My Swing Speed Journey

Golf is fun said:
I try to combine that approach with also doing what is fun. I'm sure I could get shoot level par with a 90mph swing speed, but giving it a good whack is fun.

I have a long time to play the game and get better, but perhaps less long until speed starts dropping off, may as well get to the highest peak I can before that time.
Click to expand...
I think you will be surprised how long you can hang onto your speed, look at Harrington, he's early 50's and is swinging just as fast, if not faster than he was in his prime.
 
Golf is fun said:
I'm also excited to see how it impacts my scores this year, the goal is to make as much of a dent as I can into single figures.
Click to expand...
Time to sharpen up your wedges. With longer drives there will be more opportunities to hit wedges for approaches - converting those into good shots is key to better scoring (in my view).
 
VVega said:
Time to sharpen up your wedges. With longer drives there will be more opportunities to hit wedges for approaches - converting those into good shots is key to better scoring (in my view).
Click to expand...
If you can, I particularly like to keep track of the Strokes Gained statistic whenever I compete. There are some systems out there that track it automatically for every shot that is not a putt. But for putts you can do it manually just annotating the distance ± in feet (I use 1 long walk step, aprox. 3 feets) until you hole the ball.

Then you can compare objectively your worst area. Usually putting and short game are generally the areas that give more bang for your buck, but if you lose almost no strokes there, you know that there is not much room for improvement.

For example, in my last game 2 games I lost -4 shots on putting on average, and I didn't feel like I did putt bad, so I know I can improve there quite a lot.
 
Last edited:
mrio said:
If you can, I particularly like to keep track of the Strokes Gained statistic whenever I compete. There are some systems out there that track it automatically for every shot that is not a putt. But for putts you can do it manually just annotating the distance ± in feet (I use 1 long walk step, aprox. 3 feets) until you hole the ball.

Then you can compare objectively your worst area. Usually putting and short game are generally the areas that give more bang for your buck, but if you lose almost no strokes there, you know that there is not much room for improvement in that area.

For example, in my last game 2 games I lost -4 shots on putting on average, and I didn't feel like I did putt bad, so I know I can improve there quite a lot.
Click to expand...
Must admit, I’ve never found stats that compare to some abstract averages useful.

The reason strokes gained works for professionals is because it’s measured during the comp by collecting data for all players and then each player can compare themselves to the field on that course on that day.

Whereas in consumer apps I don’t event know what they compare to, some abstract handicapper who’s playing Florida? 😂
 
VVega said:
Time to sharpen up your wedges. With longer drives there will be more opportunities to hit wedges for approaches - converting those into good shots is key to better scoring (in my view).
Click to expand...
I track metrics with shot scope, I set the strokes gained to compare to the next handicap target and then work from that.

Getting fit for some wedges was actually next on my list. I'm comfortable hitting partial shots and shots around the green as in I'll generally execute the concept of what I want, not blade them or chunk them, and be within a reasonable dispersion of my target. However, I think getting fit will give me the confidence to be a bit more aggressive with them, and tighten up that dispersion. I'll save that for the wedge thread though, here is all about smashing the ball!
 
VVega said:
Must admit, I’ve never found stats that compare to some abstract averages useful.

The reason strokes gained works for professionals is because it’s measured during the comp by collecting data for all players and then each player can compare themselves to the field on that course on that day.

Whereas in consumer apps I don’t event know what they compare to, some abstract handicapper who’s playing Florida? 😂
Click to expand...
Although not course and day specific, I think with a large enough data set it evens out. Possibly weaker for some really finnicky niche short game positions, but as a generality I would expect it to be close enough.
 
Golf is fun said:
Although not course and day specific, I think with a large enough data set it evens out. Possibly weaker for some really finnicky niche short game positions, but as a generality I would expect it to be close enough.
Click to expand...
I'm sceptical with the putting as I doubt there a large percentage of Shot Scope users who are as anally retentive as me when it comes their putting stats. I know a standard step for me is 2 foot (measured in the hallway) and I track my putt distances by step and edit the round afterward as GPS just isn't accurate to that level yet. I'm betting a lot of Shot Scope users just sign off the round without editing anything.

For instance, I know my putting isn't great but over the last 10 rounds I'm still losing -0.17 shots per round putting against a 20 handicapper, while I lose -3.57 to a Tour Pro. No one is going to convince me that a 20 handicapper is only losing -3.4 shots per round putting against a Tour Pro.

Overall though, I like the data as the data set is big enough now as they probably have tens of millions of shots. I can see my biggest weaknesses to a scratch are approach shots from 150-200 and putting which I see every weekend as I play with scratch guys so those are the area's I'm working on. It's one of the reasons why I ditched the 5 iron for a 5 hybrid. I do lose shots driving as well but it wasn't as much as those two area's and it was mainly on distance, hence the speed training. I think it was 10 yards on average and 18 yards on performance but they have changed their UI and now I can't see the benchmarks in the distance screen for some reason.
 
I am not sure that it matters that much whether the data set that you are comparing with truly reflects what it is meant to or is a little different as long as it is constant so that you can measure improvement relative to yourself over a period of time. it certainly is not clear what the comparison is with most of the consumer strokes gained calculation but I would hope they are constant.
What is more of a concern for me and the reason why I stopped using shot scope was that I found the data that it was producing for me was at times inaccurate. When I was hitting shots into greens on par 3's it was inaccurately measuring the distance of the shot by a significant margin. If that measurement was inaccurate information gleaned from it was not likely to be accurate or useful so I stopped using it. I do find it a useful distance measuring device though.
 
