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Good Players Know The Importance Of The Short Game
By Foursome
The short game in golf is considered to be every shot within 80 or so yards from the hole. This includes all shots, from those pesky sand bunkers to the final putt shots from the green.
What is left? Chipping and pitching – which as you probably know, are known as two versions of short shots toward the green, with pitching being the shot that flies higher.
At one time or another on the golf course you have probably heard someone say something to the tune of “I missed the 4th green to the right but was able to get up and down for the par”.
So what is meant by the “up and down” comment?
The “up” part is the pitching or chipping of the ball to the hole. The “down” part is essentially holing the putt after you have made your way to the green from your chip and pitch shots. A golfer that plays a good short game is considered one who gets “up and down” for a higher percentage of his or her time on the course.Many amateur golfers have a strange attitude towards those players who are blessed with being skilled around the green. In fact, some players even look down on those that can beat them with a good series of chip and putt shots. They just hate to loose to a player that didn’t hit a smashing drive that practically hit the green. Instead, they just snuck up to the hole in a series of smaller shots.
It’s a bad attitude to have, and they are missing the point!
In golf, the whole idea is to knock the ball around the course while maintaining the lowest score possible. How you go about doing that is totally up to you. There are no rules that say you have to look good playing golf. Just remember the old saying that goes “You can make up for a lot of bad shots with one good putt”.
When it comes to the attitude of today’s golf professionals, you never hear them downplay the importance of a decent short game. In fact, these men and women know that it is the short game that is responsible for making them the big bucks.
To see proof of this all you have to do is place an amateur golfer with a zero (scratch) handicap with a professional tournament player on the tee with drivers – both shots won’t be much different from one another.
Now as the game goes on you will see a wide gap in the quality of each player. This gap grows with each approach shot, the wedge, onto the short game. In fact, the more close each player gets to the green, the more obvious the difference becomes in skill between the amateur and the professional.
On the green and during the short game is where the true skill of the course takes is face, and where a decent score turns into a better score but the professional’s good score turns into a great one. You too, should place as much emphasis on the short game during your practice and on the course.
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