Rocky Mountain Muse

By Jake Kubié

A fresh mantle of snow peacefully blankets the land surrounding Dave Pelz’s stunning home near The Club at Cordillera’s Summit Course. But inside, the manse is buzzing with activity. While Dave gives me the dime tour, his wife, JoAnn, bustles in the kitchen, preparing coffee and snacks for some of their visiting children and grandchildren. P.E.D.O (Pelz Executive Dog Officer), the family’s friendly Bedlington Terrier, excitedly scampers across the hardwood floors. A smattering of children’s toys mingles with the expansive living room’s fashionably rustic décor. The huge picture windows frame a postcard view of the Rockies.   

“This is a great place for our entire family to get together,” says Pelz proudly. “It’s a very livable home. There’s nothing here you can’t put your feet on.”

And, he believes, there’s nothing about the short game he can’t put his finger on. Pelz, who spent 14 years as a NASA scientist before dedicating himself full-time in the 1970s to golf research and development, claims numerous golf patents, founded the Dave Pelz Scoring Game School (with TK locations, including Cordillera) and counts among his students the winners of 19 major championships—including Phil Mickelson, Andy North, Vijay Singh and Lee Janzen. He has authored five books, the most recent of which, Golf Without Fear, serves as a topic of discussion as we retire to his home office furnished with a large desk, turf putting green and two plush leather chairs.

How did you become involved with Cordillera?

We were invited to give a school at the Mountain Course. After a few years the owners presented us with the idea of building a facility on a little parcel of available land. We developed 45 acres into a teaching facility and 10-hole short course. It’s the favorite of my school locations in terms of beauty, but not revenue because it’s a shorter golf season. We fell in love with the place and built a home.

What do you love about your home in Colorado?

This place is as close heaven as you can get in the sense that you get the greatest vision of our planet and space at night. I’m a space guy and the inspiration I get from looking at the Milky Way and meteor showers is incredible. In the day you get golden aspens, brightest blue skies you’ve ever seen and snowcapped peaks. Beauty inspires me. Space inspires me. And when I’m here I have both and it makes me feel like being creative.

Do you do a lot of work from here?

My wife runs the company from this house and I do all my writing here. It’s a really intense process. I get here in the evening and sleep, sometimes as long as 16 hours. When I get up, I put on my sweats, get a cup of coffee and start on a book. That starts a series of days where all I do is eat, sleep and write for a week to 10 days. It’s a free flow of thoughts. The key to writing is to get totally immersed in it.

So you really launched the writing part of your career from this house.

I’ve written all six books here. My first book was Putt Like the Pros. It sold OK, but amazingly sold at the same rate for the next 10 years. They offered me an advance to write a four-book compendium on putting and short game. Next came Short Game Bible and for one day it was the New York Times’ bestseller before Harry Potter came out and passed me. Because it sold so well I wrote Putting Bible and it too sold very well. We’ve followed that up with Damage Control and we’ve most recently released Golf Without Fear. Things are going very well. I really don’t consider myself a writer. I love to do research. I love to do testing. I love working with the pros.

What was your approach to Golf Without Fear?

I did research on fear before I even started to think about the book and I found there’s only room for fear or not fear. You can’t stand over a shot being absolutely confident and scared to death at the same time. So what causes fear? As soon as your brain senses fear, like encountering a rattlesnake, your heart beats faster and your body releases adrenaline. You can’t help it. It’s an innate human response. You get the same reaction standing over a two-foot putt. My thought was let’s deal with why do you fear this shot and understand the shot, understand why it’s difficult, think through what needs to be done to conquer that difficulty, devise a roadmap to internalize the very things we need to become good at that shot. This book has changed my view of what I can accomplish in helping golfers improve and enjoy the game at home.

What is the most feared shot in golf?

Three-foot putts. It’s the easiest shot in golf, but the most feared because of embarrassment.

What’s your most feared shot?

Tight lies. In the last three years I’ve moved from not understanding my fear into a healthy skepticism, but with complete understanding. I am 100% sure that with more time I’d develop complete confidence.

