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Other than score, what is the most important stat to you in analyzing your game?

Jokes aside, when I consider a round, usually greens or putts. Fairways missed can be recovered from.. Low number of one putts cannot (from a 'go low' perspective). I also focus pretty hard on scrambling.

I guess the reality is, there are certain things I'm definitely focused on, and some I couldn't be less concerned with.
 
Most important for me is putts. From that stat, I can glean GIR or approach proximity. I can tell if I scrambled well, and if I hit decent tee balls.

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GIRs. It means I was keeping the ball in play off the tee and hitting it well with my irons. If I'm putting poorly that's on me, and if I'm chipping poorly that's life, probably the part of my game I'm improving on the most of late.
 
GIRs..... I can fight my way back from missing fairways, but if I’m not hitting greens game will struggle....well, more than normal!
 
Annhl8rX said:
Yet another reason I want to play a round with that guy!
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Keep your eye on his left foot. The soccer style foot wedge with his right foot are obvious, the quick bunts with his left are harder to keep track of.
 
GIR. Direct measurement of my ball striking, which will tell me what I scored.
 
In terms of measuring trend in performance I’d say GIR. If I improve in this area it provides more opportunity for birdie putts, worse case par.

Secondly for me, penalty strokes has a large factor in the overall score. Anytime I can avoid penalty strokes in a round, the closer I get to shooting par or close to it. I am a pretty good putter but I don’t grind over putts, 10-15 seconds, point and shoot.
 
For me it is the ability to scramble and keep the wheels from falling off the cart. Stopping the "blow-up hole". I know I can play in the low to mid 80's on any given day, I've done it on several occasions. BUT, I still have too many rounds in the 90's - 103 mostly due to a few disaster holes.
The rounds in the mid 80's usually had one or two that start bad and get worse or my 2nd goes OB or in the water and get worse from there.
In each case recently where I've done well it's been because I recovered after a bad shot and made chicken salad out of chicken💩. The three most memorable were all par 5's.
On all three I had what could have been a derailing shot but recovered. One resulted in a bogey, one a par and the third I actually birdied.
So for my game, which I know will have a few "less than perfect" ball strikes, I judge my performance on my ability to recover and still salvage the round. Some days it happens and some days it don't.
 
GoldenBuff said:
I am a quantitative person. Math always came easy to me and for years I did some heavy duty data analysis as part of my work. With golf that hasn’t translated. I am more about feel. When I finish a round I look at my stats in a detached way and connect better with my game in terms of simple qualitative aspects. Ball striking felt good. I liked the crisp feel off wedges. It is odd for me.
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After keeping stats with GameGolf for about 4 years now, my conclusion is that it does a poorer job of showing weaknesses than what I see and feel. Stats alone don't always tell the whole story. Just as total putts can be affected by skills other than putting, so too can short game stats be affected by approach shots and approach shots be affected by the tee game.

GameGolf shows more strokes are lost with my short game than any other skill and I see penalties off the tee as being far more detrimental. Maybe I should try another app. Or it's possible that my weaknesses are so even across the board that stats don't really come into play???
 
Putting

my scores go as my putting goes
 
Being a higher handicapper, GIR's don't happen as often for me. I consider the putts. Maybe not so much the number of putts because when I chip I'm happy to be in two putt range. One putt is just a bonus.

What is important is the number of 3 putts and missed 5 footers. Last time out I was one over bogey golf and I missed 3 putts in the 5 to 7 foot range. I can understand if there's a good break. It can be hard when you have to give up the hole. But those 3 misses were uphill and no break. I should be making those. If I can fix that I think I can finally break that elusive 90 score.
 
How many strokes did it take me to get the ball on the green. Reducing that number is the quickest way to lower scores.
 
GIR for me. I always have my best rounds when I hit more greens. I see a few people of said number of putts, but surely that stat has to be looked at alongside others. You could be missing greens, chipping it close and having single putts. Not sure what that would tell you if you took the number of putts as a stand alone stat.
 
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