May
04
2007

Book Review: Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible

Posted by Double Eagle in Book Reviews

shortgamebible.GIFWithout question, this is one of the books that changed my golfing life. Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible brings science to the game of golf in a way that is easy to understand and practice. It helps take guesswork out of the short game by providing an understanding of the finesse swing and the statistical realities of the game of golf from 100 yards and in.

Pelz left a career in NASA to pursue his love of golf. His scientific background and love for the game come together perfectly to bring order to the short game, where before there was chaos.

Chapter Listing

  1. Score Counts in Golf
  2. Understanding the Game and Its Realities
  3. The Five Games of Golf
  4. Mechanics of the Short Game
  5. How to Score
  6. Distance Wedges
  7. The Pitch Shot
  8. Chipping and the Bump-and-Run
  9. The Sand Shot
  10. Short-Game Equipment
  11. Everyone Has a Short-Game Handicap
  12. Secrets of the Short Game
  13. The Future

Highlights

As would any book that covers the short game, this book covers the swing technique for every shot you’re going to face within 100 yards of the pin. He gives extensive coverage to the finesse swing, pitching, chipping, sand play, and several other short game shots. Techniques are clearly defined and described in a way that’s easy to understand. But to me, the scientific and statistical concepts are what makes this book worth it’s weight in gold.

Percent Error Index

Pelz introduces us to the PEI as a way to statistically measure the performance of a golf shot. For instance, if a player has 100 yards to the pin, and hits a pitching wedge to 7 yards, it can be said that the PEI for that shot is 7% or 7 yds. / 100 yds. Using this, it’s easy to evaluate any shot, since a PEI of 0% means the ball went in the hole. Any other result is a miss and the PEI is used to judge how bad the error was.

The Golden Eight Feet

Through many, many hours of research and observation, Pelz discovered that regardless of skill level, the chances of making a putt rises drastically when the distance of that putt is within eight feet. As the distance becomes shorter, the chance of sinking the putt nears 100%. This led him to the conclusion that putting technique is less important than where you putt from to begin with. This is why the PEI and short game precision are so important for shooting better scores. All the techniques introduced in the book are geared toward reducing PEI for all short game situations. If you’re taking fewer putts, you’re obviously shooting lower scores.

The 3×4 System

While I consider all the information contained in the book to be fascinating, I find the 3×4 system to be most important. The idea is that you imagine your left arm (for a right hander) to be a hand on a clock with the left shoulder being the center of the dial. The back swing length can then be measured as a time on the imaginary dial. A short swing might register as 7:30, a half swing would be 9:00 (with the left arm parallel to the ground) and the longest back swing would be 10:30. This gives three back swing lengths that are easily repeatable. He then recommends carrying 4 different wedges: a pitching wedge, sand wedge, lob wedge, and an extra lofted wedge. Combined together, you get three repeatable back swing lengths times four different lofted wedges for a total of 12 repeatable short game distances. Practicing each of these wedge/swing length combinations until it is easily repeatable removes a lot of short game guess work and gives the best chance to get into the Golden Eight Feet.

Conclusions

If you’ve read this far, then you already know that this book gets two thumbs up. It’s very easy to follow with plenty of photos and diagrams. While it does take a mathematical and scientific view of the short game, by no means is it dry or boring. Pelz has a knack for turning a technical analysis into an interesting read. This book changed the way I play the short game. When I first started practicing the techniques outlined in the book, it didn’t take long before I began to see my PEI drop drastically.

The Good

  • Easy to follow
  • Lots of technical information
  • Gives comprehensive techniques for every shot you’ll encounter within 100 yards
  • His techniques are proven on many tour players

The Bad

  • The only downside to this book that I can think of is that some people might find all the technical analysis to be a turn-off. If you prefer to cut to the chase and just learn the techniques, you might get bored with all the explanations. To me, this is a plus because I want to know why AND how. I recognize, however, that some people won’t like that.

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There are currently 9 responses to “Book Review: Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible”

  1. 1

    HappyRock said:

    How do you find room for 4 wedges in an your bag? I don’t quite follow the ‘In The Bag’ breakdown.
    - The Happy Rock

    Posted on May 4th, 2007 at 10:29 am

  2. 2

    Double Eagle said:

    Right now, I have three wedges but am intending on adding a fourth. For me, I can probably safely drop my 4 iron. I hardly ever use it now. On one hand, I’ll lose a club that gives me 210+ yards. But at that range, even if my PEI is low, it still puts me relatively far from the pin, if I even hit the green. On the other hand, adding that fourth wedge will give me that extra precision at short yardages getting me in the Golden Eight Feet more often. For those occasional shots around 210-215 yards, I’m better off just taking a little off a three iron. The benefits definitely outweigh the down side, by far.

    Posted on May 4th, 2007 at 11:23 am

  3. 3

    Green Goddess said:

    Hi Mike
    good to read your blog and thanks for adding me to your blogroll. Like your book choice.
    AliB, Green Goddess

    Posted on October 3rd, 2007 at 5:01 pm

  4. 4

    Double Eagle said:

    Thanks, Green Goddess!

    I like to check into Rather Be Golfing regularly.

    Posted on October 3rd, 2007 at 5:46 pm

  5. 5

    A Look Back At 2007 » Life in the Rough said:

    [...] Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible [...]

    Posted on December 30th, 2007 at 4:51 pm

  6. 6

    Allotting Golf Practice Time said:

    [...] Putting and Short Game Bibles at length before, so you may be familiar with the two key concepts: the Golden Eight Feet, and PEI. The idea behind the Golden Eight Feet is that as players are left with putts of more than 6-8 [...]

    Posted on April 4th, 2008 at 10:47 pm

  7. 7

    Total Golf Game Improvement Week: Day Four said:

    [...] Sand Shot (Life in the Rough) Momentus Swing Trainers (TGW.com) Weighted Clubs (Golf-Trainer.com) Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible Review (Life in the [...]

    Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 12:05 am

  8. 8

    Bill White said:

    I have been playing for about a year now, scoring a 68 on my first 9-hole round and staying in the low to mid 60′s since then. After replacing my 3 and 4 irons with lob and x-lob wedges just three weeks ago and applying the 3×4 system in Dave Pel’z Short Game Bible, I now consistantly score in the mid to upper 40′s for a 9-hole round. My bag consists of Driver,3 and 5 woods,5,6,7,8,9 irons, Pitching, Sand, 64 and 68 degree wedges, chipper (lofted putter for fringe), and putter to complete my 14 club make-up. At the same time, I started using GolfLogix GPS on my smart phone so now I know exactly how far I need to go and exactly which club and swing will get me there. If these things can knock 20 strokes off my game, I can only imagine even better results for someone that has played much longer. I’m thrilled.

    Posted on June 22nd, 2010 at 12:04 pm

  9. 9

    Double Eagle said:

    Wow, that’s a huge turnaround, Bill. Glad to see you’re having so much success.

    Incidentally, how are you doing with the 68-degree wedge? That one isn’t very common to see in people’s bags. If I remember correctly, Pelz recommends 64-degrees for the most lofted wedge. The primary concern would be that you have 4 degrees separating your two lob wedges, but depending on the lofts of your pitching and sand wedges, you might have 8 degree gaps between your pitching and sand wedges and between your sand wedge and your 64-degree wedge.

    I recommend a more even distribution of lofts so that your 12 4×3 swings give you the most even coverage inside 100 yards. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself having to spend less time using your 3 grooved swing lengths and more time having to figure out how much longer or shorter to make one of those swings so that your shot length will match the distance you need.

    Posted on June 22nd, 2010 at 12:46 pm

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