The Importance Of Short Game - #OWN125 By Cleveland Golf

Nice campaign to sell wedges and putters.

Okay, one can also argue that if you're a scratch golfer about 50% of your shots are ON the green.

For a bogey golfer it still works out to 40% of their shots. If you can average 36 putts per round you're doing pretty good. It takes a ton of practice to gain say six strokes here and get down to averaging 29 putts per round. Where would you rather take on a PGA pro? From tee to green? or on the green from 30 feet? I'll head straight to the green every time. My putter can get hot.

This means that 60% of the shots are getting to the green, and I'm going to take a guess here and say that 1 shot per hole is going to be inside of 40 yds. whether it is a lob shot, pitch or a chip because the approach shot wasn't quite there.

The drive is still the king. Hit it far, and keep this playable in the fairway or first cut or short rough and you're ahead of the game. We're not playing US Open height rough on most courses. If you're hitting an 8 iron into a green you're in great shape.

We need to practice keeping our drives playable. If these are playable and of good distance, we're set up for a good approach shot.

Then we should be practicing hitting our 7 and shorter irons accurately. We should be practicing approach shots a lot. If we can hit the greens with them we can make pars and better.

The most painful advice i got when I was having trouble getting off the tee was to work on my short game. WTF? Yeah, I need a short game because my long game can get wild and my approach shots aren't accurate. A great short game is a band aid and can stop the bleeding, but the bleeding can start right away on the next hole.

#1 - Long game
#2 - approach shots
#3 - short game
#4 - putting

I do find one thing interesting with this thread. All of the low handicaps say "Work on your short game" and it will get you lower. Many of the high handicaps are saying "work on long game it matters more". Seems to be a trend, but if the majority of low handicap players are saying the same thing, something seems to be trending....Perhpaps they are on to something as to why they got to where they are. I say this not to discount someone's opinion or their game, just that when you step back and look at it, its very interesting to see how almost all of the low handicap players say they got there and how important #Own125 is.

Scoring is the only thing that matters. The campaign is about the shots from 125 and in.

One of the most frustrating things I witnessed while playing golf was after college when a single joined a buddy and I on the first tee. He didn't hit it very far, and a matter of fact I seemed to be 25 yards ahead of him off every tee. He would always be on the green of around the green on his 2nd shot and would always get up and down from no matter where he was; 70 ft putt, 30 yd pitch shot, bunker, everywhere. Always up and down. It was a sight to see and drove me crazy. Right then I saw what a brilliant short game could do.

JB said:

I do find one thing interesting with this thread. All of the low handicaps say "Work on your short game" and it will get you lower. Many of the high handicaps are saying "work on long game it matters more". Seems to be a trend, but if the majority of low handicap players are saying the same thing, something seems to be trending....Perhpaps they are on to something as to why they got to where they are. I say this not to discount someone's opinion or their game, just that when you step back and look at it, its very interesting to see how almost all of the low handicap players say they got there and how important #Own125 is.

Scoring is the only thing that matters. The campaign is about the shots from 125 and in.

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You're definitely right it's a trend because it's true haha. I cant break 10 and i know even with my struggles with long irons etc i absolutely lose more strokes chipping and putting. There's a bunch of times i could of broken 80 even with errant shots if my approaches were closer and i could putt.

JB said:

I do find one thing interesting with this thread. All of the low handicaps say "Work on your short game" and it will get you lower. Many of the high handicaps are saying "work on long game it matters more". Seems to be a trend, but if the majority of low handicap players are saying the same thing, something seems to be trending....Perhpaps they are on to something as to why they got to where they are. I say this not to discount someone's opinion or their game, just that when you step back and look at it, its very interesting to see how almost all of the low handicap players say they got there and how important #Own125 is.

Scoring is the only thing that matters. The campaign is about the shots from 125 and in.

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I agree. Hell I remember last year I shot a +6 78 and I only hit 5 GIR. Had something like 25 putts because 1) I was putting well and 2) I was chipping l/pitching it into safe 1-putt territory all day

#Own125 - awesome campaign, awesome concept.

