Keep Your Golf Stats, Improve Your Game

Golf stats aren't just for the pros and can come in handy when you want to improve your game. What do you think about pulling out that scorecard and jotting down your game details?

As a golf enthusiast, you've probably heard about the importance of tracking your stats at least once or twice. While not everyone does it, having access to such information is a big deal. Your golf stats provide valuable insights into your strengths and weaknesses, making it easier to identify the changes you'll need to make to achieve better outcomes on any course, regardless of the conditions.

We're joined by Lauren Brown and Adam Walicki to discuss tips on keeping golf stats to get better at golf and enhance the experience, with some great debate from Sarah, who doesn't think stats are a must.

The Value of Stats, According to Lauren and Adam

In golf, players tend to get mad at themselves when they don't do good because they set high expectations for themselves, as they should. Lauren Brown is no exception as a dedicated woman in golf who was previously a competitive runner as a child. She came into golf knowing how challenging the sport is and still has high expectations for herself.

Both Lauren and Adam keep stats, agreeing that the information helps them focus on what they're doing. On the other hand, Sarah believes stats are a distraction and that some people waste too much of their time on them. As someone who is all numbers all the time, Adam disagrees and points out that the only way to monitor actual progress is through scorecards and stats.

While Adam expresses his love for stats, Lauren explains that she tracks manually, listing the tees, noting if she hit the fairway or not, and keeping track of greens, regulations, and the number of putts. She also likes to note what she managed to hit off the tee while keeping track of her first and second shots in the green. For example, one of her scorecards shows 7 out of 14 fairways and 7 out of 18 greens and regulations. She can then use this information to identify strengths and weaknesses before making a change to her gameplay.

Using Stats Keeps You Motivated to Get Better at the Game

So, how exactly can a list of stats help someone improve their game in golf? While some people may find it confusing and even a bit frustrating to see a card full of numbers, such as Sarah, others are willing to use this information as a valuable tool to get better.

For Lauren, it's not just about finding out what she needs to improve but also realizing that some shots aren't as bad as they seem. For example, when she notes whether she hit green or regulation, she jots down whether she's hit the fringe or not, noticing that most of her shots missed into the green and landed on the fringe. It tells her that her shot wasn't as bad as she thought. While Sarah questions if this is more about boosting the ego, Lauren feels it’s more motivation to keep pushing in one of the world's most challenging and complex sports.

While Lauren uses her stats as motivation, Adam points out that it's also good to collect this information to keep track of what you're doing on different courses. In reality, the brain will only remember your best hits or your worst ones, not every single one in between. If you have the analytics in front of you, you'll have an in-depth view of what you need to do. Even if you're indecisive and uncertain on how to use this information to your advantage, you can show your stats to a coach or team member and get expert advice that will help you improve by working on what you need to do to achieve better results.

Adam also explains that when someone is reviewing scorecards completed over several months, it's easier to see where the problem lies. For example, they may struggle to hit greens and have a bad green percentage. In that case, they'd need to work on the clubs they have in the green, which are all wedges. If you know what you're not good at, you can use your stats to figure out what it takes to see improvement. Knowing what is and isn't working will help you set yourself up for success and enable you to have more enjoyable rounds of golf, whether playing competitively or not.

Discover Your Weakness

Most players believe they have one weakness and need to improve on something specific, but when they look at the stats, it shows them something entirely different. They soon realize what they thought was their weakness is less of a problem than something else. Instead of wasting valuable time on something that isn't much of a problem, they can focus on working on the real underlying issue.

Keeping stats is great for anyone, especially those who are just getting into the game of golf. If you're new to the world of golf, you should want to monitor your progress through scorecards that include fairways, greens, and putts. As Adam says, once you have the baselines of information and play a couple of rounds, you can collect data, calculate averages, and start to see what each section translated into to get better results.

It's also good to keep stats because they're not always consistent and vary based on different courses and their conditions. However, you'll eventually determine what you're struggling with and what you need to work on if you want to level up in golf. It makes more sense to have something to look back on than to simply say, "Oh, I was terrible at this today. I'll try again tomorrow."

When You Know Better, You Play Better

While Sarah doesn't LOVE stats, most can benefit from them, even if they think it's extra work and more of a hassle than anything. A set of criteria from your stats helps you measure your expectations and identify your actions to change your numbers. Nobody cares what you could've shot; they only want to see what you managed to do. While watching golf on television, you might hear top-tier players saying things like, "I'm close. I'm right there." Knowing that they’re so close can give them that push to keep going. If you weren't close, you'd probably feel like giving up, right? Most people would. It's why stats can make such a huge difference. Knowing how close you are will give you the motivation to play better. Seeing your stats, such as your fairways, putts, and greens, can instantly make you feel better, even if you didn't win. And when the game feels good, it keeps you on go-mode, encouraging you to be better and do better.

Golf is a complicated sport with dozens of rules to follow and many challenges along the way, but keeping stats can help you get the hang of the competitive sport and see progress. While Sarah may disagree, we encourage you to try it for yourself to see how well it works for you!

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Resources

Tori:
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Website: CompeteConfidenceGolf.com

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