Golf is a numbers game

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Another one of my favorite quotes, often attributed to Mark Twain, also erroneously as some of his "quotes" are. Golf is all about lies, mostly where the ball lies, but sometimes in the lies we tell about our game. So here is where we start looking for the "truths" in our golf game.

Golf is all about numbers. I'm not going to tell that your score is not that important, we're not into participation trophies here. However, dig deeper so that you can improve your game and not have to subject yourself to a barrage of high scores and not know what went wrong. Statistics can be made to prove any point that you want to make. Time to make them work for you.

Breaking down the stats

I have gotten out to a golf course twice in the last 6 weeks. Not good for me, but it's more than I've played in a bit, so, I'll take it. There is a little course nearby called Old Fort. Nothing spectacular. It's decent. No driving range, which is alright because...well, I'll explain later.

My goal right now is to play bogey golf. That's one over par, each hole for the round. A typical course is par-72, so that equates to a 90 as my target. I shot a 49 on the front and 47 on the back for a 96 total. Let's digest the round...

Three-putting greens will kill you. Your focus should be working on a good lag to get you close and finishing. Two putts per green. That means no more than 36 per round...again, that's half of a scratch golfer's round on a par-72 course. I had 31 total putts for the round, only one 3-putt and 6 one-putts. Checking pro statistics you'll see that top to bottom, they're averaging 27 to 31 putts per round. So that number isn't too shabby there.

I had 3 par-4 holes where I made par and birdied the par-3 at number 4. On 8 holes, I played one over par on each. All of this good news...now, for the bad news.

I took 5 penalty strokes during my round. Here's why that's so bad. Those are 5 strokes that counted toward my score THAT I DIDN'T ACTUALLY TAKE! Those were 5 "drops" I made just to get myself back in play. Just keeping the ball in play could bring me down to 91.

Despite my 3 pars and a birdie, I hacked my way to a 10 on the par-5 5th (should have left driver in the bag!) and another 10 feeding the water around the par-4 17th. Very inconsistent.

In summary, 4 very good holes, 8 that were alright, 2 that were REALLY bad, and 4 that were...eh. Those were just the numbers. The 31 putts is pretty good and I love the 4 holes at or under par, but a 96 overall means that I've some explaining to do.

Club Crackers

Honestly, I was in such a rush to play that I didn't prepare well. This was the second time I had played with these irons, with no driving range time and less than 50 swings total in the backyard with a net. While it's not the clubs' fault for poor performance, having the right clubs and being comfortable with them can make a huge difference...or drive you crazy (or crackers.)

I am usually pretty solid with my wedges. In this case, I had a pitching wedge, gap wedge and sand wedge with lofts of 47°, 51°, and 55° respectively. I used that group a total of 28 times. That was a little too much, but I did have difficulty judging the distance with my gap wedge, overshooting 3 greens on approach shots. With wedge in hand I chipped to get up and down, which I did quite well and gave myself manageable putts on the greens.

After the round I pulled the 51 and 55 degree wedges and decided to go back to my Warrior wedges (52°-56°-60°) while still keeping the Pitching Wedge with the iron set. The comfort level with my short irons is greater, I know my distances and it gives me more options around the dance floor to get up and down. Plus, I have the room in my bag because I don't carry a 3-iron. I never have hit it well at all and the loft would be similar to my 5-wood anyway.

Keeping score? That's 59 times (of 96) with wedge or putter in hand plus 5 penalty strokes. That leaves 16 shots with the big dogs (Driver, 3- and 5-wood) and 19 with the irons (12 of those were 6- and 7-irons.)

Final Analysis

I need to make better approach shots, keep the putting solid but not miss so many greens with the wedges. I'm good with my 7-iron, but need to improve the 6-iron for when I'm not close enough. I also need to ensure that I can get my 3-wood in play and forget driver for now.

You might find some different holes in your game. Do you know what they are? What I'm going to do is work 3-wood, 6-iron (and 7-iron so I can stay consistent) and 52/56° wedges for distance control. Five clubs to work on out of the 14 in the bag.

This course is good for me because they have no driving range and the practice putting green is very similar to the green speeds on the course. That's not always the case, even at some more expensive courses. I can putt and chip since those will help me make the most of my game.

Get out and play. Stay out of the woods, but if you do...remember The Uncle Dennis Rule.