Why Short Shots Are Important To Your Overall Score

Statistics show that the shorter the shot (including putts), the more important it is to your overall score

Short shots are important! My new research using ShotLink to study the games of amateur players like you shows a dramatic gap in scrambling skills between Tour players and you. This is critical since the consequences of missing a shot are not dispersed equally across the four primary shot types: tee shots, approach shots, short-game shots and putts.

When you hit a poor drive you can recover with a good iron or wedge shot, or a good putt. On a scale of zero to 10, the importance of your drive quality is a 3 relative to your ability to score. If your long-iron shot to the green is poor, you can still scramble with a good wedge shot or hole a putt; the importance of approach shots is 5.

The consequence of a poor short-game shot is more critical because there are fewer chances to recover; short-game importance is 7. Putting, meanwhile, is the most unforgiving to scoring. When you miss a putt there is no recovery: You add a stroke and putt again                                                                                                                                                                   .

Do you see the pattern formed in ? The closer you get to the hole the more important it is to hit quality shots. And because you don't make good long swings all of the time, your ability to scramble is just that much more critical.

The importance of scrambling stood out dramatically in the 2006 PGA Tour Superstore World Amateur Championship, where we measured the scrambling skills of amateurs and compared them to PGA Tour pros.

From fairway lies, Tour pros scramble to save par 58 percent of the time when they miss a green in regulation, while scratch amateurs are successful only half as often. The results drop again for higher handicappers, who get up-and-down at a rate of only 10 percent

          | Tips |   | For Beginners |