Stats - footage of putts holed.

[Imurg]

I'm sure we had a thread about this some time ago but I can't find it so.....

Does anyone keep this stat?
What's good, bad or indifferent?
Is it a useful stat?

I holed 88 1/2 feet of putts today, averaging about 5 feet. A couple of 20 footers helped but I didn't miss one inside 6feet.
Quite happy with that.

 

[bobmac]

Putting stats can be misleading, depending on the putts you are faced with.
You could leave yourself uphill putts all day and hole everything and other days, you miss all the 4-5's because they are all on a slope.
But if you are holing everything under 6 feet, I'm not surprised you're happy

 

[3565]

I did this a couple years ago on a spread sheet, and did 2 stats over the year (only for GIR's)

1. For total footage of putts
2. Total footage of putts 20ft and under. Scoring zone.

The first one over the year gave me I think about 18ft in GIR and when I took out putts over 20ft that came down to about 9ft. So this gave me an idea of what distance to practise on. If you keep with it it's good to see over the year, I marked in differing colours to register birdies, pars, Bogies and others? Also I got an average of putts on each individual hole as well.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

I'd like to, but how do you measure it?

 

[drs1878]

The number of putts taken increases with the number of GIR hit........ My lag putting is poor, in fact I have a short game lesson booked for tomorrow!!

 

[3565]

I'd like to, but how do you measure it?

I just pace it off, my pace is roughly 3ft so when I mark my ball I then pace off to the hole, obviously being aware of who's where, I prefer to pace before the putt whether doing Aimpoint or not, so I have something to go on before the putt.

The other good stat to do is if you have a range finder and say you got 150 to the pin, if you hit the green, find your pitch mark and pace up/down the green till you are pin high say 4 paces = 4yds take that number away from your actual distance 150, to give the number 146 you hit that club. Over a period of time if you log it you get your mean average for each club, providing you make a pich mark that is. Or it's handy to know during a round your playing if you get a similar shot later on.

 

[chrisd]

I just pace it off, my pace is roughly 3ft so when I mark my ball I then pace off to the hole, obviously being aware of who's where, I prefer to pace before the putt whether doing Aimpoint or not, so I have something to go on before the putt.

The other good stat to do is if you have a range finder and say you got 150 to the pin, if you hit the green, find your pitch mark and pace up/down the green till you are pin high say 4 paces = 4yds take that number away from your actual distance 150, to give the number 146 you hit that club. Over a period of time if you log it you get your mean average for each club, providing you make a pich mark that is. Or it's handy to know during a round your playing if you get a similar shot later on.

I don't think I'd be doing all that just to know how many putts I've holes from how far!

To be honest I tend to only need stats to improve my golf shots and the easiest part to know in my head is - am I making, or missing, putts - after all each day is different and I might drain them all day Saturday and not make one on Sunday. Also, pacing it off and doing Aimpoint - how long does that add to a round??

 

[3565]

I don't think I'd be doing all that just to know how many putts I've holes from how far!

To be honest I tend to only need stats to improve my golf shots and the easiest part to know in my head is - am I making, or missing, putts - after all each day is different and I might drain them all day Saturday and not make one on Sunday. Also, pacing it off and doing Aimpoint - how long does that add to a round??

I did it as the coach I was seeing said it would be good to get the data. But that's all part n parcel of getting stats is it not?
As far as your last comment, I've done normal reads and do Aimpoint, it's no slower then how you do it, unless your a ball down, stand and hit it player! But I'm not going into that as this is a post on recording stats.

 

[MadAdey]

I have never been a big fan of putting stats as on their own they do not really paint much of a picture. If I ever look at my putting stats then I use them alongside GIR too. One day you can go out and have 25 putts and shoot 80, the next day go out have 30 putts and shoot 75, just because you where hitting the ball well and making lots of GIR.

 

[chrisd]

I did it as the coach I was seeing said it would be good to get the data. But that's all part n parcel of getting stats is it not?
As far as your last comment, I've done normal reads and do Aimpoint, it's no slower then how you do it, unless your a ball down, stand and hit it player! But I'm not going into that as this is a post on recording stats.

I'm certainly not criticising Aimpoint and, n fact, have spoken to a coach about the possibility of doing an Aimpoint course, but has been said here, putting stats, to me, are meaningless in that I may not remember how many greens I average in regulation or how many fairways hit from the tee but I sure know how good or bad my putting is during or after every round and recording the footage holed is, to me of no value whatever.

 

[ManinBlack]

The number of putts taken increases with the number of GIR hit........ My lag putting is poor, in fact I have a short game lesson booked for tomorrow!!

That's why, I believe, the best measure is the total length of putts holed. Not ideal, but over several rounds, will give you a good measure.

 

[3565]

I'm certainly not criticising Aimpoint and, n fact, have spoken to a coach about the possibility of doing an Aimpoint course, but has been said here, putting stats, to me, are meaningless in that I may not remember how many greens I average in regulation or how many fairways hit from the tee but I sure know how good or bad my putting is during or after every round and recording the footage holed is, to me of no value whatever.

