Patrick Brennan
7 minutes
We all want to get better at golf.
But there’s too much information out there on how to achieve this. YouTube is one approach, but generic swing tips and range drills may not be what you really want as summer begins to peak – and you just want to play a round with your mates.
On TheGrint, your personal golf data is easy to find if you are a premium member. This article will explain the ‘Insights’ feature of the app – and how to use it to better understand your game.
Dr Bob Rotella tells us in ‘Golf is not a Game of Perfect’ that we can only play with the swing we have brought to the course that day. We can’t magically fix something in one minute. We have to hit the shot we know we can hit.
And this is taken one step further in TheGrint - the Insights tool in the app demonstrates a comprehensive breakdown of your entire golfing game, dissected and exposed for your eyes only.
Each aspect of the game is ranked, according to data pulled from your rounds to assign a handicap to each area of your game. You hear the classic moan ‘I drive it like a 5 handicap but putt like a 25’.
Well, with Insights in TheGrint – this can be put to the test.
Each ‘Actionable Stat’ in the game is listed, meaning the skill that can be worked on. For example; Driving Accuracy, Approach Accuracy, Penalties, Scrambling.
‘Outcome Stats’ represent the result of those combined skills – so Scoring, Greens in Regulation (GIR), Grints, and Putting.
Your game is ranked, assigned a handicap, and compared to other areas of your game. If your approach game is a scratch handicap, and your Scrambling is a 10, those two variables are affected by one another - if you keep missing the green, you will be heavily reliant on your scrambling!
It’s interesting to see how areas of the game link together, all possible in the Performance section of TheGrint Insights.
See below, where each individual aspect of my game is organized and assigned a handicap.
TheGrint rewards frequent rounds of golf – the more you play, the more information you have, and those actionable stats can be analysed and lead to better outcomes.
This is my favourite representation of data in the app - the fact that each aspect of the game is given a ranking really helps to understand your own game.
If all other areas of my game stayed the same, but I reduced an actionable statistic like penalty shots - it’s a faster way of improving my score, rather than focusing on swing mechanics. This could be club selection off the tee, or more focus on course management rather than my ball trajectory.
We are able to alter our approach to golf and course management much more easily than our swing mechanics - and the insights in the Grint mean we are able to hone in on where our strengths and weaknesses lie.
These insights are generated based on analyzing every score recorded by Grinters within that handicap level. For example, if you are an 8.2 handicap, your insights and benchmarks are evaluated against scores recorded by Grinters that had a 7.5 to 8.4 handicap.
It's important that we call out the general shape of some of the trendlines as handicap decreases. Specifically, driving and putting have a relatively flat trendline, so small variations can lead this to look like a strength or weakness within your handicap level.
For example:
So you could be a 10 handicap and average 32 putts and be perfectly in range. But if you have a slightly worse putting performance in just a few rounds, (a missed 3 footer, an off day with your irons leading to more shots further from the hole and more putts in general), this could have the impact of increasing your putting average to 32.6. Based on the data, this looks more like a 15 handicap, and a weakness in your game.
Another way to think about it - it's possible a 16 handicap can putt like a 0 handicap, but they’ll never hit 13 greens in regulation like a 0 handicap would. So the putting stats are more similar across a range of handicaps - whereas you can typically tell by someone’s swing whether they are a good golfer tee to green.
I hope you can enjoy the performance section of Insights module, a huge benefit of your Pro membership with TheGrint. Get into the numbers and work on your game!
