Keeping Stats

Hi All,

Since league starts tonight for me, I was wondering what you all do for keeping stats during the round, if you keep track of anything other than scores.

Usually I keep track of drives, 2nd shot, 3rd shot, putts, and score.

Tonight I am thinking of just recording which club I use + score: Like D, 5, 2p, or something like that.

My reasoning is that my game will improve if I keep these stats, although it hasn't happened yet. I don't have an app or other electronic device and only carry my cell phone for emergencies. Actually, I prefer to be as unplugged as possible when I play golf, so I generally eschew tech.

Maybe just keeping score is enough....

Thoughts?

Depends on my mood. Some days I only do score. Other days I do score and putts. Others... I go full OCD and record score, putts, FIR, GIR and each club I hit on every single shot. I did the whole every shot thing for maybe 2 months, because I Wanted to establish what my real world gapping was, and now I'm back down to FIR, GIR and score, as my putts per round has been pretty much never gone below 34.

Hopefully my putter fitting this weekend will help change that...

Usually score, putts, gir, and fir.

In addition to putts, fairways, and GIR I also track "wasted shots": Tee shots that result in penalty or chip out; failure to get out of bunker; failure to hit green with chip or pitch from <30 yds and 3 putts. Article ("The Four Big Errors") in Golf Digest (July 2010) explains the metrics and provides comparison chart for handicap ranges. Helps identify areas to improve and does track pretty close to my handicap range.

Club off tee

Distance of drive

Fairway: Hit/Left/Right

Club for approach shot

Approach shot: Hit/Left/Right/Long/Short

Number of putts

Number of penalties (and type)

Total GIR

Total FIR

Total putts

Followup question would be: Does it help your game to keep stats?

Ruminating: When did all of the stats begin to matter anyway? In the "vintage days" didn't they just keep score? I know that I never became aware that there even were stats to keep until the modern era on the PGA Tour, watching on TV. I think prior to that it must have been handicap and score, and that's how you knew who the good players were.

For a person on the never ending quest for improvement, maybe just keeping score would shift the focus where it belongs - getting the ball in the hole as quickly as possible. Does it really matter if I miss the fairway, but hit a good recover and two putt for par? Or chip it close, but still have a good score on the hole?

I have been keeping stats for years now, and it does help me walk thru the round in my mind when I am thinking about it later, but so far I have yet to see how the stats translate into lower scores. Maybe I am just not seeing the patterns I am supposed to be seeing, and therefore not working on what I am supposed to be working on. Don't know.

Starting tonight I am going to just keep score for the next few rounds, as an experiment, and see if I enjoy the round more or less, and what effect that has on the mental side of the game for me.

Don't even bother with score. Number of shots I enjoyed is more my thing.

I used to keep stats when I was playing consistently but it's not for me anymore. I know what part of my game needs improvement (all of it). I'm never going to have the time to score like I used to so I just enjoy my rounds now.

Don't even bother with score. Number of shots I enjoyed is more my thing.

If I did that I would be in the single digits....

Btw, didn't keep stats last night and my score improved by 4 strokes. Don't know if there is a correlation yet. Went from 5.3 strokes per hole avg to 4.8 strokes per hole, so....

Don't even bother with score. Number of shots I enjoyed is more my thing.

Hear, hear, Jonny. Now that is a stat worth keeping.

I don't keep track of stats. For league play I post my score and let the statistician worry about the rest. We're all handicapped, so the comps seem fairly even to me.

Casually I will keep track of putts, but I don't log it. I have a couple of lady friends that I play with who seem to be slaves to stats. It's part of the way they play the game that is a leftover from when they took the game up and weren't very good. The game seemed a lot more interesting for them when there were games within the game, be it fairways hit, GIR, putts, penalty strokes or sand saves rather than a simple tally of strokes.

I don't do it but if that is someone else's cup of tea then so be it. My old man was a stat freak before it ever became popular I think it was part of his make up since he was a gambler and a math whiz. I guess I never kept up with it because I could scramble. My old man did not like the way I played. He was always about GIRs and FIRs. Man I shot some scores back in the day by scrambling. My old man said a man could not live by wedge and putter like I did.

I guess my way of thinking is outside the box. When I review a round my line of thought is like well I should have got it up and down from there for a par. My old man's train of thought would be well you should not have missed that fairway or green to begin with. One of the guys at my club asked me the other day. " I know you do not play and practice as much but you still have a decent above average short game?" I told him because I never was a good ball striker. If my old man was alive today he would tell you my stats always sucked. Now he did tell me just before he dies that if we could have combined our games into one player he would be one hell of a player with his stats and my putting stats. He did not live to see Tiger at his best. I think if he was alive today he would hate Mickleson but love Furyk (except the swing that would be another chapter) and Kuchar because both are pretty steady.

But on the original subject if one wants to keep stats and do in depth analysis that is fine but not for me. My train of thought is hit it find it hit it again and git it in the hole as quick as I can with as few strokes as I can. I think in modern terms I would be described as a scrambler/plodder. I guess that is why I like Mickelson so much because I am all over the place like he is.