Do you keep track of your stats?

[RoverRick]

I have been remiss of late keeping track of my stats but I have done this for a number of years. Since long before there were apps that did it for you. On another thread I posted the scorecard method that I use. I also have a spreadsheet I can enter this info in and get some averages. I have not done it lately because I have settled on what clubs to use normally, and honestly, I have been hitting a lot of fairways and greens and making a lot of pars. I also know that the area I need to improve on is my concentration. Simply not try to kill the ball.

 

Statistics are not only good for seeing where you need to improve but I have used them to see which clubs I should carry in the bag, and also to see which way it is best to play each hole at my home course.

[hckymeyer]

No stat tracking for me. I don't need to keep track of stats to know I need work from 100yds and in.

 

It sounds like I'm in the minority, but I don't see the benefit for me. I know how far I hit my irons. I know where I tend to have my misses. I know the area's I need to improve at. I don't need a spreadsheet to tell me all those things. I can figure them out all on my own from just playing golf.

 

I just haven't figured out a good reason to spend extra time analyzing data to try and figure out what I already know. I'd rather be golfing

[ZenGolfer]

No stat tracking for me. I don't need to keep track of stats to know I need work from 100yds and in.

 

It sounds like I'm in the minority, but I don't see the benefit for me. I know how far I hit my irons. I know where I tend to have my misses. I know the area's I need to improve at. I don't need a spreadsheet to tell me all those things. I can figure them out all on my own from just playing golf.

 

I just haven't figured out a good reason to spend extra time analyzing data to try and figure out what I already know. I'd rather be golfing

Practice doesnt make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect and IMO thats what apps like this do.

[bcgolf]

RP, no offence taken as you raise a valid point. I've been overanalyzing everything for years. Used to be in IT and IT security, and I can assure you I was on top of things because of this ! Now I have left IT and moved on.

First year of playing golf was extremely analytical, so you can imagine how I could freeze up on the course, I couldn't putt, and so on, it just numbs and freezes you. After switching coaches, first thing he told me was, "you are overanalyzing, most if not all good golfers play by feel" I've been working on breaking those built in habits and focussing on feel in my game. And so far, on the course, in competition, the analysis freak is under control.

 

But off the course I still have a craving to analyze everything, including my golfgame.

 

There must be some medical terminology for my condition ;-)

 

 

 

 

Dude, and I'll apologize up front because I don't mean to be an *sshole, however you're makin the game wayyyyyyy too complicated. It's a ball, a club, and a target. I mean between all of the numbers that one can produce in just tryin to get fit for that club, I mean, sh*t, if Ida had to go through all of that when I learned how to play, I can promise you, and I'm not tryin to be funny, I promise you that I wouldn't be playin this game.

 

I mean pc's, linus, software, on-line or local, Dude, it's a wonder that ya can swing a club at all. I'm not a pro or a teacher, though I try to follow the KISS philosophy, whether it's my business life, personal life(that's a joke..LOL) and especially my golf game. Now I'm not you, granted, however try just concentrating on the target. And when you're finished concentrating on the target? Concetrate on it some more!

 

The only STAT that counts, until they change the goal of the game, is how many shots it takes us to get the ball in the hole. I understand all about stats, and yes I keep some, and yes I play in quite a few tournaments. However, when I was a 15-18 hdcp, I concentrated on one thing. Yes, the target, but more importantly at the level, I concentrated on putting a consistent, repeatable swing on the ball.

 

I mean this is golf, not a grad school IT thesis..LOL

[sparnar]

sparnar, I believe the amount of time you need to write all that down is equivalent to using the Golfshot app.

Give it a try! It only takes 10 seconds.

 

I'll give it a shot, StevenHW8.

 

I must admit first time I used GolfShot on the course, I hadn't really done my homework, so when was between the first green and second tee, and couldn't figure it out quickly enough, I just gave up on keeping score and stats on the app. Will check out some videos before the next round.

 

GaijinGolfer, have you used Golfshot before? How does it compare to NG360?

[Kanoito]

I was browsing Google Play Store and found this alternative

 

Golf Score Card - YOUR GOLF

 

It's free, so you can just d/l it and try it. It looked very similar to Golfshot, but since it's raining here, I can't test it.

 

Might want to take a look at it as well.

[fsav]

Being an accountant I keep my own stats after rounds. if you like to jot them down then bring the card home or just rememeber (my strategy). the thing with these onthe course items is that you have to get ready to hit a shot strategize the next hole ect the last thing I want to do is add another device to the glf cart or bag to enter data.