Regarding commercial systems, I can't really say anything because I measure it manually on every shot (since I know how long the holes are and I measure my distance to the flag every time), and to be honest, I don't know what algorithms consumer apps use for computing it.

What I do is just use the PGA Tour shotlink data referenced in "Every Shot Count" book (by the one who "invented" the system), wich on average should be pretty accurate in the representation of the skill of the best players among us.

For example, at 110 yards on the fairway, the average score is 2.83 on the PGA. If I hit it on green to 8 feet from the pin, I know that the average putt from that distance is 1.5 ... Then I have gained 0.33 strokes on that specific shot with respect to the PGA Tour. When you do it on every shot, I find the result to be quite accurate, and sometimes I discover things I wasn't noticing.

Btw, I lose strokes in every area even though I play on easier courses! 😅
 
mrio said:
For example, at 110 yards on the fairway, the average score is 2.83 on the PGA. If I hit it on green to 8 feet from the pin, I know that the average putt from that distance is 1.5 ... Then I have gained 0.33 strokes on that specific shot with respect to the PGA Tour. When you do it on every shot, I find the result to be quite accurate, and sometimes I discover things I wasn't noticing.
Click to expand...
Whatever works for anyone is great. Personally, I really see no connection of what e.g. the average putt from 8ft on tour is to my performance. Amateur golfers have no clue of conditions the pros play in.

Even in pro ams before tournaments, the course is not the same as during the tournament. The greens condition and pin positions make a huge difference. In recent Kwon video in Macau he was on and on about how those greens can make you look very silly…

Again, not knocking whatever anyone is using if it works for them. Just saying that all that stats/big data etc is not that relevant to individual club golfer performance.

Can’t even say it’s good to just track your relative performance to it as no one knows how often/when they change their benchmarks. So tracking against some opaque moving metric doesn’t help.
 
VVega said:
Whatever works for anyone is great. Personally, I really see no connection of what e.g. the average putt from 8ft on tour is to my performance. Amateur golfers have no clue of conditions the pros play in.

Even in pro ams before tournaments, the course is not the same as during the tournament. The greens condition and pin positions make a huge difference. In recent Kwon video in Macau he was on and on about how those greens can make you look very silly…

Again, not knocking whatever anyone is using if it works for them. Just saying that all that stats/big data etc is not that relevant to individual club golfer performance.

Can’t even say it’s good to just track your relative performance to it as no one knows how often/when they change their benchmarks. So tracking against some opaque moving metric doesn’t help.
Click to expand...
Regarding the opaque moving metric, it is not. I said I use the data referenced in "Every Shot Count" book. It is static; it is from over 10 million shots from PGA Tour between 2003 and 2012. Anyway, if you check it, you will see that it almost does not change in comparison with recent PGA yearly averages, especially on putting (it does from course to course, though).

I do agree that amateur golfers have no clue of conditions the pros play in... (fastest greens on average, hardest rough more time than not, firmer fairways on average, better bunkers, etc...), but I don't agree about pin positions or other points because it is averaged out. Anyway, I must have some kind of advantage😋

It has helped me a lot, not only with determining areas of my game that need more improvement but also with managing my expectations. For example, at 8 feet I know they only make 50% of putts, or from 110 yards I don't get mad if I hit it 15 feet to the pin since that's even less than the average for a PGA Tour player!
 
mrio said:
Regarding the opaque moving metric, it is not. I said I use the data referenced in "Every Shot Count" book.
Click to expand...
Sorry I was referring to apps that give you strokes gained: Arccos, Gamefolf etc. that presumably is calculated based on their shots data per hcp and is updated on some regular basis.

Brodie’s data in the book is good as a snapshot and can be used a reference.
 
mrio said:
It has helped me a lot, not only with determining areas of my game that need more improvement but also with managing my expectations.
Click to expand...
In that direction it does work better imo. So many club golfers are in a huff after missing an 8-10ft putt 😂
 
Played yesterday, drives are much better and finding myself in new territory off the tee! Our 11th is a short par 4 at 300yds and It was a drive and chip yesterday! Drive was 268 chipped on to about 12feet and 3 putted 🤣
I Struggled with tempo all round but I'm blaming the wind for that
 
VVega said:
Sorry I was referring to apps that give you strokes gained: Arccos, Gamefolf etc. that presumably is calculated based on their shots data per hcp and is updated on some regular basis.

Brodie’s data in the book is good as a snapshot and can be used a reference.
Click to expand...
Shot Scope tracks Strokes Gained as well and you can compare it to a Tour Pro if you want to keep it consistent. Saves all the mental gymnastics @mrio is doing.

You can compare it to other handicap ranges in their database as well (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25) but you are at the mercy of users inputting their correct handicap and also editing their shots if needed to be as accurate as possible. It's still a decent guideline though.
 
hambugerpete said:
Played yesterday, drives are much better and finding myself in new territory off the tee! Our 11th is a short par 4 at 300yds and It was a drive and chip yesterday! Drive was 268 chipped on to about 12feet and 3 putted 🤣
I Struggled with tempo all round but I'm blaming the wind for that
Click to expand...
You need a LAB putter clearly
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

G
My golfing journey transition into new club
Replies
4
Views
448
golfoutlaw
G
M
Feedback on expectations....
Replies
10
Views
690
garyinderry
garyinderry
C
TPI Screening
Replies
19
Views
966
SteveW86
SteveW86
S
Swing Speed.
Replies
2
Views
732
Bratty
Bratty
mikejohnchapman
Ever Had a Club Fitting You Regretted?
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
harpo_72
harpo_72
Top