grinter001
10 minutes
...Learning from your Golf Statistics
Even though there are many tools available these days to golfers to track their performance, still most golfers don’t track it either because they don’t find it useful or because is just too much work. However, by not tracking their stats most golfers miss to understand their game; therefore miss to develop the right strategy when they play their rounds. And by the way, I will tell you later in this article why tracking your stats is not so difficult anymore.
I assume that most of my readers agree with me that having a clear strategy is fundamental to have a good round. But can you set a strategy if you don’t understand your game?
Note: In this article I will talk about how to develop a strategy to lower your scores, which might be very different to what you would need to apply when you are competing against someone.[/caption]
Setting your strategy in golf is as simple as determining how aggressive or defensively you will play each hole. You should determine that by Defending when you face challenges and Attacking when you feel confident. These challenges or confidence are determined by the Golf Course and the Strengths and Weaknesses of your game.
Attacking mode means more aggressive lines, and Defensive mode means more conservative lines.
Consider the first shot at the famous 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Most people look at this hole and think about the danger on the left, the trees on the middle of the fairway and the guarded green and then make decisions based on an anecdotal point of view.
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Instead, I encourage you to look at it from a historical and fact based point of view. This is a long par 5, dogleg to the left and water to the left. How do I typically do on holes with these characteristics? What are my typical mistakes and typical safe shots?
At the end, if you are at Pebble Beach’s 18th you’d probably be in trouble anyway ;-) But let me elaborate more on understanding The Golf Course and Yourself.
I believe that this exercise is an analytical and a qualitative one. The analytical side is necessary to understand your skill aptitudes and the qualitative one is necessary to understand your mental aptitudes. I won’t get into the mental aspect, but will give you tools to understand the skill aspect.
Most people believe that tracking your stats is complicated and unnecessary. Both are wrong. It is as simple as using the right tools and knowing how to use them. At thegrint.com we provide a free service that allows you to 1) take a picture of the scorecard at the end of the round with your phone and 2) email it or upload it using TheGrint app and the score will be uploaded for you. It cannot be easier than that.
There are some typical direct indicators like Handicap Index, Average Scores, Greens in Regulation% (GIR%), Fairway accuracy and number of Pars/Birdies/Bogeys per round. These indicators are direct and are useful to determine your expectations of how you will play.
There are also the indirect statistics that allow you to make conclusions from looking at different data. See below some explanation and sample graphs from thegrint.com you should follow to further understand your own game:
Score by Hole Par and GIR% by Hole Par should help in understanding your Approach and Driving ability. In the example below you can see my stats which shows that I perform best in Par 3’s, which tells me that my Approach is probably stronger than my Driving. One interesting fact is that my GIR% in Par 5’s is the highest, even though my average score over par is higher for Par 5’s than Par 3’s. This most likely means that when I miss on Par 3’s I don’t miss as bad as when I miss with the Driver on Par 5’s. You should combine this with Fairway Accuracy and Putts per Hole Par for even more accurate results.
Most people tend to play in the same golf courses 90% of the time. Therefore they naturally develop an understanding of their Windows and Walls. A Window is basically an opportunity to play your kind of shot. A Wall is those times when you face shots that do not adapt to your kind of shot. For example, I am a lefty and hit a natural fade, therefore tee shots on left to right doglegs are a nightmare for me. Those holes I naturally play more conservative. But good strategy goes further than just that. Let’s look at the following graph I took from my stats at TheGrint.com
Before I play each round I check my stats for the course that I will play. It literally takes 5 minutes to go on the web and do it, and it gives me the right mindset in the most important holes. I look at my stats (graph above) and take mental notes of top Window holes (3,4,14,16) and Wall holes (5,7,13,17). I will put more effort in those 8 holes by analyzing exactly how I will play those holes once I get there.
A good strategy also has components of where to miss. You see how PGA professionals know exactly which side of the green would penalize them more if they miss. We amateurs have a higher probability of missing the green and we still hit shots without thinking about it. Consider the scenario on the image below.
Most golfers choose route “A” because a straight line is the shortest route to get from two different points. Consider instead route “B” that will provide you a safer entry point to the green. Also consider “B” as a landing point on the green because it significantly reduces the bunker threat. Even though it will reduce your already small chances to get a birdie on a protected green like this one.
A real good golf strategist combines this aspect with his stats and facts. That golfer will combine his historical performance with anecdotal performance and adjust lines to adjust results. If you have had bad results but had always played this hole using route “A”, then once you start using route “B” you should adjust your mindset.
Now I have talked about understanding yourself and the golf course. Some of these ideas are fairly simple as long as you track your game, and with Today tools everyone should take advantage of it. In summary, a round strategy is as simple as defining how aggressively you will play each hole. That will be defined based on your own game’s Weaknesses and Strengths as well as the golf course’s Windows and Walls. Also, I hope that at this point you noticed that if you are trying to lower your round score, my line of thinking preaches that you should not adapt your hole by hole strategy based on the results of your previous holes in the same round. Instead you should continue to play the same strategy you set for each hole from the beginning of the round and trust statistics.
