Deep in the stat cave

[TigerTime]

I have moaned and groaned plenty about my game on this forum over time. I have also posted some good things about my game occasionally. I previously kept strokes gained stats from ShotScope in 2021/2022 - I binned that last year. I am seriously tempted to get up and running with it again as I did find it useful in the sense that I'd learn my weaknesses and my strengths and I'd correlate the stats with where I mentally felt my game was at.

This morning I had a bit of a stinker round and it made me look at my stats. I keep a spreadsheet of all my WHS scores since 2021 - I think this is another method or measuring progress and trying to align it with how I feel about my game. I created the sheet this year to see if I had any improvement as I'm taking monthly lessons for the first time ever and to confirm my thoughts that last year was a bit of a regression. Have monthly lessons this year and have seen improvement so here's hoping. The last couple of months I do feel it's getting worse again though.

So, some stats, courtesy of excel. I don't have stats for casual non counting rounds so can only really go by these.

	2021	2022	2023	2024
Number of WHS rounds played	22	19	29	27
Number of golf courses	1	3	13	9
Average score	95.36	91.26	88.93	91.40
Average to par	+25.36	+21.26	+22.44	+20.90
Average score differential	23.21	19.56	+20.56	18.18

Some Shotscope stats from 2022/2023. Don't have putting - as by the end of using the device I just typed in number of putts and didn't bother with pin positions or distances etc.

Strokes Gained vs a 10 hcp	Tee Shots	Approaches	Short Game
2022	-0.22	-4.67	+1.13
2023 until June	+0.49	-4.29	+0.48

So a decent improvement of about 4 strokes on average from 2021 to 2022, likely down to just gaining experience and playing regularly. I did feel in 2023 I regressed a bit and this kind of shows that - I'm putting it down to the stupid bout of speed training I did at the start of the year that ruined any ball striking ability I had.

So, arguably the lessons are working. Must admit it doesn't really feel like it though. Haven't felt like I can strike a golf ball well for a couple of months. My putting has got worse this year too. My 'bad' days are just as bad as they were in 21/22/23. My 'good' days are a bit better now I guess, but the good days seem to be about 2/3 in 10 rounds. I guess I stopped practicing as much once the better weather arrived in May, so can I really complain that I'm not playing well if I'm not hitting the ball as well as I was back in April? I've not been to the range in well over a month I think. If I see the opportunity for a few holes in the evening I go out and play, when maybe I should be at the range once or twice a week and just doing a couple of practice sessions.

Other things to note: I can't seem to score well at my home club. All my counters this year have come from places like Carnoustie, Gleneagles, Kingsbarns, St. Andrews and Gullane to name a few. Yet my shorter, parkland home club I struggle to break into the mid to low 80's constantly. There are far too many mistakes in every round resulting in doubles or worse. I'd have shot mid 70's if I didn't have a triple and 3 doubles on one round - that was a real missed opportunity to break 80 properly. I can't eliminate them, whether its making a mess of the tee shot or approach, having a bad day putting, duffing the odd chip or bunker shot. It's not really one single thing that is causing these mistakes - it's a bit of everything and it's making a bad round worse, and it makes a good round a missed opportunity. Of course, we will all make mistakes, but mine seem to be the most punishing from a scoring point of view. Driving has always been a decent part of my game, along with my short game and putting - but it has been absolutely woeful for a while. I am spraying the ball all over the place at times with a 4 way miss (left, right, short, long). I'm not even trying to do different things with the driver - I literally just want to play my little pull cut shot that worked so well for me previously. My iron play was in a good place for most of the year and I believe this is what has helped lower my scores a bit but - it has recently fell to crap again. Had a playing lesson on a par 3 course, shot 2 under. Went out played the medal later that day and couldn't hit a green to save myself.

The point of this post? Honestly not sure. I love/hate this game and at times it's the best thing on earth, and at others it just makes me think 'what's the point'. It gives you so little back from what you put in, but I guess that makes the special days the special days. It would be nice to feel that way. I know people who have cut 10 shots off their handicap in a year, or 7 or 8 etc, yet I seem to struggle. I don't want/expect to be a scratch golfer - I'd just like to live comfortably in the mid single figure range. Maybe someone here can give me a bit perspective, that I have actually improved a lot, but comparing to others, my progress seems very slow, and at times stagnant.

Anyway, stupid game and we go again tomorrow

 

[Deleted member 25575]

