If you are going to increase your chances for par you are going to have to develop a good short game. Getting on in regulation on every hole for most of us is a dream and if you think about it the pros understand that they are not going to get on every time. Developing a touch around the green can increase your percentages like few other golf shots can do.
Over the years I mastered the little bump and run for those shots that landed close but just off the green. Sometimes that shot even works well from 50 yards out depending on what it is front of you because you know how the shot will perform. The bump and run seems to give me more control which also eases my mind which is a good thing.
There are those times however when you can’t bump and run because there is a trap in front of you or the slope of the green is such that you have to get the ball up and stop it in a hurry. This shot has always been tough for me until I heard Gary Player say that the secret was to follow through and finish the shot. Now I am no Phil Mickelson mind you but I am getting much closer than before which is giving me a six to ten foot putt for a chance at par when before I was putting for bogie.
Financially a short game is just as important as it is in golf. Like in golf many people give the most attention to their long game, focusing mainly on investment opportunities that pay off over time, such as retirement accounts. While long term savings and investment accounts are extremely important to your financial future developing a “short game” or emergencycash account can play a valuable role in your overall success.
Do you have six months of income set aside in a emergency fund? Do you have access to capital that keeps you from having to pay interest to other financial institutions? Don’t forget that if you have to pay out loan interest because you can‘t get to the long term money you have invested, the interest you are paying out to others is reducing the effectiveness of your long term account.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. You are playing a 360 yard par 4 dogleg right hole which suits your game perfectly. You like fading the ball and you step up to the tee and hit a 300 yard drive to the center of the fairway. You are now only 60 yards out. If your do not have the short game to take advantage of your long drive, a bad shot here will erase the benefit of hitting a perfect tee shot.
Make sure that financially your “short game” is not taking away from the good things you are doing in your long term savings and investment accounts.