Corey Pavin's Shotmaking: 25 Short-Game Secrets

Corey Pavin may not be the longest hitter, but he sure makes up for it in his short game. Here he explains how he does it. He begins with drivers and woods and how to hit high or low, draws or fades. He then moves to long irons (2 - 4 irons) and again how to hit these four types of shots. Next he describes medium irons (5 and 6) and how to maximize their utility. He then describes short irons. Wedges have a chapter to themselves, as do hitting out of the sand and putting. Each chapter gives an all-around description of how to expect to hit each type of club and how each can be hit. For instance, woods you should expect to hit for distance and can add a huge draw or fade, but short irons you hit for accuracy and don't want (or need) to add huge amounts of sidespin, but you can add backspin to keep the ball on the green. He expertly describes pitch and chip shots. The big drawback of the book is that it expects that you are very familiar with golfer jargon (he uses many phrases like "outside to inside.") All you need if you aren't familiar with them is look them up, but a glossary would have been extremely helpful for those who don't know them. Overall though, Pavin is an excellent teacher, especially with the most difficult accuracy shots like pitch and chip shots, as well as shots out of the sand. I highly recommend this book to those who basically know how to swing the club but want to learn about various shots they can add to their repertoire.

I should qualify this review by saying that I've been a fan of Corey Pavin's since the 80s. He's far from being a long hitter, but is proof that you don't always need to hit the ball a long way (though unfortunately this seems to be changing in the 21st century!). It's amazing to watch Corey shape his shots. I was excited when he released his book and shared his technique. While his book can certainly be read by golfers of all levels, it will probably benefit the intermediate to advanced golfer the most. I can imagine that it might be difficult to execute his technique without sound fundamentals. Corey's comments on strategy are also very helpful...probably cut a couple of strokes from my handicap! I would recommend this book to golfers who want a better understanding of how to shape shots.

Corey Pavin's Shotmaking was written in 1996, after his miracle win in the 1995 US Open at Shinnecock. So in a sense you get the feeling that this book is simply going to be a commercial capitalization of his fame and (brief) reemergence on the tour. But this book surprises and there is more than enough meat in here that even the single digit handicapper will get some good use out of it (as I did). This book is and isn't a few things:What This Book Is:- Exactly what the title says, a book about shotmaking, i.e. converting a bad fairway lie into a GIR, shortening a dogleg left by drawing a tee shot, or getting up and down by flopping a wedge over a sandtrap.- A book that relies on the golfer to "get it" (as in "ah ha, I get it!") through words supplemented by B & W pictures.What This Book Isn't:- A book about fundamentals. While there is a chapter on fundamentals, it is there just so everyone is on the same page when it addresses the more complicated stuff.- A book that will handhold. While there are good B & W still shots, they are smallish and there are no time series shots so the golfer must be able to pick up the concepts from reading as well as pictures.- A book on trick shots - it's intermediate to advanced stuff in here, but not gimmicky.While at times the lessons he's pulled out to share seem a bit like a grab bag of ideas, this book is a good effort at moving the 80s/90s golfer to better mastery of the course and he does cover the entire course from tee to green. My sense is Corey (and his publisher) knew the correct marketing angle to take with this book and that was not as a power player or textbook swing example, it was shotmaker.

Renown as one of the best shotmakers on the tour, here Cory at the height of his game, tells us to do it.Most of us are looking for secrets, quick fixes that we think will instantly with little effort turn us around. But here, Pavin explains what it takes to work the ball, right to left, left to right, hit it low,hit it high.One of the neatest sections is on the stab chip shot. It will take practice like all the others, but it is a neat shot for one's repertoire.Neatest thing for me was his dedication at the beginning. A class guy. He's been making moves to get back to the top. Here's one who'll be cheering him on to do it this year.

This is a very well written and clearly illustrated guide to shotmaking for the intermediate to advanced golfer. Although I haven't seen every book on the subject (I've only got 30 or 40 golf books) it is the best of the ones I'm familiar with.It covers pretty much every facet of shotmaking--off the tee, iron play, wedges, and the short game. Pavin shows you how to hit from all sorts of lies and suggests which shots are most appropriate for a variety of conditions.There's a ton of stuff to ponder and work on in here. Were you to take everything from the book and work on it at the range one item at a time, you'd be beating balls for a couple of years. Which makes the book a pretty good value, I guess. Not bad for around 250 pages.