I also like it because, IMO, it's low-hanging fruit. ALL you have to do to be a better player in the scoring zone is practice more. Can lessons help? Yes. Will everything always get better with more practice? Not every time. But I know a lot of guys who can go beat balls with a swing flaw and not improve at all. But those same guys, if they'd spend half their range time on wedges and putting, would absolutely shave real strokes.

BTW, I'm included in that group. This conversation has inspired me. I'm going to the short game area for an hour tomorrow before league.

Most people that have played with me over the years know I am a bit passionate about this campaign (short game) because I am a terrible golfer, who happens to know how to score because of solid wedge play and putting. Nobody sees me play and thinks "this guy is good", but I am able to get the ball in the hole. Broken par at a THP Event (Reunion) and only hit 3 fairways (cant remember full foursome but J4U was in it). Im not long off the tee by any means. Average at best and dont have the best control. Not the best ball striker either as my swing is all timing.

But get me around the green and in the scoring zone (PW and in) and I work hard on it to make sure I can get up and down from anywhere to give myself a chance to score. The campaign has inspired me to get back into it again, once my travel is over for this year (still a lot more THP Events). Im inspired to get back to Short Game work and see if I can get back in that 2 or 3 range.

Nate said:

He didn't hit it very far, and a matter of fact I seemed to be 25 yards ahead of him off every tee.

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I found this funny. He is within 25 yards of you and that's not hitting it very far. Ok please don't say how you would describe my distance off the tee then, having recently played with you and maybe coming within 50 yards at best.

JB said:

I do find one thing interesting with this thread. All of the low handicaps say "Work on your short game" and it will get you lower. Many of the high handicaps are saying "work on long game it matters more". Seems to be a trend, but if the majority of low handicap players are saying the same thing, something seems to be trending....Perhpaps they are on to something as to why they got to where they are. I say this not to discount someone's opinion or their game, just that when you step back and look at it, its very interesting to see how almost all of the low handicap players say they got there and how important #Own125 is.

Scoring is the only thing that matters. The campaign is about the shots from 125 and in.

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Every low digit player or instructor says the samething. My current instructor asked what my goal was on the first day and told him I wanted to get to single digits. His response was it will come down to short game. We talked about making at least 6/8 putts from 4&5 feet and distance control from 12' and beyond and trying to get pitch shots from 20' in a 6' circle

Short game is the scoring game. I've really lost much of my short game this year. It's very apparent in my scores this year. I am definitely interested in #OWN125. Going to be what I really need going into 2016.

CAA_Beat said:

I found this funny. He is within 25 yards of you and that's not hitting it very far. Ok please don't say how you would describe my distance off the tee then, having recently played with you and maybe coming within 50 yards at best.

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I wasn't hitting it as far back then buddy! Believe me. My driver was all over the place and I was hitting 3W 70% of the time. Technology is a wonderful thing!

Short game will get you just so far. It's an easy way to shave a few strokes if your short game actually needs help. However, if it's taking you 3 or more strokes (including penalties) to get within that 125, or to have a clear shot to the green when you get there, then you have a lot more issues than just a weak short game.

I'm living proof that practicing short game pays dividends, but only within limits. I never was great at GIR. I was a decent driver and putter, not a great approach player, but I practiced my short game and got down to a 10 handicap, mostly riding on that. I hit a wall there and because I was never able to get my full shots under consistent control, my handicap never got better, even though I was capable of playing low 70's golf when most of my game was clicking - it just didn't click on a consistent basis.

Until just 4 years ago, well into my 60's, I was still carding a half dozen rounds each year in the 70's. My short game was no worse when shooting 85 than it was when I shot 75 - the difference was in my long game. So to just put one's focus on short game may be doing yourself a disservice. You have to get into short game range before that part of the game can really get you where you want to be.

