The Panorama boys golf team is breaking out the clubs for the second day of practice today and with that the golfers will be reacclimating themselves to the game. As they do so, each golfer will be re-familiarizing themselves with two big aspects of golf: the short game and the long game. The short game involves the chipping and putting side of things while the long game includes the drivers, woods, and even hybrid clubs.

As most high school golfers do coming off of a strong fall/winter sports season, the inclination is to “grip it and rip it” with the long game. Everyone wants to be the next John Daly and have a dominant long game but they often overlook the most critical part of golf, the short game. Over half of PGA champions aren’t the ones with the longest drives and interestingly enough, the golfer with the longest drive ever recorded ended that particular hole with a double bogey because of it.

The short game is an aspect of golf that has and will always be a very important part for Panorama head boys golf coach Hal Rossow and he spoke with Raccoon Valley Radio on how critical the short game is.

“The short game is by far the most important part. You’ve heard the old axiom drive for show put for dough, it’s very very true. I spend most of my practice on the short game, putting and chipping. The part that’s going to win most matches is probably 100 yards to 80 yards and in and the person that can get up and down in at least three (shots) from that area is going to be most successful,” stated coach Rossow.

Coach also spoke about how much less one will actually need their drivers compared to their entire short game.

“As far as driving, you play a nine whole match, you’ll have seven times that you’ll actually use your driver and you might shoot a 40 and that’s not a high percentage of your shots . Sometimes I tell them (boys golfers) if they’re having trouble with their driver, haven’t got it down, to drop down to a three wood or a five wood to just keep the ball in the fairway in the shorter grass and utilize the short game,” explained coach Rossow

The first meet of the season for the Panther boys golf team will be their home opener welcoming in conference rivals Madrid and Ogden on April 3rd.