Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible: Master the Finesse Swing and Lower Your Score (Dave Pelz Scoring Game Series)

I found out about Dave Pelz by accident. I was playing golf one day at La Quinta with a woman who hit one amazing pitch shot after another close to the pin. The rest of her game was below average, so I asked her where she had picked up the pitching game. She told me that she had just finished Dave Pelz's short game school at PGA West and said it had helped her a lot. Remembering that caused me to take the course.

Dave Pelz is the ultimate golf engineer. He measures everything, and that has led to new learning. For example, he has found that 60-65% of all shots occur within 100 yards of the hole. More importantly, "about 80% of the shots golfers lose topar occur within 100 yards." In further measurements, he noticed that the largest errors in missing the target occur with wedges (for amateurs and pros). These misses are usually in distance, rather than left and right variance.

From these observations, Pelz developed a four wedge system with 3 lengths of backswing that will give you much more distance precision with wedges within 100 yards. The reason this important relates to putting. Almost all 2 foot putts are made, but pros only make half of the 10 foot putts (amateurs do worse). Beyond 10 feet, the odds drop way off. This means that if you can get your wedge shot to within 10 feet you have a good chance of finishing the hole in one less stroke.

I still haven't converted to four wedges, but reading the book convinced me that I should. I didn't realize how much scoring I was missing with only 3. I can get the ball to 15 feet most of the time, and then 2 putt. Maybe I'll get that extra wedge today and get a lot closer.

There's a lot of other good information on sand shots, chipping, trouble shots of all kinds (including how to hit the ball out from under water and stay reasonably dry).

You'll need more than this book to really improve though. If you like the book, you should begin doing the drills in the back. I would suggest you also try the videos. If that is all helping, consider the golf school. You will get a lot of individualized diagnosis of your weaknesses and instruction on how to improve. I still refer to the notes I got, and find them helpful. One strength of the book is that it has a measurement exercise in it that you can use to diagnose the weaknesses in your short game, so that you can concentrate on those parts of the book that will help you the most with your practice.

If you are like most golfers, you love to belt the ball. That's great, but I'm sure you've heard the old saying "Drive for show, and putt for dough." This book will add the perspective of the short game as essential to that dough as well. You'll have to give up two long clubs (he makes recommendations) to put those two extra wedges in your bag.

Use this book to overcome your stalled thinking about how to improve your golf game. Despite better equipment and balls and a lot of instruction, the score of the average golfer hasn't improved in the last 30 years. With the Pelz approach that can change.

As much as I liked this book, I liked his new book, Dave Pelz's Putting Bible, even more. I strongly recommend that you read that one as well. You can implement it without attending the Pelz course. These two books are the first two in a planned series of four. I'm looking forward to the rest of them.

Donald Mitchel


Realistic advice for real players   June 11, 2000
G. W. Sims (Lancaster, CA United States)
50 out of 50 found this review helpful

As a graduate engineer and another NASA scientist, I can vouch for the science that lies behind Pelz's book, but I'm sure most potential readers know that Pelz is the real thing in that respect. The book itself impressed me in three ways:

1. It isn't written for scientists, just golfers. He provides all the information you need to make your own game better, but avoids the physics that underlie the advice. Pelz saves that level of science for the journals.

2. This is a textbook, not a teaser. After telling you what you should try to achieve with each type of shot, he goes into the greater detail you start wanting as soon as you actually start to practice a technique. Things like how much difference in roll distance you should expect between a lob wedge, a pitching wedge, and a nine iron for the same pitch distance.

Most "tips" sound good, but leave you wondering why they aren't quite working when you get to the course. Pelz starts you out with the basics of each technique and then follows through with the details you need to really use it on a course.

3. He avoids the "genius" techniques that some folks love to describe. His techniques work for people who are not born artists with a club, and even those of us who lack a spare thirty hours a week to practice the short game. (The amazing number of pros who go to his schools testifies to the value of his advice when you actually do have time to practice.)

This is scoring golf for the rest of us. I'm not Seve, nor are most people. Pelz describes techniques that are more likely to work than not on any given swing because the physics of the swing are in favor of success.

An Excellent book. It should be in the library of any golfer who ever accepts a two-dollar Nassau.


