By Paul Myers
There are plenty of statistics in golf, and many of them can do plenty to indicate just how well you are performing on the course. But in the end, there is only one stat that matters for anything – scoring average. It doesn’t matter how pretty some of your other stats might look, if you aren’t happy with your scoring average, you aren’t going to be happy with your game. It is every golfer’s goal to get better over time, and scoring average is the ultimate measure of whether or not you are making progress.
The Best of the Best
Of course, a good scoring average for one golfer might not be so satisfying for another. The leading golfer in terms of scoring average on the PGA Tour so far in 2015 is Jason Day, checking in at 68.19 over 16 rounds. Obviously, Jason Day is one of the very best players in the world, and averaging just a bit over 68 on PGA Tour caliber courses is incredible golf. You aren’t likely to reach those levels anytime soon, but you can still track your scoring average carefully and work to improve it over time.
One of the important things to keep in mind here is that you need to keep score accurately each round, and record each round that you play. If you throw out a few rounds from time to time because you didn’t play all that good, your average won’t be a true representation of your game as a whole. Track every single round that you play, and count every shot that you hit. That is the only way to really know how you stand.
The Little Things Make a Big Difference
Using scoring average in conjunction with other statistics from your rounds is a good way to chart a path toward better golf. Once you know what your average score is, you can compare that to your average number of putts per round to see what percentage of your strokes are used on the greens. Also, keep track of penalty shots per round as well – you just might be surprised at how quickly you could lower your scoring average by simply keeping the ball on the course and out of the hazards.
Keeping a chart of your scoring average – and seeing that chart move in the right direction as time goes by – is one of the most satisfying feelings you can have as a golfer. Sure it would be fun to improve driving distance or hit more greens per round, but only your score matters in the end. Each round is summed up by just one number, so put all of your golf-related effort into making this statistic look as good as possible.