12 things Harvey Penick got wrong about the short game

Are Harvey Penicks ideas driving your game into a ditch? Which of his ideas should you try and which should you skip? What should you look out for? Where is he going wrong? Do his ideas even work? Clip the tee? What does that even mean? Where is he going right? This is part two in a three part series on Harvey Penick’s books, videos and overall teaching. In the first part, we went over what he got wrong in the long game. Part two is going over what he got wrong in the short game. And in the third part we will go over what he got right. There is a surprising amount of information in these books that at best isn’t great. This needs to be investigated. Because I can’t be the only one who reads these books and says wait, what? That don’t make no sense. How does that work?

Around the Green

1: Your backswing and follow thru should be the same length around the green: Little Red Book pg. 102

Most of the time this is good advice. Your standard basic everyday shot should be the same length back and thru. But…there’s another shot you should learn around the green and that is the pitch shot with a short follow thru. You rarely, if ever, see a pro on tour use a short backswing and a long follow thru, but you see a pitch shot with a short follow thru all the time. Watson on 17 at Pebble in ’82 took the club a…