Lower Scores With Short Game Practice

Get a calculator out and do the following game analysis. In the last round of golf that you played, how many putts did you hit? Add this number to the number of chips, pitches, and greenside bunker shots. Now add all of the half wedges to this number. Take this total and divide it by your total score. The number that is left on your calculator is the percentage of your practice time that you need to devote to your short game.

Example: I hit 29 putts, 4 chips, 2 bunker shots and 5 half-wedge shots in my last round for a total of 40. I divide this number by the total score of 74, which gives me a total of .540.

This means that as a rule 54% of my practice time should be devoted to my short game, but do I do that? For every hour that we devote to practice time, is 35 minutes devoted to the short game? Or do you, like me, go to the range and hit balls for the hour and go home?

If you want to improve your scores, you must practice efficiently, and correctly. Use your practice time wisely and your scores will come down.