Hi Oli,

Hope you had a good Xmas.

Personally I think that with the 3 scores you have provided (on your thread), you can not calculate a meaningful handicap the scores are too varied.  It should be calculated over a bigger sample of rounds to make sure you get a fairer handicap.  Or you should perhaps pay more attention to your STROKEAVERAGE .

We are thinking of adding a handicap facility to StrokeAverage.com in the near future.

We can either add:

1)  A means to monitor what your handicap is (i.e. when it changes) - which works for players who have official handicaps at Golf Clubs

2)  To calculate an unofficial handicap moving handicap for players who do not belong to clubs

or

3)  To build a system which is capable of both monitoring and calculating a players handicap

No-one really needs both, so how many of you guys officially belong to clubs (with regulated handicaps) and how many do not belong to clubs (with an unnofficial handicap)? 

The other problem for us to consider is the various systems around the world i.e. the USGA system is completely different from the CONGU system.

The website reviews on www.StrokeAverage.com so far do not really refer to the lack of a handicap facility.

How important do you guys think this is?

Regards

Chris

www.StrokeAverage.com

Hi Chris.

Good point.

I don't personally belong to a club, but may be joining Broome in the new year with a friend. I suggested the handicap system because I wanted to suggest something different to others, rather than replicating the same thing, which isn't really that helpful.

Oli

hope all had good xmas,

played church Stretton on friday, don't think its worth enetering the round, as its nowhere near any ordinary round, gale force winds and torrential rain doesn't make for a normal round, but was good fun, strugglin to put ball on tee due to wind does causes a wry smile, great meal in clubhouse after

Chris

havin a handicap option maybe useful, I play with a society and ahve handicap 16.6 , but my club handiacp is 28, as it is difficult to get to play comps to get a card in, so havin an option to give you an idea of where you are at, would be nice,  

Allan 

Hi Allan / All,

That's a good point regarding the weather.

We will be looking more closely at the Hcp situation.

How is everyone else getting on lately using StrokeAverage.com?

Regards

Chris

www.strokeaverage.com

Hi Chris.

Haven't been playing for the last week or so because of the weather, family illness and revision! Will enter a round asap!

Oli

Hi Chris

Just a quickie to say well done with the newsletter. Was a pleasant surprise to get a good read in my inbox as opposed to the usual spam. Looks good & really adds some weight behind strokeaverage.com with all the top quality pro's that use the system.

Well done. 

Understanding that you may be protecting some intellectual property can you give me any advice on how I can turn the bad news into good practise (that’s a quote you can use!) without continually tinkering with my game? But maintain the forward momentum so i don't end up solving the same problem time and time again...?

Much appreciated!

 In my Surrey coaching, the game is broken down into 4 main sections - the 3 that you have identified, plus Playing.  This section gets you to assess how you score on each type of hole, i.e. par 3's, 4's and 5's.

Within each section, there are further sections, for example, under Full Swing, there are Tee Shots, Progression, Approach and Rough.  There are similar section in each of the other catogories.  We will be measured on a number of these on the range and do the others in practice rounds.

Personally, I haven't taken much notice of the stats yet, as I'm working on my swing at the moment and have been a little inconsistent, but when I do, I guess that monthly intervals would make sense.  After you have entered a fair number of rounds, you should have a pretty accurate picture of what your strengths and weaknesses are anyway, so it should then be a case of maintaing what is good and working on areas that need improvement.

True enough Ben, but breaking down the sections is only really leadong to more analysis of the same thing. If my ball is teed up in the rough, plugged in the semi, in a divot on the fairway, what does that mean i have to practise?  It all comes back to the full swing.

 The only things that don't use a full swing are the short game, and putting. Playing is just a mix of the 3, so thats how i came to my break down. 

I'm just trying to figure out how long it will take to train out weaknesses?  and soon they will show in the stats.  I suppose i really need to only look at stats that are a couple months old to get an idea of what is progressing from stats that are a year old.

Hmmm, seems i am formulating a plan!!

Thanks for input, Ben 

It all depends on how much you want to break things down.  Granted, you are likely to get greatly varying lies in the rough, but that section allows you to assess your overall recovery on the occasions that you miss the fairway.  By breaking down to full swing for example, it allows you to assess whether you are having a problem with a particular type of shot, or a particular club.  Ben has a specific shedule to follow and it keeps him focused on all areas of his game during practice rounds and range sessions.  Surrey are piloting a particular method of recording results which appears to be very easy to follow, which we are using in conjunction with StrokeSaver.