 

to me, and ever avid golfer I have encountered, you rememebr hole by hole at least as far as by the end of the day so when you go home take an extra card and jot everything down then. I worked up a spreadsheet and dropped in the average percentage of the pros (yes I know high standards) but I figured if I can get as close to their efforts my scores should be on the decline and fast. See below there are numerous calculations in here based on my input and the PGA tour website. I can always attache dthe spreadsheet if anyone wants it.

 

Fairway GIR Putts Up/Down penalty

FSAV 46.43% 51.39% 32.25 29.77% 3.47%

 

PGA Tour 60.63% 63.92% 29.64 57.37%

 

Top 5 71.36% 73.04% 28.00 67.87%

 

Vs PGA Avg -14.20% -12.53% 2.61 -27.60%

 

Vs Top 5 -24.93% -21.66% 4.25 -38.10%

 

Scoring Average 77.86

 

PGA Tour 71.042 75.25

Top 5 69.2028 73.61

 

Variance to tour Avg. 6.82

variance to Top 5 8.65

[fsav]

Being an accountant I keep my own stats after rounds. if you like to jot them down then bring the card home or just rememeber (my strategy). the thing with these onthe course items is that you have to get ready to hit a shot strategize the next hole ect the last thing I want to do is add another device to the glf cart or bag to enter data.

 

to me, and ever avid golfer I have encountered, you rememebr hole by hole at least as far as by the end of the day so when you go home take an extra card and jot everything down then. I worked up a spreadsheet and dropped in the average percentage of the pros (yes I know high standards) but I figured if I can get as close to their efforts my scores should be on the decline and fast. See below there are numerous calculations in here based on my input and the PGA tour website. I can always attache dthe spreadsheet if anyone wants it.

 

Fairway GIR Putts Up/Down penalty

FSAV 46.43% 51.39% 32.25 29.77% 3.47%

 

PGA Tour 60.63% 63.92% 29.64 57.37%

 

Top 5 71.36% 73.04% 28.00 67.87%

 

Vs PGA Avg -14.20% -12.53% 2.61 -27.60%

 

Vs Top 5 -24.93% -21.66% 4.25 -38.10%

 

Scoring Average 77.86

 

PGA Tour 71.042 75.25

Top 5 69.2028 73.61

 

Variance to tour Avg. 6.82

variance to Top 5 8.65

[hckymeyer]

Practice doesnt make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect and IMO thats what apps like this do.

 

Just curious though, how does tracking the stats help you determine what perfect practice is?

 

I guess maybe the question I'm trying to ask is this. Without looking at stats, what do you feel is the biggest area you have to improve on? Has your stat tracking told you that it's something different than what you thought it was?

[Super Tuna]

BC, in full disclosure, I used to be worse, much worse. I carried 2 score cards and my "stat" card had so much "crap" on it, it was hard for me to decipher. I'm not going to waste your time here, but one of categories was for directional misses. I mean, what the hell?

 

Different strokes mate. By keeping track of hitting my target area or the side I missed on, I managed to figure out that my 6 iron shaft and lie angle didn't match properly with the rest of the set (too upright and an overly stiff shaft).

 

Equally based upon what I did in school and what I do, I don't do anything without a analysis. I just do it quickly based on my training so that there's no paralysis.

[Super Tuna]

Just curious though, how does tracking the stats help you determine what perfect practice is?

 

I guess maybe the question I'm trying to ask is this. Without looking at stats, what do you feel is the biggest area you have to improve on? Has your stat tracking told you that it's something different than what you thought it was?

 

Let's look at it this way instead. You said you need to improve your game inside 100 yards. Improve what? Chipping, pitching, bunker play, putting, lob shots?

 

Stats, to me, are an improved way to focus your practice. There's not much point spending hours practicing your pitching if you consistently have the result end up within say 3 feet of your target area 4 times out of 5. Instead that time could be better spent on maintaining that skill (say 15 minutes of 1 hour) with the other 45 devoted to bunker play instead of the 15 it would normally get if one get's out of the bunker and within putting range say 2 out of 5 attempts.

[hckymeyer]

I can already narrow it down without stats though, I was just being general before. Specifically I need work on 3/4 swing shots from 60yds, 75yds and 100yds. Mostly distance control.

 

Also need work on 10-20yd pitch shots from around the green. I don't get up and down enough when I miss the green.

 

Also need work on putting. Both lag putts and 10' and in.

 

I just don't see how stats could give me more information than that. I already know what I need to practice. The hard part for me is not figuring out what to practice, but rather finding the time to practice.

 

If I have the time to spend practicing I would rather just go play.

 

I think this is ultimately going to come down to "different strokes for different folks". If stats help you determine where to spend your time, go for it. Personally I just don't see the benefit for my game.

[sparnar]

hckymeyer, I keep some stats (mostly FIR, GIR, putts, penalties, bunker shots), and also write down a note every now and again, especially on poor shots that are costing me strokes.

