Do it like this!: Dave Pelz - short game guru.
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Another US PGA Championship is over and almost predictably it's a 13th major for Tiger Woods, who upped his game to yet another level and found a strategy to outgun his nearest rivals, who in the end turned out to be journeyman Woody Austin and South African Ernie Els.
But what can we learn from watching these top pro events and introduce into our own game? Top short game coach Dave Pelz, a regular feature on the practice grounds at major events, has some sound advice.
Phil Mickelson has always been blessed with a short game to die for. But he wasn't making the most of his talents until he met Dave Pelz
three years ago.
The short game instructor has now helped the world's best left-hander to win three majors and has transformed his practice sessions with analyses
and pressure routines.
But Pelz's obsessive statistic gathering can also help amateur golfers to knock strokes off their handicap, too, he says.
He has a 'Shot Quality Chart' that identifies the importance of shots on a scale of 0 to 10.
“When you hit a poor drive,” Pelz said, “you can
recover with a good iron or wedge shot or hole a putt. The importance of your drive is a '3' relative to your ability to score. But the
consequence of a poor short game shot is more critical because there are fewer chances to recover.
So chipping and pitching rates at a '7'.”
Pelz has calculated that when scrambling from 10-30 yards from the hole, from a fairway lie, Tour pros get up and down 58% of the time while single handicappers have a 30% success rate and mid to high handicappers come in at just 10%.
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