Speaking of confidence, it must have taken a lot of guts to leave a successful career with NASA to pursue golf instruction.

My parents could not believe that I was going to leave a government senior scientist position with longevity and a retirement program. I was doing very well at NASA and here I am starting a golf company nobody has ever heard of. It took six years for my dad to tell his friends I had left NASA.

How did it go when you first made the change?

I lost all the money and all my investors’ money. It was a disaster as a business, but I was having so much fun. In the second year we decided to mortgage our house and two cars and resign from Goddard Space Flight Center. That was probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. If I had known how difficult it was going to be, I probably wouldn’t have done it. I’m not that much of a risk taker. I got in the second year and lost my house and both cars and borrowed money from Tour pros. But I did have an optimistic attitude. By the third year I was committed, but I didn’t make any money for 20 years.

So you felt you were taking your knowledge of science and research and applying it to golf.

Exactly. My wife, JoAnn, and I were talking one night and I told her that I’m a golfer who loves physics, not a physicist who loves golf. I would rather play, study and research golf than science. I’m still very interested in space and the stars, but researching golf is my passion.

How are golf and physics similar?

Matter, because of gravity, forms into balls. That’s why they’re all round. Balls roll, balls spin, balls go up in down on different planes. Golf is physics, but it’s a lot more fun than just physics. I can apply the same science to golf and then go play the darn game itself, which is just unbelievable.

Why short game?

Gay Brewer. He was the best quality of player for the quality of his swing in the world. He looked like a 40-handicap playing with–and often beating–the greats. I decided to find out why he was such a great player and developed a technique for learning where players lose their strokes. Sixty to seventy percent are lost putting and eighty percent are lost to par inside of 100 yards. I would go to a driving range and find 22 people on the range and one person on the chipping green. Go fish where the fish are. It’s not rocket science.

How can the average golfer have time to practice your teachings?

The guy who said, “practice makes perfect” really hurt the game. Practice makes permanent not perfect. Bad practice makes permanently bad golfers. The average person doesn’t have time to practice. It’s an hour round trip to practice sand shots for 15 minutes. It’s important to make this easy, convenient and something you can do 10 minutes a day without changing your life. I think if people really do what I tell them to do in this book, it will work for a very high percentage of golfers. Now you can’t do everything at home and gain confidence. Confidence only comes with performing well on the course.

What was one of your earliest successes?

I think I might have been the first guy to realize that the wedges of the 1970s were not very good golf clubs and that I could help the total game by improving the short game and improving the loft and bounce of these clubs. I made a 60-degree wedge for Tom Kite, Andy North and other players at a time when nobody had a wedge higher than 55 degrees. People thought I was nuts until Kite became the No. 1 money winner. If he hadn’t been successful, or Andy North hadn’t won a couple tournaments, you might never have heard of Dave Pelz. But my theories were right.

Who has the best short game on Tour?

Over 30 years I’ve worked with more than 140 Tour players and the best natural raw talent was Gary Hallberg. Right behind him is Phil Mickelson. Phil is one-third short game, one-third putting and one-third full swing. That was one of my greatest gifts to Phil. Before I started working with him eight years ago he hadn’t won a major. Now he’s won four.

What course offers the best short game test?

Augusta National would be first. They have a combination tight lies, slopes of greens and green speeds. It’s not that their greens are the fastest in the history of the world, but they’re faster for the given slope than anywhere else. And they have monster slopes.

What’s your next project?

We have a list of future projects, but the one I have the most research and information on is a book on course management. It will probably be the toughest book I ever do. People call it the mental side of golf, but it’s really a bigger topic than that. I believe there’s a whole subject matter involving the mental side of golf with managing your own game­. Dave Pelz’s Management Bible would be way deeper than any other books on the subject. I’m all about how the mind controls the game and how your mind can deal with a golf course. This will be a tough book to write. People talk about course management and game management as if they were the same topic. One without the other is ridiculous. They’re interwoven. Part is mental, part is physical and part is nature.

Do you think you’ll ever retire?

People often ask that. I always say I think I’ve been retired for about 30 years.