The Complete Short Game

Watch out, Tiger Woods! In the first three majors of 1997, 27-year-old Ernie Els earned a better average finish than any other player in the world and won more prize money than Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, or Davis Love. Els's extraordinary skills especially shine near the putting green, and The Complete Short  Game shows exactly why.

With easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, 150 full-color illustrations throughout, and exercises for players of all levels in every conceivable golf situation, The Complete Short Game offers an arsenal of solutions and information including:
Mastering left- and back-handed pitches
Using height, spin, and roll to diversify chipping
Understanding how weather affects your trajectory
The complete basics of sand traps  A "shot menu" for putting, with a guide to reading greens, mastering slopes, and judging weight
A "catch-all' section on out-of-the-ordinary trouble and recovery shots such as tree-trunk chips and bladed chip shots from the rough

With Els's accessible, engaging tone, The Complete Short Game offers a unique chance to learn from a great new golf talent about the aspect of the game that made him the best. His guide to perfecting your short game is an essential key to consistently scoring under par.

With a pair of U.S. Opens in his bag by the age of 27, Ernie Els is a walking promo for the "power" of the short game. His swing is textbook--languid, long, and strong--but it's his superb skills from 100 yards that have hoisted him to a place on the leader board of the game's new generation. His short-game instructional is both comprehensive and imaginative, conversationally written and thoroughly illustrated. He does the expected--taking you through the requisite arsenal of chips, pitches, and putts--then tees up a little more, offering tips for reading greens, using weather, and judging distance. He's devised his drills to be entertaining, and his suggestions for how best to practice on the course--either alone or with a partner--are designed to concentrate the mind, add creativity to shotmaking, and subtract a couple of strokes from your scorecard. --Jeff Silverman