Keep Stats

[trog2233]

I keep fairways hit, putts, Up and down, Sand saves. I dont keep GIRs cause you can figure it out later with how many putts you have.

[moadhia]

An up and down does not have to be for par. Anytime you are off the green and then get into the hole in 2 shots, that is an up and down IMO.

So would this mean, that there are 18 attempts on U/D per hole. ON a par 3 if I get a birdie thats an U/D otherwise I get a 0 on my U/D column ? I guess my question is how to figure if you are attempting U/D shot.

[etlreams]

I keep track of club off tee, fairways hit, penalties and sand shots, and number of putts. The computer program/website will calculate GIRs and give me all sorts of fun reports and charts on fairway % with different clubs and other things. I really enjoy keeping these limited stats and entering them into the system to view various reports!

[Shanks A Million]

I find that most score cards give you 4 slots up top, and 3 down below. So, I can enter my score, then another's score, then go:

Me - Score
Them - Score
FW -
GIR -

UD -
SS -
Putts -

So, if I hit the FW, I put a check in the "FW" box. If I miss it, I put an X. If there is no FW (par 3), I put a dash. On each X, I put "L, R, S, T, W, or OB". (Left, right, short, through, water, O.B.) This lets me look at where I miss it.

Gir is the same, but with no dash. I put L, R, S, O (left, right, short, over) or something similar. I can add water and O.B. to this if I want.

UD and SS is simple. If I don't hit a bunker, I put a dash. "-" If I hit a greenside bunker, I put a check for a SS, and an X for a missed SS. If I hit a FW bunker, I write "FW" in the box, and the GIR will say whether or not I hit the green from it.

Putts is simple again, just put the number of putts.

Then, at each 9, I put in the total. FWs will be X/7 and X/14. Gir will be X/9 and X/18. Putts will equal a number, 28 or so. You get the idea.

Somewhat crude, but I know what I average now. I use either golf digest's software, or some other to keep track.

[GolfHippy]

I am a big believer in keeping stats.

I actually made some noticable improvement when I started doing so.

When I have lessons, I email my golf pro my save file and he loads it into the software and has a look. I already know what I want do focus on but its good to have him look and see.

[Mattplusness]

I really should start.. although some days I'm doing one thing right, some time the other thing is going wrong.

[Roblar]

I would like to keep more stats --- and I'm starting to think about just getting stats software.

Right now I keep:

Score

Putts

GIR ('0' = GIR, "-1", "-2", etc.)

FW ("O" if I hit the Fairway, "X" if I don't, and I place a small dot to the left, right, short, etc. of the "X" to indicate my miss)

Penalties (I put a "P" for a penalty.

I used to score every stroke "A"-"F". That proved to be too time-consuming and I found it difficult to avoid being arbitrary for some shots.

I think it would make sense to keep track of the clubs I use and the results (distance, proximity to target, type of miss, etc.), but... that also seems too time-consuming right now.  Maybe in the future.

[turtleback]

In addition to the more conventional stats I like to keep track of how many strokes it takes me to hole out once I get within 100 yards of the green.

[Stretch]

I read an interesting post from Mark Sweeney -- the guy behind AimPoint and a very analytical thinker about golf in general -- on another forum where he detailed the statistical analysis he'd done on tour and elite amateur players. The nut of his conclusions:

Quote:

These are the most important performance factors, in order of importance:

1. GIR

2. Putts per GIR

3. Double-bogey (or worse) rate

4. Scrambling

5. Go For Its

6. Putts per round

7. Driving Distance

8. Driving Accuracy

When analyzing a player, look at his/her stats in that order to determine their relative strength as a player.

Sadly, driving accuracy is my single best stat and putts per GIR probably my single worst. What's that old saying again?

[Harmonious]

Originally Posted by Stretch

I read an interesting post from Mark Sweeney -- the guy behind AimPoint and a very analytical thinker about golf in general -- on another forum where he detailed the statistical analysis he'd done on tour and elite amateur players. The nut of his conclusions:

These are the most important performance factors, in order of importance:

1. GIR

2. Putts per GIR

3. Double-bogey (or worse) rate

4. Scrambling

5. Go For Its

6. Putts per round

7. Driving Distance

8. Driving Accuracy

When analyzing a player, look at his/her stats in that order to determine their relative strength as a player.

Not a bad listing.  I would move driving accuracy to #5 and driving distance up to #6. Probably move double bogey rate down below that.  If you are in the fairway off the tee, chances are you rarely would get more than a double.  Conversely, if you are missing fairways, it is much more difficult to make par or birdie.  But, all in all, this covers all the main points of good play.

[Roblar]

Relative newbee here --- what is "Go For Its"?

[turtleback]

While those were based on good golfers, I think the priority order would change quite a bit for lesser golfers.  For example, I think for a high handicapper like me scrambling would be 1 or 2.  I don't hit that many greens in regulation so the big difference in my scores is whether it is taking me 2, 3, or 4 to get up and down from inside 30 yards.

[andycook]

Yes I keep stats.  Club used off the tee and # of putts.  I recently added distance off tee.  I'm measuring distance with my Bushnell Neo but I don't sweat it if I don't manage figure out distance.  I'm really trying to put together how far I hit each club.

