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Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible: Master the Finesse Swing and Lower Your Score (Dave Pelz Scoring Game)
 
 
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Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible: Master the Finesse Swing and Lower Your Score (Dave Pelz Scoring Game) [Hardcover]

Dave Pelz (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (159 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 11, 1999 Dave Pelz Scoring Game
Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible is the first book in a four-book series, The Dave Pelz Scoring Game Series.  The next volume in the series will be Dave Pelz's Putting Bible.

"He who rules the short game collects the gold."
--Dave Pelz's Golden Rule of Golf

Fed up with trying to imitate the pros, buying the latest expensive equipment, and seeing your handicap stay the same? The first book by bestselling author and internationally revered golf instructor Dave Pelz since Putt Like the Pros, his bestselling classic, Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible can show you the way to lower scores by improving your short game. The result of decades of scientific research studying thousands of golfers, Dave's philosophy is as simple as it is revolutionary and groundbreaking: Instead of practicing the wrong things the right way, or the right things the wrong way, Pelz shows you how to find your own personal weaknesses and how to improve them to efficiently lower your scores. Packed with all the knowledge, charts, and photos needed to learn from the master, Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible is the essential book for every golfer who's looking to improve his or her game.

Dave's approach to golf is easy to understand: 80 percent of the strokes golfers lose to par are determined by their play within 100 yards of the green--the crucial scoring game. The most important and yet the least focused-on aspect of golf, your short game, can indeed make or break your entire game. And nobody teaches the short game like Dave Pelz. His renowned golf schools and clinics focus exclusively on putting and the short game, attracting top players like Tom Kite, Colin Montgomerie, two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, reigning PGA champion Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington, Payne Stewart, Peter Jacobsen, and many LPGA players including Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann. The pros know, as you are about to learn, that while others teach golfers how to swing, Dave Pelz teaches golfers how to score . . .  and win.

A former physicist for NASA, Dave brings a scientific rigor to his research and instruction that has made him the top short-game expert in the world. Dave has observed and then taught thousands of golfers to improve their ability to score better. The years he has spent studying the short game, including chipping, lobs, pitches, distance wedges, and bunker play, have resulted in an unequaled expertise and a fascinating body of knowledge on golf, with the statistics and data to back it up. In this new book, Dave for the first time shares the understanding and techniques he has taught the pros, including a wide array of innovative tests and exercises for mastering those deceptive and high-pressure shots of the short game.

Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible is an essential book for golfers of all levels. Covering everything golfers need to know to improve their short game, Dave's system can--and will--help you to consistently shoot lower scores.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As the reigning rabbi on the mysteries of golf from 100 yards in, Pelz has earned the right to anoint his expansive instruction on the short game a "Bible." A scientist by training, he's analyzed the macros and dissected the micros to come up with a gospel for pros (Lee Janzen, Vijay Singh, and Anika Sorenstam, to name a few disciples) and weekend hackers alike. Pelz fills his scripture with photos, illustrations, charts, and plenty of sage advice on pitching, chipping, sandplay, putting, equipment, execution, mechanics, technique, practice, attitude, lots of questions, and plenty of answers. Much of the Short Game Bible is pretty sophisticated stuff aimed toward better players--or, at least, players who take their golf seriously. But its basics are appropriate to any skill level of the game: Accurately assess your own weaknesses, and then go about improving them systematically with the author's carefully researched and tested plan. It seems so obvious, but the truth is, most golfers either beat balls on the range in search of distance or slave over eight-foot putts on the practice green; they fail to pay enough attention to the shots in between. Pelz does the math for you here; his figures add up, so that yours can go down--the golfing equivalent of forgiving sins and absolving trespasses. --Jeff Silverman

From Library Journal

Ah, the short game, many a golfer's worst nightmare. It is certainly one of the most difficult aspects of golf, prompting author Pelz to state simply, "He who rules the short game collects the gold." Pelz, a former NASA physicist and the founder of the Pelz Golf Institute, has devoted the last two decades to the physics of golf. He is a consultant to the Professional Golfers Association and contributes regularly to golf periodicals. Pelz and coauthor Frank, editor of Golf Magazine, have collaborated on a useful publication that will assist players of all ages and abilities. According to Pelz, 80 percent of a golfer's handicap is determined by what happens within 100 yards of the green. Complete with numerous photos, drawings, and graphs, plus a list of resources that includes web sites and FAX and phone numbers, this is recommended for all public libraries.ALarry R. Little, Penticton P.L., BC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Broadway Books; 1 edition (May 11, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0767903447
  • ISBN-13: 978-0767903448
  • Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (159 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
142 of 144 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I took the Dave Pelz 3 day short-game course a few years ago, and got great benefit from it. As helpful as that was, I found this book to be a big additional assist. It explained the Pelz principles better than the school did, and it also looks like he has learned quite a few things since I took the school. There's a lot to learn about the short game, and it is helpful to have this as a reference. If you don't know if you want to get his videos or attend one of his courses, this is also a good introduction.

