Golf Beginner-Tips on How to Improve Your Short Game

When you think about golf pros, the first thing that may come to your mind is the sight of Tiger Woods or Anthony Kim teeing off and sending their golf ball rocketing a long ways down the fairway. However, these guys don't succeed simply because of their tremendous long-distance tee shots. Their golf skills, and thus their success, is a direct result from making the most of their golf shots from off the fairway, around and on the green: called the short game.

The key to making improvement with your golf game and thus improving your golf score is understanding and discovering methods to improve your short game. Regardless of your score, more than one-half of your golf strokes will come from playing the short game.

Did you realize that 50% of your score comes from shots made from inside 75 yards from the green? This percentage includes pitches, bunker shots, chips, and putts. These shots make up your short game. So it is important that you focus on trying to improve your short game skills. Some golfers find the short game the easy part of golf, while the vast majority of us find that this is a definite trouble spot. How about you? Do you feel that you need to improve your short game?

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SHORT GAME

To improve your short game you need to take the time to practice on it. If you consider the practice habits of PGA TOUR pros, you'll quite often hear them express that 50 percent or more of their time is spent on their short games. This statistic argues the importance of this facet of the game as it relates to scoring and playing good. As an amateur and especially if you are a beginner, I say that nearly all of your time should be spent on practicing and improving your short game. But instead of trying to work on every aspect of the short game, you should learn to become good in one area and then move onto another one.

Among the biggest things when it pertains your short game is your ability to putt. If you can't putt the ball accurately how can you improve? So this is one area of your golf game that you can concentrate on to improve. Start with 3-foot putts, for example. Find a practice green and find a flat area to practice. Put a tee into the ground and try to make 15 putts in a row. If you miss, you must start over. Continue to practice this drill over and over again until you can make 15 putts easily. When you reach this level, then move back to 5 feet, then 10 feet, etc. It may take you days, weeks, or even months to move to the next level, but don't give up. You will start to see improvement in your game on the golf course.

Continue to do incorporate this method as you practice chips, pitches, and bunker shots. Over time, you will improve your short game!

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