2.13 The Conversion Curve
Is distance control really important in the short game? Go back to putting: Can you make as many putts from 10 feet as you can from two feet? Look at the putting conversion curve in Figure 2.13.1.
Your ability to score is significantly influenced by your ability to minimize your number of putts per round. If you leave yourself lots of one-foot putts, you'll make them 100% of the time. Lots of 10-foot putts? You're down to a 20% con-version rate. Putts longer than 20 feet? You're looking at two- (and three-) putts most of the time.
The key distance for leaving short-game shots from the hole is about six feet; that's where the pros' conversion rate is 50%. My data shows that the pros were hitting wedge shots to within six feet of the hole in direction, but not dis-tance. Their full-swing shots were pretty close to six feet away in distance, but they were far more than six feet away in direction. So whether they were hitting long
Figure 2.13.1: Putting conversion curve
irons, short irons, or wedges into the green, they weren't one-putting very often.
How to deal with all this? The answer is simple. To score better, hit your long irons straighter and your short-game wedges closer to the right distance.
How do you hit your long shots straighter? I don't know. But the golf world has convinced most golfers to spend most of their practice time trying to learn. I think that's a bad decision. To make significant improvement in the power game takes good instruction, athletic ability, timing, rhythm, talent, and a lot of prac-tice. But once you've improved your ball-striking, it doesn't improve your scoring ability much, because you're still not going to one-putt greens from where even good long-iron shots leave you.
Based on my research, I made the decision years ago to forget the power swing.
Rather, I decided to teach people to hit their short-game shots the right distance, because it isn't that difficult to do. And once you learn how, you will shoot lower scores.
(Many golfers have a poor short game because they've never had a way or place to practice it. Most practice areas don't have a target green for hitting these shots, letting you see whether your ball lands long or short of where you were aiming. Even when there is a target green, golfers don't know how far away they
are; they make a swing but don't receive the proper feedback. I'm also sorry to say that most golfers don't understand how to practice or what to work on in their short-game swings, so any practice they do get in doesn't accomplish much. I'll cover all that later on in this book.)
2.14 If It's Straight, It's Good
For most golfers, in practice and in play, as long as their shots go straight, they think they've hit a good wedge. While I was caddying on Tour, I witnessed some-thing that put this problem into perspective.
I was carrying for Tom Jenkins (T.J.). He was 51 yards to the pin, lying two on a par 5. His playing companion was right in front of him, same lie, same every-thing, but 501/2 yards away.
T.J. hit first. He got over the ball, made a nice little waggle and a beautiful swing, and hit the ball right at the pin. As it was coming down, T.J. was holding his finish and saying, "Oh baby, be the right distance. Be perfect." The ball flew right over the pin (it almost hit the top of the flagstick), landed, and stopped immedi-ately, six yards past the pin. It covered the flagstick all the way, finishing just a lit-tle long. T.J. walked to the bag, handed me his wedge, and said, "I hit it perfect. I thought it was in the hole. It's a little long, but it felt so good. That was a perfect swing." He was pleased.
As we stood there, our playing companion got over his shot, made a nice little waggle, and executed his 50-yard wedge swing. Immediately after the moment of impact, he turned his back on the shot, twisted his face and body in anguish, slammed his club into the ground, and said a few things not to be repeated here.
He was sick: I thought he was going to slit his wrists or throw up in his golf bag. He had pulled his 50-yard wedge shot six yards to the left of the hole, which to a Tour player looks and feels like a terrible shot. To hit it that far off-line was disgusting. He had contempt for his own ability, he was mad, he was upset, he hated himself, and although he had hit the ball solidly-exactly 50 yards-he had missed six yards left.
I listened to the two players talking as they walked to the green. T.J., facing an 18-foot birdie putt, was happy because he had just made a good swing. His companion was ready to quit the game forever because he had pulled his wedge shot, made a terrible swing, and was facing an 18-foot birdie putt from a different direction.
As the physicist caddie, with equal PEIs running around in my head, I just chuckled. The balls didn't know the difference, the putters didn't know the
differ-ence, the golf course didn't know the differdiffer-ence, and, of course, both players scored the same-a par 5-both missing their 18-foot putts. Yet one player thought he hit a great wedge approach shot, whereas the other thought he hit a terrible shot.
So go the perceptions of golfers.
2.15 The Scoring Game
In Chapter 1, 1 mentioned that the scoring game was made up of the short game and the putting game. Early in this chapter, I showed you how to evaluate the true performance of golf swings and how the game falls into different categories of skills and results. A few pages back, I tried to convince you that in the full-swing game, direction is what you should worry about since your choice of club is what primarily controls your distance. (Please be aware of your directional control. It is really important. Most sand traps sit left and right of target areas because course architects are no dummies.)
Then I showed you how just the opposite is true for the short game. Because the club is more lofted, the swing plane more vertical (causing less clubface rota-tion through impact), and the shots shorter, direcrota-tion takes care of itself. When you're holding a wedge, it's distance that should concern you, because if you don't hit the ball the right distance, you can forget about having a high probability of holing those birdie putts.
Finally, let me repeat the main point of this chapter: If you want to score, the most important "game" to improve is your short game. Second most important is your putting game. And the least important game is your power-swing, ball-striking game, the game you've been practicing all these years.
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