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5 Ways to measure and improve your golf game

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The Perfect handheld Golf Notebook to keep your GOLF Yardages, Stats, and Scores!

  1. 49 Round Cards and Individual Hole Notes
  2. 20 Yardage Distance Cards
  3. Handheld and designed to fit in your back pocket!

This is your key to take your golf game to the next level. You will now always have the competitive advantage by being able to reference your past rounds at the flip of the notebook. If you are able to keep detailed notes, you will always have a leg up on your competition.

Golfers of all levels and abilities can benefit from measuring and gathering data on their golf game. This article will discuss how and why you should be monitoring your golf and how statistics are the center point for measuring. So, let’s jump right into it and see if we can help you get better scores on the golf course by giving you 5 ways to measure and improve your golf game.

Introduction to golf statistics

Firstly, golf statistics are a fantastic way to see an unbiased view of your current game as they provide insight into where your strengths and weaknesses lie. You can dive into varying levels of analysis, but if you’re new to golf statistics, start with the basics and progress as you become more comfortable. You can grab one of our best golf stats book here. 

The investigation areas can be divided into long game, approach shot, short game, and putting. We’ll have a look at how to analyze these and apply them to your golf game.

4 key metrics to measure and improve your golf game

  • Long game statistics are Fairways in Regulation (FIR). FIR will give you an indication of your performance on the tee. Learn more about FIR in golf here. 
  • Approach play statistics are Greens in Regulation (GIR). GIR shows you how many greens you are hitting, giving yourself a putt for a birdie. What is a GIR in golf?
  • Short game statistics is your effectiveness to get the ball from around/off the greens into the hole. Make sure you have the club you need for this here! Most people refer to this short game statistic as Up and Down.
  • Finally, putting stats analyze how many putts you take in a round of golf. You can go into further detail by how far you are away from the hole to start (#3 Strokes Gained Putting).

Here are five methods to measure and improve your golf game.

#1 – Write stats on the scorecard

Keep a spare card for your statistics during a round of golf. You can easily use the additional columns on the scorecard to monitor. Adding FIR, GIR, Up and Down, and Putts to the top of each column will provide enough space to track each element. See the image below.

Start by ticking or crossing your FIR, GIR, Up and Down, and add the total putts on each hole.

How will this help?

You can quickly see why you are dropping shots on the course from these stats alone. Only hit 6/14 fairways? You need to look at your long game off the tee. It will be harder to get your second shot onto the green than on the short stuff if you are hitting your second shot from the deep rough.

You’ll have a clearer picture of where to focus your practice efforts by analyzing your weaknesses. This works for your strengths too. Up and Down 5/6 times? Fantastic, keep doing what you’re doing! You are well on the way to lowering your handicap. Learn more about how to calculate your golf handicap here. 

#2 Advanced scorecard stats

If you are already good at monitoring the basics, how can you take this further? 

Using the same technique previously, add additional information to the stats. For example, you missed the fairway on the right on the 1st hole. Add your cross and a small right arrow. You can then assess what your common misses are. You can keep all of these stats in our LongBombs Golf Stat Book here!

If you tend to miss the fairway to the right, holes that dogleg to the right should instill confidence that your bad shot will probably be in play. Alternatively, it is safer to hit a shorter club to prevent a reload three off the tee if it is out of bounds. Learn more about the golf penalty rules here!

scorecard example

You can dive deeper into other statistics to measure and improve your golf game too. Alongside the tick or cross, you’ve marked for the Up and Down, be specific with what shot you play. Then, tick up and down and abbreviate what shot you hit: B for bunker, CR for chip, and run. This will identify which shots are your strengths and weaknesses. You can tweak your chipping practice to focus on the areas that need improvements. 

These advanced statistics are proven to show you where you need to work on your golf game. If you can decrease/increase any of these numbers, you will notice a drastic decrease in your score.

#3 Strokes Gained Putting

Jotting down how many putts you’ve had is not a good indicator of how you’ve done on a particular day because it doesn’t account for how far away from the hole you are.

A two-putt from 70ft is impressive, but a two-putt from 3ft…not so much.  

So what’s the alternative? Strokes gained.

Statisticians have looked at the top guys on the PGA tour and how well they perform from different distances. Strokes gained will give you a tour average of how many it should take to get the ball in the hole. 

It assesses the difficulty of getting the ball in the hole from all distances from 1ft to 100ft. From 4ft, the Strokes expected is 1.13 shots. From 40ft, the Strokes expected is 2.06 shots.

How can it be used to help your putting?

By writing down how many feet you are away on each hole and how many putts it takes, you discover whether you gained or lost shots with your putting in that round. Enter your stats into the calculator to get your results – you can find a strokes gained putting calculator here.

Do not compare yourself to the tour pros either. Let’s say you were losing 8 shots per round, and you reduce it to 4. It’s a great improvement; the calculator is just an effective way of monitoring performance.

Where are your misses?

You can also see where you struggle with your putting when entering the data – Do you lose a lot of shots when you’re inside 10ft for your first putt? Check out these best putters for mid handicappers here! These are the questions you need to dissect to see what you need to practice to improve. 

#4 Journal 

If you’re monitoring the statistics above, great! Add the icing to the cake and include notes and feelings about how you’ve played. If you’re a higher-level golfer, you can look into reasons why a shot can occur at a specific time.

For example, you are playing well and become aware you’re in contention to win. Your emotions can then influence your performance. Know your miss in pressure situations by noting your emotions alongside your tracked stats. By understanding why a bad shot can happen, you can adapt your game to play a safer shot, keep the score, and avoid a costly mistake.

High-pressure situations can skew decision-making, but compiling past data and evaluating previous decisions could be the difference between winning and losing.  

  • Could you somehow feel the moisture between the clubface and the ball during a specific shanked shot?
  • Did you not see the trees blowing in a different direction than the flag? The weather has a huge effect on the golf ball. 
  • Was the lie you had not properly positioned for the shot you were playing?

All these questions can be answered in your journal. When reviewing, you can make adjustments during your round based on your previous experiences.  

#5 Performance drills 

You can also track your practice with performance drills. These are competitive drills that try and replicate course scenarios. 

For example, a 5ft putting drill. Write down how many you hole out of ten, then repeat it in two weeks to track your improvements. 

Check out our best golf putting tips for beginners here. 

Also, do this with a wedge play drill. Play ten balls from 40 yards and write down the total distance from the hole. Try and beat this next time you attempt the drill. It’s a great way to monitor your improvements.

This can serve as motivation too. See the results from all your hard work practicing and improving your golf game. Add golf exercises at home to your workout routine for better performance. 

Long Bombs Golf Final Say

Statistics are a great way to improve your golf and the best way to see improvements in your game. For those who are new to statistics, just start small. If you believe it holds value – go for it and be creative!

Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ve gained some insight into using statistics to improve your golf game. Check out our book below to always have your golf statistics handy.

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