What's the Right Stat Benchmark for Me?

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1:25There you go. So he can just produce locks. Yeah, he's good. I mean, I didn't do it in a bad way. I'll sketch it out, self-noon, and I'll send it over. Please do. I look forward to seeing that. Go on, Lou. What's the question? It's a stately-based one. It is. I'll read through this. I've been listening to the pod for two years, really enjoy it. Don't like Mark, love Lou. I inserted that part. I feel like I've become a better golfer because of the advice. I've been tracking my stats last season, and when compared to scratch, my strokes gained were this. I'm not going to read all the numbers. So he compares to scratch, and he's got some strokes gained numbers. And in that, his driving was the worst. So he says, clearly, I should be working on my driver. And when I compare my same rounds against pros, his strokes gained changes. And his driver is still the worst, but his approach game is a lot

2:31worse than it used to be. So when he compares himself to scratch, his driving was way worse than his approach play. But when he compares himself to a Tor Pro, his approach is about just as bad as his driver. And he says, while the driver remains the top priority, my approach game is almost equally bad now, and my putting became much worse. So my question is a two-parter. How come my practice priority shifts when I change my benchmark? Very good question. And second, which benchmark should I be using as a six index? Farley is a six index. So he wants to know which benchmark he should be using as a six index. And I'd be interested to hear your opinions and cheers and keep up the good work. That makes sense. What is that? I think for the answer is question, first of all, I think he should be comparing himself not to a Tor Pro,

3:32but maybe does Arcos have like compared to four or compared to the Spider-Man? Because he is a superhero. He is a superhero. Yes, compare yourself to the Marvel Universe. Avine Jess, I want your opinion on this because I'm not quite getting my head around that. How come so he is saying his approach play and driving doesn't become equally bad when he flips it from a scratcher a Tor Pro. Does it? They must both go down so the driving is still worse. He just means his approach play goes down and then the driver goes down. So I give you the numbers. Because that can't be. One wouldn't go, am I missing the point? Do you see what I'm saying? They wouldn't go down equally as much. It's just he's not losing to a scratch on his approach. Yes. Let's just give the numbers so we can talk about them. Against a scratch player, he was losing 4.8 shots per round with his driver off the tee. He was losing 3.2 strokes with his approach

4:37play. Let's just start with those two. Then when he changes the setting and he compares himself to a Tor Pro, his driving off the tee, he starts losing 6.3 shots off the tee. Sorry, 6.4 shots off the tee. His approach play is 6.3. Does compact it does? Yeah, it does. It does compact. We'll come back to that one. But I think his first question is probably the one I'd start with the most. Which benchmark should you be using as a 6 index? If you're a 6 index, I'm probably not going to compare myself to a Tor Pro. That is a giant gap and I wouldn't be doing it that way. If that's your only option, that's probably okay. It's probably okay because if you're

5:39always comparing yourself against a Tor Pro every single time, you're going to be able to see how your skill is changing. As one area of your game gets better, the numbers are going to change and hopefully your stroke scheme get better. If you're comparing yourself against only a Tor Pro, and that's all you ever look at, you're going to be able to see how your skill is ebbing and flowing if it's getting better or it's getting worse. You're going to learn something from that. It's probably not ideal because they're playing a very different game than you are. That's such a gigantic skill gap that it probably isn't the most insightful or most useful way to benchmark yourself. I would tell you, I would be benchmarking myself against my current index as a starting point. I would probably maybe improve my benchmark starting by three to four indexes better. If you're

6:41a 6 index, I'd look at it against a 6 to go. Here's how I compare to the typical 6. Then I would say, we all want to get better at golf. There's not a golfer I know that doesn't want to get better and improve, but I would pick a realistic benchmark and I would look at maybe how do I compare against a two index from a 6 or a one index, maybe five shots. I don't know that I'd go more than five shots. Just to see exactly where the gap is. If my objective is to get down to scratch, I might maybe look at scratches to understand where the objective is. Those are some big skill differences. I'm probably going up three to four and just using that as a guide post to see where I'm at and what the weaknesses are and where I need to focus my time. I'll just cut to the chase. Most people in most situations, if you are a mid, if you're a five index or above,

