Today's Golfer 474 - Play Better

PLAY BETTER
YOUR COACH
DANNY MAUDE
Shot Scope ambassador and
host of a YouTube channel
boasting 1.6 million
subscribers. Find out more at
dannymaude.com
GREEN…
WITH ENVY
Rounds in the 80s
register an average of five-to-six
greens-in-regulation; this jumps
to nine for rounds in the 70s.
POWERING UP
70-shooters enjoy
an average 25-yard
distance advantage off the
tee over 80-shooters.
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TRUE PICTURE
BREAKING 80
It’s one of the most prestigious
milestones in golf. While a
number beginning with an 8
is certainly nothing to be ashamed of,
a 70-something score feels entirely
different and remains a key aspiration
for thousands of club players. So let’s
take a look at this target through a
different lens – data. What sort of
figures do 70-shooters routinely post in
terms of fairways, greens, chips and
putts – and how do they compare to
rounds in the 80s? When we know
the key differences, we can monitor
our performance and see how close
we are to reaching that hallowed
ground. Here are the key stats from
performance-tracking specialists Shot
Scope (shotscope.com). How does your
game measure up?
1
Greens in regulation
We begin here because statistically, this
metric shows up as the key differentiator
between rounds in the 70s and 80s.
Shot Scope data shows rounds in the 80s
averaging 5.4 greens found per round, with
scores in the 70s almost doubling this at 9.
GIR is so critical because single putts are hard
to come by, unless you are very close to the
hole. Mostly, if you want to make a par, you’ll
need two putts. The unofficial but eerily
accurate Riccio’s Rule of your score being
95 – (GIRx2) puts the 80-breaker’s GIR at
a minimum of 8… and that’s not a bad target.
2
Tee shots
Finding a GIR is of course set up by
the tee shot, so let’s study some tee
data. Distance-wise, 80-shooters
average drives of 236y while 70-shooters
enjoy a 25y gain to 261. Quite simply, longer
tee shots mean shorter approaches, meaning
improved proximity. To shoot in the 70s,
adding tee distance is certainly a way to go,
but not at the cost of control; 80 shooters
average 3.3 drives per round finding big
trouble (lost balls, trees, sand, hack-out
rough); this drops to 2 for 70-shooters,
proving they are both longer and less wild.
3
Chips inside 50 yards
This metric looks at the number of
times in a round we need more than
one shot to get on to the green from
inside 50 yards. For rounds in the 80s, this
happens an average of 2.1 times; for rounds
in the 70s we can basically pull a full shot
off this, at a 1.2 average. This shows players
routinely shooting in the 80s have twice as
many instances where they flub/chunk/thin/
duff a short-game shot. It’s perhaps surprising
that rounds in the 70s see this happen even
once, but the data also makes the 70-
shooter standard reassuringly achievable.
4
Putting
Rounds in the 70s record an average
0.9 three-putts per round; rising to 1.5
for rounds in the 80s. No golfer,
however skilled, ever eliminates three-putts
entirely, but if you want to routinely shoot in
the 70s, limiting it to once per round is a
vital target. A key element of doing this is of
course performance within 5ft or so. Here,
the 80-shooter averages 2.7 missed putts
per round, the 70-shooter’s figure dropping
to 1.9. This is another clear sign that going
one better – missing two as opposed to
three – will get you into 70-shooter territory.
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