99
I'm going to do a bit of a modified Pascal's Wager on this topic. What are the results of a good or bad round of a given aspect, given the others all average?
Putting: A good round for me can be 28-30 putts, and a bad round 40. That's a 10-12 stroke swing
Tee shots: Good means always having a decent 2nd shot, poor means at least 4-6 lost strokes to hazards or punch outs.
Short:Good means 4-5 fewer putts from more 1 putts after missed greens, and bad means adding a few from double chips or pitches and longer putts. Say 8-10 stroke swing
Iron: Good means lots of greens hit in reg and few if any hazards hit. I have a pretty good short game on average, so would say better vs worse irons would have a swing of at most 6 strokes. If a player has a poor short game, I could see the swing here being double or tripled up to 18.
Mental: Hardest to quantify. A good round means focused and able to take it one shot at a time. Poor round means 1 bad shot leads to at least the rest of that hole going down the drain, and often more. I'm still going to have good and bad shots while focused, but I would say a bad day this might cost me 1-2 holes of shots, so 4+ shots.

Therefore, using all averages, and not taking into account worst case scenarios, I'd say putting eeks out the 'win' in a close race with short game. In a person with no short game, I would argue iron play most important.
 
If I'm pressed, I'll go with putting. A bad day with good putting can still make a respectable score, think of the seniors you've seen who don't have the distance off the tee, punch irons forward, chip on...and sink putts from all over the lot.

Second, Tee ball / short game, depending on the individual. I used to give up a half dozen strokes a round from wayward drives. That hurts.

Really, they're ALL important, what's most important to one person depends on their strengths and weaknesses. To play to a certain level, say...low double digit handicap...you can mask weaknesses if one part of your game is good. That one part will be most important to them, because if it goes bad there's nothing to save them.

Better golfers, I think it's the same, but the weaknesses aren't very weak. What's most important to them is going to change depending on the course and day.

So, they're all important. Game is the sum of them all.
 
I think it's the iron/wedge game. You can always compensate for being bad off the tee box. The hardest part is putting yourself in that scoring position with your next shot.

Couldn't one argue you wouldn't need a great short game if you were methodical with your irons/wedges? GIR is probably the best indicator of scoring.

I'd put short game a close second though. On the days your irons are off, you're going to need to be able to scramble, and get up and down to save yourself.
 
I selected the mental game. I see so many good players talk themselves out of matches all the time, I also see them begin to engage in a lot of conversation while playing a match and they lose their focus and edge. I also think that what you think becomes your truth if you commit to it, be bad or good you'll own it. Ya wanna beat me? get me involved in a conversation during a match, tough to do, but if you do it ya got me lol.
 
I voted mental game as if your head isn't in the right place to begin with, then you are going to struggle all day and put extra pressure on everything else

If I had to choose a second then I would have said putting as I have had days where I have struggled off the tee yet my iron play made up for it, and other days where I could crush my tee shots but struggled around the green and I think the only reason I managed to shoot similar scores was because whenever I hit a bad shot, I could forget about it and just concentrate on trying to play a good next shot

Although I would put a case forward for saying that everything is equally as important as how often have you walked off a course thinking to yourself about the number of shots that you could have saved had you done or not done x,y or z?
 
I'd have to say short game / putting for sure. I've never struggled with the mental part of it, mainly but I just try to enjoy myself. I can't tell you how many times I've been in birdie position and 3 putted. It's my weak point and what's keeping me from shooting some lower scores I think. Short game from 100 yards in as well
 
For me it's off the tee and my mental game.

Getting off the tee well has been a struggle for me up until the last few months and it's caused me huge problems in general. Things are improving and providing I get off the tee well, I generally score quite well.

My mental game is something that needs some work. Forcing myself to hit the sensible shot and get the ball back in play when I get into trouble and playing the percentage shots are things I need to improve on.
 
Mav281 said:
For me it's off the tee and my mental game.

Getting off the tee well has been a struggle for me up until the last few months and it's caused me huge problems in general. Things are improving and providing I get off the tee well, I generally score quite well.

My mental game is something that needs some work. Forcing myself to hit the sensible shot and get the ball back in play when I get into trouble and playing the percentage shots are things I need to improve on.
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Mental note to self.....if Mav is undecided which shot to play, offer him some 'suggestions'..... :alien:
 
I went mental game, because nearly all of my bad work in the other categories is a mental thing. I hit a bad tee shot, its usually because I was worrying about a hazard somewhere, or what my score is, or some minute swing detail, and didn't just think about "swing back, swing through". Same usually goes for iron shots, chips, putts, ESPECIALLY sand shots. When I hit a bad shot, it's usually because I wasn't focused on the shot and the shot only, where I wanted the ball to go as opposed to where it COULD go if I muck it up.
 
