Graham Averill will turn 50 this year and he’s freaking out. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he’s decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project as a 13 handicap attempting to reach scratch in a year. He is now a 10.7. Welcome to his midlife crisis.
I’m not a numbers guy. The most advanced math I can do is adding 15 plus 8 at the blackjack table in Vegas (bust again). Even figuring out the tip after dinner out stresses me out. Thankfully, math has not been a large part of my life as a writer … until I started playing golf. Now, I have numbers swarming through my head all the time because this game is all about the data. Strokes Gained, swing speeds, spin rates, percentage of greens hit in regulation … all of this hard data adds up to tell you a story about your game. And even though numbers don’t come naturally to me, I’ve become obsessed with them in hopes the figures can help me get better at golf.
Since starting this project, I’ve experimented with a handful of different tools to gather a variety of figures, tracking every shot of every round in the process. I’ve used Shot Scope sensors and Garmin watches and the new Arccos Air during various rounds. At the range, I’ve incorporated inexpensive launch monitors to uncover the cold, hard facts about my swing so my coach can help me dial in the right movements.
Can all of this data help me get better at golf? I think so.
Here’s a look at the gear I’m using to track every aspect of my game, some of the hard numbers I’ve collected and how I think it’s getting me on the right track towards scratch.
On-Course Data
As I said, I’ve used a few different devices to track each round but I’ve settled into relying on the Arccos Air as the main tool that’s tracking my shots and steering my progress. If you’ve used club sensors before, the Arccos Air collects the same kind of shot data but without the use of sensors. It learns your yardages and tracks your shots and club choices through a small device in your pocket.
There is a learning curve to this. I found I had to edit the clubs I used for most shots taken for the first 10 or so rounds until it learned my distances. And you need to set the pin and putting distances for most holes after you’re done, too. I’ve gotten in the habit of looking over each hole after I finish to make sure all of the data it collected is correct. The more I use it, the more it learns my game and the less I have to edit.
And I really like how Arccos breaks down the data and tells you exactly what aspects of your game are on fire and where you need to focus your attention. That might sound unnecessary—you know if you’re chunking your wedges and if you hit your driver a mile, right? But Arccos takes all of the emotional bias out of the assessment of the game. For instance, before using the Arccos Air, I thought my driver was the club that was holding me back so I spent the majority of my practice time banging out buckets of drivers at the range. But after analyzing the data, the driver is actually the strongest part of my game right now. It’s my putting and approach shots that are killing me. And the Arccos Air gets really specific about which aspects of my approach game and putting are lacking. Specifically, I need to work on approach shots in the 100- to 150-yard range; I’m losing an average of 2.2 strokes per round to scratch golfers in that distance alone in my last three rounds. And putting? My lag putting is OK but putts between six and nine feet are my kryptonite. I’m losing 1.4 shots per round in that distance. I’ve lost track of the number of six-foot birdie putts I’ve missed but that’s OK because the Arccos Air tracks those misses for me. And then it tells me what I need to do to start putting like a scratch golfer by suggesting specific drills.
For the six footers that I keep leaving on the table, Arccos suggests I take the practice onto the course. During my next nine-hole round, after finishing every hole, it suggests I drop a ball in the five- to eight-foot range to simulate a birdie putt on the course I play the most. The goal is to simulate the pressure of a game and make four out of nine of those extra putts during the round.
Dialing in the Swing
The club specific data the Arccos collects is helpful, too. Over time, it learns your average full-swing yardage with each club and maps out your dispersion rate. Right now, I have a 29-yard dispersion rate with my driver and pretty much an equal chance to miss to the left or right of the fairway. But because I’m obsessed with the data aspect of this project, I decided to take a small launch monitor onto the course with me during a recent round to collect on-course swing numbers.
I’ve tried two different moderately priced launch monitors, the Rapsodo and the Garmin Approach R10, and I like both. The Rapsodo has a video component to it so you can get an image of your swing and the ball impact but the Garmin gives you more data, such as spin rates in every direction. It’s also a little smaller so it’s easier to shove in your bag and I feel less like a nerd when I whip it out at the range.
It takes a couple of minutes to set up for each shot so I don’t use it on the course often and I haven’t collected data for every club yet. But I’ve charted enough on-course swings to help inform an upcoming club fitting. I also discovered I have a weird anomaly in my swing speeds.
I have pretty good swing speed with my irons (90-92 mph with the 7-iron and gap wedge) but my driver swing speed is lacking. It tops out at 102 and I’m usually in the 98- to 99-mph range. Driver speeds are typically 20 mph faster than iron speeds but that’s not the case here. I’m getting decent distance out of my driver so it’s not high on my priority list to address right now. I need to spend most of my time on the putting green. But I’d like to know why I can swing my irons at high speeds but not the big stick. Usually, it’s the other way around. Is there a kink in my driver technique? Am I just being too cautious on the tee box? My coach thinks it might be a little of both.
And this is why I’m obsessed with collecting this kind of data. Golf is difficult and overwhelming. There are so many facets of the game an amateur like me needs to work on but the numbers can help guide us through the wilderness and shine a light on what we need to focus on most. At least, I hope it will.
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