Making the Impossible Possible

I am well aware of the fact that for there to be a bottom, there must be a top.

However, the top of golf is Tiger Woods. He's made the bottom more bottom than a bottom ever was before.

He takes 7 weeks out of tournament golf. No doubt practicing all the time. Comes back and blows away the field in his first tournament of the year by 8 shots, then hops over to Dubai and scores a -7 in his first round.

We've all heard of his work ethic. He does everything in his power to get better. Whether it's pumping iron, running for miles or actually practicing his game. All of what he does is geared to improvement. And he still isn't at his best by his own reckoning.

Now, there are a few hundred other golfers in the top tier of the sport. All will have ample amounts of time to practice and train.

So what is it that makes Tiger Woods different from the rest? So different that he has to have a really bad day to allow anyone else into contention. Alternatively another player has to have a blinding round by their own standards to even come close to him.

Can this ability be learned?

Is anyone on the pro circuit close to understanding how he plays golf? Physically? Maybe. Between the ears? Nowhere near. Even those close to him don't understand how he does it.

In his 8 shot romp at the Buick he drove the ball all over the place at times (again) but still shot good numbers. The media always focuses on his swing and his work with Haney. What about his short game?

The short game is so incredibly over-looked by everyone in favour of the full swing.

The short game is where you get the confidence that spreads through the rest of your game. The short game is where you make birdies or save pars.

One can always play the short game well, once your own touch and shots have been practiced (even for a short while). There is no massive mystique surrounding short game techniques like there is for the full swing. It's easy to learn.

I went and spent 50 minutes chipping and pitching at my home course the other day. By the end of that one 50 minute session I felt I could go and knock 4 shots off my last score. I holed 3 chips and one 40 yard pitch and by the end I wasn't further away than 10 feet from 50 yards.

If your short game is good, it feeds your long game. If you've practiced shots where you've missed the green by any distance, then you won't be so hung up on knocking it close from 100 or 150 yards. Ironically, this will free you up to allow you to knock it close more often. And when you miss the surface, your confidence knows you've practiced getting up and down enough for it to not make a difference, which balloons your confidence even more. And so it goes on.

Interestingly enough, practicing pitching helps your long game mechanics. Instead of heaving away at ball after ball, practicing your pitching helps your ball control. It helps you feel a solid impact. It promotes good mechanics in the hitting area, the feeling for which will transfer to your long game and transform the way you hit the ball off the tee.

For those who have spent the winter months working on your long game alone, I implore you to spend atleast 1 hour per week practicing all aspects of your short game right through the rest of the season. Starting now.

Tiger knows that regardless of how he hits his driver, he can score. He has had the time to practice his short game so much that it has turned (90% of the time) his bad rounds into everyone elses average rounds.

There's the difference.

I know that not many of us on here will have the time to put in as much practice as they would like (and certainly nowhere near the world's best), but any short game practice is good practice. I defy anyone to come back from a short game practice session and say "I didn't enjoy that. It all went wrong today". But I'm sure we've all had range sessions like that.

As Mr Rotella would say; fall back in love with getting the ball in the hole.

It's absolutley evident that Tiger loves his short game. The next time you see a tournament on telly, look closely at the body language around the green. Even a lot of pro's fear chipping and putting. You can see it in their bodies and their faces. Then compare it to the man who spends most of his practice time from 50 yards in. He's looking to hole it, or leave himself the easiest putt possible.

That confidence can be learned. Not by learning how to think confidently, but by practicing the tools of your game that mean you can only think confidently about the outcome.

Thanks for reading.

__________________
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.

Good post Neil.

Picking up on Tiger its interesting to note that his "fairways hit" were 7/14, 6, 7, 7 which I feel reinforces the point that if you can hit the ball a long way then as long as you have a second shot the fairway itself is not that important - sadly "shorties" like me get the worst of all worlds when we find the second cut of rough with a long way still to go

As for the short game, last year it was my short game setting up 30-putt rounds that kept me in the game with my (increasingly frustated) playing partners.

I've spent the last couple of months working on the long game (with some relative success) only to find that on the last two rounds I've struggled with the short game and ended up losing round-making shots. Especially on critical scoring shots - e.g a little pitch over a bunker for an up & down par or bogey which I'd have looked to get last year topped into the bunker starting a vicious circle of lost confidence.