Good luck with the goals that you have set yourself!  It would be interesting to know what they are.... 

Hi Cheers Big Ears,

It will depends how often you are playing and your level of play.

The best method is to compare your own stats over time periods i.e. first 3 months with second 3 months and to see what is improving and what areas are not improving.

Some stats are influenced by other ones i.e. if you are not driving it in the fairway yopur distance and directional control with your approach play is likely to suffer etc..

Suggest comparing no less than 5 rounds at a time for club golfers, with our Tour Pros we usually work on reviewing the stats approx every 15-20 rounds.

A basic summary method for looking at your stats would be as follows:

1. Look at StrokeAverage (based on the course par & length)
2. Look at how you are playing Par 3, 4 & 5's
3. How you play the 1st, Middle and Last 6 Holes (i.e. proper warm up, psychology or eating /drinking properly during the round)
4. Look at Overall Driving Acc (on Par 4 & Par 5's as well as with each club etc..)
5. Look at GIR / Effective GIR
6. Number of advancing & penalty shots
7. Look at Approach Play (accuracy with each club & Up & Down Success %)
8. Look at Scrambling in conjuction with the short game breakdown stats (accuracy and Up & Down Success %)
9. How many bunkers you go in per round as well as how good you are from the sand
10. Putting (will deal with this in another post soon) but look at how many 3 putts per round, Lag Putt Quality as well as conversion rates from each distance band.
11. Check that your putting footages are being recorded realistically, do you stand over some putts from 50+ feet (many golfers tend to record putt lengths as shorter than they are in reality which is not great for your confidence!, telling yourself you have missed from 6ft when it was really 8ft)

Hope that helps, please contact me if you have any further questions. 

Regards

Chris

www.strokeaverage.com

Hi Chris

Just to let you know that the goodies arrived this morning. Well pleased!!

Thanks again to Strokeaverage.com & Golfmagic for this cracking prize - lets just hope I can get out & get some rounds in now and make some use of this cracking facility.

Cheers 

Hi Everyone,

How are you all getting on, we have been very busy with the website re-vamp etc..

Getting close to the system going live soon , Are there any others who are intending to do a review on the current system etc.. ?

Which may perhaps be included / displayed on our new site (a chance for 5 minutes of fame )

Please be advised that most of the changes will be regarding the 'non logged in' / sales pages of the website, we will not be doing huge changes to the actual stats collection and stats displays this time.

We are currently adding more example players, more courses to the database for the UK etc..

We will also be looking at some methods to speed up the shot entry and adding some graphical displays in the next month or so.

Regards

Chris

www.strokeaverage.com

Hi Chris.

Haven't played an actual game for a while now. Attempted to yesterday but was so poor I went back to the range. Will not go to course until I improve! 

Hi Chris

I've submitted some more information.  I'm finding it all really useful and will be able to make really good use of it in my lessons working out the main areas of weakness (take your pick!) and working on them.

Graphical stats would be good (as you mentioned above) but for now its doing its job really well for me.

Hi Ken,

Welcome to the thread.

You can takle a look at our site and sign up for the 2 week free trial to see how you get on with it.

Thanks for your comments UA, our new site is 'nearly' ready for the general public, we will be adding some graphical displays at some point in the near future.  Plenty more developments are still planned.

The current upload will give the site a completely new look, additional example players, more course scorecards, more helpful information for all to use and to help improve their games/handicaps.

I am attending the WGC Accenture Matchplay Championship in Arizona this week, but hope that our programmers will have the new site ready for when I get back to the UK on Sunday.

Kind Regards

Chris

www.strokeaverage.com

Hi All,

How are you all getting on using the StrokeAverage.com site?

Any more user reviews to be posted on the GM site?

Regards

Chris

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are all keeping well.

We are just in the process of putting together some of the final content for our new look site and doing some final 'bug testing' (sorry it has taken a little longer than expected)

Are there anymore users of the StrokeAverage.com website who are intending to post a review on the GM site?

Kind Regards

Chris

www.strokeaverage.com