Covering All Aspects of the Golf Short Game

There have been many clichés for the golf short game; for instance, you drive for show and you putt for dough, and so forth.  The fact is, of course, if you want to lower your score and play better golf, all aspects of your game are important.  But it is true that the closer you get to the hole, the more opportunity there is for most golfers to shave strokes.  For most of us, developing consistency in knocking in the five foot and shorter putt will drop shot off virtually every round we play as opposed to having an inconsistent short putting game.

The Psychological Factor to a Consistent Short Game

If you’re confident in making the short putt consistently, it means you have a bigger target for your chips and pitches, which will allow you to relax more on those shots.   If you likewise have confidence in your longer putts, you will not be under such pressure to get your short irons close to the pin.  In other words, having a confident short game translates to taking pressure on the rest of your golf game, making everything better.

Pitching Tips for the Short Game

Golf pitching and chipping methods differ significantly from the long game in the fact that the golf club ought to be taken using a more up and down arc as opposed to the sweeping action employed for longer shots. Everywhere you go you see individuals counseling golfers to take the club back “slow and low”. Even though this is excellent advice for your long game, it can do little good for shorter shots.  One final point: to get more control with your short game, take the club back a shorter distance and follow-through a greater distance than you are used to.

The Golf Short Game- The Game within the Game

Whereas the long game is about the mechanics of the golf swing, the short game is more about what goes on in the mind.  Certainly, technique plays a great part in golf short game success, but mental approach perhaps trumps what you do technique-wise.  Think of golf’s great putters throughout the years, and their technique varied significantly.  But what they all had in common was the confidence which comes with visualizing the ball into the hole, and then doing it on a consistent basis.  The same goes for chipping, sand play, and the other shots close to the green.  This aspect of the game involves the ability to relax and play the shot confidently.  Obviously we will on this site go into the mental aspects of the game so important to successful golf.

This interesting fact from Into the Rough:   The largest golfing green is that of the 695-yard, 5th hole, a par 6 at the International Golf Club in Massachusetts, with an area in excess of 28,000 square feet.