Golf Analytics

A red strokes gained page is not a verdict. Here is how to work out whether your numbers are showing a genuine problem, a rough patch, or a data issue you can fix in five minutes.

Everyone believes they play the first hole badly. Your hole-by-hole data can tell you whether that is true, how much it costs, and whether the problem is your nerves or your warm-up.

Aiming at the center of the green is the right default. Pin position tells you which center, and how far you are allowed to shift from it. Here is the data behind that decision.

Most golfers spend their putting practice inside six feet because those misses hurt the most. The strokes gained math says the money is somewhere else entirely, and it is not close.

Most golfers check their stats too often and change their practice too fast. The fix is not tracking less, it is matching what you look at to how much data you actually have.

Before 2003, nobody knew where tour players actually hit the ball. ShotLink turned every shot on the PGA Tour into a coordinate, and within a decade it had overturned most of the received wisdom about what separates good golfers from great ones.