Long game more important than short game?

i keep hearing stories from my friends who play with 'old uncle' that cannot drive far (only 180-200m), cannot GIR, but their 1 chip 1 putt is deadly accurate. Some 'uncle' may' even come back with low 80s or even high 70s score from blue ..

so i think the 2nd shot onwards is more important. for driver, accuracy is more important than distance.

I have a friend who is 50 this year but still drives 270m to 290m.
Age is not a key point, it's the technique and fitness of the person.

Many of us mistaken long game as only driver off the tee.
To me, long game is any shot, including 2nd, even 3rd shot, scrambling shot that utilise my long irons or above, to put the ball on the green.

A good long game would means ability to hit long clubs accurately.
A good short game would means ability to hit short clubs accurately.

The article is referring to shots saving, and for the matter, long game is more important than short game. A good long game saves more shots than good short game. A good long game will give us chance of birdie and par. A good short game would means likely a par.

A good drive followed by a 2nd top shot, would means disaster. It could simply means long game is no good. If long game is good, a GIR is quite possible.
A not so good drive, followed by a good hybrid shot to green, means the long game is good.

Long game is difficult, often than not, we rely on good short game to save our errand long game. Hence we think short game is more important. Can you Imagine your long game is as sharp as your short game? Which will save more shots?

We see the PGA pro, their long game is so good that their scoring is mostly from long game. Short game is only to save par.

During the Barclays, I see the pro practice a lot with their long clubs and they are dead accurate.

I must say long game is really not easy, needs lots more practice than short game.

Thanks for this, interesting points raised here!

This is certainly a very very good discussion.

Short game can refers to putting, chipping, pitching, greenside bunker or any other wedge shot from 100m in.

Long game thus refers to driver, woods, hybird etc.

If your long game is very good, you will most prob GIR most of the time and hence less emphasy on the short game.  Why??? Cos if you GIR most of the time.....there is no need to pitch or chip.
Even if u cannot GIR, you are most likely at the fringe whereby a simple chip putt will put the ball on the green.

Note, I am saying good long game, not those whereby can drive 250m but then hit his 130m 8 iron fat/thin/duff.....This is not good long game but rather a good driver off the tee.

Conversely, if your short game is very good, you are mostly likely the type whereby from 100m in, you can up and down most of the time.  That means from 100m in, you can either chip, pitch or whatever to 1 on and then follow by 1 putt.

If you have this kind of game, you are taking a lot of pressure off your long game.
Why?  Because u know that you do not have to drive very long as you have a reliable short game.
This will normally cause you to be less stress and hence lead to a much better overall long game.

As you can see, both are equally as important.  The importance of each is relative to a player depending on his current standard of play.

However, I do think that in order to have a good long game, you will need to spend much more time and also talent plays a part.

On the other hand, I believe most if not all mortals like us can have a reasonable good short game.  Think of it this way, if you cannot control a ball within 100m, what makes u think you can fare much better when the way is 300m out?
Do not misunderstood me.  Short game needs practice time as well.  If you do not practice or play enuff, you will lose the sharpness. Though you may have the fundamentals, but feel plays an impt role in short game.

That leads me to conclude that you need to invest time and effort to play a reasonable good game.  If you cannot afford the commitment, then I would strongly suggest practicing the short game as it takes less time and effort to have a reasonable short game....and most imprtantly it will make your game more enjoyable.
Once again, just my view.....it could be just bull to you

to me:

anything from driver to hybrid -  long game

uses all my irons - irons game

anything less than 60m - short game


call me old school but thats how i was taught.....


contrary to my esteem friend neutralgolfer.... my expectation in golf not very high, i dun need birdies, i just aim for pars, it would be great if i had 18 pars in a game

i'm just realistic abt my game, from the amount of time n effort i put into the game, i just want pars... if i want birdies, i have to quit my day job

Mr. Slinger Sir, what about anything which requires lifting of your shirt?

guys... u can test yourself

play from red tee on a lazy afternoon, and see if u can really smell birdies....


i have played from red, and it make me realistic abt my game....

