Keeping Stats is a personal matter in that you decide what data you want to know about every shot of every round. Cyrus asks the simple question of what stats we need to keep or record as he calls it. Bill asks for some hints as what and how to keep stats while on the course mentioning that keeping stats on his scorecard makes a mess of his card. Let's see if I can give them some sound solutions to their questions.
Cyrus says:
You mention keeping Stats for all rounds, and that's a great idea, but which stats in particular? I recently kept a record of the number of fairways I hit with the driver, and the number of Greens from the fairway, and I now know that I need to focus on keeping it straight. But hey, isn't that what golf is all about? It's difficult to keep stats unless you know WHAT you need to record. Any suggestions?
Bill says:
Don,
Thanks for the comments on practice. How about some hints, ideas for keeping track of the statistics while on the course. After counting putts, anything more I try to record makes a real, unreadable mess out of the scorecard. What else should I count and in how much detail?
The Surge says:
You can keep stats simple by just recording a few of the basic ones, like fairways and greens hit in regulation (GIR), number of putts and successful up and downs. You can get more detailed by adding extra info about every shot. This can include on missed fairways and greens where you missed it left or right. You can add more detail defining the impact as solid, in the heel or on the toe and go more in depth, adding the ball flight as say straight, pulled, blocked, hooked or sliced. The key is you decide how much you want to know and are willing to and able to collect for analysis.
As for Bill's point of his stats messing up his scorecard, that is a problem, especially if you have to turn in that card for handicap purposes or are playing in a tournament. The answer is to keep a separate stats card. I always do this using the first player's line for fairways hit, next for GIR, next for number of putts and length of putts an then for up and downs.
The next thing to do that makes stats keeping easier is to develop a code. For me, a check mark means hitting the fairway or green, and an X is missing them. For more detail, missed fairways are L for left and R for right. LR is for left rough and LW is for left woods and LFB is left fairway bunker. All you need to do is develop your own code for whatever you want to keep track of. Lastly, I recommend keeping your results in a binder or computer for long term analysis from month to month and even year to year.
Since we are talking creating your own system and code, I decided to also include Bill Mc Cabe's answer to Cyrus regarding what stats to keep. Bill keeps just 4 stats but goes into some detail on each. He also uses codes and his system is simple and worth looking at.
BILL MCCABE says:
To CYRUS:
I keep 'four' stats on each of my rounds:
Fairways hit (I note Left or Right if I miss?)
GIR (greens in regulation) and what club I hit'¦.
Distance from the hole for my FIRST putt'¦.
And, Total putts. (I also note, in the event that I hit my FIRST putt well away from the hole, how I did on my SECOND putt?)
A typical scorecard looks like this:
F+ (or 0 or ( ' ) if I didn't hit it particularly well'¦
R 9 (where the number is the club I hit. I also track in what direction I miss the green)
30 ' 2 (where 30 is the distance from the hole, and 2 is the number of putts)
This information takes 10 seconds to record after the hole is completed and the variety of stats you can cull from them is astounding.
Hope this helps.
Bill
Keeping stats is like keeping your check book register to know your balance. The register tells you the state of you finances as stats tell you the state of your golf game. Your stats are your report card of your on course performance. You grade the results and quality of all aspects of your game you want to track. Your stats tell you what is good, decent and bad with your game. Your stats then become your road map to what you need to work on to keep the good'¦good, but more importantly, what the mediocre to bad is that you must improve.
The Surge!