Review of the new Pelz Damage control book

Huddler has a review capability, but we don't use it for golf stuff (yet?) Any thoughts?

In the meantime...

I love the Pelz approach: Focus on the low hanging fruit, get hard data to identify problems, use pros to define solutions and then get hard data to prove the solutions work. I have his putting and short game bible books. They have helped my game.

I'd hesitated to get this new book "Damage Control" because it just sounded too obvious: course management and take your lumps when you get in trouble. I didn't think I had that big of a problem with having "blow up" holes. So much for that idea. Since reading the book, I now have a much bigger problem with blow up holes! I'm going to write this off to the particular brute force/make every possible mistake method that I typically employ in sports. In my case, I believe it will make me worse before I get better. However, just reading the book, I would have said that there was no way this book would not help to directly lower scores. Your strokes may vary.

There are several things I like about this book. It's slick. There are lots of pictures. It's an easy read (but not a good ebook candidate). The premise is sound (that most amateurs don't practice trouble shots enough and don't have the knowledge to select the optimum strategy for escaping trouble). There's direct instruction for how to deal with specific kinds of trouble. There are great drill ideas at the end of the book.

The book does an excessive amount of nagging and selling of the premise. Maybe it needs it because of the macho "go for it" cause of "disaster holes". Relative to other Pelz books, it's light on stats. It does not address the factor of equitable stroke control in reducing the penalty for missing risky shots. The concept of viewing potential shot results through a red-yellow-green color filter is overkill in my opinion. And the caveat to not hold up play when playing a round of repeated practice shots will not be enough to stop a horde of readers from doing just that.

The bottom line: this book has new information that I've not found elsewhere and I believe it will help lower my handicap.

Phil is a Pelz student and also part of the team. I recall him getting mentioned in the book with regards to (ahhhh) not quite following the damage control advice all the time.

There's an element to this book that will be a surprise to many. Although the major message is take your lumps and play safe out of trouble, a lot of the book is focused on how to play out of trouble. This will undoubtedly lead to some readers playing some trouble shots more aggressively. For example, I've never played a backhand shot because of a forward stance being blocked. I've practiced it a little, but I'd never seen the tip to use your free hand to grab the swinging shoulder. I'm now tempted .....