Tracking Results - How?

[jas80s]

Like many if not most of the players on here, I have pretty good recall of every shot I hit in a round of golf.  But, it's hard to glean any patterns or specific issues from just a memory of this hole or that.  With that in mind, what do you guys recommend in the way of an app or other software that might be helpful for compiling statistics and determining what areas of the game are costing me the most shots?  (As let's face it, they all cost me shots to some degree 🙂)

This is all very new to me, so very basic advice would be great, thanks!

[dennyjones]

I have Game Golf Live.   With it, you tag your club each shot and when the round is over after a little editing, you have significant statistics.   This allows you to review every shot and get strokes gained/lost in which you can compare to others and your previous rounds.   I highly recommend it.   $84 on Amazon.

My latest round.

 

[Patch]

Maybe a little off topic, but I don't use an app for my golf statistics. Use to do it, but not anymore. Too time consuming.

All I keep track of now is my average per hole strokes, and putts per hole. Those two numbers tell me what is going on in my game. I have two target average numbers I use. 4.44 strokes per hole, and 1.75 putts per hole. (80/31) As long as I am near those two numbers, I know my game is healthy. 

I know the weak parts of my game, and I can tell when a part of my game needs to have some added practice time allotted to it. 

As for my hdcp, I just turn my score cards in to our league's secretary. He plugs the numbers in, and my hndcp number is what it is. 

[DennisMiller]

It sounds like Patch does the same thing I do.

I keep a separate score card of my own. On it, I keep track of fairways hit, with a little arrow pointing to which side I missed if I do.

I keep track of greens in regularion, ups and downs, sand saves and putts.

One fragile thing tends to be that I often putt from off the green and usually count something from the fringe as a putt, so I appear to have more 3 putts than I technically do.

I also note penalties...

I have Game Golf sensors, but I have never been able to get them to work.

[Piz]

After every round, usually in the evening, I sit down with a cold beer, a spiral notebook, and a pen.  I replay the round, shot for shot, and make note of the good ones and not so good ones.  Sometimes a pattern emerges...sometimes not.  The last round, four egg sample, was notable for its poor lag putting.  I put that down to the number of lengthy, downhill, putts I left for myself...plus a splash of operator error.  Next time out I am going to try to do a better job of staying below the hole.  After which, regardless of the outcome, I'll sit down with.............

[dennyjones]

On 8/26/2019 at 6:05 PM, Patch said:

Maybe a little off topic, but I don't use an app for my golf statistics. Use to do it, but not anymore. Too time consuming.

All I keep track of now is my average per hole strokes, and putts per hole. Those two numbers tell me what is going on in my game. I have two target average numbers I use. 4.44 strokes per hole, and 1.75 putts per hole. (80/31) As long as I am near those two numbers, I know my game is healthy. 

I know the weak parts of my game, and I can tell when a part of my game needs to have some added practice time allotted to it. 

As for my hdcp, I just turn my score cards in to our league's secretary. He plugs the numbers in, and my hndcp number is what it is. 

Do you play the same course all of the time?  Putts per hole, is that GIR or not GIR? 4.44 strokes per hole, on the par 3s or 4s or 5s?  Pretty awesome on the par 5s, not so much on the par 3s.  

Just jawing with ya...

I realize that stats aren't for everyone.  I do believe that people miss out on so much helpful information that could help their game.  I thought I was a decent putter until I looked at putts per GIR.   My putts per hole is about 1.86 with putts non GIR at 1.74 but my putts on GIR holes is 2.12.    

Do you have more GIR on par 3s, 4s, or 5s?  

Really, I'm not trying to pick an argument but I'm sold on keeping stats on your golf game to help improvement and feel that people that don't aren't helping themselves.

 

backing off of the soap box now.   Resume your regular programming..

1 hour ago, DennisMiller said:

I have Game Golf sensors, but I have never been able to get them to work.

