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Summary: Change your game - and how you practice forever
Review: This is just a wonderful teaching AND reference book. It is easy to understand the basics of what Dave is trying to say.Unlike most books, this one is written in natural language. He actually teaches you as you read the material. I can hear his voice as I read. He assumes (correctly) that you need the key topics reinforced as you read through the material. As for the material itself - it's outstanding. His method is solid. His approach of making three distinct swings with each wedge is excellent. I cringe when I watch my playing partners take the wrong wedge and combine it with the wrong swing...I want to teach them but I would rather keep taking their money...and letting them ooooh and ahhhh over my short game. I have dropped 5-7 strokes this season with just my short game. I have never had short game instruction - just my full swing - I use this book as my exclusive short game pro.
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Summary: if you want game......this book will help
Review: this book is from a man who loves the game. if you want to get better...you must improve your short game. this book can be a reference for anyone who wants to strive for a better game. you will not get better without new thinking, technique, and better practice......this book is all of the above...ship it in.
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Summary: An Golfing Epiphany
Review: Buy this book, read it cover to cover, front to back. Don't fudge and skip to the instructional portions, because buying into Pelz's philosophy and methodology is just as important as learning the synchronized swing. Then learn the swing and share in the revelation. Your short game will become precise and confident as your scores drop. This is one great golf book. If you want to keep two bibles by your bed, buy the Putting Bible and learn the pendulum swing. These two books, and the Short Game Bible in particular, have had a remarkable impact on my game and my approach to it.
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Summary: Broke 100 inside 100
Review: I am so exited, finnally broke 100 last Sunday, shot 95, first time I went to play after reading the first 7 chapters. Just finished reading the chapter on sand play, can't wait to go out in the course. Best book on golf instruction I ever read.
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Summary: dave pelz short game bible
Review: this book is excellent. it is very straight forward and detailed not only for the basics of the short game, but also for every trouble shot and bad lie you can imagine. most importantly, his system works! i have shaved a good 6-7 strokes off my game by learning how to score from from inside 100yds.
Rating: 
Summary: All you ever wanted to know about the short game of golf
Review: Being a practicing engineer, I have a strong affinity for anything Dave Pelz produces. Granted, not everyone has a penchant for statistics, graphs and endless analysis, but Pelz is so good at presenting this material and then concisely summarizing it for the person uninterested in the numbers. Regardless, the number speak volumes, and Pelz has compiled an impressive statement justifying the importance of the Short Game. I happen to work at a golf retail store once a week, and I get so frustrated with golfers spending thousands of dollars on drivers and irons, when three wedges, a putter, and a book are all you need to automatically lower your scores (drastically)! I know, I read half the book and started practicing what Pelz preaches. Within a week, I started knocking strokes off my handicap. At first, I felt I was just hot with the wedges and putter, but it continued through the end of the season. One of the few complaints I have deals with the amount of information presented. Then again, this is the "Bible". I also found some inconsistency in the illustrations and photos--minor detail that certainly doesn't affect the content. Lastly, I had some difficulty attempting his lob shot. Pelz has a slightly different approach at "lobbing" the ball and I did not produce the results that a slightly more risky technique produced (then again, maybe I am doing it wrong). One word of advice, though, "You have to practice!" Simply reading this book will point out some interesting facts that will lower scores, but to really see the handicap plummet, you need to invest some time. Then this game becomes fun!
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Summary: Realistic advice for real players
Review: As a graduate engineer and another NASA scientist, I can vouch for the science that lies behind Pelz's book, but I'm sure most potential readers know that Pelz is the real thing in that respect. The book itself impressed me in three ways: 1. It isn't written for scientists, just golfers. He provides all the information you need to make your own game better, but avoids the physics that underlie the advice. Pelz saves that level of science for the journals. 2. This is a textbook, not a teaser. After telling you what you should try to achieve with each type of shot, he goes into the greater detail you start wanting as soon as you actually start to practice a technique. Things like how much difference in roll distance you should expect between a lob wedge, a pitching wedge, and a nine iron for the same pitch distance. Most "tips" sound good, but leave you wondering why they aren't quite working when you get to the course. Pelz starts you out with the basics of each technique and then follows through with the details you need to really use it on a course. 3. He avoids the "genius" techniques that some folks love to describe. His techniques work for people who are not born artists with a club, and even those of us who lack a spare thirty hours a week to practice the short game. (The amazing number of pros who go to his schools testifies to the value of his advice when you actually do have time to practice<g>.) This is scoring golf for the rest of us. I'm not Seve, nor are most people. Pelz describes techniques that are more likely to work than not on any given swing because the physics of the swing are in favor of success. An Excellent book. It should be in the library of any golfer who ever accepts a two-dollar Nassau.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the money, but...
Review: This book is definitely a mixed bag. On one hand, it thoroughly covers nearly every short game shot that exists (water shots, anyone?), which is a good thing. However, Dave Pelz, though obviously blessed with the gift of intelligence, is extremely long-winded. For each page of actual instruction, there seems to be two pages of diagrams and explanations as to how/why the ball reacts the way it does to his techniques. Honestly, I'd rather read a compacted version of this book and be able to quickly refer to a specific type of shot whenever I'd need to than study a documentary on physics with some golf thrown in. Too often I found myself glancing over words and turning pages rather than absorbing the material. Don't get me wrong, this book is certainly worth the money and it will save you strokes, but don't expect to read it for more than an hour at a time without getting bored.
Rating:
Summary: Solid, helpful, well-researched, but ....
Review: Pelz's tome on the short game (strokes from 100 yards and in, excluding putting in this case) is thick, thorough, well written, and well illustrated. But ... it lacks something that his earlier book, Putt Like the Pros, had. Perhaps it's that The Short Game Bible isn't a very dense book. True, it covers full shots, finesse shots, chipping, bunker play, and other topics, but it seems to take too many pages and too many words. Corey Pavin's shotmaking book lacks the quantitative backbone of this book, but on the other hand, it covers significantly more territory in significantly fewer pages. Another issue is that I suspect not too many players are really going to adopt Pelz's 4 wedge system. On its face it's impractical for a number of reasons--lack of practice facilities for "calibrating" ones swing among the foremost of those reasons. But ... these aren't major problems. Pelz's basic advice is totally sound. Furthermore, his emphasis on practicing and mastering shots inside 100 yards is right on. Following even a portion of his advice will improve any golfer's game. Highly recommended, even though I think the book is a bit too well padded at times.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: David Pelz focuses more on how he came to his conclusions than correct technique. I truly enjoyed Ben Hogan's Fundamentals of Modern Golf with its detailed descriptions of a correct swing. Mr. Pelz spends pages on why the finesse swing is important, but he leaves many gaps in his instructions. For example, Ben Hogan spent a chapter explaining the proper grip, Mr. Pelz spends more time explaining the relative importance of a proper grip, but only gives ambiguous details about the grip needing to be "square" and "queiter...the better." I've only finished the first 5 chapters and hope the book improves the instructions. Basically, you can sum up the first 5 chapters with 'the short game is important.' Unfortunately, this is a waste--anyone who buys the book undoubtedly agrees.
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