Improving my game... What stats to keep?

I am looking to improve my game this year (aren't we all). I joined a league at work that plays on a tough course which has 45 holes and we play 9 a week for a 16 week league. I am wondering what stats you guys/girls keep of your rounds and how do you track them, excel sheet or is their software out there? Here is a list of things I thought of that might help, am I off base or is it a good start?

1. Score

2. Number of Putts

3. Number of Chips (having issues here)

4. FIR

5. GIR

6. Average shots on par 3, 4, & 5's

Is their any I should add or are their some I can take off? Thanks for the help.

For any full size shot, i like the following,

- Did the ball start off left of the target line, or right of te target line, or on the target line

- Did the ball have fade or draw spin, or hook or slice spin

For Putts

- Did the ball start on my target line, right or left if not

- If it started on the target line, did the putt go the speed i want

- If it did go the speed, was it a made putt, or did i miss high or low, and by how much

This way makes you think more about how your swing is. You can then diagnose problems. If you say, i hit 12 GIR's, and made 30 putts, but you missed 4 close ones always on the low side. Now thats something you can work on.

I kinda dont look at those any more...(cause the never change haha)..but if you hit 2 greens shoot a 90 you may have 25 putts.  If you hit 10 greens and shoot an 82, with 32 putts doesn't mean your putting got worse.  It just shows that if you hit a green but you are 40 feet away you most likely two or three putted.  As opposed to being 20 feet off the green and chipping for a 1 putt or at worst a 2 putt.

Now I prefer just to review the "quality" of each stike regardless of whether or not it was a drive a chip, putt whatever.  If I hit the putt on the sweet spot and miss..I give myself a check...If I stub a chip but it rolls up 2 feet, I consider that and X...ie it was dumb luck.  If I catch a 40' putt on the toe...and it goes in..I still give it an X as a bad shot...once again dumb luck.  I then look at my Checks and X's against the particular shot and that gives me a better indication of what needs work.

If you can say that then you're already a pretty good player. 12 GIR and 30 putts is level par or better almost any day out there -- and those missed putts could have been worth quite a bit of cash! :-D To the OP, the stats that really matter (ie. correlate closely to average score) are, in order of importance: -- GIR -- Putts per GIR -- Double bogey (or worse) rate -- Scrambling % Others that you can keep out of interest, but which are not fundamental: -- Go For Its ( How often you get within 30 yards of the green in two on a par 5) -- Putts per round -- Driving accuracy

There are a lot of free online handicap/stat trackers out there.

I use one, but probably not allowed to post a link to it

I also just searched for an excel spreadsheet and got one off the internet. There are plenty options out there for whatever stats you want to keep.

My advise would be; If your hitting the ball well and your swing feels good - keep all the stats you want'

If you have a lot of off center hits and you have swing flaws - keep NO stats, including score (if possible) and just work on simplifing everything

I keep my score, fairway hit, greenside chips, bunker shots and putts. From this I can get all the info I need to put into the golf stats package I use. Some of the new graphing features coming soon look great. Can't wait.

hi,

basing on my own experience, I sugest the following:

1. just make sure you practise different shots on the range, approach shots around the green putting, try to make those shots as simple and repetitive as possible. When you're on the course just play the game and record your score on each hole (maybe the number of putts for reference later), biggest mistake is that you become too analytical on the course and only paying attention to keep track of different mis-shots you've made, by doing that you're giving yourself a lot of psychological pressure, therefore you can't play well and never improve. Since golf is a psychological game, so you have to learn to entertain yourself during play, swallow the mistakes and forget the shank that just happened but keep on focusing on your next shot. Pro players are also human being, they also make bad shots, what they're good at is that they're good at "selective memorizing", remember and visualise the perfect shots and forget the poor shots immediately.

2. forget about ego, it's ok to switch to some new gears (specially drivers) and show off to your buddies how long you can hit, however stats shows that the development of golf clubs hasn't really helped to improve the golf population's handicap in the past 100 years. On the contrary, tour players are enjoying their new equipments that enabled them to hit the balls mile long. Bottom line? because  these guys hit it accurate and can take adavantage of the equipments. Your new driver might help you to gain a couple of yards further on the tee shot but for those who can not control their shots well it's an equipment that does the big damage on your score! I don't remember how many times I had read golf book and coach's advice to restrict the use of a driver and working on the iron shots. The moment you can play by choosing your equipment basing on the course layout, weather condition and your ability, your score will come down by itself.

hope this helps,

don't be too serious, enjoy the game!

Interesting. I might try that for a round.

I think you've got it. I don't hit a ton of greens because the greens at my course are so small. If I have a decent chance at taking two fairly routine strokes for a par, then I'm happy. What I do track (other than score) is the following:

-- sideways strokes: shots where I couldn't go for the green because of being stymied, too far away (in regulation) or having to chip/pitch out from trees.

-- wasted putts: whether it's a flubbed short putt or a poor lag, it's pretty self explanatory

One league night I was playing as well as possible from my second shot onward, but I had to either pitch out or aim away from the green on 6 of 9 second shots. Some practice with the driver for confidence and some work on strategy in general were in order. The next week was much better.