That’s super interesting, what do your outliers look like? Any big scores in either direction?
Maybe local knowledge is mostly a myth or rarely actionable?
Thanks for the hard data! That’s what I get for guessing!
Good point. I’ve noticed this inconsistency on my SkyTrak working on wedge shots and set the main distance number to display to “Carry” … not “Total”.
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Yeah, my goal with the wedges is to get a consistent DISTANCE built in and basically ignore the number… then figure out how far that shot goes on the course.
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I do track my stats. I track old-school stats, such as fairways hit, GIR, Up/Down percentage, par 3, par 4 and par 5 scoring, and overall score. I also track where I miss fairways and greens. I find that knowing my stats helps immensely with my enjoyment of the game by helping to set realistic expectations.
It also helps me pinpoint what I need to work on. I’ve been lucky enough to have a webinar with @ScottFawcettDECADE and I’ve also had many Twitter DM convos with @jon. One of the things both of them emphasized with me is that hitting Greens is key to scoring better. As I started tracking GIR stats, I could clearly see that I had 2 issues going on. 1) I was too aggressive with my targets, and 2) I needed to either move up a set of tees or add distance because it’s hard to hit greens when hitting a 6 iron or longer in (for me anyway). This initially led to me changing my strategy, then I got a lesson and now I’m working on distance.
For the year, my GIR percentage is up from 44% in 2019 to 48% in 2020. Over my last 20 rounds, I’m hitting 55% GIR. Also my handicap dropped from 4.0 at the start of the year to 2.5 now.
I think everyone should use data, but they have to figure out how to best use it for them.
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Awesome! It is funny that a stat like GIR can be so useful when it’s easy to get into the weeds on other things… I will say that figuring out how to improve your GIR is the challenge, and likely different for most golfers.
As you said, it’s all about actionable data… how can you actually improve? One big realization for me was chasing birdies.
I asked my club pro for the data on Men’s day last year, and it was fascinating to see the breakdown of eagles, birdies, pars, bogeys and worse… The amount of birdies was much lower than I expected, and it’s taken me awhile to accept the concept of “birdies are what happens when you are making sure you make par”.
Instead of focusing on hitting wedges closer (one of my big drives last season), I’m now working on making sure I’m picking good targets and hitting greens more frequently… it’s been a helpful shift and also exposed how weak my putting is.
Actionable data! Hooray.
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Have I mentioned that I’m a giant data nerd? Looks like I mostly play better on new courses, but when I play worse, it tends to be much worse…
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If you prepare properly there should be no difference.
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so your std deviation looks to be about 5 strokes which is pretty great. I wonder if there is a standard formula that fits most golfers.
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Great post! With the flood of “new” data (LM, SG from every conceivable facet, etc) it’s a challenge to find what’s ACTIONABLE.
My current rabbit hole is an Arccos screen that shows score, fairway%, GIR%, #putts, etc for each hole on a given course. Funny, but many moons ago (“what’s a PC?” era) I wrote a program to do the exact same thing. After I compiled several rounds, I was shocked to find out I was hemorrhaging strokes on the same holes. Ok, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I’ll bet more than one reader out there does as well.
I remember thinking endlessly about my strategy on those holes and eventually working out a functional approach.
Years passed and lately I got mired in the “new” data, weeding thru “interesting” stuff until I read your post. “Actionable” is exactly the trigger I was missing! Oh, sure I could (and have!) spend hundreds of hours focusing on GIRs from 125-175 or whatever but to what result? Might shave a few tenths per round? By focusing on my “nemesis” holes I lowered my score 5 shots per!
Recently I decided to revisit the low-hanging fruit by studying my stats on my home course, looking for low GIRs%, high average hole scores, low fairway%, etc. I then ask “what am I attempting to accomplish with each shot? Where does it go wrong, ie where can I reduce risk? What are my alternatives? Why am I having trouble with this hole?”
My thinking is to:
- improve performance on my home course
- recognize the features of the hole that make it problematic for me
- learn to recognize similar features on holes on new courses
For example: #3 has a tiny elevated green with a steep hill in front (a ball spinning off the green can roll back 60y) and junk behind. My GIRs% was horrible. When I missed short, I faced an uphill pitch; when I flushed one I’m in the junk facing a nasty chip to a downhill green. Upon reflection, my strategy was to hit a high spinner to hold the green. I recently collected some data on rollout on this elevated green. Based on this, I found a better strategy is to club to just clear the front of the green (rather than center) and allow for the rollout due to the elevation. Counter-intuitively, taking spin off allows even misses short to trundle on and flushes (which typically spin more) landing near center to hold the back.
These are lessons that will help me perform better on my home course as well as (hopefully) transfer to other courses with similar hole features.
Additionally, this hole-by-hole analysis doesn’t interfere with range or sim sessions driven by “new” data; if anything it provides further incentive to work the shots I know I’ll need. Sure, I still work on my 125-175 dispersion and whatnot but I’m thinking all nemesis holes are actionable if only we knew how. It’s the marriage of solid strategy with concomitant execution.
Jury’s still out whether this is a rabbit hole or rathole, I’ll keep you posted.
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Love it. That’s one of my keys, too, that I need to improve … is to reduce/eventually eliminate (??) the blow-up nemesis holes!
Have a similar hole at a short 9 hole course near me I play often - tricky approach to a very small and very sloped green; and another on the Front 9 of the local muni where I also need to recognize the features that are making it visually challenging for me.
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This is awesome, and I’m glad to have helped in what ever minor way I could…
It’s also made me think about the data my club collects from men’s Saturday rounds and how they could probably start pulling actionable data from people who are playing 10+ rounds a year in the Saturday events…
I’ve been contemplating learning sql anyways…
I’m really excited to get some rounds in next season… I’m hoping I have a better approach on my home course!
The lower shot into an uphill green is also a wonderful suggestion, something I’ll definitely put into play on a few holes at my course!
Another action item for me will be spending time on the simulator figuring out how to land balls at similar yardages with different amount of spin…
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Over the past year I’ve jotted down notes after each round in a small notebook. Areas where I’ve leaked shots, look for opportunities and potentially identify trends (from a particular shot, lie, club or specific hole). But they’re also notes that hard stats miss. This includes playing focus or metal scorecard as Scott calls it which includes adrenaline spikes, rushing through my routine, distractions, poor short term memory (hanging on to a bad shot), etc. The behavioral side of sport performance. Also “anyway or whatever” shots. These are shots where you were uncomfortable over the ball, not sure about your setup or rushed through your preshot and you pulled the trigger anyway. Admit it, we all do it from time to time and it often results in a missed opportunity.
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Arccos has a new wearable, Link that is VERY small and eliminates the need to carry your phone. Great system.
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Nice! I love my s62 for data collection… just need to track putting.