Could you explain what you do, maybe somebody can help you get them working.   It seems like a waste to have Game Golf and not get the information available to you.  (maybe post over here in this thread.

[MarvChamp]

On 8/26/2019 at 3:24 PM, jas80s said:

basic advice

Check out G-Stats on Amazon or Ebay...Paper but easy to use. (I NEVER remember most of my round anymore; probably need to concentrate more.) Best, -Marv

[DrvFrShow]

I'll be connecting to Arccos Caddie with Cobra Connect very soon when the extra grips and putter sensor arrive. 

[Patch]

Although I have simplified my stat keeping at this point in my golf journey, there was a time, decades ago, I considered myself a stat junkie. I was totally hopeless. 

I (over) analyzed every shot, and putt with a discription using a self made score card. That score card was on an 8X11 paper, folded into quarters. Each quarter sheet contained 25 blank entries to discribe each shot. 

Typical entries might read like this;

(1.) D, 275, lc, 125.

(2.) SW, 125, 10'.

(3.) P, , R, 6".

(4.) P,. 

What that told me was that I played a 400 yard, par 4, with a driver, 275 yards, to left center of the fairway,. Then a 125 yard PW to 10'feet. A 10'foot putt to 6"inces, and the a 6" inch par putt. Overall, I played that hole correctly. 

The next 500 yard, par 5 hole entry might read;

(5.) D, 270, RR, 230. 

(6.) 3W, 220, FW, 10

(7.) W, 3'.

(8.) P, . 

Which was a par 5 birdie, and that I had 8 strokes, so far in the round. 

Every entry was done in my own, made up, short hand . A slice was an "S". A water ball was a "W". A penalty stroke was a "PY". A hook was an "H". Numbers were entered as 100, 10', and 5". (yards, feet, inches) Clubs used were entered as D, 5W, 6i, PW, and P. "U" for uphill, "DN" for downhill shots. ST for short, "L" for shots I was short, or long on. 

There were other abbreviations for other shots.  Hopefully entry 74+/- was my final putt on hole 18. 

After unfolding the paper, I could read all my golf shots in sequence, which told me where I was doing well, and where I needed more practice on. 

Back then, two things were prevalent. I was not informed on how to use spread sheets, and even though these entries were not time consuming during play, slow play was not an issue as yet. 

 

 

[Lihu]

It’s tough to isolate exactly what needs improvements, but you can kind of get a good general idea and fix things.

For example, if you’re prone to breaking the wrists and you fade or slice more while doing that, there’s a good possibility for those misses. But it could be other things too. Not easy to target stuff exactly without analyzing every swing on video, and that’s potentially too much work...

[Lihu]

On 9/2/2019 at 9:08 PM, Patch said:

Although I have simplified my stat keeping at this point in my golf journey, there was a time, decades ago, I considered myself a stat junkie. I was totally hopeless. 

I (over) analyzed every shot, and putt with a discription using a self made score card. That score card was on an 8X11 paper, folded into quarters. Each quarter sheet contained 25 blank entries to discribe each shot. 

Typical entries might read like this;

(1.) D, 275, lc, 125.

(2.) SW, 125, 10'.

(3.) P, , R, 6".

(4.) P,. 

What that told me was that I played a 400 yard, par 4, with a driver, 275 yards, to left center of the fairway,. Then a 125 yard PW to 10'feet. A 10'foot putt to 6"inces, and the a 6" inch par putt. Overall, I played that hole correctly. 

The next 500 yard, par 5 hole entry might read;

(5.) D, 270, RR, 230. 

(6.) 3W, 220, FW, 10

(7.) W, 3'.

(8.) P, . 

Which was a par 5 birdie, and that I had 8 strokes, so far in the round. 

Every entry was done in my own, made up, short hand . A slice was an "S". A water ball was a "W". A penalty stroke was a "PY". A hook was an "H". Numbers were entered as 100, 10', and 5". (yards, feet, inches) Clubs used were entered as D, 5W, 6i, PW, and P. "U" for uphill, "DN" for downhill shots. ST for short, "L" for shots I was short, or long on. 