The differences in opinion are interesting, and may boil down to each individual's game. Having said that, in Mark Brodie's book Every Shot Counts, I believe he statistically showed that 67% of the difference in someone that shoots say 80 versus 90 is due to ball striking. For me, that is definitely the case. Particularly off the tee. For example I had two recent 9s where I had 5 pars with 16 putts. In the first one I shot 45, the second 40. The difference? In the round with a 45 I had 4 penalty strokes, and a couple of other poor shots. Was really struggling off the tee with one in the water and one OB. This cycle repeats itself regularly for me.

Fourputt said:

Short game will get you just so far. It's an easy way to shave a few strokes if your short game actually needs help. However, if it's taking you 3 or more strokes (including penalties) to get within that 125, or to have a clear shot to the green when you get there, then you have a lot more issues than just a weak short game.

I'm living proof that practicing short game pays dividends, but only within limits. I never was great at GIR. I was a decent driver and putter, not a great approach player, but I practiced my short game and got down to a 10 handicap, mostly riding on that. I hit a wall there and because I was never able to get my full shots under consistent control, my handicap never got better, even though I was capable of playing low 70's golf when most of my game was clicking - it just didn't click on a consistent basis.

Until just 4 years ago, well into my 60's, I was still carding a half dozen rounds each year in the 70's. My short game was no worse when shooting 85 than it was when I shot 75 - the difference was in my long game. So to just put one's focus on short game may be doing yourself a disservice. You have to get into short game range before that part of the game can really get you where you want to be.

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I disagree with the bolded statement above.
What will get you "just so far" is eliminating penalties off the tee. That number is small and finite - you can never eliminate more than the penalty strokes. Which, in the scope of scores, do not add up to 65% of the total strokes.
Where you can save/gain strokes is being able to put shots from within 125 yds into one putt range. Every time out. Yes, getting to 125 yds may be a struggle, but wouldn't it be nice to KNOW that, once there, you are in the hole in two strokes?

fwiw there is also something fun and enjoyable and exiting about it all when your tee shots are nicely played and when you hit a wonderful 6iron on the green. Very many times people have (on these forums) expressed that one of the best feelings in golf is when they have a great iron strike. From the feel and sound of the swing, to the ball flight, and watching it land where you aimed. If I remember correctly it was our favorite by a large margin.

And I just posted a thread (many of you know) about how sometimes we don't feel like we played well but we ended up with a good score. Now, one of the (or the main) reason for that good score during such a round is usually due to the short game preventing an otherwise not so good ball striking day from actually becoming a bad round. That is certainly understandable and most probably correct for the scenario. But it still doesn't deny the fact that the round didn't feel like a good one. And that is the part that comes from the fact that we didn't hit many good balls. Some also mention the opposite scenario of when a round feels good but the final score wasnt good. And again that conversely is due to the fact that we did hit a lot of really good shots even though we didn't finish out holes well.

So with all that said. There is something (a lot imo) to be said for the desire, the need, and the personal satisfaction that comes from one hitting good golf shots from the tee boxes and with the iron approach shots. It may not be what wins you your local events but does make you feel good about your ability and also imo makes golf more fun, satisfying and enjoyable for very many people and makes you want to fix it when its not there. There is nothing imo wrong about any of that.

It would make me very happy to shave an average of 5 strokes per round off every score. I know for certain that can happen with better and more consistent play from 125 and in but also from any part of my game. I can say that with confidence because just looking back at this past month where I have played (relatively speaking for myself) a lot of rounds and in a number of them my short game was status quo while the differences between my lower and higher scores came from my better and worse tee and mid irons play during some of those rounds. But getting back to what I said above, feeling better and feeling not as good about a round can often be determined by the amount of good shots we made whether or not the short game saved the round or not (within reason of course). So there is a lot to be said for many reasons for one playing good golf from over 125 and out too. That imo is not wrong. That dosnt discredit the logic to own 125 and in. Who woudnt want to own that? But its just that it doesn't mean all else does not hold great important value. Who wouldn't want to own being in the fairway at a good distance on most tee shots? or own the ability to consistently hit or be very close to greens with 5,6,7,8 irons? many people want to own those things too and feel they too hold a lot of value to ones over all scoring and also their enjoyment of playing the game. None of that can be wrong.

