Stats don't lie or do they ?

Fri Nov 2, 2012 by Dave Phillips

Look at your statistics to feed what you need. Even though PGA tour statistics are slightly skewed because of course setup and conditions, you can find some golden nuggets of information by studying the performance of the top players.

I see many of my students grinding away on the practice tee hitting iron after iron and driver after driver. I especially see this trend with junior golfers as they strive to get better and hit the ball further. The problem is they have no idea if that is what they really need.

Most students are obsessed with ball striking and don’t spend the same amount of practice time on their short game skills. Let’s take a look at some PGA tour statistics for player of the year for 2008 Padraig Harrington.

• Driving Distance - 32nd
• Driving Accuracy - 154th
• Greens in Regulation - 186th
• Putting Average - 5th
• Putts Per Round - 2nd
• Sand Save % - 9th
• Birdie Average - 8th
• Scoring Average - 3rd

Notice, how the two highlighted statistics are the ones that most amateurs spend the majority of their time practicing and yet Padraig won player of the Year and two Major championships. It is pretty obvious however that the reason he won was his incredible shortgame statistics. 

Take a look at the statistics of the top 10 players in the world on www.pgatour.com and you may be surprised to see what they aren’t very good at. If you’re interested in keeping your own stats there are software programs available that allow you to do it, such as www.shotbyshot.com.

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