The World's Best Short-Game Player

By: Bob Boldt


If you asked anybody over a five-decade period who was the professional with the best short game, everyone would agree - hands down - that it was George Archer.

George Archer: 44 professional wins, 1969 Masters champion, 13 PGA titles and 19 Senior PGA titles, held the PGA Tour record for fewest putts (95, Sea Pines Heritage Classic) until 1986.

There isn't any professional past or present that had George's short game. I learned the game in my college days when George was an amateur playing in Northern California at Harding Park and Richmond Country Club. During that time there was a host of famous amateurs and professionals in the Bay Area: Ken Venturi, Tony Lema, Bob Rosburg, Harvie Ward, and Dick and John Lotz. I was lucky to hang out with all of them.

George was so good with his flat stick that no one would putt with him for money. He was a hustler and would putt with the blade of his wedge and still beat us.

George had a learning disability and could not read or write, and there have not been any articles written on George's theories or methods. But he was a genius at every aspect of golf, including equipment, golf balls, trick shots and hitting every shot from 100 yards in - even how to hit the ball out of water.

Sand

I spent hours in the practice trap with George, and after I received his tips I put them to use and was an Epson Sand Save Leader on the Senior Tour. The Epson Sand Save stat was a percentage based on the number of times a player got the ball down in two, for par, from a greenside bunker.

The sand shot has always been the hardest shot for my students. It is the only shot in golf where the club head does not touch the ball.

George's Tips from the Sand

1. Pretend you are scooping the ball out of the sand with your hand. George would actually take his hand and scoop the ball to show how it was done. This is exactly what the sand wedge does.

2. Use an open stance with no body movement. Make a wristy scooping motion, with the heel of the back foot in the sand at impact.

3. Sand wedge must have bounce on the sole. The softer the sand the more bounce required. George always had a dozen wedges with different grinds, and he was so advanced in his technology that Wilson Staff hired him to make their wedges. The famous J.P. Tour Grind Sand Wedge was the result of George's work.

4. A very loose grip is necessary for scooping the ball correctly.

5. Ball Trajectory - With a high trajectory, take the club outside intended line. With a normal trajectory, take the club along the intended line. On long bunker shots, take the club inside the intended line.

Hitting Out of Water

I came out to practice one rainy day at Richmond Country Club at the green on the l00-yard-deep practice area. George said, "Bob, do you want to know how to hit the ball out of water?" I said, "Why do I want to learn how to hit out of water?"

George replied, "If the ball is in water in a trap you can't drop out of the trap, and if you drop in the trap you will probably bury. Plus, if you are in a hazard and you can hit out you won't have to take a penalty. Put on your rain suit. There's water in the trap and I've been working on how to get out every time."

I watched George hit out of the water next to the pin on almost every shot. What George showed me is still amazing to this day and I actually pulled off this water shot in a Senior Tour event, getting up and down for par.

George's Tip: Stand exactly parallel to the target line, do not stand open as in a normal sand shot because with the club head approaching the water at that angle the water will stay above the face and the ball will hydroplane. Take the club almost straight up and straight down, cupping your hands up toward the target after impact. If the ball is entirely below water level take a drop instead.

I think this tip offers insight into George's constant searching for any possible path to a lower golf score.

George's Tips - Putting

1. Never move your lower body, feel like you are embedded in cement. George had a difficult time due to his 6'6" frame, and actually bowed his legs in order to keep his lower body still.

2. Putter must have a slight pause before going forward.

3. Pretend your hand is your putter and roll a golf ball forward using your hand. The feeling you receive is the same as a perfect putting stroke.

4. Pace is as important as the line of the putt. George would put a tee 18" behind the hole and practice hitting the tee.

5. Reading Greens: Read the green from five angles, but never directly behind the ball until you read for a final line. Mark your ball, go look from two feet to the left and two feet to the right of your line and determine how the ball might break from those angles. If you have time, go behind the hole on the same lines and determine the break from those angles, too. Once you have those four breaks figured out, determine the final line from behind the ball.

My own tip is to always look for mountains or water, with most greens breaking away from any mountainous terrain and towards water. I also used any tip, if I could get one, by asking the local PGA professional if there was any local knowledge about the way the ball breaks or if there were any greens faster than others, etc. At the Bob Hope tournament the local knowledge is that the ball breaks toward downtown Palm Springs.

George's Tips from Inside 100 Yards

1. No lower body movement; hit the shot like you're hitting a long chip shot.

2. Use various lofted clubs from 100 yards in with minimum lower body movement.

3. Lob Shots: The flight of the ball and the spin is regulated by your weight distribution. With a narrow stance, forward press with your hands, weight moves from the front to the back foot, depending on the trajectory you want, no body movement. The more weight on your back foot the higher the trajectory; the more on the front foot the lower the trajectory.

4. Most players open the face of the wedge and cut across the ball with the legs moving into the hitting area, a sure method for disaster. If you open a 60-degree wedge how do you know what loft it is? Moving your legs results in shutting down the club face, the legs moving left of your target. George stayed as steady over chip shots as he did with his putter.

5. Putters: One day I came to Richmond CC and noticed George with a plastic graph on the putting green marked with all kinds of lines and angles. There was an elderly gentleman who had parked an old beat-up station wagon in front of the clubhouse, explaining to George the graph and a putter he had designed. The putter looked like a plumber's tool.

I didn't watch the demonstration and went out to play 18 holes instead. A few days later George was on the practice green with this putter. I asked him why he was using this monstrous-looking thing. George's answer was, "This putter has the largest sweet spot I have ever putted with, almost four times the sweet spot of my Bulls Eye."

Thinking George was losing his mind I agreed to putt him for money using that putter. We putted for $5 for nine holes, with $1 one-putts. I two-putted every hole. George only two-putted four times; the rest were one-putts. $10 later I was a believer.

Fifty years later this putter is the favorite of all club manufacturers. The name of the putter was the PING Anser and the old gentleman with the graph was Karsten Solheim, founder of the PING Golf Company. After this, George and I would go over to Karsten's house in Redwood City, Calif., where he did all his casting and experimenting in the kitchen. At that time you would never have imagined that he was going to have one of the largest and most successful golf companies in the world.

Later, I saw George and he had all of his putter heads sprayed white. Realizing that any information he gave me from then on would be etched into my memory, I asked about it. George, in his infinite wisdom, looks down at the putter and says, "You can see the line, the loft and the putter head easier." Fifty years later, white putters are still in.

Imagine yourself not having the ability to read or write, playing with numerous surgeries (wrist, back, shoulder, hip replacement, steel rod in your back) and winning 13 times on the PGA Tour, 19 times on the Senior Tour, and the 1969 Masters. Couple this with his 6'6" stature - the tallest player at that time to win a PGA event - and you have George Archer, one of the most remarkable tour professionals ever.

Bob Boldt turned 77 in September 2014. Married for 31 years to Patricia, the father of two - including two sons, Rob and Jason, who are golf professionals and excellent players - played on the PGA and Champions tours for dozens of years, earning multiple victories. Until 1997, he held the Champions Tour record for low score, a 62 in the 1990 MONY Classic at par-72 Pointe Golf Club in Phoenix and, in 1982, won the Northern California Open by a record nine strokes.

The Cal graduate is a long-time native of Northern California and currently the director of golf at Vintners Golf Club in Yountville, where he produces the "Thunderboldts" newsletter and is one of state's most recognized golf instructors. He received the Northern California PGA Section Junior Golf Leader Award in 1999.