Really interesting read, you’re obviously working hard to get where you need to be.
It’s hella frustrating especially if you have missed all over the map, always missing right is easier to play with on any given day than missing left and right. Your scores are going in the right direction, slowly for you, but improvement is improvement, don’t knock it!
How long have you been playing for?
What’s your home course?
Also while reading I was thinking about your bad scores and what sounds like bad holes, one thing I’d wonder here, if you hit a bad shot, are you trying to recover from that bad shot on the next shot regardless of situation? So for example slash one off into the woods are you going for a hard recovery to try and make up for the bad tee shot, or going for the easy recovery and accepting bogey is a good result from the trees? Same for say a topped drive, are you taking the appropriate club for your second when accounting for lie, distance to hazard’s etc or are you hitting the biggest club in your bag that’s not driver to try and make up for the bad tee shot?
Also do you mentally check out of holes/rounds when things aren’t going well?
Do you have a pre and post shot routine? A pre shot routine may actually help keep you focused on the next shot. A post shot routine (analyse what went wrong with the shot, or right, did it come off the toe, was the face open/close/ did I fat it, was my weight back rather than forward, etc) should help you mentally understand what happened with the previous shot and put it behind you.
I’m asking the last few questions, as they are all things I fall foul of, the amount of times I take double from a missed green by 3 putting is horrific, and it’s not like I’m 3 putting from miles it could easily be 12ft, I chalk it down to trying too hard with my putting to try and make the putt to save par, rather than following my routine and accepting bogey.
As for practice, in my mind, unless you’re working on a specific swing mechanical move, driving range work isn’t as useful as course time, hitting off a mat with a flat lie not caring what the wind is doing with no consequence whatsoever about where the ball goes has no relation to what happens on course.
But most of all keep plugging away, you’re scoring in the early 90s on average so some rounds are going to be well into the 80s, just a couple of sensible decisions and one or two tee shots not into the rubbish will see you into the 70s and well on the way so single figures, you can obviously strike the ball well.

 

[TigerTime]

Really interesting read, you’re obviously working hard to get where you need to be.
It’s hella frustrating especially if you have missed all over the map, always missing right is easier to play with on any given day than missing left and right. Your scores are going in the right direction, slowly for you, but improvement is improvement, don’t knock it!
How long have you been playing for?
What’s your home course?
Also while reading I was thinking about your bad scores and what sounds like bad holes, one thing I’d wonder here, if you hit a bad shot, are you trying to recover from that bad shot on the next shot regardless of situation? So for example slash one off into the woods are you going for a hard recovery to try and make up for the bad tee shot, or going for the easy recovery and accepting bogey is a good result from the trees? Same for say a topped drive, are you taking the appropriate club for your second when accounting for lie, distance to hazard’s etc or are you hitting the biggest club in your bag that’s not driver to try and make up for the bad tee shot?
Also do you mentally check out of holes/rounds when things aren’t going well?
Do you have a pre and post shot routine? A pre shot routine may actually help keep you focused on the next shot. A post shot routine (analyse what went wrong with the shot, or right, did it come off the toe, was the face open/close/ did I fat it, was my weight back rather than forward, etc) should help you mentally understand what happened with the previous shot and put it behind you.
I’m asking the last few questions, as they are all things I fall foul of, the amount of times I take double from a missed green by 3 putting is horrific, and it’s not like I’m 3 putting from miles it could easily be 12ft, I chalk it down to trying too hard with my putting to try and make the putt to save par, rather than following my routine and accepting bogey.
As for practice, in my mind, unless you’re working on a specific swing mechanical move, driving range work isn’t as useful as course time, hitting off a mat with a flat lie not caring what the wind is doing with no consequence whatsoever about where the ball goes has no relation to what happens on course.
But most of all keep plugging away, you’re scoring in the early 90s on average so some rounds are going to be well into the 80s, just a couple of sensible decisions and one or two tee shots not into the rubbish will see you into the 70s and well on the way so single figures, you can obviously strike the ball well.

Golf is an all-consuming game, and a very welcome distraction at times for the day to day life!

Yeah, I can accept a bad round of golf is going to happen, I just want to move my needle a bit. Funnily enough, the driver behaved itself today and I struck it really well this morning and shot a mid 80's at my home course, my lowest at my home club in 2 years...

I played about 10 years ago, although I was never a member, I think I went out once a month with a couple of mates basically, then they stopped playing and I stopped. The year before covid kicked off properly, Tiger won the Masters and I was inspired to get out and play and see if I could become any good. Then I caught the bug and it has escalated since. 2021 I got my first handicap.

More often than not, especially at my home course you just have to take your medicine and go sideaways or you bring double or triple into equation. I always try to avoid the hero shot to be honest. I think I play fairly sensible for the most part - although if I'm having a causal knock I tend to go for these shots more because it's fun and you can learn that way, with a card in hand I wouldn't.

I'd say I mentally check out maybe mid-way through the round if it's a proper stinker. I know if I make a double early on that it's not the end of the world as plenty holes left, but if I get to the 12th tee and I've already had 3 doubles and a triple I just kind of give up a bit yeah, because I know I can't score well. Sometimes I just focus on the stableford score, which does help a bit during 'big' rounds.

Pre shot yes, post shot no. Pre shot, check the distance, any hazards, assess the lie, pick a club, pick a target, and go. Post shot I maybe mentally reflect but it's usually just 'great shot/bad hit/caught it off the toe/thinned the tits out of it. There's no real in-depth assessment I guess.

Cheers for the thought. I know it's in there somewhere..

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I've been using Arcoss. Really revealing. I lose strokes on driving as my average even with more roll is 223 yard and I am supposed to average 224! My 6-10 footers are losing me shots on the greens as is my bunker play and my approach from 120 yards. Areas I know are poor (except I thought I was hitting longer off the tee than clearly I did) so need to find some drills and get to work. I find the stats are really helping me with a balanced programme and I can work on specifics rather than going through the bag with a bucket of balls