Opinion & Analysis

Use statistics to improve your practice and achieve your golf goals

Published

11 years ago

Jul 21, 2015

Ben Larsen is a contributor to GolfWRX, and Strategic Content Manager at Arccos Golf, the game’s first fully-automatic performance-tracking system.

Game. Improvement.

Those are perhaps the two most important words in the game of golf. If you’re not trying to improve, you’re just not trying. While there is undoubtedly a percentage of golfers who are “happy” with the levels they’re playing at, a large majority of golfers are endlessly working on their games.

From early-morning hours on the practice tee to weekly lessons with a PGA Professional (and the countless time spent off the course obsessing about all things golf), game improvement for you, me and tour pros never ends.

[quote_box_center]”Every week, we’re all trying to get better,” said Billy Horschel, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour and reigning FedExCup champion. “There is always something to work on, fix, tweak or improve on. With the amount of time we spend on our games, it’s important also to be working on the right parts of our games.”[/quote_box_center]

Clearly, the name of the game is improvement. But what are golfers to improve on? Better yet, what facets of their game should they be focusing on?

Do you really need a 4 iron? Arccos tracks your usage, average distances, and longest distances with each club.

It first begins with tracking. To assess your golf game, you should be tracking it. Whether it’s with an app, product, spreadsheet or pen and paper, documenting your game and generating data is the first step in the right direction.

[quote_box_center]

“For Tour pros, the competition is so good each and every week that we’re looking for an edge, however small it might be,” Horschel said. “That may mean identifying a trend that is leading to poor performance in your game, then focusing your practice time on fixing it.

“This can quite literally be the difference between recording a top finish or heading home for the weekend. It could even be the key to winning a tournament.”

[/quote_box_center]

The thing is, there is so much room for error in golf. With so many ways to improve, it can also be hard pinpointing what you should be working on. With that, we at Arccos break down the key stats and insights by category — across the five key facets of the game — you can generate from tracking your stats to make it easy for you to identify the areas most in need of improvement.

Driving

He might think he’s struggling with his driving (8.6 handicap), but the real key to improvement for this golfer is better putting (17.3 handicap).

Average driving distance, longest drive and standard deviation are all quantifiable stats that help you understand the consistency of your swings off the tee. Tracking your drives can also provide percentages on fairways hit and missed, along with whether you tend to miss left or right.

Approach

When this golfer misses the green, he tends to miss it to the left.

The most popular stat in the approach game is certainly greens in regulation. Surely, improving GIR will lead to more birdie opportunities, thus likely lowering your score. That said, it’s important to dive even deeper into your approach play. For instance, tracking your performance allows you to generate statistics like distance to pin on greens hit, distance to pin on all approaches, misses left and right and misses short or long. For those of us short on the majority of missed greens, improving GIR and your game may be as simple as choosing the right club. Tracking stats and identifying trends will help you do that.

Chipping

Are your chip shots as close to the hole as they should be for your handicap?

Ask any tour pro and they’ll agree. Around the greens is where the money is made — and lost. When tracking your short game, focus on your chip-and-down percentage, which quantifies how often you need only one putt to finish a hole after a chip. Another key stat to help dial in your short game practice is average distance to pin on chips. For instance, if your putting is suffering, it may not be your putting stroke. You may need to work on getting the ball closer to the hole when off the green.

Sand

Like chipping, sand play is incredibly important when trying to save par or limit a blowup hole. Similarly, sand-and-down and average distance to the pin on sand shots can really help unlock some understanding of your play from the bunkers.

Putting

Understanding your putting performance is perhaps the most important piece to game improvement. So many shots are lost or gained, rounds made or broken, with the putter. To dial into your putting performance, monitor putts per hole, putts after GIR and your percentage of one-putts. That will help identify if your putting woes are caused by a poor stroke, not giving yourself a chance to make putts or a combination of the two.

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Ben Larsen

Ben Larsen serves as Strategic Content Manager at Arccos Golf. Prior to joining Team Arccos, Ben spent more than a decade in the sports media as a writer, editor, columnist and managing editor, including stints at ESPN, AmateurGolf.com and Back9Network. Having been bitten by the golf bug nearly 20 years ago, Ben takes great pride in honing his daughter's swing, saving par and never, under any circumstances laying up.

18 Comments

Hawk

Aug 14, 2015 at 11:35 am

I’d be very interested in this if it didn’t require the sensors. I currently use game golf app because it is completely free, and it tracks my clubs for free. I don’t need the sensors at all. I have built into my pre-shot routine to pull out my phone check yardage and track the club I’m about to use. It helps a ton. However; the stats are limited, and I can’t add players I’m playing with.
The in depth stats this system provides is awesome, but at that cost it isn’t worth it to me, when I can do the same thing for free. Is Accros planing on providing this feature as game golf has?

Reply Report comment
- Jayme Johnson
  
  Aug 25, 2015 at 2:20 pm
  
  Hi Hawk,
  
  I’m working with a company building a sensor-based swing analyzer product but approaching it differently. Your input on sensor-based products could be very valuable. Would you be willing to chat for 15 minutes?
  
  If so, please email me or plug in a time we can speak here: https://calendly.com/jayme-1/customer-interview.
  
  Thanks for your help!
  
  Reply Report comment
Sam T.

Jul 23, 2015 at 12:50 pm

Interesting read on the value of stats, I’d imagine they must have paid big bucks to get this infomercial going about aRccos too.

