Are you a stats addict?

Oddsocks

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I’m noticing more often YouTube bloggers, pros etc are all asking for stats to know what your weaknesses are. Our mate cross field has just launched www.mygolfgains.co.uk site for just this with the focus being free videos to address your specific weakness and so on.

I know my weakness off the tee (short before Dando pipes up) with a miss generally to the right and could probably give stats of 30% miss right, 50-55% hit with 15% missing left

Im curious since the introduction of things like shotscope, arcos etc, has anyone really stuck at stats and have they found it useful?
 

Imurg

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Tried them
Spent more time thinking about Stats than playing the shots
Played worse.
Gave them up
To be honest, as we're all amateurs, any day we can have a strength that becomes a weakness and vice versa......your stats tell you that you hit 60% of fairways when you're having a bad day off the tee and you can't hit any.....
 

BiMGuy

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I have. I have/had Arccos as I got the sensors free from Ping.

I always considered my short putting to be my main weakness.

Turns out it was my approach play costing me the most shots and my putting is broadly in line with where so want my ability to be. My short putt stats were decent but longer putts were costing me shots.

So I’ve been concentrating on improving my approach play. Which is still not great but improving.

I have removed all the sensors and don’t track shots during the round now. I keep a note and add them after

I’m trying to get to the level of a 5 HC. You can see from this where the issue is.

7FCCB5A5-3EB8-41F5-B5EC-D79786626C14.jpeg
 
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I just kept my scores per hole for my home course, to see which holes I struggled on most, and then considered if there was a better way of playing them.
 

Steve Wilkes

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I don't take it too serious, here's my stats from my round at High Elms last Monday with Bragger & BiM

I've got every score from every hole I've played since 1977, From 1996 I've got every hole for Fairway Hit, Green in Reg, Putts, Bunker Save and if I got up and down from around the the green, and from 2014 got every shot mapped out with yardages as well and Strokes Gained on each shot compared to Scratch player from that distance. So I don't take it that serious, seriously I don't?
 

Wabinez

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I used to think I was. Wanted to track stats, find improvements etc. Recently bought a ShotScope H4 to get back into it. Last 27 holes and then gave up as I just couldn't be faffed.

Get out, play golf. The stat that matters most is the one number that is made up of 18 little (hopefully) numbers.
 

Orikoru

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I keep a record of the stats that Hole19 gives me. So scores, fairways and greens in regulation, number of putts. I don't really use them for anything though other than point of interest. If I see that I didn't hit many greens I just think "oh - I was crap at hitting greens today". I don't go and work on it or anything. Next time I might hit more greens. :LOL:

I do put all my scores into one Excel sheet so I can see my average scores on each hole relative to par. So if I've not parred one for a long time I might think about deploying a different strategy.
 

Steve Wilkes

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Interesting - how are you calculating strokes gained?

I managed to get the average shots taken from every yardage from Tee, Fairway, Rough, Bunker etc and average Putts taken from distances on the Green for Pros on the PGA tour and for Scratch players though PGA shotlink data publish by Mark Broadie a few years back.

If you take the first Hole 365 yards scratch golfers average 4.20 shots (Pros 3.89),
I drove into the rough 146 yards from the pin, from which it takes 3.30 shots on average, so my drive lost 0.10,
I then found the bunker 12 yards from the pin (average 2.64) so lost 0.34 on my shot from the rough,
and lost 0.20 for the bunker shot that finished 15ft from the hole,
didn't hole the first putt which lost 0.16 and tapped in from 6 inches, even scratch players don't miss from there so lost or gained nothing.
Adding it all up took 5 to 4.20 so lost 0.80 strokes on the hole
 

Ethan

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Lesson 1 in stats is measuring stuff. Lesson 2 is figuring out what is useful and what is not.

Some data is not very informative, the old fairways and greens hit wasn't all that sensitive to score, but better data like proximity to the hole from certain distances helped, and now strokes gained is very useful.

There has been an associated recent trend for strategic mapping on the PGA Tour, where a guy whose names escapes me, maps out every hole and estimates percentages for different options, e.g. driver, wedge versus 3 wood, 8 iron, and has really helped some players improve their scoring, Will Zalatoris a good example.

