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Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible: Master the Finesse Swing and Lower Your Score
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Internationally revered golf instructor Dave Pelz's bestselling classic can show you the way to lower scores by improving your short game. With a Foreword by Lee Janzen, two-time U.S. Open winner and eight-time winner on the PGA Tour.
"He who rules the short game collects the gold."— Dave Pelz's Golden Rule of Golf
Fed up with trying to imitate the pros, buying the latest expensive equipment, and seeing your handicap stay the same? The pros know, as you are about to learn, that while others teach golfers how to swing, Dave Pelz teaches golfers how to score...and win.
The result of decades of scientific research studying thousands of golfers, Dave's philosophy is as simple as it is revolutionary and Instead of practicing the wrong things the right way, or the right things the wrong way, Pelz shows you how to find your own personal weaknesses and how to improve them to efficiently lower your scores. Packed with all the knowledge, charts, and photos needed to learn from the master, Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible is the essential book for every golfer who's looking to improve his or her game.
A former physicist for NASA, Dave brings a scientific rigor to his research and instruction that has made him the top short-game expert in the world. His renowned golf schools and clinics focus exclusively on putting and the short game, attracting top players like Tom Kite, Colin Montgomerie, two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, reigning PGA champion Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington, Payne Stewart, Peter Jacobsen, and many LPGA players including Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann.
"He who rules the short game collects the gold."— Dave Pelz's Golden Rule of Golf
Fed up with trying to imitate the pros, buying the latest expensive equipment, and seeing your handicap stay the same? The pros know, as you are about to learn, that while others teach golfers how to swing, Dave Pelz teaches golfers how to score...and win.
The result of decades of scientific research studying thousands of golfers, Dave's philosophy is as simple as it is revolutionary and Instead of practicing the wrong things the right way, or the right things the wrong way, Pelz shows you how to find your own personal weaknesses and how to improve them to efficiently lower your scores. Packed with all the knowledge, charts, and photos needed to learn from the master, Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible is the essential book for every golfer who's looking to improve his or her game.
A former physicist for NASA, Dave brings a scientific rigor to his research and instruction that has made him the top short-game expert in the world. His renowned golf schools and clinics focus exclusively on putting and the short game, attracting top players like Tom Kite, Colin Montgomerie, two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, reigning PGA champion Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington, Payne Stewart, Peter Jacobsen, and many LPGA players including Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published May 11, 1999
135 people are currently reading
720 people want to read
About the author
Dave Pelz
18 books9 followersDavid T. Pelz was an American golf coach, known for his expertise and published writing on the art of the short game, particularly putting.
Pelz's Short Game Bible was a New York Times "national best-seller" in 1999. Eleven of Pelz's professional students have won a total of 21 major championships. Pelz was named by Golf Digest magazine as one of the 25 most influential instructors of the 20th Century. He was a regular editorial contributor to Golf Magazine since 1982 and produced and hosted "The Dave Pelz Scoring Game Show" on the Golf Channel from 1995 to 2005. Pelz continued his research and instruction at the Pelz Golf Institute in Spicewood, Texas.
Pelz's Short Game Bible was a New York Times "national best-seller" in 1999. Eleven of Pelz's professional students have won a total of 21 major championships. Pelz was named by Golf Digest magazine as one of the 25 most influential instructors of the 20th Century. He was a regular editorial contributor to Golf Magazine since 1982 and produced and hosted "The Dave Pelz Scoring Game Show" on the Golf Channel from 1995 to 2005. Pelz continued his research and instruction at the Pelz Golf Institute in Spicewood, Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
October 2, 2014
I keep coming back to Dave's short game lessons. Truly one of the best "how to" books on golf I have ever read. He's a bit technical, sometimes to the extreme (I find it interesting that his star pupil, Phil Mickelson, disregards many of the ideas Dave stresses, for example, keeping the pin in when chipping or putting off the green--something Phil never does).
I was fortunate many years ago to have the time to take a bag of balls to a vacant football field and practice his methods. My short game was never better. This is a book worth revisiting many times if you are serious about practicing.
I was fortunate many years ago to have the time to take a bag of balls to a vacant football field and practice his methods. My short game was never better. This is a book worth revisiting many times if you are serious about practicing.
August 26, 2009
Not your typical Golf lessons. Not a book for beginners either. It is really an almost scientific treatise based on statistical analysis that Pelz has done over many years. It is dense and written almost like a scientific essay. Having said that there are many many good nuggets in here. It has the best description I have seen on how to play sand shots and it has very good information on the short game, but it is not a "fun" read. Definitely worth browsing if you are serious about learning more about golf and already have a few years under your belt. Otherwise, it is too complex for most.
