For those of us who live in the northern hemisphere in areas where golf is seasonal, we’re coming to the point where the season is winding down. In the northern United States (at least in the east) the beginning of the end really starts when kids get back to school. Then it slows down more and more as the days get shorter and cooler as winter looms.

I wanted to have one last game improvement push before the season winds down. Let’s try to drive those handicaps a little further down, look to cross those scoring plateaus, and try to meet any other goals that were set for the season.

Here’s how it’s going to work: starting Wednesday, I’m going to do a series of five posts covering every aspect of golf each day. Each post will contain a tip, drill, or some other information to help you (and me) improve in all the following areas:

• Putting
• Short Game
• Recovery
• Iron Play
• Driving
• Sand Play
• Mental Game
• Course Management
• Fitness

I’ll break up the posts into sections corresponding to the categories above so you can concentrate on the areas where you need work, if you prefer.

Some of the material will come out of posts I’ve already written and some will be things I haven’t covered yet. It’ll be a good way to stir up the archives a little and bring some of the older stuff back into focus for newer readers.

In addition, if I get enough interest, I’d like to follow up on the sixth day with tips and drills submitted by readers. E-mail me your favorite tips and drills that fit into the categories above and I’ll put them together in a post for day six.

Finally, I’ll round out the week on the seventh day with a recap of the first six days that we can build on and refer to when the need arises for another total game improvement push.

My hope is that if we pull out all the stops, we can all get over the hump before the season ends. For readers in the southern hemisphere, you’re coming into the spring season now, so hopefully this will get you a running start. And for those lucky enough to have good golf weather all year, let’s just get you over whatever plateau you’re stuck at right now.

My own goal for this end of season push is to get back into the 30’s (for 9-holes, since I play mostly 9-hole rounds in the evenings). I’ve been close, but couldn’t get there so far. Keep your own goals in mind as we get into this week.

Stay tuned, and don’t forget to submit your favorite tip or drill. I’ll use as many as I can, but I have 5 days of material already slotted, so you’re going to have to beat the ones I already have to make it onto the day-six list.

Let’s get to work.

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Further Reading:

Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 1
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 2
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 3
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 4
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 5
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Recap

One of the benefits I get out of writing posts for Life in the Rough is that the research I do for most posts helps my own learning process. While I’m normally writing about things I know, I definitely don’t know it all. So I’m always reading up on various topics to help me ensure accuracy, refresh my recollection, and fill in the gaps.

Sometimes I find that I’ve forgotten a key detail of something, or that I maybe misunderstood what was going on.

A case in point involves my two recent posts about Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible and the pure in line square (pils) putting stroke.

Ever since I read the book (my second reading was 3 or 4 years ago), I have been employing the pils stroke. At least I thought I was.

I understood the fundamentals, but when I wrote the post about it, I went back and refreshed my memory on the specific key points as well as on the science behind it.

Friday afternoon, I got back on the course for my first round in a few weeks since I had some trouble with my foot. Armed with my rejuvenated knowledge of the pils stroke, I began to scrutinize my putting (yes, I know that this is a no-no during the round, but it was a practice round, so I was looking for these sorts of things).

After a couple of holes I started to doubt that I was employing one of the key fundamentals: the vertical pendulum created by the hands being directly under the shoulders. Remember that the only way for the putter face to remain square through the stroke is by doing that, and by keeping the arms and hands “quiet” during the stroke.

To address my doubts, I made a few tweaks: I stood a little taller during the stroke, bent more at the hips but hunched over less, and made sure to get my hands directly below my shoulders.

Without question, I was hitting my putts more solidly. I’ve been having some trouble starting putts on line, though I’m not sure that’s what my perception was. Sometimes it’s hard to know if it was a bad read, poor set up, or a problem with the stroke.

After the change, I started making putts again. I definitely was hitting the sweet spot of the putter more. And it felt like the putter path during the stroke was better.

