Short Game Golf Courses- Turn Short Game Practice Into A Game
According to Dave Pelz, (golf’s mad scientist) the average miss for a tour pro’s full swing is seven percent. This means that, when a pro misses a 150 yard shot to the green, his ball lands 30 feet from the hole. Not too bad, just a long putt or short chip. Amateurs are another story. Their full-swing misses can average north of 15 percent. A bad shot from 150 yards ends up 60-70 feet away from the hole. His ball is in the rough, in a bunker, or on a hard-packed, tight lie ― pick your poison. These types of misses can wreck your card in a hurry. Why bring up these sad statistics? So we can see the need to work on our short game.
Short-Game Golf Courses is an innovative video-based solution to practicing your pitching, chipping, bunker play, and putting. It’s designed to increase engagement and enjoyment by turning practice into a game. In the video below, Todd Kolb shows us how he uses Short-Game Golf Courses to simulate real-world scoring situations. By following the ordered shots on the pylons, your ball is played from off the putting surface into the hole. The scoring scenario promotes concentration, fun, and the need to shift from wedge to putter in the same sequence. Practicing this way mirrors actual golf, and avoids the stagnant and aimless routine of hitting ball after ball from the same location. When you’re playing a round of golf you never hit the same shot over and over. Well, maybe you do, if you can’t get over that long water hazard. That is another lesson.
In the video, Todd explains the Short-Game Golf Courses practice system and how to incorporate it into your improvement routine. He also presents some great ideas about building fun activities around the system for kids, outings, etc. Since most of us need to lean on our short game in any given round, we should take it seriously, but there’s no reason we can’t have fun while doing so.
Rick Cole
Golf Blog & Instructional Golf Videos