It wasnt a question of recording the putts I holed, I only recorded putts when I hit a green in reg, holed or not. That's why if i recorded the footage in different colours so I could see if I 3 putted from 20ft (pink) or birdie in red etc. I was able to get the average total footage to the hole over the year plus it gave me my average GIR,s over the year too, or just on a particular hole, you could workout the number of putts per GIR as well. The aim of this stat was to see how far was my average approach to the hole, plus this average I could practise on the putting green, and Not how many putts I holed, although you could visually see that.

It was something I did for the year, and it was tough to do every round. It's not for everyone, I don't place too much importance on FIRs as you could be off the fairway but only have 80yds to the green. But some prefer that stat.

 

[chrisd]

It wasnt a question of recording the putts I holed, I only recorded putts when I hit a green in reg, holed or not. That's why if i recorded the footage in different colours so I could see if I 3 putted from 20ft (pink) or birdie in red etc. I was able to get the average total footage to the hole over the year plus it gave me my average GIR,s over the year too, or just on a particular hole, you could workout the number of putts per GIR as well. The aim of this stat was to see how far was my average approach to the hole, plus this average I could practise on the putting green, and Not how many putts I holed, although you could visually see that.

It was something I did for the year, and it was tough to do every round. It's not for everyone, I don't place too much importance on FIRs as you could be off the fairway but only have 80yds to the green. But some prefer that stat.

I just find that putting is such a variable aspect of the game and often not something that the player has control over. The course conditions change almost day be day, certainly week by week and definitely over the season, so, I don't think that for me stats would mean much, I just know when I'm putting well or badly and worry more about getting to the green more than anything

 

[HawkeyeMS]

I just pace it off, my pace is roughly 3ft so when I mark my ball I then pace off to the hole, obviously being aware of who's where, I prefer to pace before the putt whether doing Aimpoint or not, so I have something to go on before the putt.

The other good stat to do is if you have a range finder and say you got 150 to the pin, if you hit the green, find your pitch mark and pace up/down the green till you are pin high say 4 paces = 4yds take that number away from your actual distance 150, to give the number 146 you hit that club. Over a period of time if you log it you get your mean average for each club, providing you make a pich mark that is. Or it's handy to know during a round your playing if you get a similar shot later on.

Those are the two options I came up with and discarded 'cause it was all a bit of a hassle.

 

[MashieNiblick]

Interesting thread. I'm genuinely not sure what total (or average) length tells you. I generally know if I've putted well or not. Some days I putt well and hole nothing longer than 5 ft. Another day I may putt like a drain but hole one monster. That might give me a better total/average.

By way of another example my thinking is that if your lag putting is good, you will leave yourself lots of very short putts and if you hole those it will bring down the total length holed. Poor lag putting will mean leaving lots of 4, 5 and 6 footers. Of course you will hole a fair proportion of them but over time 100 taps ins will total be less than 50 4-6 footers plus 50 tap ins. What the total doesn't tell you is whether your tap in is your 2nd or your 3rd putt!

Finally how would I know what is a good stat for me? What am I comparing against? Looking at the tour stats for 2013, top is 55 inches average, bottom is 40. What would be good for a club golfer off 12?

I assume there will be some correlation between number of putts, length holed and GIR which also needs to be understood.



Interested in any further insight.

 

[3565]

I want to clarify that the only number I recorded was the initial length of putt, whether it was 1ft or 100ft. What happened after that I didn't record, as in 30ft then 6ft then a foot, 3 putt. I only recorded the 30ft in my data. all I was after was my average birdie footage thru out the year on all holes and individual holes to.

Hawkeye, you are right it is a bit of a hassle especially in comps, but to get stats sometimes you need to do it. But might be worth a try if on your own for 18 holes and see what you come up with.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

At the moment I'm looking more at total putts and number of up and downs. If the former is coming down it should mean the latter is getting better. I'm not too bothered on this I don't think and will work on the ones I'm already recording

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Interesting thread. I'm genuinely not sure what total (or average) length tells you. I generally know if I've putted well or not. Some days I putt well and hole nothing longer than 5 ft. Another day I may putt like a drain but hole one monster. That might give me a better total/average.

By way of another example my thinking is that if your lag putting is good, you will leave yourself lots of very short putts and if you hole those it will bring down the total length holed. Poor lag putting will mean leaving lots of 4, 5 and 6 footers. Of course you will hole a fair proportion of them but over time 100 taps ins will total be less than 50 4-6 footers plus 50 tap ins. What the total doesn't tell you is whether your tap in is your 2nd or your 3rd putt!

Finally how would I know what is a good stat for me? What am I comparing against? Looking at the tour stats for 2013, top is 55 inches average, bottom is 40. What would be good for a club golfer off 12?

I assume there will be some correlation between number of putts, length holed and GIR which also needs to be understood.



Interested in any further insight.

I'm not really bothered about the total footage, more how far the first putt is from the hole after a chip. Rather than measure it in feet as I found that a bit tedious I have created a "putt expectancy" category which is either 1, 1.5 or 2. I started doing it to better rate my chipping to see how I am improving. For example. If I get up and down on a green but make a 15 foot putt to do so, PE is 2 which means my chip wasn't very good. If I have a lot of PEs of 1 and 1.5 then I've chipped well. If I have a good scramble percentage with a lot of 2 PEs then I chipped poorly.