[GolfHippy]

I fill out my card like this:

I cross the top left corner of the scorecard entry to show a Fairway Hit. Put dots in the top right to show GIR+1 etc, 1 dot = GIR+1, 2 dots = GIR+2.

along the bottom I put dots for putts, horizontal lines for greenside bunkers and vertical lines for off green chips/putts.

So I get all the info in one box.

Mattplusness: That is why I started keeping stats. Keeping stats helps you make sense of it all. There are loads of great software programs out there. The one i use is totally free so I can show my stats to my pro on his computer before I get a lesson. Its really in depth too.

Roblar: I keep those stats as well and a few more. The software I use does have GIR but not the GIR+1 at the moment. However, the good news is they have said they will be putting that in sometime this year so I am already keeping those stats so I am ready for when it arrives.

Turtleback: That is one of the other stats i keep. That is a really important bit of my game. Its called greenside. That is a poor area for me at the moment.

Mind you when I looked at the Master's stats recently I was amazed. These guys are so good.

[tazrestling27]

I use a blackberry app called nrange and it is a gps. Not only is it a gps, but it keeps score on the course and measures distance. It keeps track of your GIR, FAIRWAYS, SANDSHOTS, PUTTS, PENALTIES. It is a great app. It really shows what I have to work on.

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by GolfHippy

I fill out my card like this:

I cross the top left corner of the scorecard entry to show a Fairway Hit. Put dots in the top right to show GIR+1 etc, 1 dot = GIR+1, 2 dots = GIR+2.

along the bottom I put dots for putts, horizontal lines for greenside bunkers and vertical lines for off green chips/putts.

So I get all the info in one box.

Mattplusness: That is why I started keeping stats. Keeping stats helps you make sense of it all. There are loads of great software programs out there. The one i use is totally free so I can show my stats to my pro on his computer before I get a lesson. Its really in depth too.

Roblar: I keep those stats as well and a few more. The software I use does have GIR but not the GIR+1 at the moment. However, the good news is they have said they will be putting that in sometime this year so I am already keeping those stats so I am ready for when it arrives.

Turtleback: That is one of the other stats i keep. That is a really important bit of my game. Its called greenside. That is a poor area for me at the moment.

Mind you when I looked at the Master's stats recently I was amazed. These guys are so good.

I like your system.  You sound like someone who used to keep the score book at baseball games.

I just got a GPS and am thinking about keeping another stat.  Distance from the green after regulation number of shots.  So on a par 4 if I am not on in regulation (very likely, alas) how far from the green am I after 2 shots?

[Stretch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harmonious

Not a bad listing.  I would move driving accuracy to #5 and driving distance up to #6. Probably move double bogey rate down below that.  If you are in the fairway off the tee, chances are you rarely would get more than a double.  Conversely, if you are missing fairways, it is much more difficult to make par or birdie.  But, all in all, this covers all the main points of good play.

Yeah, someone did ask him about how well each stat correlates to eventual score and the (somewhat incomplete) answer was:

Quote:

Here are the relevance numbers from the primary statistical model I did:

GIR - 28%
Putting - 27%
Scrambling - 23%
Go For Its - 3%
Driving Accuracy -1%
Driving Distance - 1%

Prof. Mark Broadie (who helped come up with the strokes gained/putts gained methodology now being used to analyze PGA Tour shotlink data) also has a very interesting paper based on a database he created by tracking pro and amateur golfers of all abilities over thousands of rounds of golf. This allowed him to measure the contribution of individual shots to the golfer's overall score, and express this as a "shot value" -- which basically defines the quality of each shot relative to a scratch golfer's average result from that particular situation. Long story short -- you get a good view of where different groups of golfers gain and lose shots. The table below shows top pros, journeymen pros, and then low, middle and high handicap amateurs.

What jumps out is the overwhelming importance of the long game (shots from over 100 yards) in differentiating scores. For example, if a low-handicap am had a top pro do all his putting and scrambling, he could expect to save 4.3 (2.2 putts + 1.4 shots around the green + 0.7 sand shots) strokes a round. But having the pro hit his drives and longer iron shots instead would reduce his average score by 9.3 strokes. The same holds for the different groups of amateurs -- the mid cappers give up 11.5 shots to the low cappers and 7.1 of these (62 percent) are in the long game. Putting is an important differentiator among the pros, but less so for average golfers, since everyone is going to have 12 or more tap-ins a round. So the guy shooting 66 and below is only 6.5 strokes better on the greens than the guy shooting over 100, but he's almost 25 strokes better from the tee box up to 100 yards out!

Fun stuff to think about.

[The Recreational Golfer]

I keep three numbers for each hole -- number of full swings, number of short shots, number of putts. From this you can get GIR, up-and-down, as well as see how quickly you get your ball up to the green and how quickly into the hole from there.

When I get home I wrote down every stroke and that's where I get detailed about hitting it left, right, or straight, length of the putts, etc. It's not hard to remember all that stuff, and it keeps you from getting sidetracked while you're playing. Besides, doing it all at once allows you to see the overall pattern of the day's play a little better.