By Fred Altvater
If you watch golf equipment commercials on television, you would think everyone should be able to hit it 300 yards.
The OPEN Championship contested last month at Royal Liverpool in England proved that long drives aren’t always the key to winning and posting low scores.
While Rory, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler were looking for their golf balls and unsuccessfully trying to extricate themselves from the gorse, Brian Harman was satisfied to stay near the fairway, sometimes as much as 40 yards behind the longer players, playing to the middle of the greens, where he let his putter do the talking.
He putted well that week, in fact he didn’t have a three-putt and led the field handily with his extraordinary putting statistics.
That brings me to my point. Stop trying to hit it 300 yards off every tee box. Take what the course gives you and don’t bring trouble into play.
Harman intentionally played short of the deadly fairway bunkers and tall grass. He let his chipping and putting do the talking.
When I am at the driving range, I see so many golfers reach for their driver and start swinging for the fences. BIG MISTAKE!
Driving is important, but not as important as a solid chipping and putting game. How many hours every week do you spend on the chipping green working on your short game? Do you know the exact distances you hit your wedges? Can you routinely hit 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100-yard chip shots to within 20 feet of the hole on a regular basis?
If you break down your round, how many fairways did you hit? How many chip shots did you get up and down to save par, or bogey? How many times did you three-putt?
Matches and golf tournaments are won from 150 yards in. Do yourself a favor, next time you go to the range to practice, leave your driver at home and just work on short irons, chip shots and putting.
You will be amazed at how fast your handicap will begin to shrink.
Have fun on the course and if your game needs a little help, give me call and schedule a short game lesson.
