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

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

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.

This is a must read for every player interested in lower scores. I can't wait until the rest of this 4 book series are in print.