The key lessons here that I want to share with you are:

• As I’ve said many times before, there’s a difference between perception and reality (feel and real) in the golf swing. Don’t be hesitant to verify through video or through having someone observe you, that what you think is happening is actually happening.
• Don’t be afraid to reread instructional books that you take cues from, especially Pelz books that are so full of information. I find it difficult to digest everything on the first read. Not only that, but over time we tend to let the details fade that we don’t continue to emphasize. When we can’t remember why we do something a certain way, then we might not even realize it has gone off track. Refreshing that knowledge periodically is of great help.

One brief update: since I wrote this on Saturday morning, I had a chance to get a putting session in Saturday evening. The results were just as promising as my on-course experimentation. I was making virtually everything within 6 feet (with a couple of exceptions).

Oh, and I was able to exact some revenge on my brother for Friday’s flop shot fiasco, beating him in a game of “Around the Green”.

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Further Reading:

Pure In Line Square (pils) Putting Stroke (Life in the Rough)
Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible Book Review (Life in the Rough)
Perception Versus Reality/Feel Versus Real (Life in the Rough)

I played a practice round yesterday with my brother who hasn’t picked up a club in months and who only plays a couple of times per year.

At the end of our round, we were trash talking about golf (like we do about everything) and somehow we ended up with a closest to the pin bet. The bet was to flop the ball to the pin on the 9th hole just off the cart path from the rough. It was about 20 yards, with the green about five or six feet below the ball and the hole cut on the near side.

Knowing that I had this one in the bag, I boldly laughed him off and told him to go first.

And he proceeded to sink it.

You’d be amazed what that does to your mental state. It’s like a fog of despair envelops you. I could hear C3PO in my mind telling me, “The odds of successfully making that shot are 3,720 to 1!” (sorry, but I’m a Star Wars geek).

After stopping my string of four letter words I got up there and tried to hole it in the wrong frame of mind and just flat-out chili-dipped my 64-degree wedge, so the four-letter words started again.

The lesson there is…well, I don’t know. I guess it’s that sometimes luck beats skill. OK, that was a cheap jab, but he knew it was coming. It was actually a well-executed shot. That’s no excuse for letting my mental game wilt, though.

I’m going to go throw out some more four-letter words. Have a great weekend.

Since my last post was about the pure in line square putting stroke (pils) featured in Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible, it seemed fitting to go ahead and just review the book, since I’ve been meaning to do it for a long time.

Five or six years ago I took a golf trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with my brother and two friends. One afternoon one of my friends and I decided to play a late-afternoon 9-holes at the course where we were staying. We got hooked up with a nice guy who had driven down from Canada.

He was a very good player but related to me how he previously had putting issues and that a book he read, called Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible, transformed him. I believe the exact quote was, “It completely changed my putting game. No exaggeration.”

Well, if you’re a regular reader, then you probably guessed that I went out and picked up the book before the vacation was over and started reading it right away.

I can say one thing: it completely changed my putting game. No exaggeration.

As you might know, I’m a huge fan of Dave Pelz, his teaching philosophies, and his scientific approach. This book is extremely similar to his Short Game Bible, with the only difference being the subject of putting instead of the rest of the short game.

It covers literally every conceivable aspect of putting: surface conditions, ball balance, weather (wind, precipitation, etc.), reading greens, the putting stroke, stance, routine/ritual, rhythm. The list could go on forever.

As with everything he teaches, he doesn’t just lay out his method and say “It’s that way because I said so.” He proves concepts through experimentation and scientific analysis.

Chapter List

1. What is Putting?
2. Problems on the Greens
3. Methods of Putting
4. The Seven Building Blocks of Stroke Mechanics
5. Five Nonphysical Building Blocks: Touch, Feel, Attitude, Routine, and Ritual
6. Stability and Rhythm: Two Artistic Fundamentals
7. Green-Reading, the 15th Building Block
8. Speed is More Important Than Line
9. Wind, Lopsided Balls, Dimples, Rain, Sleet, and Snow
10. The Improvement Process
11. Establish Your Practice Framework
12. Improve Your Stroke Mechanics
13. Develop Your Artistic Senses (Feel, Touch, Green-Reading)
14. Face Your Special Problems
15. Wrap-Up

