Golf stats, man. It’s a trip, ain’t it? All these numbers and percentages flying around, it’s hard to make sense of it all. And fairways hit? Don’t even get me started. That one is super misleading. Let me show you: It’s easy to see some dude’s fairways hit percentage and think he’s hitting the ball like a pro, but there’s a whole lot more to it than that. Distance off the tee, where the ball ends up when it misses the fairway, even the damn course itself can all play a part in a player’s fairways hit percentage. It just really doesn’t reveal much without incorporating those other aspects of a tee shot.
But fear not, my friends. There is a solution to this problem of incomplete and misleading stats. It’s called Strokes Gained analysis, and it’s a beaut. Developed by the legendary Mark Broadie, Strokes Gained takes every shot a golfer hits and compares it to the average performance of all the golfers on the PGA Tour. It sounds like a bad idea to compare yourself to pros but it actually gives a clearer view of each aspect of a players game. This way, golfers can see exactly where they’re losing or gaining strokes relative to the competition. With Strokes Gained analysis, instead of treating all shots as the same, a golfer can see clearly what is good and bad in their game.
At Profectus, all our students use this style of analysis to make sure they are working on the right things to improve their game as fast as possible. Gone are the days of relying on traditional stats like fairways hit and putts per round. With Strokes Gained, golfers can get a real deep dive into their game and find out exactly where they need to improve. The truth of a player’s performance might be a little more complicated, but with Strokes Gained, you can see things a lot more clearly.
So the next time you’re thinking about figuring out what will really help you improve your game, consider a creating a real game plan with golf lessons in Nashville at Profectus.
