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Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible

ShotScope
I just bought this book after reading reviews about it.

Can't wait to put it to action....10 pages in!!!


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niwotian said:
The basic idea is that you have 4 wedges (PW, AW, SW, LW), and you groove three strokes with different length backswings (7:30, 9:00, 10:30 - where your arms represent the hands of a clock). Then you measure and document your distances with each wedge for each swing length to give you 12 known distances (some people even tape a cheat sheet to each club). I did this, and for a high handicapper like me it was great - gave me something objective to start from. 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 distance, but for me I'd still rather have a known distance that I can adjust if needed to the particular shot - just like if the yardage says the shot should be an 8 iron, but due to elevation change or wind you decide to go a club stronger or weaker.
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This is it in a nutshell. Great if you have the time to practice, and a great book, but I have taken the opposite approach now that I'm too busy to practice very much. I never leave my self shorter than 85 yards from the hole unless I can get it somewhere close to the green. That means I go many rounds without hitting a partial shot other than a 20 yard chip shot with a mid iron. I'm much better form 90 yards that I am from 20-80 yards so I just avoid those shots. If that means laying up with a PW on a par 5, so be it. With my very limited time to practice, this approach has kept my index close to scratch for the last 15 years. When my kids move out, I'll have time to practice the Pelz method and get better at those partial wedges.
 
7:30 and the short pitches are in good shape. 9:00 swing flat out sucked over the weekend. Think I was getting more armsy than I should and my tempo was no good.

-100 yards to the green. I'm salivating at a good chance to put one close and promptly yank a PW into a green side bunker. One shot out and a three putt later I card a double. So lame.

-90 yards in light rough. Again, I'm seeing birdie and hit it short into a greenside bunker. One shot out and two putt bogey.

-80 yards in the fairway. Birdie eyes and I hit it on the green, but well short of anything makeable. Missed my number by a good 10 yards at least. Made par here.

Three shots that could have realistically brought me under 80 if I'd executed. I don't really get mad when I golf, but bad wedge shots do get me a little riled up. I'm surprised that I've struggled off/on with that shot this year. Last year it was my favorite one. I know I'll miss shots, but I should make more good ones than bad ones with the finesse swing. 9:00 will be a big part of my practice this week.
 
KellyBo said:
Hey Hawk. As you know, I've been just hitting pitch shots in my yard for a couple months and it has helped tremendously. I think it's even helped my iron shots as I'm becoming more accurate. The Pelz system has taught me to swing better because hitting the finesse shots has taught me to quit putting so much wrist action into my shots. I don't have those nasty pulls with my irons like before.

Yesterday I was riding over to help a lady look for her ball and saw this short game practice area at our course that I had no idea existed. It was tucked away behind the tree line of our #6 fairway and I've never noticed it before. I asked the lady and she told me that's where they take a lot of the junior golfers to practice. Well how about that! I now have a place I can really go practice my short game.

I would say I'm way better at anything between 30-60 yards but still need to work on my distances with different clubs and more yardages now that I have access to a better practice area. I've never taken the time to get myself down to 5 yard increments.
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Nice work Kelly! Hope this new "secret" area helps a lot! A good place to measure off distances is what I'm looking for too. We have a swim club nearby that has 18 par-three holes; most less than 150 yd. This year was the first in a while that we didn't join. Thinking seriously about rejoining - I can golf for free before noon every day. If I'm the first one out, and I have a GPS app like Fungolf, I figure I can pace off shots and really work on those partial shots!
 
Gotta get busy with this again. Felt pretty solid last time out except for the 40-60 yard range.
 
Hawk said:
7:30 and the short pitches are in good shape. 9:00 swing flat out sucked over the weekend. Think I was getting more armsy than I should and my tempo was no good.

-100 yards to the green. I'm salivating at a good chance to put one close and promptly yank a PW into a green side bunker. One shot out and a three putt later I card a double. So lame.

-90 yards in light rough. Again, I'm seeing birdie and hit it short into a greenside bunker. One shot out and two putt bogey.

-80 yards in the fairway. Birdie eyes and I hit it on the green, but well short of anything makeable. Missed my number by a good 10 yards at least. Made par here.

