28 Days Later...February Statistics

It's been 28 days since my last stats update and though the weather has caused some disruption, I've managed more practice this month than last. As you know I'm using the Scoresaver 2 statistics package to track my progress and practice. So without further ado here are this months stats.




Practice
February is obviously a shorter month and though I am pleased with a total of 13 hours 35 minutes, I'm starting to realise the challenge of balancing golf with work and family. I'm having to be quite innovative with my practice time to avoid incurring the wrath of HID and making sure I have plenty of time with my littl'un. So far this constitutes putting/chipping practice when she's on her treadmill and toddler is sleeping and pitching practice on the heath during lunch breaks when I work from home.

In addition to my practice I have also had 30 minutes of tuition (focussed on chipping), played five rounds on the par 3 course and played a full 18 holes. To a degree I'm finding that playing time is as good, if not better practice. As such I'll be trying to get more rounds in next month particularly on the par 3 to continue to hone my 'target golf' and short game. The practice time for February can be broken down as follows:

Distance	Time (minutes)	% of practice time
150 – 200 yards	80	10%
100 – 150 yards	85	10%
Short Approach	425	52%
Putting	225	28%
Total	815	100%

Again I've focussed most of my time on my short game and the round played on the par three following my chipping lesson produced my lowest ever score of 35 (thanks to Homer for nagging me into having that lesson)!

Rounds
Once again I have played mainly on the par 3 course (except my first full round). As I have covered that in detail a couple of days ago, I'll focus on the stats for the par 3 rounds here. My average score has dropped from 42.6 last month to 40.6 which is 0.4 below handicap. In terms of core playing stats (last month in brackets):

Statistic	Performance	SS2 Handicap level
Greens in Regulation	6.67% (13%)	24
Putts per Round*	29.2 (35.86)	3
Birdie Conversion	0% (0%)	28+
Par Scrambles	14% (9%)	21
Penalties per Round*	0.8 (1.85)	8

The SS2 handicap level is a calculation made indicating your performance on different facets of your game. The stats marked with * are aggregated up to reflect an 18 hole round.

The short game practice is clearly working but as a consequence of more practice in this area I'm now hitting fewer GIR. I'm hoping to address this with a one hour video lesson in mid March.

My putting stats keep getting better and better. Comparing my performance in January to my performance in February illustrates this. This is also due to improved chipping giving me more opportunity for one putts.

Statistic	January	February
Putts per Hole (GIR)	2.75	2.33
Putts per Hole (non GIR)	1.76	1.57
Putts per Round*	33.2	29.2

However, I'm not getting carried away as performance on the par 3 is much easier in terms of putting and (to a lesser extent chipping) because the greens are smaller.

So final statistic and that's where I'm missing the greens. 50% of the time I'm short of the green and 24% of the time I'm long. The long misses are now due to club selection rather than thinned shots but the short ones are 99% of the time due to fat shots. I'm hoping my next lesson can resolve this.

If you are interested in using Scoresaver 2 to analyse your game you can download a free months trial version. Just click here to find out more.

In March I'm hoping to get a minimum of four rounds in on the par 3 at Fynn Valley as well as 18 holes on the short par 62 course at Purdis and 18 holes at Waldringfield. I'm hoping to iron out my ball striking issues and to make a serious challenge on the 100 mark at Waldringfield, whilst honing my short game in my other practice rounds.

As always interested to hear your comments and views and if there are any stats I haven't posted that you would be interested in, let me know I'm more than happy to share.

Comments

Homer
Some solid progress there. Well done. The invoice for getting you out for lesson is in the post. Keep at it. My advice would be to start getting the 18 holes games in now whilst keeping the short game ticking over. Its only on the longer courses that the problems will mainfiest and show you what needs looking at next. I’ve just updated my site too http://threeoffthetee.blogspot.com/ to take into account my shiny new bats and look at where I’m at with my own challenge for 2010

Tiger
Hi Homer, I’d love to play more 18 holes I’m hooked on the full version of the game but unfortunately I just can’t afford it this month. The short course at Purdis is only a tenner midweek and hoping to get a cheap/free round at Waldringfield before I join. I promise you that once I’m a member I’ll be getting in as many rounds as I can!