We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Every Shot Counts - Mark Broadie

ShotScope
Vegan702

Vegan702

New member
Joined
Oct 17, 2009
Messages
2,493
Reaction score
16
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Handicap
Exploding
Reading this issue of Golf Magazine they have a multi page article on a new book coming out March 6 "Every Shot Counts", by Mark Broadie. He is the guy who invented the new stat the tour uses, Strokes Gained. He breaks down the shots from 100 shooters to tour pros and its pretty insightful. An example in the article takes a 400yd par 4 hole with OB right. An 80s golfer has an average score of 4.7 on this hole. If he aims down the middle off the tee 7% of the shots will go OB. If they aim to the left side of the fairway avg score drops to 4.6, but only 1.5% off the tee shots go OB. For a 100 golfer aiming down the middle 15% of their shots go OB and their avg score is 5.9. If the 100 golfer aims towards the left rough only 2% of his tee shots will go OB and avg score drops to 5.7. They give a few more examples in the article that breaks down every shot from tee to green and the strokes gained on every shot. Looks like it will be a good read, think I will pick it up when it comes out.
 
Percentages change with left handed golfers, haha.

Hopefully that wasn't a government study because since so many golfers slice the ball, it only make sense that aiming left produces less ob shots.
 
Not sure about gov study. Another couple examples were if you are missing more putts on one side of the hole vs the other. Say 70% high side 30% low side, you are giving away strokes. It should be more 50/50. Of course if you miss high you will have to endure the idiot in the group telling you at least you missed on the "pro" side. Another example was leaving your chip below the hole instead of past for the theoretical easier uphill putt. Basically for a 80s golfer every foot closer to the hole whether uphill, downhill, side hill increases your odds of making a better score.
 
This sounds like an interesting read for sure. I'll be keeping an eye out. I've found that the more and more I'm watching golf the more and more I'm turning into a stat geek.
 
I haven't read the whole article, but I did see the part you were referencing. I would be interested in reading the rest of the book for sure.
 
Sounds like it may be a good read for many of us. Is it leading golfers to learn how to manage the course and as a result lower the score?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Statistically hitting it further off the tee yields better scores regardless of it landing in the fairway.
 
It's an interesting concept and may be worth a read.

I'm a little hesitant to follow stats all the time, though, because amateur golfers have so many different swings and misses. For example, on the 409 yard, OB on the right hole, I suspect I would rarely, if ever, slice a tee shot to put me over there. Now, if OB was left...
 
Every Shot Counts -Golf Mag Article/Book

Every Shot Counts -Golf Mag Article/Book

As you guys are preparing for the MC matches, staying in the hole each time will be vitally important. Learning from some stats could help some folks make the better choices and halve or win some holes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sounds like this should be interesting. Curious to see where he gets the amateur breakdown numbers from.
 
Vegan702 said:
Not sure about gov study. Another couple examples were if you are missing more putts on one side of the hole vs the other. Say 70% high side 30% low side, you are giving away strokes. It should be more 50/50. Of course if you miss high you will have to endure the idiot in the group telling you at least you missed on the "pro" side. Another example was leaving your chip below the hole instead of past for the theoretical easier uphill putt. Basically for a 80s golfer every foot closer to the hole whether uphill, downhill, side hill increases your odds of making a better score.
Click to expand...

While I whole heartedly agree with this, I think it pretty much applies to all handicap levels. Having said that this book, Every Shot Counts does sound like an interesting read.
 
Every Shot Counts - Mark Broadie

Very different than the Dave Stockton book "Own Your Game" I'm also reading at the moment, Every Shot Counts offers a very analytical view of how to improve your scores. Some may be familar with the statistic "strokes gained putting" that was developed by the PGA Tour based on Mark Broadie's research. It appears to offer a very different take on where we gain or lose strokes and so far seems very interesting to me.