Jman said:
For me it has become putting more and more since going SPi. Its now the ONE part of my game the even on a terrible day I believe I can lean on and it will always show up for me.

The other answer that came to mind though is the mental game, and that is something I struggle with a LOT.
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I feel this way about my wedge game JMan, I feel I can lean on it,somtimes hard, to get myself out of trouble and save some shots you know. I,ve been pretty fortunate as my putting game is ok,but there is always room for improvement
 
Short game should be the most important but honestly the tee shot is most important to me right now. I have been inconsistent off the tee and have found OB more then I would like. Kind of hard to recover from that.
 
Putting/short game for me. You could hit every fairway and every green during a round but if your putting is awful you will have robbed yourself the opportunity of a great score. Conversely, you could roll 5 shots from tee to green, but if you have a great short game and putting, an already bad score can get be a little better by not wasting extra shots around the green.

If I could look back to every great round I've ever had, I could trace it all back to putting and short game. Whether it was a great up and down, chip in, or great 2-putt from 60 feet, every one saved an extra stroke. Sure a great drive or perfect iron contribute to those great rounds, but what sets apart a good round from a great round in many instances is the short game. I can also remember crappy days where I just beat it around the course but the short game turned an 84 into a 79.
 
IMO the most important part of the game is the short game shots from 30-100 yards. If you can consistently get the ball up and down from that range, your score will decrease drastically. The best putters in the world are still about 50% from a range of 8-10 feet, so work on getting the ball in that 10 ft. circle from that range and the game becomes a little easier. I've concentrated on this part of my game over the past 2 years now and went from a 4 to a scratch.
 
I voted putting because that's the club that is used most often during a round. The ability to make one-putts from within 8 feet and cutting down/eliminating on the 3-putts is huge towards lowering your overall scores.

But digging deeper than that, the most important part of the game for me is working to improve my game. It gives me goals and delivers satisfaction when I achieve them, and it's all on me.
 
I went with short game, but it was close over putting. Probably a 1a and 1b.
 
I had to vote for the mental game. If you get over a shot, any shot, and don't feel the confidence that you can pull it off, you won't. That applies from tee to green for me.
 
I think another great option for this topic would be consistency. I will hit a great drive, and chunk a wedge.
 
I would have to say that the most tangible part of the game for me would a good short game. I think that if you have a good short game then you can get by on just okay putting. But with that said the mental side of any sport is the most important part. The great Yogi Berra said "Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical"
 
For me it's my short game, it's the one place that I know I lose too many shots and therefore needs to be most important to me!
 
I voted short game and mental game both. Yesterday, looked like I had a decent day putting, but in reality, I had a good day chipping, with several tap ins for par. When I did hit the green I was able to roll the ball well and have tap ins for par. So tap ins for par from good first putts and tap ins for par from good chips. Really made up for some less than great approach shots.

Mental game is important because you have to keep your focus through an entire round. Yesterday I really made an effort to be sure that I thought about and focused on each shot and then tried to excute that shot how I seen it. Really made a big difference in my short game and in my putting. Once I got hungry, I started to lose that focus and my round went to crap.
 
I chose Iron Shots as I interpreted that as approach shots into the green. To me, that is the weakness of my game and what prevents me from scoring. It is pretty crazy how all of the aspects tie together and affect one another. However, it linchpin to me is the Iron/Approach game.
 
Short game. Anyone can putt as is noted by the hole in ones seen on putt putt courses. The short game puts one in position to be able to putt.
 
Good thread idea Freddie. I'd have to say irons.on almost (if not every) hole most golfers are going to use an iron to either tee the ball up if the driver isn't cooperative or recover from a bad drive, or lay up to short game distance or the green. if your irons are "on" for the day you can over compensat for the driver, and with smart play reduce the damage from a faulty short game, and you have to get it on the dance floor to be able to putt. (wow, that's a rambling thought, but I'm at work between meeting and aren't going to go back and fix the grammatical mush... sorry)
 
Your attitude.........being positive is so important.It's not what you did wrong but what's working and can it get better. Just my opinion.
 
My vote was for the mental game being the most important since it is the one thing that controls all of the others.

Couple examples:

1.Forced carrys especially over water, seem to get into peoples minds. Everyone on this forum can hit the ball over 150 yards. However, if that distance is over water what happens? Chunked or topped shots because "I've gotta kill it" as you swing out of your shoes.

2. Par 4 excellent tee shot, you are left with an easy second shot to the green. The worst that can happen is you make par, well until you duff your wedge shot or 3 putt. What happens to your game after a bad hole? What about two in a row, can you come back mentally or is your round shot?

You can, IMHO, have the best swing mechanics, best putting etc but if you can't hold it together mentally your round and game in general will suffer.
 
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