I found out about Dave Pelz by accident. I was playing golf one day at La Quinta with a woman who hit one amazing pitch shot after another close to the pin. The rest of her game was below average, so I asked her where she had picked up the pitching game. She told me that she had just finished Dave Pelz's short game school at PGA West and said it had helped her a lot. Remembering that caused me to take the course.

Dave Pelz is the ultimate golf engineer. He measures everything, and that has led to new learning. For example, he has found that 60-65% of all shots occur within 100 yards of the hole. More importantly, "about 80% of the shots golfers lose topar occur within 100 yards." In further measurements, he noticed that the largest errors in missing the target occur with wedges (for amateurs and pros). These misses are usually in distance, rather than left and right variance.

From these observations, Pelz developed a four wedge system with 3 lengths of backswing that will give you much more distance precision with wedges within 100 yards. The reason this important relates to putting. Almost all 2 foot putts are made, but pros only make half of the 10 foot putts (amateurs do worse). Beyond 10 feet, the odds drop way off. This means that if you can get your wedge shot to within 10 feet you have a good chance of finishing the hole in one less stroke.

I still haven't converted to four wedges, but reading the book convinced me that I should. I didn't realize how much scoring I was missing with only 3. I can get the ball to 15 feet most of the time, and then 2 putt. Maybe I'll get that extra wedge today and get a lot closer.

There's a lot of other good information on sand shots, chipping, trouble shots of all kinds (including how to hit the ball out from under water and stay reasonably dry).

You'll need more than this book to really improve though. If you like the book, you should begin doing the drills in the back. I would suggest you also try the videos. If that is all helping, consider the golf school. You will get a lot of individualized diagnosis of your weaknesses and instruction on how to improve. I still refer to the notes I got, and find them helpful. One strength of the book is that it has a measurement exercise in it that you can use to diagnose the weaknesses in your short game, so that you can concentrate on those parts of the book that will help you the most with your practice.

If you are like most golfers, you love to belt the ball. That's great, but I'm sure you've heard the old saying "Drive for show, and putt for dough." This book will add the perspective of the short game as essential to that dough as well. You'll have to give up two long clubs (he makes recommendations) to put those two extra wedges in your bag.

Use this book to overcome your stalled thinking about how to improve your golf game. Despite better equipment and balls and a lot of instruction, the score of the average golfer hasn't improved in the last 30 years. With the Pelz approach that can change.

As much as I liked this book, I liked his new book, Dave Pelz's Putting Bible, even more. I strongly recommend that you read that one as well. You can implement it without attending the Pelz course. These two books are the first two in a planned series of four. I'm looking forward to the rest of them.

Donald Mitchel

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62 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a graduate engineer and another NASA scientist, I can vouch for the science that lies behind Pelz's book, but I'm sure most potential readers know that Pelz is the real thing in that respect. The book itself impressed me in three ways:

1. It isn't written for scientists, just golfers. He provides all the information you need to make your own game better, but avoids the physics that underlie the advice. Pelz saves that level of science for the journals.

2. This is a textbook, not a teaser. After telling you what you should try to achieve with each type of shot, he goes into the greater detail you start wanting as soon as you actually start to practice a technique. Things like how much difference in roll distance you should expect between a lob wedge, a pitching wedge, and a nine iron for the same pitch distance.

Most "tips" sound good, but leave you wondering why they aren't quite working when you get to the course. Pelz starts you out with the basics of each technique and then follows through with the details you need to really use it on a course.

3. He avoids the "genius" techniques that some folks love to describe. His techniques work for people who are not born artists with a club, and even those of us who lack a spare thirty hours a week to practice the short game. (The amazing number of pros who go to his schools testifies to the value of his advice when you actually do have time to practice<g>.)

This is scoring golf for the rest of us. I'm not Seve, nor are most people. Pelz describes techniques that are more likely to work than not on any given swing because the physics of the swing are in favor of success.

An Excellent book. It should be in the library of any golfer who ever accepts a two-dollar Nassau.

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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Good:

Peltz introduces a smart and easy system of getting to know 3 distinct (or 6 if you include swings where you are gripping down on the shaft) shooting distances for each wedge in you bag. The system is very useful and gives reproducible results on the course, so the book definitely does gives you an edge training wise. I also liked how he by "scientific" analysis found out how to score better and why the short game is so important (and under rated) - very convincing. I found myself measuring off different wedge shots, putting labels with numbers on the shafts of my wedges (and having fun at it) immediately after reading the book.