August 9, 2008
If you golf, you know you lose shots around the green. This really can help if you apply it. Of course, that's the hard part. Practice and application. But his approach is straightforward and uncomplicated (okay, 400 pages isn't uncomplicated).
July 12, 2015
this book is amazing and has so much information. probably should read it 5 times over the course of a year and try to use the drills, practice methods and work on it daily for a year. I hope i stay diligent. Really good if you have the time to work on your game and the practice facilities.
March 13, 2009
This book opened up the possibilities of golf to me. Dave Pelz's wedge system is very workable and repeatable and has help me improve my game by ten strokes. Highly recommend.
May 30, 2010
Apply his methods and techniques and you'll take strokes off your game -- and maybe prevent a stroke! LOL
March 7, 2016
Dave Pelz 19s Short Game Bible is a must read for anyone who wants to improve their golf game. The scientific research and logical explanations of the short game are so convincing that you 19ll try his drills and methods. Once you 19ve done that the confidence you 19ll gain will drop your handicap guaranteed because after all golf is a game of confidence. I am so sold on Pelz 19s methods that I took a one day clinic offered by his school. What I really like about having this book is when I mess up a shot or forget the thought process of executing a shot all I need to do is reread the answers. This book is a great reference for short game shots.
April 26, 2016
I was doing pretty well with the Pelz short game technique. Then three years ago I switched to Phil Michelson's advice in his short game book and video. Michelson really messed me up! I kept trying, but there were too many shanks and fat hits. Maybe I'm not athletic enough for Michelson. I have gone back to Dave Pelz and my short game is improving now.
June 11, 2016
If you're struggling with your short game, this book as well as Dave Stockton's are the best sources of help. My game from 50 yards in was average at best. I took what worked for me from both books and my chipping/pitching has never been better. Read it...read it again...and then continue to read this book. It is beyond excellent!
May 15, 2009
Very fascinating examination of the short game of golf. If you are a numbers guy, I highly recommend it.
February 6, 2011
Very helpful
June 7, 2012
Read this years ago and have opened it again. A must read for GOLFERS.
August 20, 2012
A great golf book for the analytical type personality.
August 10, 2013
Best book on short game golf. In depth analysis of tour players shots leads to practical strategies for improving your golf score.
August 17, 2013
David Pelz's Short Game Bible was about how mastering your short game in golf will help you score lower scores. I liked this book a lot and I would recommend it to golf fans.
September 7, 2015
Everything I need, in fact more than I need, to improve my game. So much here it's tough to know where to start.
February 2, 2016
A second read, since I plan to reinvigorate my game. Great instructional book. Hope that it helps my game.
January 19, 2016
THE definitive book on golf's short game. Pelz's methodology is sound and simple to follow and implement.
August 13, 2022
If you're not familar with Pelz he is a former astrophysicist with NASA who quit there after 15 years to focus exclusively on golf. I am absolutely convinced that by following his methods, which have been devised over thousands of hours of scientific analysis of the game, and data driven formulas based off of helping hundreds of players, you will drop your handicap by as much as 20%. I'm proof, going from a 13 two years ago to around a 10 now. Partially because of these systems.
Anyone who's watched me play knows that some days I spray it off half the tees and still find a way to take no more than doubles. It's all in the short game. I view this as both a short game encyclopedia and bible. The takeaways from this book are massive and I would suggest simply buying it and seeing what jumps out to your specific game. He covers about every situation, position, shot type, lie, imaginable.
A book I will revisit every year for the rest of my golfing life.
- Golf is five different games: Management, Mental, Power, Short, and Putting. Each should be practiced.
- PGA players don't work on their game during a round. They play the swing they have and study the course. If you're playing a round that doesn't matter, drop balls and practice.
- All PGA players have between a 5-9% error (average 7%). Whether this is 5 or 7 barely mattters on money won. Correlations between money won and accuracy is almost solely in the shots from 100 yards and in. Fascinating.
- Key distance is leaving shots 6 feet from the hole where pros make rate is 50%. The golden 8 he calls it, 2-10 feet. outside 10 feet is a crapshoot and inside 2 is always in. See putting conversion curve/chart.
~60% of shots in golf are from 100 yards and in.- putting is the most frequent at 43%!
- alignment is critical, both to the target, hand position, and ball in your stance. too much to cover in a summary. dozens of illustrations/examples
- always hold your finish and watch your shot to commit shots into your subconscious. The secret to learning best is immediate accurate and reliable feedback that correlates actions with results. Good players can tell how far a ball will travel after striking it. I am not good but I can now almost always do this.