There were other abbreviations for other shots.  Hopefully entry 74+/- was my final putt on hole 18. 

After unfolding the paper, I could read all my golf shots in sequence, which told me where I was doing well, and where I needed more practice on. 

Back then, two things were prevalent. I was not informed on how to use spread sheets, and even though these entries were not time consuming during play, slow play was not an issue as yet. 

Wait, are 10’ and 3’ your typical stats for 125 and something around 30-80 yards? I ask because with stats like that there doesn’t appear to be much to improve except putting? Even then, a typical 10 foot to 6” is pretty damn good!

[saevel25]

I typically go with a 1,0,-1 system. I will mark down each shots result. I try to think of it in terms of a distribution curve. Is the shot near the top of my ability, then it gets a +1. If it's more the average, then it gets a 0. If it's a really bad shot it gets a -1.

This type of result has happened to me a few times in my life.

Driver - Topped (-1)
Approach Hybrid - Hit the green from 240 yards (+1)
Putt - 35' to 2' (0)
Putt - 2' (0)

There are typically a lot of zero's on my scorecard. I like this way because it doesn't get me too much into the weeds on proximity. I have Gamegolf for that sort of thing. What it does let me do is in the moment rank the shot. Heel a drive down the middle, it gets a zero. It felt horrible, but ended up in a good spot.

[Yossarian]

Game Golf or Arccos will do the job.

I have Arccos and beside the standard stats (scores, GIR, fariway hits,  real distances of clubs, etc), it calculates a sort of handicap breakdown (ie: you use the driver like 24HC, approach shots like a 18HC, putting, etc)

The only app I use outside of it is The Grint for calculating the real Handicap

 

 

[Club Rat]

Keeping stats can be useful.

I like to show my trend of selected categories such as putts per hole, GIR, up and down attempts/saves, penalties per hole, etc.

FIR usually leads to a higher % to make par or better.
When I miss fairways, my % decreases to save par.

As I review my spreadsheet, the trends are last 5 rounds, last 10, last 20 and total rounds.
This will give me a fair perspective in relation to scores.
When the scores trend up, I concentrate on the issues which are causing these in my game. 

[bkuehn1952]

I have kept some stats on myself for a long time, first on paper and then a spreadsheet. I never really analyzed the numbers in any great detail.  So why do I keep recording stats that are rarely reviewed?  Good question!  😉

[Buckeyebowman]

Back when I could play this game, after the round I would grab a drink and sit in a shady spot with my scorecard and go over the round in my mind. Shots I was happy with, shots I could do better, pitches, chips putts. These impressions would go into the memory bank to form an overall picture of my game. What I was good at, and what I was not good at. If those impressions persisted, I would know what I needed to work on. 

Of course, this was close to 50 years ago, so the detailed stats available to golfer nowadays were unheard of then! If I were 18 or 19 I'd sign on, but in 9 days I'm going to be 67, so I'm not going to bother.

[grubby98]

Download the app get real golf stats GRGS.  Cost is minimal in my mind and shows you all your stats, so much I can’t list them all.  After about 5 rounds you can really see your misses and what you need to work on even down to a specific club

[Patch]

On 9/4/2019 at 12:20 AM, Lihu said:

Wait, are 10’ and 3’ your typical stats for 125 and something around 30-80 yards? I ask because with stats like that there doesn’t appear to be much to improve except putting? Even then, a typical 10 foot to 6” is pretty damn good!

Those were just examples I used for this thread. I used that type of score card probably 20-30 years ago.  

That card was basically just a shot, by shot history for the round being played. It showed my "overall" game for what it was. Weak areas of play, stronger areas, and the in between stuff. 

Like all low cappers, I hit some great shots, and some real stinkers. In between was just good, consistent play.