Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible.....

[dave.]

And technically a 54 is now called a lob wedge by some,certainly 56 is,yet so many players think they ahve to carry a 60 to be regarded as having a lob wedge in the bag

 

[ualtim]

The deeper I read into the book, the more I am coming away with that Pelz is actually trying to teach feel. Yes, he is a techno geek, but the whole goal of the clockface is to develop 3 known distances with each of you short game clubs. Once you develop a consistant distance at each of the 3 defined clock face postions, you then have reference points to work from for distances that lie inbetween your known distances. When Pelz was first developing this system he was working with a few touring pros. As they grew accustomed to the way Pelz had them hitting the shots, both Pelz watching them hit and the players could call out the exact distance the shot would travel within a yard at impact.

Once Pelz developed his system, he offered it to the group of 5 tour pros he was working with and only one took him up on the offer, Tom Kite. From there, Kite turned into a money making machine and was the all time money list leader for years until Tigermania pumped up the purses in the mid to late 90's and Kite's best golf was behind him.

Even Pelz realizes not everyone is going to carry a 64* wedge or four wedges. His system still works for a 3 wedge or even a 2 wedge bag. You just do not have all the distance options available to you as you would carrying additional wedges. His whole theory on the 64* wedge revolves around his accuracy ratio and how far the average miss for a tour pro is with long irons and fairway woods. He makes a case for it, but also recommends having a 15, 16, or 17 club bag that you adjust for the course that you are playing by putting the 14 clubs that help you the most for that course.

 

[dave.]

I am sure he is trying to teach feel,and he has been very successful and has many devotees,I just ahppen to think there is an easier way.But then again I don't have millions in the Caymans and live in California.I live in Yorkshire and currently have 62p in my pocket,so who am I.A worm.

 

[ualtim]

I agree with you there, Dave. I would never pay Pelz what he wants for his 3-day school or even his one day clinic. I picked the book up for $30 USD. I am hoping that it helps, but one of the reasons for starting the thread was to see if anyone had any success with his teachings before I fully comitted myself to working on it.

Thanks for the feedback so far, has anyone tried the system and then converted back to their old ways or another approach to the short game?

 

[Eracer]

I did a one-day short game school, and took a few valuable things from it.

1. Most people (myself included) have putters that are not fit for them. The message was, "get fitted".

2. Bunker shots are easy, if you follow his simple method.

3. His method for playing enough break really works, but only if you are good at reading the break.

4. Practicing with feedback is very valuable. Use tools to help you understand stroke shape, centerness of hit, etc.


All in all, I thought the class was well worth it. The instructor was very well versed in Pelz' methods, and the small class size made it easy to learn. I got to use some teaching tools that I wouldn't have been able to use just by reading the book. Bottom line - I don't buy into all of Pelz' ideas, but I buy into some of them.