I’ve tested out Arccos but returned it because yes the sensors are way to bulky and get scraped up very easily. I checked their website then too and it costs $50 per sensor to be replaced… give me a break! I don’t like having my phone on the course so i went the the Game Golf system. Love it, easy to use, tapping the sensors comes second nature after 2/3 rounds and it has actually helped my pre shot routine for focus and consistency. Stats though are great, to be able to see where I am falling short is remarkably useful. An extra 2 hours a week on the putting green has shaved 3 strokes off my handicap already.

Stats rock but there are definitely better options out there then this. It’s just too over priced and they talk a big game but don’t deliver. I would take a look at golf tags too if you’re android but game golf seems to be leading the charge in this category and have a free app.

Reply Report comment
- Jayme Johnson
  
  Aug 25, 2015 at 2:37 pm
  
  Hi Sam,
  
  Great comments here. Would you be willing to speak with me 15 minutes to talk more about your experience with this product and other stat-apps aimed at improving your golf game? Im working with a company developing a new swing training product and your feedback could be very valuable. If interested, please message me back or select a time slot for us to speak here: https://calendly.com/jayme-1/customer-interview.
  
  Thanks so much, Jayme
  
  Reply Report comment
Mark

Jul 23, 2015 at 12:31 pm

I’ve been using the system since January. It’s not perfect, but is still a great product. You can edit shots on the fly after a hole, or wait until after the round. If you’re playing with wind or weather, you can see how you’ve been hitting your clubs so far that day and make adjustments whether they are going longer/shorter than normal. The sensors are bigger than I would prefer, but it is what it is, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. I honestly forget them as soon as I take my grip and the weight of them isn’t noticeable. When I have had an issue, I have emailed the company and gotten a real human response very quickly. You can tell they really get how important customer service is in this industry. Overall I would highly recommend picking it up. If you have Android, this is further evidence that you are failing at life. So throw your Droid in the trash, buy an iPhone, then go buy Arccos.

Reply Report comment
- Adam
  
  Jul 23, 2015 at 1:03 pm
  
  AMAZING! LOL
  
  Reply Report comment
JP K

Jul 22, 2015 at 8:07 pm

Is the data editable? The problem with the Motorola watch was any recording errors ruined your stats and you couldn’t edit it.

Reply Report comment
- Adam
  
  Jul 23, 2015 at 7:53 am
  
  it’s very easily editable after the round. I open the app while looking at the online overview of each hole so I can see a bigger picture of the details to make accurate changes.
  
  Reply Report comment
Steve

Jul 22, 2015 at 6:50 pm

Infomercial, hope WRX got paid for this

Reply Report comment
Adam

Jul 22, 2015 at 3:09 pm

I have been using these all season and don’t notice any weight difference. In fact I always forget they are even there.
Also I should add that this product is amazing and the knowledge I have gained about my club distances and accuracy have made me way more accurate with club selection. I can’t tell you how many times in the past I was hitting great shots on perfect lines that were wasted by having the wrong club in my hand. It made me think that my ball striking was lacking when it was really club selection.
I was a 14.1 Handicap after last season, and I’ve brought my handicap down to 11.8 in my 13 rounds this year (plus the last 7 from last year to make up my most recent 20). My handicap from rounds this season alone is 10, so in another month or two I should have the handicap right around high single digits…
I learned about my consistency hitting greens with mid-long irons which gave me confidence to keep the driver in the bag and lay up on tee shots a lot more often which has saved me about 2-3 penalty strokes per round. I noticed that my chipping HCP was terrible and it was really impacting my putting stats so I focused practice around my short game and it’s a huge difference.

Highly recommend using any means available to stat track your game if you really want tangible, long lasting improvement. I was discussing my golf game with a buddy recently and the question came up “What is your goal in golf?’ He said he wanted to break 80, and I said I wanted to break 80 every round….

Reply Report comment
- Adam
  
  Aug 12, 2015 at 9:08 am
  
  Just another update…
  Now after 18 rounds this season that Index is down to 10.5 from 14.1
  Arccos is easily the biggest factor in making my practice and on course approaches more effective.
  
  Reply Report comment
Busineus

Jul 22, 2015 at 2:14 pm

When are you going to have an Android version?

Reply Report comment
- Darren Tan
  
  Jul 23, 2015 at 1:19 am
  
  Second that. Wanted to buy but no android version after so long.
  
  Reply Report comment
Dave S

Jul 22, 2015 at 1:59 pm

Wish they weren’t so big (by that I mean tall). I’m sure there’s no noticable swing weight difference, but mentally, I’d feel like i was choking up on every club, which would mess with my head. Ideally, these sensors would be more like GameGolf’s, but I know they’re bigger bc there’s more built-in tech (not having to tap something attached to your belt before each shot is worth the larger size). Hopefully technological advances will lead to smaller sensors in the future, because I really want this product.

Reply Report comment
Ron Burgundy

Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 pm

How much do these weigh on your clubs? How many swing weights does it change each club?

Reply Report comment
- Ben Larsen
  
  Jul 22, 2015 at 1:01 pm
  
  Hi Ron: Each sensor weighs less than 12 grams and has no noticeable swing weight impact.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Ben M.
    
    Jul 23, 2015 at 1:49 pm
    
    Ben, THAT’S NOT FAIR. 12 Grams adds more than 2 Club Weights. Be honest man, we’re not stupid!!!
    
    Reply Report comment
  - Scott
    
    Jul 23, 2015 at 4:04 pm
    
    How can it not? Maybe you are just not that perceptive when it comes to swing weight, which is OK, because a lot of players aren’t
    
    Reply Report comment

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