[Golfaddict]

It depends. If you compare two golfers and they have a relatively even short game, the one with the better long game will usually win. Why? He will have a lot more short irons into greens, and we all know that the short irons are a lot easier to hit than the longer clubs in the bag.

Now, it the longer player doesn’t have the short game to go with the drive, the shorter player who has a good short game can win.

I was like this guy for a long time. I always heard the way to get better at golf was to practice the short game. For years and years I would spend countless hours developing my chipping and pitching. My chipping ability is by far the best part of my game. It really has not become any better over the last 5-6 years. My scores didn’t start dropping until a few years ago. What happened? I gained distance off the tee and all other clubs. I was struggling to get 220 off the tee.

The usual group of golfers I had been playing with were all good players. I asked one of them for some advice about distance, he immediately told me my problem. I corrected and immediately got 15 yards off the tee. I probably average 240 off the tee. I know that’s not a big number of the tee box, but if I hit a good tee shot on a 380-390 yard par 4, I’m looking at a 7 or 8 iron into the green. Before hand I would be hitting a 5 or 6 iron or more.

Nowadays though, more people focus on the long game when they start the game. I was never drawn into that phase. I wanted good scores, and the short game was an area I could practice without having to go to a teacher. People now want to go straight to the driver and hit it 300 yards. (Maybe they’ve always been like that.)

With my present game if I could consistently get 20 more yards off the tee my handicap would probably go to the low singles.