Dave Pelz

David T. Pelz is an American golf coach, known for his expertise and published writing on the art of the short game, particularly putting.

Pelz's Short Game Bible was a New York Times "national best-seller" in 1999. Pelz was named by Golf Digest magazine as one of the 25 most influential instructors of the 20th Century. Pelz continues his research at the Pelz Golf Institute in Spicewood, Texas.

Pelz attended Indiana University on a four-year golf scholarship where he majored in physics. He played, and lost to, Jack Nicklaus on 22 occasions.

In 1961, Pelz joined NASA, working at the Goddard Space Flight Center doing research on the upper atmospheres of the earth and other planets in the solar system. Pelz became a senior scientist with responsibilities for several satellite programs, including Explorer.

Pelz, still disappointed at his own inability to make the grade for the PGA Tour, decided to apply his knowledge of physics to the game. Pelz's own weakness was his short game, so in 1970 he began measuring what happens when the putter head strikes the ball, and how the mechanics of player and club swing through the putter. His research led to the development of the "Teacher Putter" patent. Pelz improved his putting enough to qualify for, and play in, the U.S. Amateur, though he lost in the second round, and he finished as a medalist in the Maryland State Amateur. His experiences convinced him that good putting, far from being solely a natural ability, could be learned.

In 1975, Pelz took a leave of absence from NASA and started Preceptor Golf, formed to manufacture and market the Teacher Putter. At first, the USGA ruled against the Teacher Putter, saying it was "designed to be adjustable during play." They later ruled if two separate inserts were used, it would conform to the rules. In 1996, the USGA again banned the Teacher Putter on the grounds that it is not "plain in shape."

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