First Round of the Year!

The weather was nice enough to play my first round of the year on March 23rd at Mound Golf Course.

Figure 1: Scorecard

This golf course is located in Miamisburg, Ohio. The course is a friendly 9-Hole, well maintained, and relatively economical place to play. The cost was only $12 to walk, which makes learning to play the game very affordable, especially when there is a common stigma against golf that it is too expensive.

My plan this year is to play as much as possible throughout the week in the evenings Or possibly some mornings and to invite students to join groups throughout the week for a small fee. The Mound Golf Course will be one of the locations based on pricing and a friendly layout. I highly recommend purchasing a push/pull cart to make the walk easier. There are plenty of deals online to get a used one for cheap. Walking also saves players a lot of money throughout the season on cart fees, players tend to play better when they walk, and of course it's great exercise. It's hard to have a bad day when you get to walk 9-Holes.

I listed a few stats that I keep on my scorecard when I play. Those being Fairways Hit, Greens in Regulation, and Total Putts. These are simple and important statistics that allow me to focus on what to practice of the course. I only hit 2 of 7 fairways, 4 of 9 greens, and had 13 putts, but still scored an Even Par 36. Not an ideal stat day for me but it was the first round of the year, so in my mind it's just a baseline to practice from going forward.

Missing Fairways is more or less an issue based on the lie you get and whether or not you have a window to the green for your next shot. I would say Missing Greens makes golf the most challenging to score well because of how many different lies you could have around the green, and of course the green itself tends to have slopes to navigate. Total Putts is largely influenced by how close you can get the ball to the hole on approach shots or short game shots. The closer you get to the hole, the higher statistical chance of making the putt.

My stats tell a story that I had a combination of a good short game day and putting day, which allowed me to score well. I will almost always prefer to being stronger with my short game and putting, than I am with my long game because scoring well is my goal and short game and putting account for 60 Percent of scoring.

To put some statistics in context, Professionals hit about 60 Percent of their fairways on average. Over 18 holes there are typically 14 opportunities to hit fairways so about 8.5/14.

Professionals hit about 67 percent of Greens in regulation or about 12/18. Professionals average about 28 putts per round which is about 1.5 putts per hole. These stats are on some of the most difficult courses and setups in the world. The reason amateurs can still strive for these numbers, but only be considered a "good amateur" is because of the difficulty setting they're playing on.

So if I were to extrapolate my stats for 18 holes I would have hit 4/14 Fairways, 8/18 Greens, and 26 Total Putts.

The hidden statistic that is not on my scorecard, but could be inferred, is "Up and Down Percentage." I was 5/7 in this category, also known as "Scrambling." The average Professional Scrambles successfully about 65 percent of the time. This happens when a player misses the green in regulation but still makes par or better. For example, on a Par 3, regulation would be 1 shot, so if you miss the green on your first shot, you are now scrambling for par or birdie from somewhere off the green.

I was able to scramble successfully 71 percent of the time, which is why a categorized the round as a good short game and putting day based on those statistics being better than a professionals average, while my Fairway and Green percentage were lower than a professionals average.

This all sets me up for what I need to practice. In my opinion, short game should be at least 50 Percent of any players practice time regardless of how they play. Where I would spend more time practicing outside of that would be my tee shot, maybe 20 percent, and 30 percent on ball striking fundamentals.

I was happy to get out and see what was working and what I need to practice. Playing 9 Holes is a great way to practice. Limiting yourself to one 18 hole round per week puts a lot of pressure on your game and less time to adjust VS playing 2, 9 Hole rounds per week. Consistency is the number goal from players. In order to play effectively, more consistently, is to play consistently more often. That's why I recommend breaking up 18 holes into 2 rounds. Most people have a hard time making time around other parts of their life which is understandable, but doesn't change what has to be done in order to improve.

Thank you for reading!

Coach Zach