The bad:

The book itself is however a terrible read. Peltz stated that he had read a book on learning theory at some stage, but I really wished that he had read a book about communication theory before writing this book. He repeats himself over and over and over and... it gets to a point where it is just not any kind of fun. Even some of the illustrations are repeated at least three times in the book. You constantly go either 'I got it I got it I got it - snap out of it!' or you go 'come on Peltz, get to the f..... point'. He also includes long and detailed annecdotes about how he and his tour friends discovered the facts that he now teaches in the book. This might be great if you are into the semi historical perspectives sitting in front of the fireplace with hot chocolate, but if you buy this book as a reference for improving your short game it just distracts you from the essence.

Another thing annoying me is how he sneaks in this feeling of "Trademark-of-Dave-Peltz-golf-school" all the time. F.ex. your swing plane and grip now becomes the "finesse swing plane" and the "finesse grip" for your "finesse swing" as if he invented the concepts of an upright swingplane and a loose grip for the short game.

The teaching of the mechanics of the short game swing was not very clear (at least for me they weren't). I had hoped for something along the lines of "Ben Hogan's five lessons" where you can feel the words in your body right there from the sofa. The pictures are inconsistent with what is being said. F.ex. he writes 'arms, hips and shoulders move back synchronized - no coiling takes place between shoulders and hip in the finesse swing' and the picture shows a 45 degrees hip turn with a 90 degrees shoulder turn :(

The description of the chip shot is also very weak. I now know where to place the ball, but what to do with the arms relative to hips and shoulders is still not clear.

To conclude:

The book will make you focus more on your short game and most likely result in lower scores if you practice was is being said, but the lessons does not justify a whopping 400 pages - not at all! Also the reading experience is very cumbersome.

The 3 stars reflects the fact that you do get some very useful knowledge from reading the book but also that after going through 400 pages of agonizing repetitions there are still some very fundamental issues about the mechanics that are not completely clear.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good book if you can get through the boring stuff
It's clear that Dave Pelz is an intelligent guy and has spent half his life diligently studying the short game. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Clayton McLaughlin
Unbelievable condition!
Book arrived in pristine condition. Hard to identify any usage and I am EXTREMELY pleased with this purchase! Seller delivered better than advertised!!! Read more
Published 3 months ago by Hokie148
I need a book to improve my short game in golf. Help!
When I asked a young (28) pro friend what book to buy to improve my horrible "short game" in golf, he responded "Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Joy Patterson
amazon golf book
Fantastic book and it arrived in perfect condition. Once again Amazon produced the goods . As reliable as ever. Hopefully this purchase will lower my golf handicap !!!
Published 7 months ago by DOBH
Dave Pelz'sShort Game Bible
It has taken me three weeks to pay for this book by taking my opponents money over the weekend. I Knew how important the short game is but failed to embrace the just how important. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Rob Milne
Pelz short game
I really enjoyed the book and after the heat breaks I think it will help my game. This Texas heat has made my game a survival test and not much of a scoring game. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Phil
Confidence Soars
Wow! I purchased this book (and his others) a little over a month ago and I have already seen improvement in my game (mainly from this book). Read more
Published 10 months ago by tony v winfrey
Improved my entire game
Over a period of a few weeks I went to the driving range to try out the instruction as I read through the book. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Bob Noble
Excellent teacher
What a masterful book. In trying Dave's techniques my game has gotten better. I now have a very repeatible chip and pitch swing. His concept of a finesse swing is great. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Rico
A Helpful, Systems-Based Guide
This book was responsible for me deciding to re-arrange my club set. I now carry 4 wedges: a set pitching wedge, a gap wedge, a sand wedge and a lob wedge. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Robert Abell
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
In golf, how to play inside of 100 yards is the prime determinant of how you score. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
finesse swing, finesse grip, preshot ritual, preview swing, chipping swing, perfect ball position, finesse turn, repeatable distances, composite players, yardage gaps, wedge swings, synchronized turn, distance wedges, proper ball position, short game bible, cut lob, ball above feet, chipping motion, hold your finish, more descending blow, lofted wedge, shot behavior, stance center, finesse game, wedge game
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tom Kite, Golden Eight, Tom Jenkins, Scoring Game Schools, Jim Simons, Shanker's Delight, Dave Pelz, Gay Brewer, Payne Stewart, Lee Janzen, Jack Nicklaus, Paul Azinger, Seve Ballesteros, Texas Turn-Down, Ben Hogan, Golden Rule, Lee Trevino, Phil Mickelson, Short Game Bible, Tom Weiskopf, Tour Avg, Ben Crenshaw, Greg Norman, Steve Elkington, Tom Watson
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