Spivey said:

I disagree with the bolded statement above.
What will get you "just so far" is eliminating penalties off the tee. That number is small and finite - you can never eliminate more than the penalty strokes. Which, in the scope of scores, do not add up to 65% of the total strokes.
Where you can save/gain strokes is being able to put shots from within 125 yds into one putt range. Every time out. Yes, getting to 125 yds may be a struggle, but wouldn't it be nice to KNOW that, once there, you are in the hole in two strokes?

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If you think you're going to do that you are dreaming. Even the pros don't do it that well, unless one putt range for you is 20 feet, which would put you in a club all by yourself. Look at Tour stats and then tell me what truly constitutes one putt range and just how far from that you are. If you look at those stats, even 10 feet is outside of typical one putt range. The highest ranked player on the PGA Tour from 100 to 125 yards only hits on average to 14.9 feet from the hole, not a realistic one putt even on tour. Do you really think that you have a chance to do better than they do?

Yet you do have the opportunity to hit more fairways off the tee, and more greens in regulation from those fairway and near fairway tee shots and give yourself more chances at two putt pars, rather than trying to get up and down for par after a poor drive or approach outside of the 125 yard range.

My point is that each player has to look at his own game and make an honest evaluation of what is truly holding him back - where most strokes are really being lost. For some the best bang will be long game, full swing work, with a secondary focus on short game. For others who already a reasonable long game, short game improvement may be what they need, although it's my experience that players with a good long game have already done a lot of short game work too.

If I had a choice I'd rather never have to worry about the short game at all.

Fourputt said:

If you think you're going to do that you are dreaming. Even the pros don't do it that well, unless one putt range for you is 20 feet, which would put you in a club all by yourself. Look at Tour stats and then tell me what truly constitutes one putt range and just how far from that you are. If you look at those stats, even 10 feet is outside of typical one putt range. The highest ranked player on the PGA Tour from 100 to 125 yards only hits on average to 14.9 feet from the hole, not a realistic one putt even on tour. Do you really think that you have a chance to do better than they do?

Yet you do have the opportunity to hit more fairways off the tee, and more greens in regulation from those fairway and near fairway tee shots and give yourself more chances at two putt pars, rather than trying to get up and down for par after a poor drive or approach outside of the 125 yard range.

My point is that each player has to look at his own game and make an honest evaluation of what is truly holding him back - where most strokes are really being lost. For some the best bang will be long game, full swing work, with a secondary focus on short game. For others who already a reasonable long game, short game improvement may be what they need, although it's my experience that players with a good long game have already done a lot of short game work too.

If I had a choice I'd rather never have to worry about the short game at all.

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I know it is unlikely. But the gain is immense IF you can put yourself in that position, vs getting rid of your 3 ob shots, or your other penalty shots. And, if you are pretty dialed in with your wedges, you can occasionally hole out from a fairway or around the green. That is not unheard of.

Short game is obviously important but I think it can sometimes be overstated. If you have a chip/pitch shot around the green, a good player may hit it to 8-10 FT, a guy with a bad short game would probably hit it to about 20-25ft. Unless you're a good putter and hole the 10 footer, you are looking at a 2 putt and same score regardless. Hell even if the bad short game player hits it to 40ft, you're still looking at the same score. Basically unless you are really really good, or really really bad, I don't think there will end up being that big of difference in your score.

caeleric said:

this study analyzed the data and found that longer shots cost golfers more than shorter shots. there are definitely rounds when i'm finding fairways and have wedge or less in hand for approach, but i'm missing greens and therefore not scoring. but my higher-score rounds seem to more often include struggles off the tee, leading to longer second shots, and then missed greens and problems scoring. this latter category of bad rounds still yields gross strokes inside 125y that exceed those outside 125y; however, being in trouble off the tee makes those strokes significantly more important with respect to par. my short game blows, and i know that improving it would definitely benefit me, but my scoring is significantly better when i'm getting off the tee and hitting my mid-irons well.

i like the initiative, and i think it's important, but i don't think it's as important as it's often made out to be. i think what's far more overlooked is how you end up at 125y, not just what you do from 125y.

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TheWoo said:

#Own125 - awesome campaign, awesome concept.

I also like it because, IMO, it's low-hanging fruit. ALL you have to do to be a better player in the scoring zone is practice more. Can lessons help? Yes. Will everything always get better with more practice? Not every time. But I know a lot of guys who can go beat balls with a swing flaw and not improve at all. But those same guys, if they'd spend half their range time on wedges and putting, would absolutely shave real strokes.

BTW, I'm included in that group. This conversation has inspired me. I'm going to the short game area for an hour tomorrow before league.

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Totally agree with your bolded statement Woo! And guess what? So does Mark Brodie, the author of the study referenced by caeleric: Here is a quote from the NY Times article about the study:

"The data provide objective answers to where strokes are being lost, but the fact is if you’ve got two hours to practice, you probably won’t start hitting the ball longer or straighter in that time period,” Broadie said. “But you could probably get better at your putting or chipping in two hours of practice."

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So to get back on topic: Yes - long game is important, BUT most golfers will be able to improve their scores the most - even all by themselves - by practicing their shots from around the green and short approach shots. For some (many?) of us, even with lessons we may never be as long or straight off the tee as we want, but we can all get better around the green. I think that's the real message that Cleveland is putting out.

JB said:

I do find one thing interesting with this thread. All of the low handicaps say "Work on your short game" and it will get you lower. Many of the high handicaps are saying "work on long game it matters more". Seems to be a trend, but if the majority of low handicap players are saying the same thing, something seems to be trending....Perhpaps they are on to something as to why they got to where they are. I say this not to discount someone's opinion or their game, just that when you step back and look at it, its very interesting to see how almost all of the low handicap players say they got there and how important #Own125 is.

Scoring is the only thing that matters. The campaign is about the shots from 125 and in.

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I can say from experience that when I started Legacy prep, I thought like the high handicaps--I thought it was super important to be good with my driver and longer clubs and that's true to some extent, but my captain and all the guys on my team said "short game, short game, short game" so once I had a swing I was confident would at least advance the ball, I spent a ton of time on the chipping and putting greens. That time I spent was the #1 thing that lowered my scores. My driver and irons aren't very much better than they were a few months ago, but I'm shooting about 15-20 strokes lower because my chips almost always land on the green in the vicinity of the hole and I generally one or two putt instead of three or four putting.

A couple points that are being lost in this discussion:

First, nobody advocating for a focus on the short game is saying not to work on the long game. You absolutely have to get better at full swings to lower your score. I worked hard this summer getting better off the tee because I was hitting a couple balls a round into bad spots. It was (and at times still is) costing me strokes.

But, many people completely ignore the short game area when practicing. What #Own125 says to me is that we need to spend some time there and get dialed in. It just has to happen if we really want to get better.

Second, this isn't only about getting to one-putt range inside 125. There is no way to count the number of times I, or my playing partners, miss a green from inside 125. It doesn't happen that often for me right now, but my friends who don't work on that part of their game? Often. I've got a friend who isn't a given from 50. He's got plenty of challenges in his game, but if he could just know that he was likely to hit the green and 2 putt from inside 100, it would mean significant improvement in his scores and his enjoyment of the game.

No reason to discuss which one, inside or outside 125, would most improve your game, as long as we can all agree it would improve it and therefore deserves some attention.

Earlier this year when I shot my PB, my short game was clicking, I was hitting wedges in close and chipping and putting well. Of course my short game is too inconsistent right now, I have been focused on my ball striking so much that I have neglected my short game and it shows. There is not a better feeling to be 125 out or closer and knowing you have a good chance at par or birdie. I hope to be moving in the next few weeks closer to a course that has a great short game practice area, I will take full advantage of it.