7:47and you want to get down a lot lower, for most people in most situations, ball striking is going to be the biggest opportunity, whether it's going to be off the tee, approach or accommodation of both. Knowing nothing else about you, more than likely that's where your opportunities are going to be. If I think about it as a coach, I would ask this question to students, what do you want to achieve? Someone from six might say they want to get to category one, it was the old way of saying it, which means five or better or kind of like five and better. I think it was. With an idea of getting to scratch and I would go, that's great. How often do you play and they go, oh, twice a month. And I think, okay, that's unrealistic. We realign them. All they would say, look, I've just retired, I'm fit still and I'm going to be playing as much as I want. I've got all the time to do as many lessons as I want. I can do like, and I think, okay, yeah, so let's see you and see if scratch is obtainable. My advice to what you should look at outside of lose, because I would just

8:50go with lose. He knows this better than anyone, but just as a human reference when I used to teach students to like, just if you're looking at scratch and you're playing not as much as you needed to get there, that's going to break your heart. If you're a six-handy character, it might be worth just looking at a five for stage one, and then from there, if you get there, look at four. It might just show you what you can do in the limited time you have. If you haven't got limited time and you've got goals and scratches, one of them, then, you know, look at that scratch and see what it takes to get there. But I agree with you, Lou. I'm plus two on the app, I think I am or something like that, so I look at a tall pro. That's I want to see what the tall pros are doing, but then I would also compare to a plus two as well, because I think, well, how bad am I compared to where my benchmark of or my standard is, so I will flip between like plus two and a tall pro, which is kind of what you're saying, two two-ish shots, kind of two to four shots. So I think I would say it's reference to realistically what you can achieve. Yeah. Would be a good way of doing it. Because like if you're

9:56six, Annie Capra and you want to be a tall pro, there's no point looking at five, Annie Capra, okay, well, let's get to a tall pro and see how unrealistic that is. Why does it compress then, explain the compression of numbers? So I'll, one, we could spend hours on this, we could do a, it's two bag, Greg, he isn't here, because we could do a mega deep dive in both of you. You both of you would be enthralled and you would be on, you probably be on the edge of your seat. Yeah. And it's almost good that we're not going to get into it in that level of detail because it might be, it might be overwhelming for you. It might be, you might be having so much joy that you just won't know to do it yourself. To be fair, I'm always on the edge of my seat when I see it. I know you are. 100%. So here's, I, here's probably the easiest way to explain it. The gap between your, between you and a Tor pro is going to, it's not linear, it's not exactly the same through the bag.

10:57And here's the best way to think of it. If I had a competition with Scotty Sheffler, and we're going to play against each other, and the first game we're going to play against each other is putting from six inches away. I'm just as good as Scotty Sheffler. There's not a gap. And then if we go to two feet, like, all right, there's probably like I'm going to, like I'm going to miss one out of 400 from two feet. He's going to not miss any from two feet. And so there's a little bit more of a gap. And then the farther away we get from the hole, the bigger the gap gets. And you're not going to have the same, you're not going to have the same kind of impact if you're a six index comparing yourself to a three. It's going to be similar. It's going to kind of follow the same shape, but it's not going to be the same. And then also depending on the kind of player that you are, you know, if you are a player that hits the fairway a pretty decent

12:03amount, your numbers are going to be probably a little bit different because Torpros are significantly better from the fairway than they are from the rough. Like if you did nothing but hit the rough all the time and you're benchmarking yourself against a Torpro, you know, off the tee, you're probably not going to do well, but approach play is going to be, you're going to be better against a Torpro if all you're doing is hitting your approach out from the rough because they're impacted, it's not that they're impacted way more by the rough. There's a bigger delta between them being in the fairway and them being in the rough because it's not that they're bad from the rough, it's that they're so good from the fairway. And so all of these fat, I don't know what his stats are, he didn't send anything more than high level. All of these things kind of play into it to make the, you know, how things scale very differently. They're not going to scale perfectly. It's not, oh, I'm a five index,

13:09and here's how I compare to a five, and when I go to a Torpro, you know, Torpros are going to be 12 shots better or so than a five index, you know, roughly give or take. Lots of factors in play there and everything doesn't just move exactly the same. There's a little bit of play here like you see here. It's a good observation by Farley. It's a good question. And, you know, hopefully the way I'm explaining it kind of makes sense and helps you connect the dots a bit. So you know, answer to his first question, how would he, you know, what would he change in his practice? You've mentioned ball striking, so focusing on trying to make that as tight and consistent as possible would be a great place to start. Yeah, that's going to be true for most of us, right? You want to be a better player. There's, there are some players that are horrific putters, like I will say that. Some players that are horrible putters or have a horrible short game. You're not going to have, typically you're not going to have as many opportunities with short game. You know,

