Keeping Stats

[HRC99]

Just wanted to canvass opinion on keeping stats. My GPS has the facility to record Fairways Hit, Greens Hit, Putts, Sand Saves and Penalties which I've been using.

They are all straightforward apart from the Fairways Hit. At my home track, there are 5 par 3s so there are only 13 fairways you can hit anyway. Of those 13, 3 are reachable or I can get very close. But that means I'm not aiming at the fairways, I'm going straight at them or near enough.

Our actual fairways are quite tight as well so hitting an actual fairway can be pretty tricky but there is little penalty for just missing the fairway.

I was looking at my driving stats and they were terrible only hitting 2 fairways in the last round. But that doesn't really reflect my driving which is pretty good or take into account that I'm not even aiming at the fairway for three holes.

I'm tempted to decide my own fairways hit based on what I'm aiming at as I'm really trying to be more analytical about how my game is and wondered whether anyone had any views on this?

 

[colint]

Stats can be misleading, my driving is average but I'm hitting 70% of fairways at the moment as they're quite generous where I play. I've started being more critical, so if I slice one a mile and it's just about hanging on then I count it as missed.

I think you're idea of did it go roughly where I wanted it to is better. I use scoresaver2 to record the stats

 

[Robobum]

For the reasons you highlight HRC, that is why I think stats (on their own) are useless.

I made an (extreme) example in another thread on the same subject:

By going flag hunting, I miss every green but give myself 18 birdie putts from the fringe of no longer than 10feet. The stats will say that my GIR are rubbish and i should work on approach shots, whereas i could have hit a pull hook and found the edge of the green 40yds left of the flag I aimed at and it will count as a GIR!!??

Brutally honest reflection on my game is the only way I can see for highlighting weaknesses.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Stats stats stats. I started looking into this and trying to record my stats in a spreadsheet. But I soon came to the conclusion that I was wasting my time as the stats weren't telling me what I wanted to know. I started counting more things, like how many greens do I hit from the rough and how many from the fairway? Then I started looking at greens hit, but found I miss quite a few greens by just a few yards and have to chip. So how many putts do I have per GIR and how many times do I get up and down from the fringe. But what if I'm 30 yards short of the green, does that count as a chip? So then I start looking at how many times I get up and down from inside 50 yards. And what about sand saves?

And then I started getting overwhelmed by stats and what does it all mean? I need to hit more fairways? Do I? I'm not missing by much, the 1st cut isn't that bad and I'm a decent hitter so I'm not normally more than a 6 or 7 iron from the green most of the year. And a lot of my drives are good drives and pitch on the FW but roll off, am I really good enough to worry about that?



And then I stopped, it all got too much. The only thing I worry about now is how many times I get up and down from within 120 yards. And I wasn't very good, so I practiced and now I'm better, there is room for improvement but I'm better. I'm having monthly lessons to improve my ball striking which is started to show signs of progress as well, but I don't keep any more damn stats, I just see my handicap falling and that's good enough for me.

I'd love to be able to keep stats for every round just to see how I'm improving in each area but there were too many questions, what if this, what if that. The only one I really care about is the gross score at the end of every round.

Sorry for rambling on

 

[StrangelyBrown]

I only record the number of putts taken, makes for some sobering reading...

 

[HawkeyeMS]

I only record the number of putts taken, makes for some sobering reading...

And on it's own, in my opinion, isn't a lot of use (unless you hit a lot of greens, 15 or so a round)

 

[StrangelyBrown]

I find it fairly useful, if I have a bogey 5 with 3 putts then I know I drove well enough and got to the green in regulation. If I score a bogey 5 with 1 putt then I know that my long game was off.

At the moment, the putting is very much off.

 

[Swinger]

I'd get too depressed keeping stats.

My GIR's would be pretty good but my FIR's would be shameful most of the time. Not wild but not usually straight down the middle, but I do take different lines on a lot of holes which brings the rough more into play.
Putts per round and putts per GIR would be up and down depending on what day it was.

Don't think I would learn anything about my game with them but I am pretty good at evaluating my performances in different areas during and after rounds and don't have a standard weak point.

I guess if I was taking 90 shots a round then I'd need to keep some stats to remember what happened out there!!!

