Discovering time to follow your golf recreation is usually a problem however, by information, we will help you get essentially the most out of each session.
Image this: You lastly carved out a while to work in your recreation. Perhaps it’s a Tuesday night after work or a quiet Saturday morning. You’ve obtained an hour to follow and also you wish to make it rely. The place do you head?
For those who’re like most golfers, you in all probability seize a big bucket and make a beeline for the driving vary. Is smart, proper? Work on that swing, groove some fundamentals, perhaps attempt to add a couple of yards.
Right here’s the factor: you may be training the mistaken stuff.
Our associates at Shot Scope have recorded greater than 400 million on-course pictures from golfers all over the world. That’s numerous information and it tells a reasonably clear story about the place golfers really play most of their pictures.
Spoiler alert: It’s not from 150 yards in the course of the golf green.
The place you really play golf
To see if there have been any variations between handicaps, we eliminated tee pictures and putts from the equation. Right here’s what the information revealed:
Plot twist: There’s nearly no distinction between a 5-handicapper and a 25-handicapper in relation to the place they’re hitting most of their pictures. Whether or not you’re scratch otherwise you shoot within the 90s, most of your pictures come from inside 50 yards and past 200.
Why so many pictures from shut vary? As a result of most of us are lacking much more greens than we’d care to confess.
The common 15-handicapper hits 4 greens in regulation per spherical. 4. Which means 14 occasions per spherical, they’re scrambling across the inexperienced hoping to salvage one thing respectable.
After we have a look at green-in-regulation percentages by distance, the image turns into even clearer:
Test this out: A 15-handicapper has a few 30-percent likelihood of hitting the inexperienced from 100 yards. Transfer again to 150 yards and that quantity drops to roughly 15 p.c.
Right here’s the place it will get attention-grabbing (and barely miserable): For those who’re standing in the course of the golf green at 100 yards considering you ought to be searching pins, assume once more. Primarily based on these numbers, greater than half your pictures received’t even discover the placing floor.
Cease losing time on the vary
Look, I get it. Bombing drives feels good. There’s one thing therapeutic in regards to the sound of a well-struck driver that makes you neglect about your mortgage fee and that bizarre noise your automobile has been making.
However when you had limitless time to follow, certain, work in your accuracy from each distance. The issue? You don’t have limitless time. No one does.
Working towards in any respect these distances based mostly on shot frequency information isn’t simply inefficient—it’s a waste of the valuable little follow time you could have.
Your time could be infinitely higher spent on the brief recreation space, engaged on distance management and accuracy. Lacking greens is inevitable (see above), however when you’ve obtained a pointy brief recreation, you possibly can flip these doubles into bogeys and people bogeys into pars.
Time to develop some brief recreation sauce
Ladder drills are your new greatest good friend for growing distance management and really feel. Choose a goal and hit balls from 10, 20 and 30 yards, specializing in how shut you will get to the pin.
However right here’s the place most golfers screw up their expectations. If you’re hitting that wedge from 50 yards, you in all probability assume it is best to stick it inside 10 toes each time.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
You may be shocked to study {that a} 5-handicapper averages about 30 toes from the pin when hitting from 50 yards. Thirty toes! If that makes you are feeling higher about your personal brief recreation, you’re welcome.
The truth test continues: Solely once you’re hitting from 10 yards are you able to moderately count on to get it inside 10 toes. And even then, you’ll in all probability assume it needs to be nearer.
Managing expectations with actual information
Having efficiency information isn’t nearly enhancing your recreation—it’s about managing your expectations and avoiding the psychological gymnastics that result in three-putting and damaged golf equipment.
For those who’re a 5-handicapper and also you hit it inside 30 toes from 50 yards, you’ve really hit an above-average shot. That may not really feel nice within the second, however the information doesn’t lie.
The underside line? Cease beating your self up for pictures which might be really fairly respectable and begin focusing your follow time the place it’ll do essentially the most good.
If you need entry to information like this and extra than100 different tour-level statistics, together with Strokes Gained evaluation, take a look at Shot Scope’s performance tracking products. They’ve GPS watches, rangefinders and more—all subscription-free perpetually.
Get essentially the most out of your recreation with Shot Scope. Your scorecard will thanks.
Shot Scope is the Official On-Course Information Companion of MyGolfSpy.
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