14:13it depends on who you are, how many greens you're missing, how many par fives you're getting close to and two, but you're not going to have as many opportunities, typically with short game, as you do with your approach play. And then putting you could be, you know, one of these putters that are just, you know, you are at the bottom end for whatever your handicap index is. You're in the, you know, the bottom five percent of putters for your skill level. If that's the case and that's where you are, then, you know, spending a little time on putting is probably a good idea for you. It's so individual. Everyone has our own unique blueprint on who we are and what we're good at. And this is why it's important to track your stats. This is why it's important to understand. So the fact that he has this information, he, you know, he knows exactly where the, you know, the leaks are in his game and what he should be focusing on. And in by far, his ball striking is the biggest weakness, whether he is, you know, whether he's comparing himself to a scratch or to a, to a tour pro, his ball striking

15:18is the biggest weakness. So great, great that you're tracking and great to use that to help you figure out what to work on so you can get better. So striking definitely something apart from if you and individuals got certain qualms like you'd be chipping or whatever. And things I've been asked my students like when they tell me they lost four shots driving, first question I'll always ask is how many of those were penalty shots. Yeah. So if they tell me two, I think where you actually did lost two shots driving really then or maybe 2.5 if you're just given two away if we can get rid of the pens. And then the next question would be why, where did two pens happen? Like are you playing a hole where there is an easy chance of hitting a penalty shot and you're just whacking driver still? Is that an option? Are you not aiming in the right place to make sure you don't have those pens? Because you're scared of going in the rough. So easy way of looking at your stats if it comes to driving ones. Like I, the reason I really noticed this is I was losing three shots when I played last

16:19to a tour pro, I think I lost 2.8 shots to a tour pro off the tee and I had three penalty shots. Yeah. So I'm kind of gaining and level off with a tour pro off the tee because I don't normally have penalty shots. I'm having penalty shots because I don't play enough and I had a wild one which when I was playing I'd never really hit. So rather than me going thinking it's just my driving, it's actually me thinking well it's not just my driving it's the fact that maybe I need to spend more time practicing my driver so it gets tighter because I don't have that weird face open shot out of nowhere which I would never hit. So looking at how many penalty shots you're having your driving is equating to those shots losses a really good way and then why you're having them. Remember the striped ball striking really gizumps this and coordinate to this. Are you having penalty shots because you're healing cutting it into the rubbish and those kind of things toh dup hook in it out of bounds. Like they're connected. And then with approach play I often always think how many approach shots do I hit that are relatively well struck but I've hit the wrong club. Like we do that a lot. Like I do

17:20that a lot because I'm a bit lazy and I know if I wanted to compete more that is something I would get way way tighter at which would be understanding exactly how far my clubs go so I often test in a on a map they go further on a map than they do on grass for one so I would be getting outside and getting some proper distances. Not very good at maybe judging weather as much as I think I am so getting that tighter. So if I miss hit one and it goes go to right distance I've missed it it it goes back to strikes but I hit shots on a course which go in the front bunker go in the back left bunker and I'd rip them. I just think well I have it at seven I should have it at a soft date there or a soft seven or a hard eight and I just think people who are playing a lot and people who are much more skilled like the players that he wants to be they made me not making those really cheap mistakes as well once you get past striking. The amount of bad shots that you all shots you lose from what would be perceived as good shots we did a test on the golf course and the videos come out and I knew it wouldn't do very good but I still want to put it out because I think it's a really

18:23good message where I I benched my every shot I hit on this course to what it would be if it was hit on the range. So to give an example path 3 174 yards into the wind I had a rip it straight down the flag so on a range I'm saying that's a top quality shot on my simulator I'm going that's a really good shot that's straight when what I would see the distance on the on the launch one it came up 40 foot short and I free-powered it it was a bogey off what was it playing at the wrong club we have loads more of those shots than we give ourselves credit for because often what we do is we forget about those shots a little bit because we hold on to the free part oh I free-powered 15 yeah you free-powered 15 because you hit the wrong shot all the wrong club and you hit a good shot so like the 45 foot part I was probably odds on to free-powered I've probably gone even past my 50% range there do you know what I mean sure yeah so that was the bigger fault and because we