 

[Fyldewhite]

Did it for several years. They show very little really. You can play great, score well but miss every fairway, miss every green by a few feet but have fantastic putting stats. All in all thought it was a waste of time in the end and called it a day. Not missed it and my game hasn't fell apart either. If there was a stat for simply hitting the ball well that's the one I'd track.

 

[Society_Fan]

Only 1 stat counts... Number of shots taken!
Saying that I use one of these online things to keep mine. It makes for interesting reading, but I'm not good enough for it to tell me what to work on. That is what PGA Pros are for is it not?

 

[Imurg]

I've used SS2 since the turn of the year and its begining to build a picture of my game. I've been able to work out that my real issue is getting approach shots on the green but too far away to have a real birdie chance. I don't hit many fairways but I still hit more than my fair share of greens. Putting stat is good as are par scrambles (getting up and down after missing the green). Its converting birdies that lets me down.

So I know I've got to work on getting my approaches more accurate - not a problem I thought I had.

But as I've said many times before, you have to analyse the heck out of the stats to make sense of them.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I'm a real fan of SS2 and think that providing you a) take the time to input the figures honestly and b) look at the results as part of a bigger picture then they can help. They have certainly helped me in the past with my teaching pro where we can have a look at the figures for say a two month period, a month and the last three rounds and see what the trends are and decide where the problem is.

I think SS2 is the best out there and it really can go into deep detail which for someone like me has been great. I think there is a place for stats (otherwise decent amateurs and pros wouldn't bother) but they need a pinch of salt

 

[HRC99]

Did I recall correctly that there was some kind of discount on SS2 on here? £40 is a fair bit!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Drop SS2 a PM and he'll give you the discount code (£5 off). The price is a once only hit though

 

[funkyfred]

I'm a real fan of SS2 and think that providing you a) take the time to input the figures honestly and b) look at the results as part of a bigger picture then they can help. They have certainly helped me in the past with my teaching pro where we can have a look at the figures for say a two month period, a month and the last three rounds and see what the trends are and decide where the problem is.

I think SS2 is the best out there and it really can go into deep detail which for someone like me has been great. I think there is a place for stats (otherwise decent amateurs and pros wouldn't bother) but they need a pinch of salt

Like Homer I'm a great fan of SS2, but you have to look at the statistics over time not after a couple of rounds. This year my stats tell me that I have managed to get rid of my fade/slice of the tee, my FIR are higher than last year and I miss them evenly on both the left and right sides unlike last year where it was more 30/70.

My GIR are better than last year, but not surprisingly (after a good start) my putting has got worse as this year has gone on. I have been using a shorter back swing but i have not been making as many single putts as usual, so as from this weekend I will be going back to my longer swing.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

I'm a real fan of SS2 and think that providing you a) take the time to input the figures honestly and b) look at the results as part of a bigger picture then they can help. They have certainly helped me in the past with my teaching pro where we can have a look at the figures for say a two month period, a month and the last three rounds and see what the trends are and decide where the problem is.

I think SS2 is the best out there and it really can go into deep detail which for someone like me has been great. I think there is a place for stats (otherwise decent amateurs and pros wouldn't bother) but they need a pinch of salt

Like Homer I'm a great fan of SS2, but you have to look at the statistics over time not after a couple of rounds. This year my stats tell me that I have managed to get rid of my fade/slice of the tee, my FIR are higher than last year and I miss them evenly on both the left and right sides unlike last year where it was more 30/70.

My GIR are better than last year, but not surprisingly (after a good start) my putting has got worse as this year has gone on. I have been using a shorter back swing but i have not been making as many single putts as usual, so as from this weekend I will be going back to my longer swing.

See what you've done now, all this talk of SS2 and my suppressed urge for stats has got the better of me and I've just downloaded the demo to see what the fuss is about. Now I'm probably gonna have to buy it and enter my rounds for the rest of the year.

I've been doing so well, I feel like I've been trying to give up smoking and just had a fag. Oh the guilt

 

[JustOne]

This year my stats tell me that I have managed to get rid of my fade/slice of the tee,

You didn't notice that your mates hadn't been calling you "banana boy" lately?

 

[funkyfred]

This year my stats tell me that I have managed to get rid of my fade/slice of the tee,

You didn't notice that your mates hadn't been calling you "banana boy" lately?

Funny enough NO, but the word bandit and where's your sumbrero have been ringing in my ears