Three shots that could have realistically brought me under 80 if I'd executed. I don't really get mad when I golf, but bad wedge shots do get me a little riled up. I'm surprised that I've struggled off/on with that shot this year. Last year it was my favorite one. I know I'll miss shots, but I should make more good ones than bad ones with the finesse swing. 9:00 will be a big part of my practice this week.
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I totally understand where your coming from Hawk. I work to put myself in the zone, when I don't execute...it takes me a full 10 to let it go....
 
Yea man, and I'm not really like that with the rest of my game. I know I'm going to hit loose shots elsewhere, but I take pride in my wedge game and misses frustrate me. I know I'm not going to hit it to 8 feet every time or even 5/10 times, but I do expect my distance to be consistent and not to miss the green.

I worked the 9:00 a lot tonight and finally got it where I wanted it. I worked on tempo and rhythm quite a bit. It should be a smooth move for me, but when I start struggling I get choppy and try to muscle the ball in there, which leads to upper body taking over it seems. Don't have to do that though. I can get pretty effortless distance with this swing and need to remember that.
 
Hawk said:
Yea man, and I'm not really like that with the rest of my game. I know I'm going to hit loose shots elsewhere, but I take pride in my wedge game and misses frustrate me. I know I'm not going to hit it to 8 feet every time or even 5/10 times, but I do expect my distance to be consistent and not to miss the green.

I worked the 9:00 a lot tonight and finally got it where I wanted it. I worked on tempo and rhythm quite a bit. It should be a smooth move for me, but when I start struggling I get choppy and try to muscle the ball in there, which leads to upper body taking over it seems. Don't have to do that though. I can get pretty effortless distance with this swing and need to remember that.
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Initiallynwhen in was trying to learn the process I was trying to be way to aggressive through the ball. I wasn't seeing the distance control or accuracy that so many where talking about. So at on of my lesson I asked about it. After my teacher watch me do it, he put me on the launch monitor... It wasn't till then that I really got a feel for the feel (that's awkward). But I'm a pretty concrete thinker and analyst so I need the numbers as re-enforcement. And like your saying it feels effortless. Controlling trajectory is a work in progress with these techniques quite honestly
 
We can talk trajectory a little if you'd like. That's one thing that I feel like I have a good handle on. For me, there are two things I do. First of all, ball position. I know Pelz isn't big on moving the ball around, but he does (sort of) say that moving it back is an option. I typically move the ball back and decrease loft. I'll shorten up my follow through as well.

Here's an example from 70 yards.

High ball = center stance 9:00 57°
Low ball = back stance 7:30 PW

Both will get me the number, but the trajectory and roll out are very different. When it's windy, basically any time but summer here, I'm all about the shorter swing.
 
I will work on that. with the ball back and delofting the face, which sounds more like an increase in the amount of head to hands lag that normally happens at impact. well for me anyway. Also holding the release, to what extent? shoulder chest? Are you seeing a lot more check spin?
 
If I really want it low I'll almost finish with the club pointing at the target. Otherwise, shoulder height.

It's a pretty spinny shot for how low it comes in, but it will release. I hit some 9 irons from 110 tonight with a 9:00 swing with a lower trajectory and it was 10-12 feet of release. I still hit my number though. If I want that same shot high, I just finish high.
 
Hawk said:
If I really want it low I'll almost finish with the club pointing at the target. Otherwise, shoulder height.

It's a pretty spinny shot for how low it comes in, but it will release. I hit some 9 irons from 110 tonight with a 9:00 swing with a lower trajectory and it was 10-12 feet of release. I still hit my number though. If I want that same shot high, I just finish high.
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Got it. I'll give it a go next trip out
 
Just play around with it. You'll get it figured out. For me though, the general rule is less loft/less swing = lower ball.
 
Lack of time and not having easy access to a good short game area is leading to a lack of consistency that I'm getting a little annoyed with. Not so much contact, but distance control. Regardless of the goons that say Pelz is all mechanics, you have to develop the feel/touch for different swings to pull them off consistently. Not to mention working on trajectories, opening the face, etc. Last weekend I had some good swings from farther out (80,90,100), but the 1/4 swings were pretty rotten. Good contact, but too much juice and had some longer putts than I'm used to from that close in. The week before it was pretty much the opposite.

Things aren't going to get any easier now that I'm pretty much stuck at home during the week either, so boo on that.
 
