It's the short game stupid.

Or is it?

Ben Hogan said, "The driver is what puts you in play.  You control that, you control your play."

Yet on golf boards everywhere it seems the consensus is to advise others to practice short game, short game, short game.  I have a theory about this.  Let me know what you think.

I believe most high handicappers would benefit more from trying to get reasonable length off the tee and, most importantly, a ball in play.  A lost ball or OB with the driver is much more expensive than a duffed chip or a three putt.  As I struggled my way down from a 28 index into the mid-teens it seems the turning point was really getting to the point where I could depend on my tee shots. 

Assuming I don't fall apart in that regard I think the next few years will see me spending more time on my short game.  I hadn't done that for years because it seemed having a wicked short game wasn't going to help me much if I'm lying four with my approach.  Now that I'm playing for pars as often as I used to play for bogeys and doubles I think short game improvement will help a lot.

Then, and this is fantasy land, if/when I get down to single digits it seems it might be time to dial in that long game so as to put myself in optimal position for my second shot.  I think if you're in that range your short game is obviously decent.  I'm sure there's always room for improvement but birdies come from being able to play for close to the hole with the approach.  Everyone makes a long putt or chips in here and there but putting for birdie from 15' has to be the better odds. 

So... my theory is that those who suggest short game practice is the path to lower scores are perhaps in the 7-17 range and players outside that might be better off figuring out that tee shot. 

Completely full of *feces*?  Moderately stupid?  Or a flash of genius?

 

You're either onto something, or on something, I can't decide.

I tend to agree with you. My story: 3 years ago I was a 12-ish handicap and decided to get more serious. Today I'm just over 6. I broke 80 for the first time two years ago. Last year I did it 7 times.

The first 4-5 shots came from getting better off the tee (length and accuracy) and better with approach shots. The next 1-2 came from chipping/putting. Of this I firmly believe.

You nailed it when you talked about the wicked short game. Putting has always been a strength, relatively speaking, of my game. But laying 2 next to a green instead of 3 or 4 means more than being able to knock down the putts as far as scoring. Now that I'm in single digits I am still working on hitting more greens. That, in my opinion, is a key stat for amateurs. You hit greens and you'll score. A great short game saves your ass for a while but you're just not going to score consistently low if you aren't hitting greens. YMMV, but it is a key indicator in my game.

It reminds me of the story about (insert pro/instructor). A golfer came off the course grumbling about not putting well. Pro says, let's go fix that. As they leave the clubhouse the pro heads to the range as the player turns to the putting green. Player says, hey, I said I wasn't putting well. Pro, says, I know, but putting is easier if you're closer to the hole with your approach shots.

Or something like that.

 

The other aspect that is often overlooked is course management.  I continue to see high cappers trying to pull off shots most tour pros wouldn't attempt.  Once I figured out a bogey is better than a triple, my handicap came down even more.

Fuzzy, I too have rethought parts of my original post.  I shouldn't have put hard numbers on the index range where short game work might be most effective.  But I still believe that there are points during the journey from high 'capper to low 'capper where it's NOT about the short game.  I've always read the suggestions to focus on short game as the path to better play with a bit of skepticism.  It seems to be an almost universally held opinion by better players.  I wonder if they haven't forgotten what it was like to spray shots short and/or wide from the tee.  Perhaps some of them have such natural talent they were never there.

I'm just entering a point where I think short game work will be my focus but up until now I've not been in that place.  For the past five years it's been absolutely imperative that I find a repeatable swing that can get me off the tee box and halfway down the hole with some consistency.  I seem to have found that last fall and my index has dropped from 19.5 to 16.2 in about three months of active season golf. 

I have to agree with you. I know my biggest problem is fairways hit and GIR. I hit 3 fairways yesterday and shot 99, that's with 2 birdies and 2 pars. I also had 3 or 4 penalty shots off tee shots. Most of the missed fairways did not give me a good second shot. On one fairway hit, it was a poor shot that left me 200yds on a 311 yard hole.

When I hit a good tee shot I was ok, but when I had a shot at the green I was better. No I am not saying my short game is stupendous, my putting could be better, my chipping could get me closer, but I can manage with it for now. More fairways or just missed fairways would help more now I think. As it is I need a chainsaw.

My dad who is 65 could use help in the long game. Off the tee we helped him with a different driver and now we have some new woods, will have to see how those do. He knows he will not be long anymore so he is working on accuracy and keeping the ball in play.

In truth players need to work on what will give them the most benefit and work from there. Sort of like doing a paredo on their game and work on the worst part and move down.

Not all 17 handicaps are the same, but when giving out generic advice it is often assumed that they are. I know several people in that range and one guy loses strokes around the greens, the other throws them away on the greens, and the third throws them away with errant tee shots and lost balls. Each of them needs a different game plan in order to shave more strokes from their game.

I agree with JDerion in that blanket statements won't work.  But I'll also admit a bias, in that I'm a somewhat long hitter, so I've been able to get away with hitting shorter clubs rather than having to take driver off most tees.  If you put me on the black tees, my score would swell disproportionately, all due to horrible tee shots with driver or the impossibility of getting a GIR after a 4-iron off the tee.

And that makes me agree with 1puttpar on course management.  Nearly every guy I saw used driver off every non-par-3 tee.  Didn't matter if the par-4 was short and driver gave him an odd approach yardage.  Didn't matter if it was a par-5 that he could NEVER reach in two.  Driver it was.  And if you don't hit fairways with your driver, that "strategy" is going to burn you.

"Its the tee box stupid" for me.  Almost all of my real trouble comes from wayward tee shots - my short game is ok.  Then again I was once down to an 8.5 handicap and have a short game to go with it.  Its just I lost my tee game and strokes have piled up.