 

While I know which things I must work on, keeping some stats gives me a great idea of how many shots each 'weakness' is costing me.

 

With limited time available for practice, I can then start with the weakness that is costing me most. For instance, currently I am struggling with my pitch shots, especially between 10 and 30 yards, but also have been struggling with taking too many penalties, bunker play, and a while back I were also three putting way too much.

 

Now having kept some stats for a few rounds, I could determine that the penalties were costing me the most strokes. After that the 3 putts were somethin I could work on at home, and could make a significant impact on my scoring.

 

These two are now under control, and now my focus is shifting to pitching.

 

So for me, stat keeping is not necessarily a way to figure out what to work on, but more of a way to figure out what to work on to make the biggest impact on my score, and overall enjoyment of my round.

 

That's the way I use them :-)

[revkev]

I keep the basic stats - FWH, GIR, PPR, U%D, SS on a very regular basis. I also spot measure my distances to make sure that they are staying consistent - a couple of drivers a round in different directions, a 7 iron here, a 4 hybrid or 9 iron there - not everyone just a random one now and again to make sure.

 

If I go a couple of rounds with the basic numbers out of wack I'll start to get more detailed. For example if I'm not hitting greens I'll chart every approach shot the next round or two to see if there's a pattern that has developed.

 

I think I've played for so long that I can figure out what's, what pretty quickly - I only use stats if there's something wrong - I do the basics just to have a baseline. However part of that knowing what's going wrong came from keeping very detailed stats for a long period of time about 20 years ago or so - I would chart every shot - not for distance - it was very hard to measure distances then but for accuracy, miss tendancies, etc, etc, etc.

[red golfer]

I have just fairways,GIR and putts keep it on my own card fast and easy but depressing on my iron play driving is OK to very good putting fair Red

[lmh3]

I use the NG360 app to track the basics, fairway, GIR, and putts. I like how you can note which way you miss the fairway so you can see if you have a predominant miss off the tee.

[RoverRick]

After reading the blog about the Ultimate Fairway Wood Test and the True Accuracy formula that they used to compare the different clubs, I decided to try something today similar with my iron play. I wrote down the yards from the HOLE in addition to if it was a GIR or not.

 

I shot even par today, and Officially was 13 of 14 FW, 10 of 18 GIR, 80% scrambling, and 30 putts. At first glance, it looks like I am a scrambling fool but need to work on my GIR. However, when you consider that on the greens I missed I was 24', 40', 18', 22', 40 yards, 27', 2', and 50 yards from the hole. On most of these I was putting from off the green and only had 2 bad approach shots. So my iron play was pretty good.

 

 

Now to analyse these stats.

So like T did on the blog, I took the approach distance and divided the yards from the hole. The interesting thing is much like you would suspect, the farther from the hole I was to start with the farther I ended up from the hole. One difference between a drive or tee shot to the fairway, short or long costs just as much as left or right. Granted, this is just one day's worth of stats but I liked what I saw.

 

Initial trends are these:

200-175 = 18 yards

175-150 = 12 yards

150-125 = 7 yards

125-100 = 5 yards

100-65 = 4 yards

65-30 = 11 yards

30-10 = 2 yards

 

Because this is such a small sample so far, it looks like the 65-30 yard range is not good for me, but in both cases, I had to go over bunkers with the green going away from me, so while I know this is no longer a good range from me I am working on it. Both of my bogies came from this range.

 

Even with this small sample I would say that these trends are true. I know for a fact I get it closer to the hole from 150 to 65 out than I do from 65-30. This is why I do not hit driver off of the tee on certain holes.

 

I will continue this and report back. However, please do not expect the par scores. I have been hitting the ball pretty good this week and I hope it continues.

[RoverRick]

Went back out today and sort of tracked the same thing. The numbers were similar however, I did not play as well today as yesterday on the front 9.

[ZenGolfer]

Just curious though, how does tracking the stats help you determine what perfect practice is?

 

I guess maybe the question I'm trying to ask is this. Without looking at stats, what do you feel is the biggest area you have to improve on? Has your stat tracking told you that it's something different than what you thought it was?

As of right now, my fairways hit is at 44%, my GIR is only at 11%, my sand saves at at 52% and my putts per round is around 36. That tells me that I need to be working on my irons and my putting which is something that I may not have remembered on my own simply because I only tend to remember my scores on average and not always why I got those scores.

It also has shown my that when I do miss fairways and greens, its almost always to the left; which has caused me to consider switching from regular flex to stiff flex shafts and now my iron shots are much closer on target than they were.

By tracking my stats, it allows me to look at it after my round and see in hard numbers where I need to improve.