How to Practice Golf: The Simple Golf Statistics That Nearly Every Elite Golfer Overlooks That Will Determine Your Success or Failure

The most important statistic in professional golf and top amateur golf is score average in tournament competition. This simple statistic defines your ability to play the game of golf and above all else is the one statistic that is completely reliable day-in-to-day-out.  





Score average is the essence of tournament golf and every week we see it at play as golfers with a low average for the week earn big rewards and golfers with a high one earn nothing. It is black and white. Your competitive score average determines whether you will be successful at playing golf or not. 

Incredibly many elite level golfers pay little attention to it and would rather spend their time working on perfecting their golf swing technique because their logic say’s that “somehow and someway this swing change will lead to better performances in golf tournaments.”

This is flawed logic.

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If more ambitious amateur and professional golfers actually focused their energy on lowering their competitive score average they would more than likely look at their game in an entirely new light. 

You would notice statistics that actually travel under your radar that are likely to have a bigger impact on your game than trying to perfect your golf swing or similar.



Your score average is a result of many factors coming into play however the easiest way to break it down to find the primary factors that would lower your score. In our experience at Pro Tour Golf College the following statistics are critical in evaluating performances on the golf course. 

Before you start to work on specific areas of your game you need to determine which part/s of your game are being affected the most.

1.      How many pars do you produce on average per round?

2.      How many birdies do you produce on average per round?

3.      How many bogeys do you produce on average per round?

4.      How many ‘others’ do you produce on average per round?

The following table shows Luke Donald's key performance statistics for 2012 (excluding US Open, US PGA Championship and HSBC Event in China) and you will see that the these statistics provide you with a glimpse into his steady and consistent game.

The statistics I want you to really focus on in the table are the one's highlighted at the bottom of the table. These numbers are the glue that binds his scores together and are usually overlooked by elite golfers searching for improvement in their game which is a BIG MISTAKE!

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What the table above shows is the importance of the increasing the amount of pars and birdies in your rounds and decreasing the amount of bogeys or worse. 

Once you have evaluated your score data this way it is much easier to make a determination about the state of your game you can make a better and more informed decision about which skills are having the biggest influence on your score average. 

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Luke Donald had another great year on the PGA tour and when you get to the core of his abilities you realize that his real  skill is his ability to make the right amount of par's, birdies and bogey's in competitive rounds; that is really what makes the difference. 

Golf will be a much simpler game to play well and enjoy if you focus on improving your ability to make more pars and reduce the bogeys and others in rounds. 

I know that seems obvious but the thing that we find interesting with many elite golfers is their complete lack of understanding between how a result is generated and the process that would lead to improved results.

Take the time to find out how many par's, birdies, bogey's or worse you're making on average and put a plan in place to improve them and you will discover that lowering your competitive score average will be easier than you could have ever imagined.

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Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
Your Success On Tour is Our Business