As we leave winter behind I'm certainly going to change the balance of my practice.

__________________
I firmly believe that we should try to experience all that life affords, except, perhaps, bestiality and of course Morris Dancing.

I think sometimes that more is made of it than is necessary.

If we missed a fairway at our home clubs it's anybody's guess as to what you might find.

The courses these guys play on are a different league. Even the rough is manicured to a particular length (unless we refer to last year's US Open which was ludicrous). It's gotta look good on telly. Most of the time their lies are not quite as lottery like as a patchy bit of half turf, half grass with a lump of dirt behind your ball!

I think there's more of premium on accuracy the worse the course condition is. If you know how long the rough is and it's lush all over, you learn how to play out of it and that's that. Bomb and gauge away.

Additionally, the greens they play on are (most of the time) positively vast and in tip-top condition. The greens at my home course are tiny and can suffer a bit from high usage. The largest one is roughly 25 yards long and 15 wide. And at 6850 yards from the tips, it ain't easy. Add the very patchy rough and it's a heck of a test for us amateurs. Most of the time it's windy too.....................why did I join there again??!!!

I might become a member of the local Arnold Palmer down the seafront!

__________________
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.

LOL Now ain't that the truth.

It also helps that they have people out there spotting for them lost two balls in the semi yesterday playing on my own which didn't help. Daft thing is I found them both 2nd time round the 9.

LOL! Don't ya just love it??!!

Yes an excellent and informative post Neil, there is nothing more that can be said about Mr. Woods,,,we are fortunate as lovers of golf that we are witness to this. I've gone on about the short game for years, year after year watching other golf buddies chucking strokes away round after round. Why ? simply put few of them would devote spare time at our excellent practice facility to work on this part of their game.
I worked hard on the short game, as a lot of the lies dictate I use the bump and run a great deal using a 5,6 or seven iron. Most of my partners are using gap wedges and for the most part I will be well inside them 99 times out of 100. One of my pals ( who is a decent player ) asked me to work with him on the bump and run shot, just off the green, using a 6 iron from the middle of a slightly open stance.
We pick our line, pick the spot where the ball lands and runs out to the target, a soft grip and no wrist break. He worked hard on this shot and he told me that he saved an average of four shots a round using this method.
Tiger devotes a great deal of his practice time to the short game, thats' why he is the best in the world of golf ( the 16th. at Augusta is a prime example ). I'm in my early sixties, my golf swing derived from Mr. Hogan's book and on an average day I will shoot in the high seventies. I work hard on my short game, I know the value practice can and will pay, and it certainly is a part that a lot of average golfers should devote more time to on the practice range instead of trying to bomb the driver.

yet another high quality post neil
i changed my practice regime a while back, focusing on wedges and short iron and my scores have dropped accordingly,
i actually enjoy trying different shots with the wedges

My own world looks like this:



How many here have the knowledge that Neil has presented?

**raises hand**

How many agree that what Neil has presented is largely correct?

**raises hand**

How many actually implement this and spend more time on chips, pitches and putts than full swings?

**crickets chirp**


Now, if you'll excuse me, I've just got a new wedge in that I have to build. Surely it's the answer to my short game woes!

hi
Dave Pelz's has years off research that proves that scoring good rounds comes from your short game, and that why he interduced more scoring clubs.
ie 4 wedges
he started it with Tom Kite and Tom went from a good player to the number one that year using 4 wedges and is still a wonderful short game player.
Pelz has also said that when teaching you should start with the short game and putting and only when your at a good level should you learn the full swing.
you can go to any golf range and see guys hammering away with the driver and not really trying to do anything but hit the ball past the 300 yard marker, and if the do it 3 times out a hundred balls that go home happy that they can hit the ball 300 yards.
we have a couple of old guys at my club and there deadly with the pitch an run on our links course and are so hard to beat but 200 yards is about as far as they ever hit there drives.
i agree with Neil that with a good short game you can make up for being poor at driving the ball.
cheers
bill

