October 13, 2014 – Last Friday 10th of October we were invited to experience the Short Game Masterclass that Dave Pelz, Srixon / Cleveland Golf ambassador, offered in London for the European media specialized in golf. This is the second time I’ve visited The Grove, one of England’s finest luxury golf courses, for a brand event, and I was excited to meet in person the golf master whose book “Putt Like the Pros” (Ediciones Tutor, 2005) I’d already read.

The American guru has dedicated the past 35 years to studying the game, discovering better ways to practice and play, and ten of his professional students have won a total of 19 majors. So many of us there were rather looking for a touch of his magic wand to piece together the puzzle of our putting and short game, and revealing the secrets of his method. But there are no miracle recipes. All it boils down to… ‘practice, practice and… practice’, although there Dave Pelz did show us the way.

In fact Dave, with 11 schools in USA and 6 in Europe (Killeen Castle in Dublin, St. Leon-Rot in Heidelberg, Quinta do Lago in Faro, PGA Catalunya Resort in Barcelona and The Grove in London), has been preparing a series of videos at his home in California for the ‘Pelz Corner’, his own section on the Cleveland Golf website, which demonstrates how to improve your golf following his tips, and with plenty of perseverance.

The programs in his schools usually last three days, so although we only had him for one morning… we learned a lot! For Dave Pelz the short game is the most important in golf because of its great influence on the card score. We use a wedge some 7 to 40 times each round, and if he thinks like that, it’s because in the end, “it’s more important where you putt from… that how well you putt.” That is, you will get better cards if you are able to leave the ball closest to the pin with a good short game, than if you are usually far away from the hole even if you are a master in putting.

Today, we want to control distance above all, which is the main problem of the short game. In this sense, the swing proportions are fundamental. According to Dave Pelz, a long backswing is not good for the short game, but rather a short backswing with a longer follow-through, which should be executed with a swing of extreme finesse.

Controlling the length of the backswing, Pelz distinguishes between three types of swing (7:30h, 9:00h and 10:30h if you take the players’ arms as the hands of a clock), all of which require consistency in the rhythm/effort through to the finish. He recommends four wedges: XW (64º), LW (60º), SW (55º) and PW (49º), which means that with The Pelz 3×4 System, these 3 different swings and the 4 wedges in your golf bag will give your short game 12 different distances of accuracy.

“I am a brand ambassador of Srixon/Cleveland Golf because they’re the best wedges on the market,” says Dave Pelz on the driving range, “and they’re the best because of the fantastic technology of RTX grooves in the face, giving an unbelievable spin to the ball, as well as offering the greatest variety of bounce, shafts and lofts available to fit you”.

The new wedge fitting trolley designed by Cleveland Golf with all the versions of clubheads and shafts available, permits the assembly of any model to be customized for you. Then we put into practice what we’d learned with one of the new RTX 588 2.0 and… wow, so easy, and how they bite the ball!

And as for putting, according to Pelz it’s the simplest motion to execute in golf, but yet the most difficult to learn, to do really well, and perhaps the most difficult to improve. And that’s because the difference between pros and amateurs in the percentage of holed 1-metre putts, whether handicap 10, 20 or even 30, is not that big. This difference will grow only slightly when you move away from the hole with putts of 3 and 6 metres. What happens is that the amateur ‘3-putts’ excessively.

The good news announced by our guru is that generally we already putt pretty well, and everyone can putt better. But the not-so-good news is that to move from good putting to great putting… is not that simple. We finished on the putting green near The Stables, enjoying a practice session with the Smart Square Cleveland Golf putter, which is distinguished by its original alignment system of double squares.

Well, on a sunny morning at The Grove there is something about which Dave Pelz has opened our eyes: he wants golfers to put more emphasis on ‘attitude’. The key factors that will let us reach our objectives in golf are: How much do you care about reaching them, how much are you going to practice, if you have easy access to the practice facilities, and how positive is your attitude. Thanks Dave.

Come on, and go for it!

Por MIGUEL ANGEL BUIL