Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible: The Complete Guide to Mastering the Green (Dave Pelz Scoring Game Series)

Review by Professor Donald Mitchell for Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible: The Complete Guide to Mastering the Green (Dave Pelz Scoring Game Series)
Rating:
This book deserves many more than five stars!This is simply the best book to improve your putting that has ever been written.Let me give you an example. I recently played in Southern California after a rain-soaked night. The greens were dripping. My opponent said “I wonder how hard to hit it through this water.” And I quoted from this book. He made his putt, and so did I. In fact, the highlight of the round was a tricky 23 foot birdie putt. Thank you, Dave Pelz! I have taken Dave Pelz’s short game course, so I didn’t know how much this book would help me. So I came to this book thinking, this will be a good refresher. That was right, but the insights I got from this book exceeded all that I learned in that course about putting. The book explains the engineering approach that Pelz has brought to putting. He measures everything he can think of. The beginning explains key concepts of green problems — like the raised donut around the hole where no one steps (the rest of the green is downtrodden by thousands of footsteps daily). The next section explains the 15 building blocks of putting — like aim, path, touch, rhythm, ritual, feel, face angle, stability, attitude, and routine.Then Pelz puts special attention on speed and reading the green. Chapter 7 on green reading was worth the price of the book alone. He answered questions I have asked dozens of pros, and received no good answers to. Then, he describes how to use these basics to improve your putting. I have been using a number of these for the last several years, and can certainly attest that they work. Each point is beautifully explained. He has photographs of great players, graphs of experiments he has conducted, graphs of research he has done with average and great players, and diagrams of what to do and not to do. The language is simple and unambiguous.For the average golfer, this book can take 4-6 strokes off your game. It will mean winning a lot of weekend bets. One of the book’s great strengths is that it starts with the thinking that most people have about putting that gets them in trouble. He helps you identify your stalled thinking that holds back your putting, and then shows you how to break out of the stall and develop an improved habit. If you have a father, grandfather, uncle, brother, or son who is a father and plays golf, this is the perfect gift for Father’s Day. I took the liberty of giving a copy to myself as my Father’s Day gift this year. Maybe it will help me win the Father’s Day golf tournament! Keep in mind that in the average round you’ll make more putts than you will tee shots, fairway shots, or finesse shots around the green. Get better at putting, and your score can really improve! A two foot putt and a 300 yard drive count for the same on the score — one stroke. Enjoy your putting game the most!

Review by Professor Donald Mitchell for Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible: The Complete Guide to Mastering the Green (Dave Pelz Scoring Game Series)
Rating:
Fifteen Stars! ***************This is simply the best book to improve your putting that has ever been written. It’s a 2,000 percent solution! I had the pleasure and honor of attending Dave Pelz’s short game school a few years ago. I became interested in the school after playing golf with a woman in Palm Springs who had just finished the school, and kept putting the ball within 10 feet of the cup from 40-100 yards out. Naturally, I was impressed and wanted to learn how to do that. Boy, was I surprised by the school. I thought I was a good putter, and I certainly could putt better than most of the people in the class when we started. In fact, I qualified for the regionals of the World Championship of Putting that year. During the instruction, I was diagnosed with over 60 weaknesses in my putting. I still keep the notes, and review them before almost every round. So I came to this book thinking, this will be a good refresher. That was right, but the insights I got from this book exceeded all that I learned in Dave Pelz’s short game school about putting. Since that course cost over $2,000 for 3 days and half the material was on putting, I figure this book is worth over $1,000. Run, don’t walk to buy it!The book explains the engineering approach that Pelz has brought to putting. He measures everything he can think of. The beginning explains key concepts of green problems — like the raised donut around the hole where no one steps (the rest of the green is downtrodden by thousands of footsteps daily). The next section explains the 15 building blocks of putting — like aim, path, touch, rhythm, ritual, feel, face angle, stability, attitude, and routine.Then Pelz puts special attention on speed and reading the green. Chapter 7 on green reading was worth the price of the book alone. He answered questions I have asked dozens of pros, and received no good answers to. Then, he describes how to use these basics to improve your putting. I have been using a number of these for the last several years, and can certainly attest that they work. Each point is beautifully explained. He has photographs of great players, graphs of experiments he has conducted, graphs of research he has done with average and great players, and diagrams of what to do and not to do. The language is simple and unambiguous.For the average golfer, this book can take 4-6 strokes off your game. It will mean winning a lot of weekend bets. One of the book’s great strengths is that it starts with the thinking that most people have about putting that gets them in trouble. He helps you identify your stalled thinking that holds back your putting, and then shows you how to break out of the stall and develop an improved habit. If you have a father, grandfather, uncle, brother, or son who is a father and plays golf, this is the perfect gift for Father’s Day. I took the liberty of giving a copy to myself as my Father’s Day gift this year. Maybe it will help me win the Father’s Day golf tournament! Keep in mind that in the average round you’ll make more putts than you will tee shots, fairway shots, or finesse shots around the green. Get better at putting, and your score can really improve! A two foot putt and a 300 yard drive count for the same on the score — one stroke. Hit ‘em all in the cup!