- his system is a 3x4 for wedges. 4 wedges, 3 swings (half, 3/4, full). 12 distances and 12 shot types in your bag. for me this is a AW (about 49 degrees, 52, 56, 60. 60, for example goes 21-42-60 on perfectly hit shots. An entire chapter on how to do this. Google the method. It takes time on the range to figure this out for you but will pay huge dividends.
- your last practice swing should always feel exactly how you want your actual shot to be.
- the zone is real and by ingraining short game practices like these you will hit it more often.
- a half or 3/4 swing is more accurate for most players. less variables. knowing these distances is huge.
- in the sand, if possible, use the same swing, different clubs.
- when you hit your short irons longer, your scores get worse, not better. it hurts precision. illuminating.
- no human can get up and down from 150 consistently. play the percentages. play for 3.
- average 10 handicapper hits 4-5 GIR.
- replace longer clubs with shorter. you hit a 4 iron about once a round. you hit each wedge over 5 times that!
- most amateurs could likely drop half their irons and shoot about the same score.
- decision making is as important as your swing. use probability not possibility.
- your score is reflective not of your best shots but by the severity of your bad shots.
- generally, play a little bit more break than you read
- never hit two bad shots in a row. play the safe next one.
- on par 5s, get as close as you safely can in 2.
- fire at the pin whenever you have a wedge in hand.
- bad practice is worse than no practice.
- the average golfer is a 26 handicap. don't beat yourself up.
If you've ever heard me say practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. That's from Pelzy. He has a lot of drills and games in hear too. One I do personally is 6 types of short game shots, 10 balls, each, and seeing how many I can get up and down. Enough practice and a person could get nearly up to tour level.
Anyone who's watched me play knows that some days I spray it off half the tees and still find a way to take no more than doubles. It's all in the short game. I view this as both a short game encyclopedia and bible. The takeaways from this book are massive and I would suggest simply buying it and seeing what jumps out to your specific game. He covers about every situation, position, shot type, lie, imaginable.
A book I will revisit every year for the rest of my golfing life.
- Golf is five different games: Management, Mental, Power, Short, and Putting. Each should be practiced.
- PGA players don't work on their game during a round. They play the swing they have and study the course. If you're playing a round that doesn't matter, drop balls and practice.
- All PGA players have between a 5-9% error (average 7%). Whether this is 5 or 7 barely mattters on money won. Correlations between money won and accuracy is almost solely in the shots from 100 yards and in. Fascinating.
- Key distance is leaving shots 6 feet from the hole where pros make rate is 50%. The golden 8 he calls it, 2-10 feet. outside 10 feet is a crapshoot and inside 2 is always in. See putting conversion curve/chart.
~60% of shots in golf are from 100 yards and in.- putting is the most frequent at 43%!
- alignment is critical, both to the target, hand position, and ball in your stance. too much to cover in a summary. dozens of illustrations/examples
- always hold your finish and watch your shot to commit shots into your subconscious. The secret to learning best is immediate accurate and reliable feedback that correlates actions with results. Good players can tell how far a ball will travel after striking it. I am not good but I can now almost always do this.
- his system is a 3x4 for wedges. 4 wedges, 3 swings (half, 3/4, full). 12 distances and 12 shot types in your bag. for me this is a AW (about 49 degrees, 52, 56, 60. 60, for example goes 21-42-60 on perfectly hit shots. An entire chapter on how to do this. Google the method. It takes time on the range to figure this out for you but will pay huge dividends.
- your last practice swing should always feel exactly how you want your actual shot to be.
- the zone is real and by ingraining short game practices like these you will hit it more often.
- a half or 3/4 swing is more accurate for most players. less variables. knowing these distances is huge.
- in the sand, if possible, use the same swing, different clubs.
- when you hit your short irons longer, your scores get worse, not better. it hurts precision. illuminating.
- no human can get up and down from 150 consistently. play the percentages. play for 3.
- average 10 handicapper hits 4-5 GIR.
- replace longer clubs with shorter. you hit a 4 iron about once a round. you hit each wedge over 5 times that!
- most amateurs could likely drop half their irons and shoot about the same score.
- decision making is as important as your swing. use probability not possibility.
- your score is reflective not of your best shots but by the severity of your bad shots.
- generally, play a little bit more break than you read
- never hit two bad shots in a row. play the safe next one.
- on par 5s, get as close as you safely can in 2.
- fire at the pin whenever you have a wedge in hand.
- bad practice is worse than no practice.
- the average golfer is a 26 handicap. don't beat yourself up.