Pelz has presented us with an instructional masterpiece.   June 17, 1999
shvasirons@aol.com (Mobile, AL)
30 out of 30 found this review helpful

I have long been a fan of Dave Pelz' teachings. Maybe it is the engineer in me. He has applied scientific inquiry and statistics to the scoring games (chipping and putting) for about 40 years. In this very readable textbook, he presents all of his accumulated knowledge and study of the short game. It is both technical and down to earth. Superbly organized, this book can truely offer new insights to a PGA tour pro or teach a novice the basics of one of the most important games in golf. The teaching technique not only tells you what you must do for each type of shot, but explains WHY you must do it that way, and PROVES why this is so. These explanations make a lasting impression which the reader can carry to the practice tee and the golf course.

This is a must read for every player interested in lower scores. I can't wait until the rest of this 4 book series are in print.


improves short game, terrible to read and weak instructions   December 13, 2004
Ulrik Plate (Atherton, Ca, USA)
25 out of 25 found this review helpful

The Good:

Peltz introduces a smart and easy system of getting to know 3 distinct (or 6 if you include swings where you are gripping down on the shaft) shooting distances for each wedge in you bag. The system is very useful and gives reproducible results on the course, so the book definitely does gives you an edge training wise. I also liked how he by "scientific" analysis found out how to score better and why the short game is so important (and under rated) - very convincing. I found myself measuring off different wedge shots, putting labels with numbers on the shafts of my wedges (and having fun at it) immediately after reading the book.

The bad:

The book itself is however a terrible read. Peltz stated that he had read a book on learning theory at some stage, but I really wished that he had read a book about communication theory before writing this book. He repeats himself over and over and over and... it gets to a point where it is just not any kind of fun. Even some of the illustrations are repeated at least three times in the book. You constantly go either 'I got it I got it I got it - snap out of it!' or you go 'come on Peltz, get to the f..... point'. He also includes long and detailed annecdotes about how he and his tour friends discovered the facts that he now teaches in the book. This might be great if you are into the semi historical perspectives sitting in front of the fireplace with hot chocolate, but if you buy this book as a reference for improving your short game it just distracts you from the essence.
Another thing annoying me is how he sneaks in this feeling of "Trademark-of-Dave-Peltz-golf-school" all the time. F.ex. your swing plane and grip now becomes the "finesse swing plane" and the "finesse grip" for your "finesse swing" as if he invented the concepts of an upright swingplane and a loose grip for the short game.
The teaching of the mechanics of the short game swing was not very clear (at least for me they weren't). I had hoped for something along the lines of "Ben Hogan's five lessons" where you can feel the words in your body right there from the sofa. The pictures are inconsistent with what is being said. F.ex. he writes 'arms, hips and shoulders move back synchronized - no coiling takes place between shoulders and hip in the finesse swing' and the picture shows a 45 degrees hip turn with a 90 degrees shoulder turn :(
The description of the chip shot is also very weak. I now know where to place the ball, but what to do with the arms relative to hips and shoulders is still not clear.

To conclude:

The book will make you focus more on your short game and most likely result in lower scores if you practice was is being said, but the lessons does not justify a whopping 400 pages - not at all! Also the reading experience is very cumbersome.
The 3 stars reflects the fact that you do get some very useful knowledge from reading the book but also that after going through 400 pages of agonizing repetitions there are still some very fundamental issues about the mechanics that are not completely clear.


Peltz Does It Again!   January 21, 2000
Hory Aycardo (Libis, Quezon City, Philippines)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

Great instructional book for those wanting to shoot in the low 80s or breaking 80 3 out of 4 times. The 3X4 method improved my confidence that I will get the ball close, even when I miss the green. This has the effect of being aggressive with the irons and knowing that you'll still be able to make par. After reading the book, practicing and calibrating my wedges (I now play 5 wedges!), I have brought my handicap index from 13.2 to 8.8 in one month! It took a month to get used to the new grip, swing and the calibration. The improvement in my game and the bets I've won paid for this book 10 times over. Now that's what I got from the book.

Here's what's in it: First, there's lots of data regarding why the short game is important. Data on where golfers miss in the irons vs wedges. There are snipets of humor to emphasize his points. If you want to get the most at the shortest time, jump into the 3X4 system. Read the rest of the book at your own leisure and if statistical data turns you on.

Finally, if putting is your problem, try Peltz' "Putt Like a Pro." That's another must read book for those who can't average less than 31 putts a round.