For example on a given hole, he will look at the driving width and hazards, and figure out that the optimal strategy is to play to 260 not 290, because the combination of the chance of getting on the fairway, the price you pay if you don't, and then the probability of getting birdie or par is better for the 260 yard option.
 

woofers

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I used to keep some stats but not the ‘pure’ ones as measured by the Pro’s.
For instance my definition of fairway hit was whether or not I was having to play some sort of recovery shot, therefore if I was in the first cut and playing the same sort of shot had I been in the middle of the fairway I classified that as ‘fairway hit’, so strictly speaking I guess I was measuring ‘trouble off the tee?” Although I wasn‘t finding every fairway, a figure of 85% meant that I was generally in play off the tee, therefore not a critical area for improvement.
Alongside Greens in Regulation, I kept ‘Nett Greens in Regulation’ relative to my handicap. This would give a decent indication regarding course management. Why beat yourself up about not reaching a long par 4 in two if you have a shot on the hole, and can get on in three comfortably, maybe even close.
Then, of course, number of putts. Use these to calculate number of putts per GIR and number of putts per NGIR. Almost certainly the putts per NGIR will be considerably lower then putts per GIR, and this can give a good indication of how sharp your approach and short game is.
At the end of the day, are you keeping stats for stats sake, or for improvement? As eluded to earlier, you can tie yourself in knots chasing marginal gains.
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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…other than my HI my interest in stats about my game is pretty low. But not as low as it was before my pro explained the analysis of my swing when measured in our swing studio. That has definately helped me understand the flaws that were in my swing; which of the many analytics I must change; and importantly why I must change these analytics.

But as far as stats about my rounds. Nah. Not yet anyway.
 

Oddsocks

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I managed to get the average shots taken from every yardage from Tee, Fairway, Rough, Bunker etc and average Putts taken from distances on the Green for Pros on the PGA tour and for Scratch players though PGA shotlink data publish by Mark Broadie a few years back.

If you take the first Hole 365 yards scratch golfers average 4.20 shots (Pros 3.89),
I drove into the rough 146 yards from the pin, from which it takes 3.30 shots on average, so my drive lost 0.10,
I then found the bunker 12 yards from the pin (average 2.64) so lost 0.34 on my shot from the rough,
and lost 0.20 for the bunker shot that finished 15ft from the hole,
didn't hole the first putt which lost 0.16 and tapped in from 6 inches, even scratch players don't miss from there so lost or gained nothing.
Adding it all up took 5 to 4.20 so lost 0.80 strokes on the hole

My brain got to “ I then found the bunker “ which indicates I’m clearly not a stats man ??‍♂️

I think there are some clearly easy stats that you can monitor after a round which would give clear reflection of what needs to be worked on.

Fairways hit
GIR
Sand saves
Up & downs on missed greens
Putting stats (how many, how many left short/long)
 

Bratty

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I've got every score from every hole I've played since 1977, From 1996 I've got every hole for Fairway Hit, Green in Reg, Putts, Bunker Save and if I got up and down from around the the green, and from 2014 got every shot mapped out with yardages as well and Strokes Gained on each shot compared to Scratch player from that distance. So I don't take it that serious, seriously I don't?
I loved the fact you let me fill the scores in for the three of us, but still carried and marked a card yourself with all that data on it! I was impressed and gobsmacked in equal measure. ?
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Before I start worrying too much about my playing stats I need to learn to hit my irons a lot better than I do. Currently far too inconsistent with the strike and too many mess ups for me to worry about the stats.
 

Foxholer

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I've got every score from every hole I've played since 1977, From 1996 I've got every hole for Fairway Hit, Green in Reg, Putts, Bunker Save and if I got up and down from around the the green, and from 2014 got every shot mapped out with yardages as well and Strokes Gained on each shot compared to Scratch player from that distance. So I don't take it that serious, seriously I don't?
Unless you are actually, or very near, a scratch player - and your scorecard from High Elms indicates that you aren't - then I believe comparing your data with that of a scratch player, while not a complete waste of time, is flawed! There are much simpler metrics that can indicate relative performance, therefore things to work most on to get to the next level imo.
FWIW, the numbers you've reported do indicate that simply recording such things as FiR is not great either, as the shots lost to a Scratch player are, apart from one hole, are minimal. I've always considered a 'better' metric is 'Tee shots that provide likely GIR' to be a better metric. Thus 1st cut might be a FW missed, but expectation is still GIR. The simplicity means I can spend more time actually playing Golf than recording/analysing it!
 
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Steve Wilkes

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I loved the fact you let me fill the scores in for the three of us, but still carried and marked a card yourself with all that data on it! I was impressed and gobsmacked in equal measure. ?

Hi Bratty, I'm just a stats geek, I know how many Runs I've score in my Cricket career, started in 1984 and how I've been dismissed, how many 4's, 6's etc and balls faced how many balls bowled, wickets wides no balls maidens how many 4's and 6's I've been hit for, The same with my Ten-Pin league bowling, Frames bowled, Strikes, Spares, Splits, what pins I've left standing and much much more, but couldn't tell you how many goals I scored in my 10 year football career though, all I know it was under 10, just remembered I sometimes took the penalties, so might have got to double figures when counting them ?
 
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