What do my stats tell you?

Thought it would be interesting for someone to take a look at my stats and see what sticks out to them as the weakest part of my game that needs improvement.

Fairways hit: 43.5%
Left: 25.6%
Right: 30.9%

GIR: 37.9%
Scrambling: 14.6%
Sand Saves: 20.0%
Putts per hole: 1.94


This is over 10 9-hole rounds and 6 18-hole rounds.

Any input would be welcomed!

You have 1 out of 3 GIR. with %14 scrambling. Better than me.

Then to top it a 1.94 putt avg. little higher than me.

Im gonna guess that the holes your not on in GIR are placing you very far from the cup for your par putt.

Ive worked quite a bit on getting within 5 feet from my birdie stroke if i'm not on GIR.

Ive had 3 or 4 rounds when my number of putts was under 30 for the round, but the score was out of sight. My problem was getting to the kill zone of 140 yards. Yes I'll be lying 3 or 4 from the approach sometimes.

GIR seems good for an 18 which leads me to think your iron play is a strength (unless you play on a short course and you're hitting greens with your wedges). I would assume that your missed greens are right around the green, so the 1.94 putt avg leads me to think chipping is a weakness.

On the fairway %: it seems low compared to your GIR. Leads me to think you don't miss by a huge amount...not a huge amount OB. But you probably have to chip out from under the occasional tree limb. Do you play on a shorter course with relatively narrow fairways?

GIR is fair, certaintly when looking at fairways hit. Scrambling is terrible I would say, you need to practice on getting these close ..... problem with so many midcappers is that in my vision it is done with soooo hard to magage shots, that it is very hard to become good at this, without investing a LOT of time, what I mean to tell you is that most midcappers try to land PW/GW/LW shots close to the hole ..... of course when it is right (15%) it feels great, but once you start chipping with let's say a 8 or 7 iron, you'll see your scores improving a lot ...... it is same as with putting, with a putt it is relatively easy to judge distances, so it is with the chipping, but with pitching or flipping it is so hard to become lethal.

Further ..... I am not sure if fairways hit (includes par 3's), but it is a nightmare ..... let's say you hit only 6 of 14 fairways...... I would say you really need to improve that, by either learning a fade or a draw, concentrate on tempo ...... if you hit more fairways, I am sure your handicap will be lowered significantly.......

This being your average means you now actually can hit less fairways ...... and I don't think it is because you hit them 320 yds...... Maybe you should try to hit 3 or even 5 Wood of the tee at narrow holes...... I don't have a 3W, but I carry two drivers, one for narrow fairways and one for the holes I really can rip it.....

Personally ..... I would say focus on driver accuracy and using a "wise" club from the tee at some holes and you really need to practice on chipping a let's say 8 iron from 30 yds in...... if you improve there ...... you'll soon be at handicap 10 or better.

Over 27% of green approaches are not made (net scrambling / sandies / GIR), which when compared to your putting average indicates that you tend to have long putts which are not made. These are pushing up the putt avg, and seem to be keeping the HC higher than the rest of your game at least "feels" like it should be. Short game and putting are the key practice points...

How about penalty shots?

I'm a 12 and often hit BOTH less greens and fairways with a 1.8 putting avg.

Penalty shots are often killers. Two types of Penalty shots.
1.) Normal ones (OB, water hazzard, lateral hazzard drops)
2.) "Penalty shot lite" Where a wayward shot forces a punch out; chip out; miracle shot attempt; take your medicine on a short-sided chip, etc.

Bleh....better than my stats Averaging 7 fairways and 7 greens a round and averaging 35 putts.

For your handicap that is pretty good. If you can GET GIR up your scores will drop A LOT. Your averaging 2 putts a hole so if you hit the green, you can 2 putt par it.

At hcp 18, your problem lies from tee to green. You got a two-way miss from the tee, both left and right. This most likely stems from rotating the hands, flipping or something like that. Your swing plane is probably the same every time, but a small variation in clubface angle can send the ball left instead of right.

Work on fixing your swing.

Penalty shots are usually for the same reasons. Slicing one OB, chunking one into a water hazard, it's all the swing. Getting the swing in order will help you with both fairways hit and greens hit.
Poor course management perhaps a little bit, but compared to the swing, it's irrelevant.

Wow good guesses!

Yes my main weakness is getting off the tee to the fairway. I hit the driver max 3-4 times per round, using a 3 wood for the most part all the way down to a 22 degree hybrid.

Two main courses I hit almost exclusively:
1: 3 wood
2: 3 wood
3: Driver (open fairway par 5)
4: 3 wood
5: Par 3
6: Driver or 3 wood (Par 5)
7: 22 degree hybrid
8: Par 3
9: Driver or 3 wood (up hill wide open Par 4)
10: 3 wood or 5 wood
11: 3 wood
12: Par 3
13: Mostly 3 wood (545yd Par 5 tight fairway)
14: 3 wood
15: 5 Iron or Hybrid
16: Par 3
17: 3 Wood
18: Driver

My main miss is a hook with the woods. My stats show I have a 2 way miss but that is mostly from earlier rounds. The misses left are pushes.

I am not sure that I am an 18, here are my scores from these rounds:

83, 84, 42,41, 85, 86, 92, 47, 41,39, 42, 47, 43, 95, 45, 41

Swing plane is the same everytime, wrists are very active, very good! I will post a video from a golf galaxy lesson later to see what you guys think.

6600yds and most all approach shots are with full wedge shots however iron play is my strength.

Curious - based on your putting average, are you targeting the center of the green? Is your tee ball direction dictating more of a scramble with your iron play (to get more in the middle of a fairway to have a full wedge into the green on longer holes)?

No, I chase flags way too much.

My tee shots do leave me in tough shots to the green more than I would like.

Penalty shots in last 7 rounds:
2, 5, 2 (9 holes), 2 (9 holes), 2, 2, 2 (on 9 holes)

The 5 was on an 84 which I made an 8 on the last hole when I would have broke 80 with a birdie :(

Seems like you generally play better than your 18 handicap would suggest. I have an iphone app (Golfplan with Paul Azinger) that imports my handicap index from their Golfshot GPS app as well as stats such as fairways hit, GIR, recovery, sand saves, #putts/hole and then displays what a person with my handicap level would average in those stats and whether i'm above or below the average and identify the two areas i most need to work on. For example, for a 15 handicap the app tells me i should average the following: Fairways Hit - 41% GIR - 26% Short Game (scrambling) - 11% Bunkers - 16% Putting - 1.9 (per hole) To answer your original question, you sir, are playing better than the average 15 capper :) Take pride in that. BTW, i have no way of confirming how accurate golfplan is in determining average stats for a certain handicap level but i'm assuming it is.

It seems to me whatever club you're using from the tee, it is a surprise where it will end up, sometimes you stay in the feirway, but it can end left, right, short, long, it is just inconsistent I would say ..... I think you might have a problem with lining up..... take a few lessons .......

I don't know the USA handicap system well enough to say something about that, but normally a handicap should reflect your best golf, not the few rounds that are offff, so I would say your actual handicap would be about 12 ...... and if "we" look at your stats then, it becomes even more obvious that your fairways hit is poor and your scrambling is also poor.

Improving aim/lining up + short game is key for improvement as I feel your long iron game must be pretty good.