We've spoken about how Pelz has saved our round when our ballstriking has been poor. I've been experiencing the opposite the last two rounds - hitting the ball reasonably well, but really being substandard and making course management mistakes from inside 100 and having it kill a round. #idiot
 
That's so frustrating. Sort of had the same thing going on the last few weeks. Lack of practice shows when you really don't want it to.
 
It sure does, Hawk. One hole in particular from Sunday is really gnawing at me. Short par 4, maybe 300 where most of the work is at the green. I hit three wood perfectly down the left side, giving me the better angle into the pin. I was in the short rough and on a slight up slope, 70 yards away, pin tucked back. I thought the slope would increase elevation and decrease distance so I went with 9:00 SW. I flew the green, ended up against a tree, had to hit a left handed wedge shot like 10 yards from there just to get to the rough, chipped on and missed the 10 footer for bogey. Taking 6 on the easiest hole on the course, including 5 strokes from 70 yards, when I should have been eyeing birdie, is gnawing at me. In retrospect, I have no idea why I wasn't aware of the back tucked pin and didn't make sure my miss was toward that big green flat thing called the middle othe green. Argh.
 
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I feel your pain!
 
I am in dire need of a Pelz makeover. I threw up all over myself from finesse swing distances all day yesterday. So frustrating. I know what I'll be practicing the next few weeks.

i started by re-reading the book, which opened my eyes and refreshed my memory about certain thins. Next up is to do the practice on course.
 
Bummer Frank! I can relate. It happens. I've been really blah with the short game in general lately. Just haven't been able to get anything substantial going it seems. Hasn't been bad, but I need to get a little of the magic back. Tough when I'm playing once a week though.

On a good note, adding the 60 to the bag was a good thing. Had a perfect shot for it come up and was thrilled to have it. I was 60 yards out and had to carry a bunker and stop the ball quick. Now, I could get a 7:30 GW up there, but that's not the easiest shot to hit high and soft. The 60 ended up dropping and spinning back a couple inches. That's what I was hoping for in adding it, so might be a permanent change.
 
Hawk said:
Bummer Frank! I can relate. It happens. I've been really blah with the short game in general lately. Just haven't been able to get anything substantial going it seems. Hasn't been bad, but I need to get a little of the magic back. Tough when I'm playing once a week though.

On a good note, adding the 60 to the bag was a good thing. Had a perfect shot for it come up and was thrilled to have it. I was 60 yards out and had to carry a bunker and stop the ball quick. Now, I could get a 7:30 GW up there, but that's not the easiest shot to hit high and soft. The 60 ended up dropping and spinning back a couple inches. That's what I was hoping for in adding it, so might be a permanent change.
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The 730 shots are the hardest for me. I just have a hard time with such a short back swing. I get this eek and jerk thing going
 
T2GRN18 said:
The 730 shots are the hardest for me. I just have a hard time with such a short back swing. I get this eek and jerk thing going
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Normally that's my bread and butter, but I can hit them lower easier I guess. I can get them up in the air if I try, but I just feel more comfortable hitting them with the ball back. I can get a nice penetrating shot that spins pretty good, but it definitely rolls out more than what I got from that 60.
 
Hawk said:
Bummer Frank! I can relate. It happens. I've been really blah with the short game in general lately. Just haven't been able to get anything substantial going it seems. Hasn't been bad, but I need to get a little of the magic back. Tough when I'm playing once a week though.

On a good note, adding the 60 to the bag was a good thing. Had a perfect shot for it come up and was thrilled to have it. I was 60 yards out and had to carry a bunker and stop the ball quick. Now, I could get a 7:30 GW up there, but that's not the easiest shot to hit high and soft. The 60 ended up dropping and spinning back a couple inches. That's what I was hoping for in adding it, so might be a permanent change.
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Yeah, bummer - it could have been a special round pretty easily. That's okay, there was a lot of other stuff that was good.

Good for you on the 60! I love hearing success stories :)
 
Spent a good portion of yesterday's range session on the Pelz swing. Working on a smooth, but definite wrist hinge to go with my shoulder turn. Better hinge = more height and distance with less effort.

Neat little range. It has a floating green at 60-70 yards and can play shorter or longer depending on the wind. It's a tough one to hold since it's basically fake turf on top of plywood (I assume). It can be done with the right shot though.
 
Similar to a hinge and hold by the sounds of it Hawk. This is a shot I use for those little 20-30 yrd touch shots. Works well for me
 
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