10 Excellent Short game tips from teaching legend Dave pelz

Golf guidance is always developing, but the best advice lies in the test of time. In the new Golf.com series, eternal tips, we are emphasizing some of the biggest tips that teachers and players have shared on the Golf Magazine pages. Today we have 10 tips with short games by legendary Dave Pepel instructor from our publication in August 2006. For unlimited access to the Digital Golf Magazine Archive, join Indoor tODAY; You will enjoy $ 140 value for only $ 39.99/year.

Golf world lost a Great Sunday lesson when Coach known with short games Dave pelz died at 85.

Pelz was a timer in the instruction space, with his Bible of the short game becoming a better seller in the late 90s and his theories and studies that empower some Golf Cover stories. He worked with many good things throughout his career, with 11 of his students who won great titles. (For more in his career. Look at This touching memory From the editor -in -chief of golf leader David Denunzio.)

Phil Mickelson, One of the most successful pellet students posted a heartfelt message about this late coach Wednesday.

Pelz was regular Golf Contributor, and in August 2006, we published a piece that includes some of his best short game tips. Below, you will find 10 of them you can apply to your game. For the full list, check out the August 2006 number in Golf Digital Archive.

Best Tips of Pelz Dave Short Daves

If you are familiar with my philosophies, you know how seriously I get the game game and how important it is for your overall result. My research on the placement and wedge game is now extending to its fourth decade, so this is the area where I can help you more.

Of course, there is not enough space here to cover everything I have discovered in more than 30 years – we will save it for future issues of Golf Magazine. However, what you can learn now are the necessary elements of creating touching as a tour of 100 yards and in. It is the same information that I give students in my score school schools, and that can also help you.

It is your bad shots and weaknesses – not your strengths – that mainly determine your results. Take what I know, do your own and return this to your best season ever.

1. Leave it to be your guide

Golfists spend a lot of time practicing the stroke path because it seems to make sense – move your tight in the direction you want to roll. This is wrong, however. Research data show that where the face of your putter’s face is intended determines where the ball travels. Study both factors of a hard hit stroke and you will find that the face angle determines 83 percent of the start line while the direction of the Putter road sets 17 percent. In other words, a square facial angle is five times more important to start shocks on the line than the Plori path.

2. Try a “chip powder” in long delays

The longer the drinking, the more likely you leave it short, because your stroke (and everyone else) of course evolves to favor accuracy over power. You can overcome this tendency by adding a shredded movement to your blow – think of it as “pieces with your putter”. In super long strokes, stand up for a better perspective in the distance, and then place with the same body movement you use to chip with a 5-hook. In a 75 to 110 -foot strike, every golf player I have tested, including tour professionals, remains closer to the hole in the “Chip Putt” method.

3. The perfect speed for each stroke

Speed ​​affects line, and good speed is essential to success.

Then what do you do? You need to find a way to flip the 17 -inch puts in front of the hole (when they are lost). Research proves that Putts have a greater chance of finding the cup (regardless of the length of the stack) when the ball rotates at this speed.

My advice is to add a “speed rating” to your lost shock analysis. For any missing stroke, determine whether the ball rolls short or long of your favorite 17-inch distance. Over time, using this analysis will help you adjust your touch for good speed control.

4. How to eliminate 3-tuna

The chances of looking for a stroke longer than 35 meters are not high, but the triple chance from this distance is good. Here’s how to avoid those three-rounds.

At all the shocks longer than 35 meters, imagine that the hole is a 6 -foot circle and try to get your ball inside its perimeter. This makes Putt look much easier, and you will actually end up asking once once in a while.

You can also use this circle rule in stroke from less than 35 meters, but make sure you get the ball beyond the cup. I call this region “safe zone”. When you are rolling the ball in the safe area, you are rolling it excellently.

5. The control wedge distance with the length of the back

After extensive testing and research, I found that the best way to control the distance of your wedge shooting is with your back length. If you use the same pace and a full tracking, then the shorter your back, the shorter your shooting will fly.

This is my mantra: shorter backswings for shorter shots and longer returns for longer shots. Imagine your left arm like the clock hand in an hour, with position 12:00 on your head. If you use the same pace and follow -up, the distances of your wedge goal will grow as you extend your back from 7:30 to 9:00 and 10:30.

This distance control system guards against the largest short game killers: slowing down. It also creates three recurrent distances for each wedge you hold.

6. Should you keep 4 (or more) wedge?

Absolutely! More than 50 PGA Tour players hold four wedges, and you miss more greens than they do. Different wedges with different lofts and angles of swelling create more diverse shots around the greens. Make short and long oscillations and accelerate through the influence to eliminate the weakness of 40-borms from your game.

7. Avoid hand hanging

Using your ankle muscle and hanging ankle while hitting a chip hook is like looking for trouble. Both the shooting of fat and skull are the typical results. By shaking your hands, arms and club together as a unit, you can keep the club not to overcome your hands and achieve durability in your cutting performance.

8 Learn the cut goal

When you need a high, soft stroke in a narrow pin position, only a cutting shot will finish the work. Target about five steps to the left of your target, then open the face of your wedge in order to show the lead advantage just to the right of the target. Keep your ball position focused on your attitude and swing much more than you would normally do from this distance. If you accelerate until a complete conclusion, you will see a beautiful land of the Cuhob and you will stop near the flag.

9. How to get rid of a buried lie

When your ball is completely buried in the sand, using a standard wedge oscillation will not finish the work. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have the opportunity. In fact, there are at least three reliable ways to get your ball out of this lie. Each varies in the configuration and action of the hands through influence, but they all share the usual need to crash into the sand with abundant force.

1. Karin and Pop: With a square club, grab your wrist to the maximum and beat the ball. The ball will come out of the sandy sand.
2. The heel at the beginning: Open the club to the address, but force it closed as it passes through the sand. Supply a lot of energy and cut a medium roll.
3. TOE at the beginning: Show the club’s toe in the ball and hold your syllable light. The sand resistance will open the face and remove the ball soft with a little bit.

10. Divot in the sand

To integrate the feeling of a good sand shaking, draw two rows in the sand about 5 inches away. Place with your front leg instep on the front line (proper ball position) and practice making normal wedge oscillations until you can constantly enter the sand on the back line (in the middle of your stay). This is one of my most effective bunker exercises. Don’t worry about hitting current shooting until you create a steady divot in the sand (not too deep!) Without ball.