This is a very in-depth book that deals heavily with statistics, so those of you that are analytical might really enjoy it. So far, I'm finding that it's not the easiest read, but speaks very much to the way I look at information.

There is quite a bit of buzz about this one and it will take some time to digest, but I'll share some thoughts and hopefully anybody else reading it can chime in after it's released.

9781592407507H.jpg


Columbia Business School professor Mark Broadie’s paradigm-shifting approach that uses statistics and golf analytics to transform the game.

Mark Broadie is at the forefront of a revolutionary new approach to the game of golf. What does it take to drop ten strokes from your golf score? What part of Tiger Woods’ game makes him a winner? Traditional golf stats can't answer these questions. Broadie, a professor at Columbia Business School, helped the PGA Tour develop its cutting-edge strokes gained putting stat. In this eye-opening new book, Broadie uses analytics from the financial world to uncover the secrets of the game of golf. He crunches mountains of data to show both professional and amateur golfers how to make better decisions on the course. This eagerly awaited resource is for any player who wants to understand the pros, improve golf skills, and make every shot count.

Mark Brodie can discuss:

  • What strokes gained is and how it was developed
  • How to make the best decisions for games on the course
  • What skills separate amateurs from the pros
  • How to drop strokes
  • How to understand strengths and pinpoint weaknesses

Chapter titles include:
  • Putting is Overrated: Why Coventional Wisdom Gets it Wrong
  • Strokes Gained off the Green: A Better Measure of Tee-to-Green Golf Performance
  • Distance, Accuracy, and the Secret of Tiger Woods
  • Putting Strategy: Using Data and Physics to Improve Your Putting
  • Practice with a Purpose: Golf Games and Drills to Measure and Improve Performance
Click to expand...

Book will be released March 6, 2014. Price is $35.00 and it's available for preorder now here >>> http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/B...ry+shot+counts/Every_Shot_Counts_Mark_Broadie#
 
Kinda pricey for a book eh? Being a numbers guy and over analyzing things way too much in life, something like this is right up my alley though.
 
That sounds really interesting.
 
I ordered it Sunday from Amazon. I'm interested on a golf nerd level really.
 
Another book I'm really interested in after I read an article about it in December in the WSJ. His biggest takeaway from his research: long game > short game in terms of lowering scores for both pros and amateurs. It goes completely against the mantra of "drive for show, putt for dough" that most people believe.
 
arydolphin said:
Another book I'm really interested in after I read an article about it in December in the WSJ. His biggest takeaway from his research: long game > short game in terms of lowering scores for both pros and amateurs. It goes completely against the mantra of "drive for show, putt for dough" that most people believe.
Click to expand...

I sort of got sucked in by this last night and read a few chapters when I should have been sleeping.

Very interesting stuff. When he broke it down over 8 years of every PGA Tour round the number was 35% of the strokes gained on the field for winners was because of putting, so in other words - shots off the green contributed 65%.

There are also some really interesting tables that illustrate where people get their scores from. A guy like Luke Donald literally lives/dies by his putter. A guy like Tiger, who is often give the distinction of being such a good putter (at least in the past) was well below the average and got only around 24% of his strokes gained on the field through putting. A guy like Vijay literally lost strokes to the field during his heyday, but his tee to green game was so good it didn't matter.

He also talked a lot about why we hear "drive for show, putt for dough" so often, even though it's not really backed up by data. A lot of it has to do with TV coverage and the iconic moments we remember. Good example was Tiger's win at Bay Hill when he sunk that long putt to win. Nobody remembers he three putted a green just a few holes back.
 
Also, for those who are android users, you can preorder the digital copy on google play for $13.00.

Which I just did.... I love the stats so this will be really interesting to read. Look forward to more of your thoughts Hawk there is 3 weeks before I will get this one in my hands.
 
mancest said:
Also, for those who are android users, you can preorder the digital copy on google play for $13.00.

