Question, what gets punched into excel?
Hole by hole record or just a summary?
Hole by hole record. 8 data points per hole. Spits out lots of things like GIR breakdowns, short game effectiveness, etc. I stare at my Excel, which points to different places to practice…
Practically speaking though, the biggest takeaway every single time I stare at this is the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm. I’ve written this somewhere in this forum before, but I’m constantly amazed at how many strokes I just throw away per round. As a 3 handicap, over the last 20 rounds, I’ve averaged 4 “stupid” shots per round: chunked chips/pitch shots, three putts, and penalty strokes.
Haha for sure… I’ve started using Arrcos too. I don’t trust the insights yet, but hopefully they’ll get better!
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You just summed up decade foundations!
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Fairways hit.
Fairways missed and why - I write a little blurb so I understand and can track patterns for specific things to work on i.e. pull hooks or dead blocks (usually pull hooks).
GIR
Putts per round/hole - and what my misses were (usually right pushes and too fast)
Penalties
Up and downs/Sand saves (scrambling percentage)
Scoring inside 100 yards and approx proximity to hole inside 100 yards
My scorecards look like physics homework by the end of my round, but these things really help me hone in on what I need to work on so I’m practicing with purpose.
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Is it per hole input or do you punch in round summaries?
I do something similar but keep it in a journal that I fill out post round. Then only a few basic stats go into excel.
I agree that actively writing these things down and thinking through it provide massive value. In my mind, the mental exercise of review is actually more valuable than the excel “database”
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I started a topic in this How do you track your stats? as I think it’s an important aspect in actually improving at golf.
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I’m going to steal the fairway tracking system. I haven’t been keeping fairways, have only been focused on greens, near greens and putts but this seems very useful.
I like the yardages as well on approach and strokes inside 100. You and @Bigdadenergy have definitely got my analytical juices flowing.
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I keep a journal with notes from my rounds if anything is sticking out. I track fairways, but that stat is becoming less important to me as distance gives me scoring opportunities from just about anywhere, but if I spent the whole day hitting whip hooks I want to record that, then get to work on why.
My biggest focus is the stuff inside 100 yards.
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What’s the goal for shots inside 100? Per round goal or are you trying to get an average per attempt down to 3 strokes or less?
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I revamped my excel after this little discussion…still not on par with @davidcho hole by hole wizardry but should have a little more context on where I am incurring penalties
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Sub 3 is the scoring goal. Whether or not it should be, my expectation is that I should never do worse than that inside 100.
Playing into that, though, is proximity to hole, missing the green from inside 100, etc. I keep extensive stats from 100 in so I can recognize whether the issue is my wedge play, putting, a combination of both, mental mistakes putting myself in the wrong spots, or a combo of all three.
Doing that helps me identify what I should be spending the bulk of my practice time on. If I’m flushing wedge to 25 feet (just for example sake) and in from 100 and 2-3 putting, then my problem is the flat stick. If I’m leaving it 45 feet and out from 100 in, then my wedges are the problem.
That’s where the raw data comes in to play. The notes I keep on mental lapses or details of conditions etc help me try to make better decisions going forward. Not necessarily a go out and practice benefit, but a don’t do that again ya big dummy benefit.
I should add that one of my 2021 focuses is stretching that out to 125 and in as I should be just as good with a gap wedge in my hand as I am SW or LW.
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Nice. So is total shots inside 100 for a round a meaningful stat?
I’m not going to keep shot by shot record with proximity etc so just wondering if keeping the total on a per round basis is meaningful
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I think to make it useful you’d have to only keep the stat for times when you were between 100-50 yards from the green… otherwise other approach shots would add some noise to your data.
And you’d still have imperfect information… was it four strokes because you missed the green, chipped it past the hole and missed the comeback putt? Or was it three putts from 20 feet?
I’m coming to realize with golf data the more granular you get the more actionable information you collect.
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Not necessarily. More on a by hole basis. That’s why I like that sub 3 target. I think for what I use it for it’s better to be more in the weeds than looking at a big picture.
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This is a good point and I should say that if I leave it 30 out on a 350 yard par 4 I’m recording that in a separate category as it’s more a chip than an approach shot.
Fringe to 50 out is still important for scoring, so I keep tabs on my performance there because around here there are a lot of short par 4s.
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Yeah, I’ve been on a kick of trying to figure out what data I need to make actionable change.
I’ll probably focus on 120-75 yards as one area this year as that’s a fairly common range for me and is mostly “half wedge” distances…
My big pushes are focusing on dispersion and putting… but right now I’m basically in a hold pattern as my back is still hurting (lots of golf thinking, not any golf playing).
I’m hoping to actively track those stats and one of my biggest 10,000 foot goals for the season is to really hone in on what improvements are both helpful and improvable.
I think strategy is going to be one of the bigger helpers for my handicap, just need to actually implement it!
I’m a 6 now, but think I can get to at least a 2 in 2021… If I’m right that strategy is costing me 2 strokes and putting is costing me 2 strokes, it’s a very achievable number.
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Standalone, no, I don’t think total shots is a good stat as you measure it course to course. For the most part, I’m with @Bigdadenergy in that you’re trying to keep the average under 3. The total number can be misleading: if you play a lot of 400 yard holes, then you’ll have many fewer opportunities inside 100 than if you play lots of holes that are <350 yards.
However, I do think it’s meaningful if you play the same course a lot.
I was curious, so for rounds on my home course, I ran a regression of total shots <100 against my total score for the round. [Stats alert] Controlling for course and tee, the R-squared is ~60%. Which is to say that 60% of the variance in my total score is explained by variance in shots <100 yards. That is surprising!! I would have thought it would be meaningful, but I’m surprised to see it >50%.
Now, this is a very dirty metric as there are a half dozen things that feed into this. But still, this really puts a finer point on the “first do no harm” mantra, which shouldn’t surprise me but it does. Out of my 4.0 stupid shots per round, 3.6 are either chunked chips or three putts. I’d bet that the entirety of that <100 variance is right there.
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W back injury, it would be great to work on 100 - 50 exclusively for a bit whenever you are trying to ease back into full swing
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You have a multi tab, golf stats monster workbook… respect
I have been convinced… I am going to break out a separate tab for 60ish - 120 approaches (p wedge down to 1/2 sand wedge)
Yardage, green, proximity, putts, total strokes to get started
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I’ve seen that article before - it really is great, and … I think … a really great guideline/framework for any golfer!
For example, I’m a total bogey golfer (still… dammmmit!) at this point but the principles of actively working on and improving every part of your game - including course mgmt and mental game - are totally applicable to my journey to break 90 and play 80s golf.
@Craigers - good luck to you in reaching … and crossing 
… that scratch milestone 