subject: The More You Practice Your Short Game, The Less You'll Need It [print this page] Golf is often described as a game of opposites, usually to describe a technical aspect.
For example -, hit down on the ball to make it go up, or swing the club from right to left for the ball to go from left to right. And there are plenty of other examples I'm sure you'll have heard.
But how about this one pointed out to me by my golf buddy Jim, someone who plays golf in the mid to low 70's, he's a very respectable player.
We were talking about how much work he'd recently put into his chipping, putting, sand play and wedges when he shared with me a great example of one of the opposites in golf he'd noticed over the previous few months.
He said " the more I get my golf short game dialled in, you know, when I'm confident I can chip it close if I need to, then the more relaxed I feel like when I'm playing a long approach shot, I think it's because I know if I do miss the golf green I have the short game needed to recover. I feel a sense of relaxed confidence."
He then went on to say "a really strange thing I've noticed since getting into seeing how good I can get around the greens is that I'm hitting much better approach shots than ever before, in fact I'm actually missing the green less, and the funny thing about that is it means I don't need my short game as much"
So the lesson you and I can take from what Jim experienced is this:
the better your golf short game the better prepared you'll be to deal with missing the green, the more relaxed you'll feel about your shots into the green, and the outcome will be better shots and more greens hit!
and does all that affect your scoring? You bet it does.
Of course it's easy to read this and I know you understand how it makes sense - but you'll only every find out for yourself if you go out and take action, so get some short game practice drills worked out and start getting sharp around the greens. Learn how to get up and down around the practice greens with only a couple of balls. This will keep the green clear so you can watch your shot go close, or hopefully in.
Only then will you experience Jim's strange example of opposites in golf, I know you'll find it and a nice situation to be in.
