It’s hard to find a seminal book on the ancient game, written in the modern era, but Mark Broadie’s book, ‘Every Shot Counts’, is exactly that. As we moved into the ‘shotlink’ era from 2004, it shows the true power of data in the modern game and how it provides clearer insight and better management of the game for tour professionals, but also the amateur golfer.
The concept of strokes gained is known to most golfers, but what it truly means is not always clear. Our guest of the pod, Lou Stagner put it best, when he said that it’s like asking someone how far they live from work. People usually answer with time taken, as opposed to kilometres or miles, and therefore if they take a 15 minute drive and it actually takes 20, there is a negative impact. That same thought process can be used with strokes gained. If a tough par 3, for the PGA tour pro takes an average of 3.2 shots to complete, a touring pro who makes par, will essentially gain 0.2 shots on the field.
With the advent of modern technology and the shotlink database capturing all PGA tour strokes in the last 16 years, Broadie uses that data to dissect different elements of the game, applying the concept of strokes gained to all facets from putting, approach play, short game and off the tee.
Particularly fascinating is the way it helps give the everyday amateur like us, a better sense of expectations. Most amateur golfers will expect to hole 8 feet putts on a regular basis, or chastise themselves for 3 putting from off the green. The truth is, that a PGA pro only holes 50% of 8ft putts (and these are the best players on the planet), and from 33 feet, they are just as likely to 3 putt as they are to hole it! 2 putts from that distance is right on the average!
Broadie also breaks down the long game to look at strategy, which has been further evolved with thanks to Lou Stagner again and Scott Fawcett with their work on DECADE golf. On our podcast (episode 47), Lou talks about that, again reiterating the importance of expectation management for the modern golfer, and when you look at the long game, it shows how the real key is simply taking aim for an area that accounts for dispersion, and will ensure your drives do not end up OOB, or in a hazard.
The book itself is written by a data scientist, so it’s not a complete page turner, but the insight it gives you is worthwhile. It’s broken down into nice bitesize chapters covering every discipline of the golf game, looking at professional golfers initially, and then applying it to the everyday amateur.
It’s given us the bug for more data, and shot tracking which we are doing in the off-season with ShotScope, and hopefully this will give everyone else another opportunity to fine tune their own on course strategy.