The Good

• This book is about as comprehensive as a putting instruction book can be. At the end you won’t be wondering about the stuff he didn’t cover.
• His writing style is very smooth, easy to read, and interesting.
• I’ve employed his techniques and can say without a doubt that they improved my putting game.
• You will learn things about putting in this book that you probably never realized or never even thought to ponder. For example, he shows that in putting, speed is more important than line and he shows why.
• Even though Pelz is a very scientific person, he pays homage to the artistic side of putting and gives that aspect of the game the proper treatment.
• He doesn’t just present stroke techniques and call it a day. He gives instruction about how to effectively train yourself to use them, i.e. how to go about improving your putting.
• He has developed several training aids that are demonstrated in the book and are available on his website. Before you accuse him of being a shill, realize that through years of research he has identified what’s important to reinforce with training aids and has developed those training aids to address those important things.

The Bad

• One negative thing I can think of is the same issue that I came up with when I reviewed his Short Game Bible. Namely, if you get turned off by the scientific stuff, like the experiments and charts and the like, then you might get a little bored. I think it’s a minor issue, though, because that type of material doesn’t dominate the book.
• Also not really a negative, but the other thing I’d like to mention is that if you’re expecting to read this book and just miraculously putt better, you might be disappointed. Even though his techniques are simple, just like anything else, they require practice. So, to get the maximum benefit, you need to put the work in. Though, you’d probably improve in some ways just by being aware of the concepts in the book, so reading it is still time well spent.

Conclusion

What can I say? If you read this far, then you know I wholeheartedly recommend the book. I’ve read it cover to cover twice now and as I thumbed through it while preparing for this review, I realized that some of the material has faded, so I need to read it again. I’m adding it to my reading pile and will work through it again during the winter so when spring comes, I’m putting well right from the start.

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Further Reading:

Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible (Amazon.com)
Pelz Golf (PelzGolf.com)

For years, it was taught that during the putting stroke, the face of the putter should open on the backswing, return to square at impact, then close during the follow through.

In his Putting Bible, scientist turned short game guru, Dave Pelz advocates what he calls the pure in line square (pils) putting stroke. In reality, he’s been advocating it for a long time, but he gives it a lot of coverage in his Putting Bible.

Through testing, he has discovered that the putter face being square at impact is about four times more important than the path, or arc, that the putter takes during the stroke. This means that if you don’t keep the face square then the opening and closing of the face must be precisely timed to have any chance of starting on line.

With the putter face remaining square throughout the stroke, the margin of error of trying to square the face at impact is eliminated.

The basics of his pils stroke are:

• Keep the putter face square during the stroke.
• Keep the putter head moving along the target line.
• Use a simple pendulum stroke, originating at the shoulders. This takes the forearms, wrists, and hands out of the equation. The hands should hang freely below the shoulders, so that the “pendulum” formed by the shoulders and hands is perfectly vertical.
• Grip the putter with a “dead hands” grip, so as to keep tension out of the hands and arms.
• The shoulders must be aimed square to the target (but parallel left).

I find it interesting that he also points out that people claim that the greats have used the screen door approach (as he calls it, referring to the putter face swinging open and closed like a screen door). They point to photos that supposedly show this happening.

However, Pelz used his putting robot, called “Perfy”, to show that when photographs of the putting stroke are taken, because of the perspective an optical illusion is created, making it appear that the putter face is opening and closing when it isn’t.

In fact, if you putt with a pendulum motion originating in your shoulders (with a properly vertical “pendulum” formed by hands directly under the shoulders) and take the putter back and through on the target line, then the only way for the putter face to open is by rolling your hands and forearms open and closed. And if you don’t do that, the only other way to get the face to open is by rotating your shoulders and torso.

I can’t think of any tour pro that putts like that.

If you have trouble consistently starting putts on line, give it a try. I’ve been employing the pils stroke for about 6 years and have to say that I’m a big fan. The stroke is quite simple to use and the results are definitely positive.

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Further Reading:

Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible