A golfer should take pride in his short game; it’s the difference between 70, 80, and higher.
Anybody who has played any golf at all has undoubtedly heard the expression, “you drive for show and putt for dough.”
Though that does leave a few things out, it’s true enough. If there is any one shot that is the most important, it is the final putt on every hole. After all, it is only after you hole it that you can stop counting. With that in mind, it is important to understand every shot, from tee to green, requires increasingly greater precision as one gets nearer the hole.
Off the tee:
Let’s start with the tee shot. Is it important? Sure it is.
A thundering tee shot can help you maintain that cutting edge for the rest of the hole. It can also send an arrow right through the heart of your opponent’s morale.
Even still, you can hit your tee ball straight into the rough and still birdie any hole on the course. You can hit your tee shot into the trees or into a lateral hazard or take an unplayable lie and still par any hole out there. As long as you don’t hit it directly out of bounds or so deep into jail that you can’t find it, you can still record a respectable score without any real heroics. So realistically, if you just hit your tee shot somewhere north and south, you haven’t damaged too much your chances of making par.
The approach shot:
Next comes the approach shot. Let’s pretend you are hitting your approach shot from the fairway on a par-4 hole. This shot requires a little more precision. If you hit into a hazard or behind a tree now, making par will be a real trick. In fact, scoring a par after you hit your approach shot into a water hazard will require you holing it from off the green. Does that mean you have to knock your approach shot stiff? No. Anywhere on the green or on the short grass near it will do. From there, you’ll have two putts or a chip and a putt to record your par. It doesn’t take a magician to convert a par from the short grass within a few yards of the hole.
Scoring:
This brings us to chipping and putting. The need to be exacting with these shots cannot be overstated. The best professional golfers in the world only hit about 75 percent of the greens in regulation. This figure starts rapidly sliding toward 65 percent after about the top 20 or so.
Nonetheless, they are all shooting under par. This means that the best in the world are getting it done with their short shots and not their drivers.
The truth behind this was best exemplified last year when a tour player we all know was paired with an 18-handicapper for an experimental round. Both players teed off on every hole and then played the other player’s tee shots into the hole. The tour player, despite having to play some of his approaches from deep in the rhubarb, managed to get around the course in 73 swings. The 18-handicapper, who enjoyed hitting his approach from the center of almost every fairway, scored an 87, only a little better than his average score.
The 19th hole:
I have had many people tell me about great days they’ve had with the driver, only to get around the course in the same amount of strokes as usual. On the other hand, every time someone reports a great day chipping and putting, there is also a great score to go with it. This is the norm among golfers at every level.
Even if you do no more than kick it off the tee box, you can still make up for it on that same hole by making a long putt when you get to the green. Conversely, if you miss a putt that you should have made, you blew it. The opportunity is lost and there is nothing you can do to get it back.
So what’s the formula for scoring well on the golf course? It’s very simple: safe shots off the tee box and great shots around the hole.
So remember: Even though finding 10 more yards off the tee may seem like the key to the Pearly Gates, taking a little more pride in your short game will do more to assist you in that Saturday morning skins game.