MTC82 said:

Short game is obviously important but I think it can sometimes be overstated. If you have a chip/pitch shot around the green, a good player may hit it to 8-10 FT, a guy with a bad short game would probably hit it to about 20-25ft. Unless you're a good putter and hole the 10 footer, you are looking at a 2 putt and same score regardless. Hell even if the bad short game player hits it to 40ft, you're still looking at the same score. Basically unless you are really really good, or really really bad, I don't think there will end up being that big of difference in your score.

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A good short game player gets up and down MUCH more often. If you hit an average of 8 GIR, that means you have 10 chances to get up and down. If you have improved your average short game from hitting chips/pitches to 10 feet instead of 20 feet, I'm confident most days you're going to make 3-5 more putts. Because you're going to roll 3 of them inside 3 feet, another couple in the 3-8 foot range, and the rest 8-20. The difference would not be enormous in average score.

Here's something for everybody to think about, especially the high handicaps.

The next round you play, keep a separate scorecard. On it, track how many wedge shots you take with a PW or less in your hand and track how many putts you take on every hole.

At the end of the round, look at each hole and see how many holes you had more than 1 wedge shot and/or more than 2 putts. Then figure out how many strokes you would have saved if you had only hit 1 wedge and/or two putts.

That's the score you can achieve if you do nothing but work on your short game.

TheWoo said:

A good short game player gets up and down MUCH more often. If you hit an average of 8 GIR, that means you have 10 chances to get up and down. If you have improved your average short game from hitting chips/pitches to 10 feet instead of 20 feet, I'm confident most days you're going to make 3-5 more putts. Because you're going to roll 3 of them inside 3 feet, another couple in the 3-8 foot range, and the rest 8-20. The difference would not be enormous in average score.

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But what you are talking about is getting up/down after missing a green. And for the most part that is what I been saying imo is really the short game. And not the 125 yard approaches. Missing the green and getting up/down is what is done from close in greenside, not from 120 yards away. Its getting up/down from 5 or 20 feet or 10yrds left of the green which is the true short game that can save the hole only after the 125 yarder went left.

heck, fwiw lets call the short game 150 and in and we can all say 75% of our shots come from 150 and in. I mean why not? are we not in scoring mode at 150 with an 8iron or 9iron ? We are only in scoring mode when the club has a "W" on it? That pw use to be a 9iron. What if they loft things even further and it eventually becomes like the old 8iron and the now Gapwedge ends up with too much gap between clubs and the Approach wedge now along with gapwedge is part of everyones bag. The add is very forgiving and almost convenient by saying "125 and in" because the percentages work so much better than they would vs talking about true shortgame percentage of really being greenside and getting up/down from there. 100 yrds out imo is not greenside, its still imo approach golf.

When we talk of yardages of even (for many) 80 yards or whatever and of course up to 125 that imo is no different than and all about hitting greens as an approach. That to me is about approach golf just the same as my 140yard 9iron or my 165 yrd 7iron. That all becomes more about the importance of hitting greens and raising GIR percentage. Its when those shots are missed that "then" imo real short game from much closer around the greens is what can further make or break our hole.

there is a ton imo to be said for every part of the game and also as mentioned in my last post we also have a lot of enjoyment and good feeling about ourselves golf wise when we are successful with all our shots from tee through the green. My short game (greenside) is nothing to brag about. It works just "ok" for many of my rounds. Sometimes it does not and I can always use great improvement but for me I also want to be as consistent a ball striker I can be off the tee and with my approaches and irons play in general. Htting more greens from all yardages in general is also what i want to own as much as possible. That's very important to me and how I feel about myself as a golfer too. As said in my last post many may feel not so good about a round yet scored well anyway and while the "score well anyway" part came from the short stuff its the mid and longer stuff that dictated why you didn't feel so good about the round even though you still scored ok. Ther is a lot of value in the rest of the game towards not only helping to save strokes but also towards the enjoyment and satisfaction and feelings about it all as you become better and better at all the things in your game. It "all" in many ways holds a lot of value.