Fairways hit from tee is important

Up and down from bunkers

 I think this side of the game is becoming much more important. When you know what part of your game is letting you down then yoyu know what to work on.

For example I know that I hit alot of fairways and that I putt pretty well. But my scores arent improving. So I practise hitting greens cos I know this is the weaker part of my game. At the range I hit a variety of shots from 150yards down to 50yards to improve my scoring cos I know that as im hitting the fairways and am likely to only have 2 putts at most then if I can get on the green in regulation every time then I can probably take 5+ shots off my scores easy!

Its well known that on average over a period of rounds the higher the GIRs the lower your scores. I dont mean over one round, but over say 30 rounds the more GIRs the lower the score.

For example. In general, and I must stress the statistical aspect of "in general", when I hit 11-12 GIRs I shoot around level par. When I hit 13-14 GIRs I shoot a couple under par. When I shoot 9-10 Girs I shoot 3 or 4 over pay. On the rare times I shoot 15+ Girs I would reckon to be 3 or more under par. Of course there are exceptions, and sometimes some quite differeing results but for me its all about Girs. I dont 3-putt very often, so if I hit a green its a par or better result. I dont make many double bogeys so generally a missed green is a bogey or par.

Anyway, thats the way I look at it.

Creo surely you should keep a record of the fairways hit as well? If you have a run of weeks with low GIR without knowning the FH you would not know if the low GIR was  because of bad tee shots rather than bad shots into greens. 

Equally I think having two many stats can be as confusing. 

Creosote, I would imagine that it has taken a lot of golf in order for you to establish the granularity of the clear correlation between your GIR% and your final scores (assuming you do not collate this for analysis).

Firstly, do you think that actually being aware of this relationship has helped to improved your golf and secondly do you think that a tool may of identified this relationship at an earlier point in time, and hence helped you lower your scores in a smaller timeframe?

Clem, agreed the fairways hit is also important, but ultimately that is just drilling down into GIR to the next level. Just depends how deep you want to go!

Stats havent helped my golf, nor would they, they are an observation of something that happened, not something that will determine what will happen. I practise all parts of my game, if one part is pants I know it and work at it harder, I dont need a stat to tell me that. I dont keep stats regularly, just occassionally for a couple of months to check that what I am doing matches my perception of what I am doing, its not for the purpose of analysis, or to show me what to work on.

When I am having a post round chat with friends, we always seem to mention what we scored, how many birdies we got and how many GIRs. These things seem important to us. How many fairways hit has little relevance. Its hitting greens whether that be a flick on a short par 4 after a booming drive down the middle, or a recovery shot under trees after a hooked drive. How the ball got to the green isnt important, its how many shots it takes to get to the green as they only way to score well at this game is get lots of pars and some birdies, and you will only achieve that (usually) if you hit lots of greens.

I personally think to be a good golfer you need to hit lots of greens in reg, so knowing how you are doing is important, whether you keep a record of that is secondary. Of course you can hit few GIRs, have a good chipping and putting day and make a good score, equally you can hit loads of GIRs, have a bad putting day and shoot a so-so score, but in general, for most of the time, what you score is in direct relation to how many GIrs you hit.

my own analysis of stats correlates with Creo's.

The single most key factor in scoring low is to hit GIR's.

Once you hit GIR's then you can either...

1) learn to putt and improve your Putts/GIR.

2) ensure that when you hit a GIR that you put the ball closer to the flag....this will help you hole more putts!

Sticking your approach closer to the flag can either be achieve by better iron play or giving yourself an easier shot into the green by hitting your drive straighter (and on rare occaisions further).

Fairways hit is, by and large, irrelevant and has no statistical correlation to your ultimate score. What is important however is whether you put yourself in trouble off the tee. you may miss a fairway by a few yards and still have a shot to the green...sure your stat will say a missed f/way but if it doesnt impinge on your ability to hit the green then its meaningless saying that you missed the fairway. What you need to do is keep track of the number of times that your tee shot seriously impedes your ability to reach the green in reg. There is a direct correlation between this and shooting high scores.

Gary....there a loads of statistical "tools" available on the web that allow you to track your stats so youre behind the curve if you think youve spotted an "opportunity".

 Me? I just use Excel. I can tailor it perfectly to my own requirements and not somebody elses ideas as to what I need.

Creo, that is very interesting and I would suggest that you have a very astude knowledge of exactly what effects your game and to what degree without having to see it on paper so to speak. A valuable attribute to have. 

i will make sure i keep a very close eye on GIR for my own game. 

Fugitive, never really thought of it as an oppurtunity, a friend and I started playing regularly last summer and having a background in numbers, I was quite keen to set something up this summer to track our progress.

I agree excel fits the bill perfectly, it is only because i have experience in other products that i would use something else. Was personally going to create a browser based application just so my friend could use it remotely...

What exactly do you track in excel, if you don't mind me asking?

Score for each hole, s'ford points, f/ways hit (thats how I know it has little bearing!!), number of times I put myself in trouble off the tee, GIR's, no of putts, no of putts/GIR, no of putts on non GIR holes, % up and down when GIR is missed, sand saves, no of 3 putts.

I also keep a record of WHICH holes I hit fairways on and GIR's on to see if theres any pattern to see if I should perhaps change my approach to how I play the hole.

I dont keep a record of anything that cant be recorded simply at the time of entering the score for that hole.

I dont mess about with recording which club I hit inot the green and from how far away and where it landed in respect of the green (long, short, left, right) like some systems get you to do.

Wish I had the computer savvy to use Excel, but have to make do with 'Scoresaver 2' which I find very informative.

It shows that  fairways hit and GIR gives me a handicap of 8.

Putts ,sand saves,birdie conversions,etc. a handicap of 14.

So(and I suspect almost everybody) I must look to working harder on my short game to improve.Which we are told time and time again but would rather go to the range and hit a good drive(the second best feeling in the world)

The Fugitive is right,you must get the approach shots closer, often my GIR looks good,but some of them are no where near the hole,and are in 3 putt land.

Scoresaver 2 offers a free I month trial and if you decide to buy you can get a fiver off buying though Golf Magic.

Fugitive,

Are you the generous type of guy that would pass on your Excel spreadsheet to needy golfers who struggle to write programming for Excel.

I do have a programme which I bought of the Net, but it is pretty obscure.

I have tried to write an Excel programme that would suffice but I am out of practice with Excel and got too frustrated.

I only note putts made, apart from the hole score/points.

I use this program to record my game..

R Golf

Its free, and easy to customise to have just your own courses on it. 

I also use the free version of Rgolf. It will give you all the statistical information you will ever need.

In answer to the first post, I think that the most important stats are GIR and how often you get up and down from around the green.