Technospaz wrote:

Mr. Slinger Sir, what about anything which requires lifting of your shirt?

thats call mind-f***ing..... level 6

slinger wrote:

to me:

anything from driver to hybrid -  long game

uses all my irons - irons game

anything less than 60m - short game


call me old school but thats how i was taught.....


contrary to my esteem friend neutralgolfer.... my expectation in golf not very high, i dun need birdies, i just aim for pars, it would be great if i had 18 pars in a game

i'm just realistic abt my game, from the amount of time n effort i put into the game, i just want pars... if i want birdies, i have to quit my day job

Well said! 
I m w this old sch. 

slinger wrote:

Technospaz wrote:

Mr. Slinger Sir, what about anything which requires lifting of your shirt?

thats call mind-f***ing..... level 6

Like that only level 6, then what is level 9?!

slinger wrote:

guys... u can test yourself

play from red tee on a lazy afternoon, and see if u can really smell birdies....


i have played from red, and it make me realistic abt my game....

good idea, but i am worried that i might get this treatment ...

https://youtu.be/qUj_qqVxVrE

slinger wrote:

to me:

anything from driver to hybrid -  long game

uses all my irons - irons game

anything less than 60m - short game


call me old school but thats how i was taught.....


contrary to my esteem friend neutralgolfer.... my expectation in golf not very high, i dun need birdies, i just aim for pars, it would be great if i had 18 pars in a game

i'm just realistic abt my game, from the amount of time n effort i put into the game, i just want pars... if i want birdies, i have to quit my day job

Haha... your game plan is different from my expectation, you put fishing line?

Jokes aside, I am just discussing the general importance of long game vs short game.
Ideally, long game will come in handy for better score. Sometimes, you need some birdies to offset your bogeys or double bogeys. You also need birdies for your vegas game.

neutralgolfer wrote:

slinger wrote:

to me:

anything from driver to hybrid -  long game

uses all my irons - irons game

anything less than 60m - short game


call me old school but thats how i was taught.....


contrary to my esteem friend neutralgolfer.... my expectation in golf not very high, i dun need birdies, i just aim for pars, it would be great if i had 18 pars in a game

i'm just realistic abt my game, from the amount of time n effort i put into the game, i just want pars... if i want birdies, i have to quit my day job

Haha... your game plan is different from my expectation, you put fishing line?

Jokes aside, I am just discussing the general importance of long game vs short game.
Ideally, long game will come in handy for better score. Sometimes, you need some birdies to offset your bogeys or double bogeys. You also need birdies for your vegas game.

both bros here are right in a way or another, just that golf is really tough to get everything right....not as straight forward as other sport and thats why golf is so beautiful a game

IMHO, every golfers have different Weaknesses. I think this is the area where we must polished our Golf skills

Some struggled with their driver and some with their irons or Fairway Woods.
If lets say, you are struggling with your 2nd shot ( using your Fairway wood or Hybrid ) then focused on that. Fixed your swing and "Target" accuracy is very important.


In my country, when a Golfer have already achieved the necessary Golf skills, they later focused on developing their short game.

From Chipping, Pitching and practicing short and long putts.
Spending hours and days on the putting green, sand blasting and making those short chip, 10 to 20 yards is a must.

Throwing in this article for further thoughts...

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/jason-sobel/molinari-leading-charge-for-statistical-analysis-long-trumps-short-game/

I feel that the longer hitter, be it those who can drive further (and on the fairway) or are approaching the green with a shorter iron, have a huge advantage.....it also seems that the articles above are putting up some data to support that.....

However, after a certain point, it gets almost impossible to hit longer without going too wild or increasing your swing speed....therefore, and esp for us amateur golfers, it's just easier and smarter for us to work on our short game to allow us to keep up with our longer-hitting brethren......

I, for one, have given up trying to hit longer and feel the only way to improve is work on the short game.......100m and in; and around the greens......

But, there's no two ways about it, I'll always be disadvantaged against the bombers....

And yet, somehow, I've been told that you keep taking their money.

These days, the only time I take their money is when they need small change......

That doesn't sound right (or make sense for that matter).

Fellas, how many of u actually read about Mark Broadie's research?

golfool2009 wrote:

These days, the only time I take their money is when they need small change......

This is relative to different ppl.

Your small change is big moolah to some country's GDP

haha long game gives the most thrill. though nothing brings you back down to earth more than a fluffed chip / bladed pitch after a long pure drive.

Tiger Woods has always said though, that he started golf from the green to the tee. learning chipping before the full swing. and that he still loves and enjoys the short game more than the long game. food for thought for all of us here

I've always felt, the long game is to stay out of trouble, the short game is for scoring.

Of course if you have the length, then the game becomes easier and your short game should let you score better...