19:29struck them well we kind of then go a little bit like we're unlucky now that was unlucky what's it I'm lucky or are you just not as good at knowing how far you are everything so they would be two really cheap ways of working out you know are you ticking those boxes is it pens are you actually in clubs the right distance when you strike them well although three ideas would strike in there I think would be the cheapest way to move those numbers you got any more to add or is that good right there pretty good aren't they yeah I think that I think that's fantastic and you know just the fact that he's tracking is something that is really important I encourage everyone to track their stats so they understand where they are and know what they need to work on otherwise you're guessing and lots of times people guess incorrectly they don't have you know and and tracking remove it it takes it and makes it black and white it takes it and it like here's what the numbers are there's no interpretation there's no you know there's no being influenced by you know I missed a five-footer

20:33on the last hole to you know lose five dollars to my to my friend that I was playing with my putting stinks you may have putt it fantastic that day but all you're doing is remembering the you know the five-footer you missed and then had to hand over some money to your friend and that's not you know you're putting wasn't the issue that day it's not why you lost there's lots and lots of other factors that were the real issue so it's why it's so beneficial to keep track of your stats so you know exactly what's going on in your golf and then the only other thing I would add to this obviously two things to add one would be if it is things that aren't what we're saying here golf lessons go and see a pro if there's something happening in your swing that's limiting you for distance for direction for strike go and sort that out that's going to be personal to your move but the other thing that we all get wrong and this is another test I've done on a few of my playing videos to see why I'm not good enough for the seniors to all that I'm doing is emotional and mind mistakes when I concentrate on emotional and mind mistakes I start learning that

21:37I make a lot of them yeah this puts regal my brain's going right I'm one over this is the fifth hole I can hold this one I'll go to one under the sixth well that's a tough puff was I'm going to make par there next one I can drive that powerful that's going through my head as I'm hitting that 30 foot putt for an eagle yeah what am I doing just projection and out of the immediate that I get into I'm not that bad emotional shots I don't think I I don't make I don't do angry shots that much in when it matters I I can control emotions that way but I see amateurs do that make decisions hit a quick next one because they top them walk up and just hit them what are you doing doing the free wood that's in the rough I'll top it again so how many of your mistakes that you're making in your small you know you're looking for four and six and three shots improvement on those two any of them mind and emotional like you're stood over a shot wondering if it's the right cloud rather than wondering about the execution over a part thinking projecting I need this for pass I

22:40don't trip but you know all that rubbish when I start getting each shot to count as itself in it you know on its own I find myself so much more in control and I relate it to when I practice on a putt and green if I practice on a putt and green I'm not thinking of the other parts right so I do like games for putting I've played them balls around a hole I'm making you aim you know hole in a row because it it prepares you more for that kind of what you do when you play but when you do them you need to practice how much can you stay in the immediate not think of if I hold this one I've got two more to go sure which is often when I put it I didn't play those games I would have one more on a putt and green and each part is it's got value I would just put value on each part in my head this is you know this is this is for a par on the 18th to shoot level par today and I'm going to line it up on practice and then try to hold this 20 foot putter so sometimes the games are good but sometimes they can make you practice thinking projecting sure you forget to do the mental side of it too so I think pen shots distance control emotional and mind mistakes and then

23:46on top of that as Lou says ball striking gizumps everything really within reason 100% yeah thanks for the question I thought that was a superhero answer to Farley have locked the superhero yes thanks for thanks for submitting that question Farley and how did he submit the question for other people who want to get on the pod with their questions that was via the what how does he do that yeah well how did Michael put a link down below we have we have a little website where you can go and there's a form there I think it's just hack it out golf.com I'm pretty sure that's what it is and you can go there and submit you can also submit a voice message yeah we haven't we had any of them yet we've had a couple yeah we've had a couple but they would be great doing an English accent no why is that Lou guy yeah exactly now yeah I'll have to go through some of them again

24:52and but you have the opportunity to to send us a voice message as well and you can make sure the link is on the pod you get your voice on the pod yeah we haven't done that yet but we need to do that again it's hack it out golf.com and when you go there you'll see a pretty easy you'll find the form to submit or the the voice message you put in and we look at all of them and and we've covered a lot of questions so I like answering questions yeah it's fun to answer the questions we are here we like enjoy we enjoy offering we want to provide a surface like if we can help you enjoy play understand something can go better that's what we love doing the most I do send them over there always yeah please do good stuff thanks and listen as always we'll catch you in the next episode