« Pre-Round Preparation of the Top Golfers | Main | AHPGA Student Comes Close in South Africa »
Scrambling Keeps You In The Contest
I watched Peter Lonard win his third Australian PGA Championship on Sunday with some wonderful ball striking, particularly with his short irons and wedges.His distance control was excellent, and he continually created great birdie opportunities by pitching the ball inside the scoring zone (10 feet or 3metres) time after time.
I could not help notice though that his scrambling around the greens was just superb and the par saves at crucial times allowed him to maintain his position in the hunt for the championship. Think about this for a second. If Lonard had not saved par after missing the green in regulation on the ninth hole in the last round he would have headed into the back nine trailing overnight leader Rory Sabbatini by one shot. Instead he started his final nine tied for the lead with Sabbatini and headed into that final nine holes with some tremendous momentum and a realistic chance of claiming his third championship.
He went on to birdie the tenth after another superb short iron to 15 feet to take the lead outright. He missed the green on the left edge on the par 3 eleventh hole and once again got the ball up and down for par.On the par 5 twelvth hole he was unable to get the ball up and down for birdie from the greenside bunker after short siding himself. At the par 4 thirteenth hole he hit a superb wedge from 98m to 12 feet and another birdie. Again he hit a beautifully controlled pitch to 5 feet for another birdie at the the par 5 fifteenth hole. On sixteen he came up short but manged to scramble another par. Another save from greenside on the final hole and Lonard had secured his third Australian PGA Championship.
Lonard manged to save par from around the green 83% (5 from 6) of the time and got the ball up and down from around the green on the par 5 holes for biridies at 67%( 2 from 3). So his actual percentage of green side scrambling was 77%!
Sure Lonards driving was superb, having hit all 14 fairways in the final round, but his short game and greenside scrambling in that last round ( and throughout the tournament) kept him in the contest and were instrumental in his victory.
At the Australian High Performance Golf Academy our students spend 70% of their practice time on their short game. This includes putting, green side recoveries, bunkers and pitch shots from 20m to 90m. Our short game training is broken down into technique (learning skills/ drills), skills testing (challenges and competitive games) and competition.
A good scrambler is always in the contest!
Incoming search terms:
- Golf what is scrambling performance
Topics: General | Comments Off
Comments are closed.