__________________
ping zing2 metal driver
ping zing2 metal 3 wood
ping eye2 1 iron
ping zing2 3/9 irons
ping ist 47% wedge
ping zing2 52% s/wedge
ping mb 56% wedge
ping c10 G2I broom handled putter
top flight "T" golf balls
white ping bag

Neil,

Tiger, a legend in his own lifetime, who can catch him? Well, it seems Poulter fancies his chances, I just read that he has stated he is the only one able to challenge Tiger. Hmm, I wonder

Like you I spend a fair time practicing my short game, I always have a practice session on the chipping green before a game and if not happy with my game performance will often spend more time there after the game. My course has many long but narrow greens that are heavily guarded with bunkers, it's always a good policy to try and get the ball to the apron as opposed to the middle of the greens as slight errors will get you into deep bunkers. Depending where the pins are cut you can be making some very long or short chips on very nice but fast greens. Without a good short game you can be slaughtered.

__________________
Best Regards
Brian

________________________________
Funny o'l game!

IMHO, Tiger has beaten the rest of the pack before the tourament starts, just by showing up. The other golfers are "mentally" beaten before they tee off. How this happened I believe is that Tiger (as posted above) is always trying become a better player, while the rest of the pros are, for the most part, satisfied with their own place in the pro's golfing world. Replacing Tiger as number 1 in the world is almost impossible, so lets try to just get into the top 50, or top 10. With the prize money involved, and the various endorsements available, it is too easy to make a very comfortable living while playing for second place.

Since golf is business perhaps the PGA should think about what most corporations do, and adopt some sort of plan to make a bigger majority of the pro players want to get better. I know when I was running a corporation we had what we called the 10-60-30 plan for employees. The top 10% employees based on their work ethics were management material. The next 60% were good, could be promoted, and kept the company running. The bottom 30% needed to try harder, find another job, or were replaced. The PGA could do the same thing with a top 100 money list in stead of the present 125 money list format.

I read post on another forum that if a pro made the cut and was playing on Sunday, that player was exempt for the following week's tournament. Those players who failed to make the cut, would have to play (qualify) their way into that next week's tournament. Pretty good insentive to play better if you ask me. GJS

Hmmm... Practice......

Isn't that something Doctor's and Lawyer's do...???



Ok, as I've said almost ad nauseum since I first joined this forum, I rarely, if ever, practice. Time constraints, mental attitude, tiredness just to name a few of many "excuses" I give myself for flopping on the couch when I might otherwise be doing something a little more towards improving my game.

Having read Dr Bob's "Golf is not a game of perfect" a number of times now (I know, I know, time on the couch with this book doesn't count as practice...!! ) I concur wholeheartedly with Neil's OP.

There is one shot of Tiger's in the Buick that stands out for me and that was a pitch from over the back on one of the later holes in his back 9 on Sunday where he had cruddy lie, wet grass, uphill shot, green running downhill, tight pin, all the right conditions where anyone BUT Tiger would be happy to get the ball within 30-50 feet of the pin. Nick Faldo & David Feherty seemed to be having bets on Tiger MAYBE getting it to within 20 feet and he knocks it STIFF, 4 feet and holes the sliding putt to save his par. You could just tell Feherty was stunned at the shot Tiger produced. It was truly fantastic coverage of a magnificaent golf shot.

(Love Feherty & Faldo's coverage, but that's another thread)

In order to play that shot, the levels of confidence, given the situation, the condiditons and anything else you'd care to throw in, the player must have would have to be very high to say the least....

How you might gain that level of confidence without practicing, well, I'll personally never know.

I for one, cringe every time I get my ball inside 100m of the green, because I know that is my golfing achillies heel.

That too is a whole other thread.

Great post Neil.

(Wow, did I take all that time just to say that... )

Cheers

__________________
Look at the Target, Look at the Ball, Swing... Dr Bob Rotella...

Interesting statistic quoted on Sky's Golf Night after the Dubai.

In World Ranking points the gap between Tiger and Phil (#1 and #2) is larger than between Phil and # 1000 - and even having just checked the figures I can't remember who that is.

Kind of puts his dominance into perspective.

The interviewer quoted this to the man himself who replied "Oh, I thought Poulter was number two" - the sartorially challenged one ain't living that quote down too easily.