Which I just did.... I love the stats so this will be really interesting to read. Look forward to more of your thoughts Hawk there is 3 weeks before I will get this one in my hands.
Click to expand...

That's a great price.

I'm interested to get to the later portions of the book where it does more of helping the average player look at his game and figure out how to make improvements. Hopefully that is some meaningful stuff, because I'd like to get a plan of action after some rounds this year. I suspect I already know where I'm losing strokes, but this takes a lot of the supposing and anecdotal information out of the picture.
 
Hawk said:
That's a great price.

I'm interested to get to the later portions of the book where it does more of helping the average player look at his game and figure out how to make improvements. Hopefully that is some meaningful stuff, because I'd like to get a plan of action after some rounds this year. I suspect I already know where I'm losing strokes, but this takes a lot of the supposing and anecdotal information out of the picture.
Click to expand...


The part I am interested in also. Hopefully you can get there and post a review of the stuff for us normal players before we purchase. Knowing about the pros and their stats is cool, but if the book doesn't help us normal people, I can take it off my list.
 
Vegan702 said:
The part I am interested in also. Hopefully you can get there and post a review of the stuff for us normal players before we purchase. Knowing about the pros and their stats is cool, but if the book doesn't help us normal people, I can take it off my list.
Click to expand...


Same feeling here Vegan. Luckily I'm a fast reader, so give me a few more days and I should be good to go.
 
About half way finished with this and read quite a bit last night.

I'll say right now that if you're not a numbers guy, a lot of this book would be excrutiating to read. It's very numbers based, delves into some pretty detailed theories, and in general is just a 'heady' book. I'm a numbers/logic guy, so it's actually been very interesting to me, but even for me it is a bit dry at times.

Moving into the theory of strokes gained on the course right now and it's pretty eye opening for my personal game. It's not a revelation to me that the biggest downfall of my game is from tee to green, but still very interesting and helpful to see it in this type of fashion.

The one thing I do want to get across is that the point of the book isn't to say putting/short game isn't important, though I think that is one of the marketing points. I think it's built to say that for some people it's more important than others and looking at things from a data perspective allows you to really dissect where you're lacking in your game.

If one was so inclined to track their game to the detailed way that Shotlink allows the game to be tracked, one in theory could use the book to compare themselves to not only the pros, but also to the huge database of amateurs.
 
Vegan702 said:
Not sure about gov study. Another couple examples were if you are missing more putts on one side of the hole vs the other. Say 70% high side 30% low side, you are giving away strokes. It should be more 50/50. Of course if you miss high you will have to endure the idiot in the group telling you at least you missed on the "pro" side. Another example was leaving your chip below the hole instead of past for the theoretical easier uphill putt. Basically for a 80s golfer every foot closer to the hole whether uphill, downhill, side hill increases your odds of making a better score.
Click to expand...
I was reading the article last night. It was interesting. The downhill side bending 6' vs. straight up hill 8' putt was a bit of an eye opener.
 
Hawk said:
About half way finished with this and read quite a bit last night.

I'll say right now that if you're not a numbers guy, a lot of this book would be excrutiating to read. It's very numbers based, delves into some pretty detailed theories, and in general is just a 'heady' book. I'm a numbers/logic guy, so it's actually been very interesting to me, but even for me it is a bit dry at times.

Moving into the theory of strokes gained on the course right now and it's pretty eye opening for my personal game. It's not a revelation to me that the biggest downfall of my game is from tee to green, but still very interesting and helpful to see it in this type of fashion.

The one thing I do want to get across is that the point of the book isn't to say putting/short game isn't important, though I think that is one of the marketing points. I think it's built to say that for some people it's more important than others and looking at things from a data perspective allows you to really dissect where you're lacking in your game.

If one was so inclined to track their game to the detailed way that Shotlink allows the game to be tracked, one in theory could use the book to compare themselves to not only the pros, but also to the huge database of amateurs.
Click to expand...

I love numbers...I hate reading...but this may be worth it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top