Think you're a good ball striker?

[Harmonious]

Connell Barrett on Golf.com wrote on his blog about how to measure your ball striking:

http://blogs.golf.com/flyers/2010/08...lstriking.html

Here's the relevant part of the article:

"In your next round, record your approaches from 100-150 yards, noting how far each shot stops from the hole—be it 5 yards or 50 yards. Then, take each "leave" figure and divide it by the shot's initial distance. For example, if a 130-yard approach stops seven yards from the hole, your "leave" is 7/130, or 5.3%. Using a minimum of five approach shots, list your leaves from smallest to largest, take the middle figure, and compare that number to the median leaves shown on the chart below, which is based on Broadie's 70,000-shot database and the PGA Tour's ShotLink database:

Tour pro: 5.5% median leave
80-shooter: 9% median leave
90-shooter: 12% median leave
100-shooter: 15% median leave

For instance, let's say you're a 90-shooter, and you record leaves of 9.5%, 11.7%, 14.8%, 16.3% and 17.0%. With your median leave being 14.8%, the chart reveals that your ball-striking is closer to a 100-shooter than the 90-shooter you are; that means you need to improve your full swing. Now, if you're a 90-shooter and your median leave is close to that of an 80-shooter, then your ball-striking is excellent and should instead focus on short game and putting."

This addresses many people's questions here about what they should work on to lower their scores. If their ball striking is Tour quality, yet they have a 10 handicap, better spend a lot more time on their short game/putting. And the converse is true.

Might also be a good reality check for those people who say they knock it inside 10 feet every time from 100 yards. The Tour average from that distance is 5.5 yards = 16.5 feet.

[delav]

Very interesting post and game metric, thanks for sharing this. This is a stat that I am excited to start keeping.

It will be interesting to see how various forum contributors stack up against the benchmarks above.

[bwdial]

I don't need a bunch of fancy math to tell me that my ball-striking is crap. :p

[NI4NI]

Good measuring stick - I'll check into this for tomorrow's round.

[michaeljames92]

just did this for my last 3 rounds. median leave of 7.1% and i shot 80,79,79. I assume we are to include missed GIR's too?

[kurisu]

Neat!
Would be cool to have this stat and a way to input the data into golf apps. Gonna suggest that to a few devs. Surely @iacas could add this easily to Scorecard?

[Harmonious]

just did this for my last 3 rounds. median leave of 7.1% and i shot 80,79,79. I assume we are to include missed GIR's too?

Yeah, it's wherever your ball ends up, on the green or off.

[michaeljames92]

Yeah, it's wherever your ball ends up, on the green or off.

Oh wait i seemed to miss only "150-100 yards" I included it for all shots trying to hit the green

[ks8829]

good ball striking or pin point accuracy on approach shots. thanks for sharing this information

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

I don't need a bunch of fancy math to tell me that my ball-striking is crap. :p

Seriously, I think I would only get discouraged if I did this calculation. Maybe once I get my ball-striking to where I actually think of it as pretty good, I'll track this stat to determine how to focus my practice time.

-Andrew

[Shindig]

Does this apply to shots from within 100-150 yards that aren't aimed at the hole?

What of shots not even aimed at the green, but are from within that distance?

[sean_miller]

Does this apply to shots from within 100-150 yards that aren't aimed at the hole?

Are you talking about layups? That would be a simple pass/fail equation.

[Shindig]

Are you talking about layups? That would be a simple pass/fail equation.

Well, this seems to be a good measurement if my goal in ball striking is to go for the pin each time; it isn't.

I guess it's pretty clear that if I'm laying up from 125 yards, I don't measure this one. But what about when there's a sucker pin? Even if I have a wedge in my hand, I'm going for the safe part of the green, and I'll take my two putts and move on happy. I'm going to be 30 feet from the pin (unless I'm closer by accident), but I don't think that makes me a bad wedge player. In short, I'm wondering how to adapt this measurement if my goal isn't to always go for the pin.

[Stretch]

In short, I'm wondering how to adapt this measurement if my goal isn't to always go for the pin.

Um, just don't record those particular shots.

[sean_miller]

. . . But what about when there's a sucker pin? Even if I have a wedge in my hand, I'm going for the safe part of the green, and I'll take my two putts and move on happy. I'm going to be 30 feet from the pin (unless I'm closer by accident), but I don't think that makes me a bad wedge player.

To be honest, I'd say someone who's afraid to fire at a pin with a wedge in his hand is probably not a good ball striker. I'm just sayin'.

[deronsizemore]

There's no stat in between a tour pro and 80's shooter? Seems odd...

[Shindig]

To be honest, I'd say someone who's afraid to fire at a pin with a wedge in his hand is probably not a good ball striker. I'm just sayin'.

Sucker pin was the relevant part. Green light situation, I'm aimed at the pin. Yellow light, with wedge or short iron, I'm going for it. It's the sucker pins I'm not even contemplating.

[soloredd]

Well, this seems to be a good measurement if my goal in ball striking is to go for the pin each time; it isn't.

Yeah, I would just not count those shots. You would probably have a few holes where you went for the pin. Another thing you can do is take 2 rounds and put those together so instead of having 2-3 to get a result from you might have 6-7.

For me, when I shoot a 91 and have 39 putts (one 4-putt, 5 3-putts) I'm pretty sure my ball striking is not #1 on the priority list. Then again, maybe it's because I didn't put the ball closer to the hole on my approach?