Dave Pelz Interview: Putting is not the most important part of golf

The short game is the one area you can match the pros, says Pelz

01 Feb 2017

Pelz is a Srixon/Cleveland staffer

GolfMagic caught up with legendary golf coach and short game master Dave Pelz at the 2017 PGA Show in Orlando.

Since 2014, Pelz has been a Srixon/Cleveland staffer.

"If you hit great putts from 40-50 feet, they won’t go in – you can’t read the green well enough. You hit a perfect wedge, you save a stroke.

That’s why I got into wedges. Putting is not the most important part of the game – it’s your wedge game. Putting is the second most important because you do it half the time, and the third most important is driving. The least important is what everyone practices the most – iron shots!

You'll never drive it like DJ - but you could own a wedge game like him, says Pelz

"If you hit a great drive down the centre of the fairway and I hit a drive down the left of the fairway, you don’t have an advantage. Why? Because if I hit a great wedge, and you hit an OK wedge, I beat you by a shot.

Say I'm hitting monumental drives, I still need to hit a good wedge shot to pick up a shot. If I'm hitting bad drives, with a good wedge game I can save par. If you’re going to hit good shots, do it with your wedge!

I think my biggest impact on the game is getting people to concentrate on the short game. Wedge play and putting is the most important part of the game, and the best thing is that everyone can do it. You could practice for the rest of your life and you won’t hit it over 320 yards – you’ll never hit it like Dustin Johnson.

Pelz coaches on of the best wedge players in the history of golf - Phil Mickelson

If you let me fix you up with Cleveland wedges and let me give you a lesson for one day a month for six months, in one year you could be a better wedge player than DJ.

That’s what made him a great player - working on his wedge game. Phil Mickelson loves to play with DJ, and Dustin is always asking Phil questions about wedges. He went away and worked on it, and now he’s one of the best players in the world when his wedge game is good.

If you let Phil hit DJ’s wedges, he’d be unbeatable. No one would ever get close to him.

It’s the one area where amateurs can match the pros."

Head to Pelz corner for short game tips.