If you've ever heard me say practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. That's from Pelzy. He has a lot of drills and games in hear too. One I do personally is 6 types of short game shots, 10 balls, each, and seeing how many I can get up and down. Enough practice and a person could get nearly up to tour level.
November 29, 2024
I really like this one but boy, is it a lot of data. Dave Pelz has taken a very deep dive into the intricacies of the short game. This is one that will sit on my shelf for future reference because there’s just too much in it to remember everything. I have applied some of the strategies to my game and have already seen some improvements. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn the finer points of the short game.
January 23, 2023
This is the best golf book I've read so far. Just started playing a year ago. I had no idea how little I knew until reading this book. I've learned over 20 new shots and beginning to understand course management more. I recommend to all my golf buddies!
June 4, 2025
I really enjoyed this book. There was a remarkable number of photographs that captured every conceivable short game swing. So much detail in every chapter. This book might overwhelm a beginning golfer, but for those of us still hoping to develop a solid short game, this was terrific!
December 15, 2018
Too heavy a read to be useful, better as a master thesis
December 3, 2019
Good lord. I've been playing golf for twenty years and knew nothing about the short game until I read this book. The best instructional book on golf I have ever read.
September 15, 2020
Tools for those that are competing in golf, not for us enjoying it
December 28, 2022
This book provided a great deal of valuable information & insight. I will need to come bank and review certain sections of this book in the future.
July 31, 2023
Very helpful even though I’m not very good at golf. It’s very data and science based, which I appreciated. Hopefully this will help me break 90 finally!
June 17, 2025
very helpful to both new and non pro golfers. better than any lessons I ever took. no time pressure and plenty of specific advice. got 3 eagles on par 5's from learning finesse shot. thanks dave.
February 1, 2021
NASA physicist takes on golf, result is as to be expected: superfluous and technical.
There is an argument to be made for how much a skill relying on muscle memory and feel can be transferred from one individual to another through the medium of a book. I think the answer is: limited, unless an intimate knowledge of one's own ability is already known. Instead I believe the value in this book is illustrating that the scientific method should inform decisions in any domain. Pelz's key insight is that over 60% of shots in golf occur within 100 yards of the hole, so one's strategy to minimise scores should reflect this. Pelz takes this simple but profound fact and builds on it, analysing different shot types and scenarios. In justification his points on each, basic underlying physics are provided. Pelz also presents interesting data on error percentages of professionals which I found of interest.
It's hard to imagine John Daly astutely studying the physics of golf, which gives the book a divorced feeling from reality. However, I think the approach of the author is interesting in its own right, and I think it would be equally so in application to other sports or domains. Few books in the sports genre can claim to be informed by rigorous analysis. 4 stars.
There is an argument to be made for how much a skill relying on muscle memory and feel can be transferred from one individual to another through the medium of a book. I think the answer is: limited, unless an intimate knowledge of one's own ability is already known. Instead I believe the value in this book is illustrating that the scientific method should inform decisions in any domain. Pelz's key insight is that over 60% of shots in golf occur within 100 yards of the hole, so one's strategy to minimise scores should reflect this. Pelz takes this simple but profound fact and builds on it, analysing different shot types and scenarios. In justification his points on each, basic underlying physics are provided. Pelz also presents interesting data on error percentages of professionals which I found of interest.
It's hard to imagine John Daly astutely studying the physics of golf, which gives the book a divorced feeling from reality. However, I think the approach of the author is interesting in its own right, and I think it would be equally so in application to other sports or domains. Few books in the sports genre can claim to be informed by rigorous analysis. 4 stars.
February 15, 2025
<2023>There is a lot in this book. It should be absorbed slowly, as there is a possibility that changing a bunch of things will wreck your game.
Lots to think about, lots of threads running around in my head.
This is a book for a thinking golfer, someone who really wants to understand things.
Go with Dave's advice as far as it helps you. Try the techniques and where and when it works, use it.
Best part; chipping from in close.
<2025>I read this every winter. For 2025 I will be doing the drills on p328, get serious about knowing where my weaknesses are. Hopefully I get my golf pal in to this, and we can do the drills monthly, see if we are improving. I am already enjoying lower scores at simulator golf, but that is not real golf. It may help in the long run.
Lots to think about, lots of threads running around in my head.
This is a book for a thinking golfer, someone who really wants to understand things.
Go with Dave's advice as far as it helps you. Try the techniques and where and when it works, use it.
Best part; chipping from in close.
<2025>I read this every winter. For 2025 I will be doing the drills on p328, get serious about knowing where my weaknesses are. Hopefully I get my golf pal in to this, and we can do the drills monthly, see if we are improving. I am already enjoying lower scores at simulator golf, but that is not real golf. It may help in the long run.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews