Dave Pelz s Short Game Bible 
Customer Ratings: - Too technical for me.. Undoubtedly this book has some great content and to an extent I feel slightly mean only giving him three stars but the reality is that, for the vast majority, of amateur golfers it is far, far too technical.
Short game is all about feel and simple fun practice in my view (I am a scratch golfer incidentally). You ll get far more benefit out of simply watching videos of Seve, Mickelson and Tiger around the greens than you can by getting caught up in the huge detail of this book.
But (and it s a big but) let s not forget that Pelz is Mickelson s short game coach so who am I to argue?
It all slightly depends on how you learn too. If you are very technically minded then it may well be of benefit to you. For the rest of us I think there is simply nothing better than getting out there and playing with one wedge in a variety of different circumstances and developing great feel (and subsequently confidence).
I do recommend his 3X4 routine for shots 50 yards and out though. - This book has changed my golf completely - for the better.. A friend of mine started referring to his 7:30 shot, and his 9 o clock swing, usually before playing a brilliantly accurate pitch or chip shot onto the green, I had no idea what he was talking about. However I did realise that a wedge gap was developing between our games, and so I bought this book on his recommendation.
It s absolutely fantastic, it s written so clearly, with a practical approach (no pun intended) that really does produce positive results on the course, and quickly. I just wish I d bought this sooner, ie about ten years ago. - You Don t Want Too Many Like This. This is one of those books that makes a lot of books you may already have redundant. This, in my opinion, is the best book there is on the short game. If you ve just started to get a few books together, get this one and don t get any more on the short game. This will take you years to get through and work into your game, so why would you want another book on the subject. Dave Pelz s book on putting will sort out your putting Dave Pelz s Putting Bible and Jim McLean s The 8 Step Swing will sort your swing.The Eight-Step Swing Go to a pro and get a couple of lessons on sand play and you re set. Don t do what I did and buy 10 videos, 25 books and spend all your time analysing the hell out of it. (I had a bigger library than any of the golf pros I met!) Get these three books .....practice for hours.
You won t see many of these selling cheap in the secondhand section - that should tell you a story about how good it is - Useful but could be better. I liked the explanation of why the short game is so important and like the idea of different sized swings on the wedges to get different yardages. I put this into practice to a limited degree by playing with 3 wedges (not4) and having a 10 oclock and 8.30 oclock swing (rather than a 7.30, 9 and 10.30) for each wedge and my wedge approaches are often pretty close to the pin as a result of my improved distance control. He also explains why the short game is so key to good scoring well and I also like some of the analysis of different shots to use in different situations eg a nesty lie in light green side rough.
I did not like some of the other technical advice though. For example, I tried his approach to sand shots for a year and was dreadful with it - maybe it just was not clearly explained but hitting 4 inches behind the ball works a lot less well for me than say the 2 inches or so suggested in Tiger s book which works great for me. I have now gone to getting my sand shots close after abandoning ship on Pelz s approach but regret sticking with it for a year. I would like to hear from other single figure handicap golfers who use his approach and how they made it work for them. Another example is the way he has tells you to turn your hips as much as your shoulders as you turn back and through. I for one can only turn my hips like this if I stand up straight, not if I am bent over and I have never seen anyone else achieve this either so Pelzs advice is just confusing here.
Overall, this has helped my game somewhat but nowhere near as much as my golf pro spending a little time on chipping and pitching with me. A good and short alternative are the short game sections in Tiger Woods How I Play Golf Book. - everything u need. I m not gonna waffle on or go into too much detail but i m a 9 handicap golfer who is currently working hard to lower the handicap and bought this book based on reviews i read here. The 4x3 wedge syatem is a guaranteed stroke saver from 120yards in and although it does require a minimum of 3 wedges and some practise time on the range to fine tune your yardages it will definitely lower your scoring. Some will find the book a little technical but pelz leaves no doubt or question in any of his methods, everything is well explained and researched and when u watch the pros u can see that they all use this system on the short game. after reading this u will never again take a power swing with any wedge and u will save minimum 6 shots per round. Buy it!
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Dave Pelz s Short Game Bible (ID: 1854106481)
