He is known, universally, as golf’s short gameguru.
I have been searching, eternally, for a short game that doesn’t cost me strokes at the same alarming rate that gas prices are siphoning money from my thinning wallet.
So off to see Dave Pelz I went this past week, in search of answers.
I wanted to know why I chili-dip so many flop chip shots into sand traps or water hazards while trying to simply pop the golf ball onto the green.
I wanted to know why I skull so many shots out of the sand while trying to simply hit the golf ball out of the sand trap onto the green.
I wanted to know why I violently dig a six-inch gully in the sand, subsequently leaving my ball in the bunker, while trying to simply hit the ball onto the green.
I wanted to know what was causing me to leak away critical strokes seemingly every round at an aggravating rate.
“Trouble shots? We call them scoring opportunities.”
This is the mantra printed on the Dave Pelz brochure, which also says, “Change the way you look at up and down.”
This is what I did with Pelz, coming to him for an informative, exclusive, one-on-one visit seeking help in two areas – bunker play and that elusive high flop wedge chip onto the green when you’re staring at trouble between you and the green.
And you know what? In only a short session at Pelz’s immaculate five-acre short-game course at Centennial Golf Club in Carmel, N.Y. (about an hour north of New York City), Pelz offered me tips that immediately began paying dividends.
Am I a scratch golfer because of it? No. Have I shaved strokes off of my handicap? Not yet. But I am seeing results already.
I’ve found myself actually relishing opportunities to see how close I can get the ball to the hole after I’ve missed a green (which happens to most all of us more often than we’d care to admit).
In fact, less than an hour after my time spent with Pelz, I went out to play 18 of Centennial’s scenic 27 holes and, on the first hole, I rattled the flag stick with a 60-yard chip shot using the technique Pelz had just taught me.
“There are a lot of people in the world that’ll teach you how to swing the club,” Pelz said. “We teach you how to score.”
With bunker play, Pelz taught me to set up to the ball aiming about two steps left of the target with the ball aligned with the inside of my lead (left) heel. That placed the ball toward the front of my stance (I used to play it in the back of the stance), and with an open-faced club and a short backswing, a smooth swing and a long follow-through, I was able to easily chip balls out of the traps.
Since the tip, with very few exceptions, I’ve been more consistent and confident out of the greenside bunkers, slapping the sand behind the ball, not the ball itself. I’m no longer taking violent swings at the ball, trying to dig it out of the sand with muscle, nor am I skulling it off the blade from playing the ball too far back in my stance.
With the flop chip, Pelz had me place the ball in the middle of my squared-up stance with my left toe flared open a bit and hitting with a short backswing and a long follow-through. The short backswing and long follow-through, Pelz said, is what gives you the height and softness of the shot.
Why was I listening so intently to Pelz? Because he schools some of the world’s best pros. Moments after his 1999 Masters victory, Vijay Singh credited Pelz with helping his putting. “He was pulling the putts, decelerating through impact,” Pelz said.
Pelz, a former NASA scientist who succumbed to his passion for golf and has made a remarkable, lucrative career out of it, also works with Steve Elkington and Lee Janzen, among others. He, too, worked with the late Payne Stewart.
As he began his golf career some 26 years ago, Pelz’ extensive research told him that “65 percent of the shots in golf occur inside 100 yards and 80 percent of the stokes you lose to par are lost inside 100 yards.”
Pelz has four permanent “Scoring Game School” locations – the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Florida, the Ranch at PGA West in California, the Club at Cordillera in Vail, Colo., Pinehurst in North Carolina and Centennial. All but the Centennial location offer a three-day school for a $2,500 tuition.
At Centennial, and also at a 39-city “Scoring Game Tour,” players can sign up for one-day sessions that include three hours on wedge play and three hours on putting for $350.
I can attest to the fact that, in a short, 30-minute session with Pelz, I’m already seeing results – and isn’t that what we’re all after in our personal pursuit for greatness on the golf course?