learning your short game first By MARK GROVE DATE: 2004-08-31 A lot of you who read my articles will understand the importance of the title of this putting article. Even top pros will tell you what i'm saying is excruciatingly important to your game. I implore budding scratch golfers to practice putting more and stop trying to hit the long bomb so to speak or trying to perfect that long shot. Think about it,if your short game is lacking and you can hit a fairly straight tee off for 200 yards and change each time you're actually better off working on your putts. I include chip shots in this category but your main focus should be putts.Learn all you can about putting from Golf Digest and taking parts of a pros technique and combine it with some of your own. As well try to get pointers from a golf instructor at your local golf course.Go one step further and interview the instructor and write an article on putting and start your own website. You may think that writing about putting isn't important,but learning all you can about it is paramount to taking your short game progressively farther. Writing down your putting technique: Write down your putt technique and how you approach it from different angles,distances and lies. This gives you a hole by hole report than can help your game immeasurably.By practicing your short game you will shave strokes off your score. Putting is a hard aspect of your game and one worth practicing consistently. You're probably still asking me how can I shave strokes off my game by practicing my putts? First of all putting is harder than it looks. How many times have you been frustrated by your misjudgement of an easy 8 foot putt only to have that par 4 turn into par 8. How you think about your putts and your ability to focus is another big factor in your ability to putt well. Putting your mental game to work: Mental toughness is another key to productive putting and failing is a huge part of the game period.If you are not willing to fail at putting you won't get past that and always be frustrated with your short game. If you practice your long game to the detriment of your short you're doomed to golf mediocrity for good. So get out there and practice your short game and send your game into the stratosphere! Mark Grove-The Sportsfan <