Being able to identify weak areas in your golf game enables you to focus your practice efforts for better results.
Well before you can answer this question you need to analyse a round of golf in a specific way. An interesting and very effective method to use is "The Pareto Principle".
The Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80-20 law, states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Or more specifically, a large percentage of the output result in generated by a small percentage of the input parameters. This could be 80/20 or 90/10 or 70/5 (it doesn't necessarily add up to 100 as it is a relationship between two different measurements).
Applying this to golf we would need to see which clubs were used in a round and how many shots were played with each club. We could then relate each club to the total score by a percentage of the score taken by that club
Here is an example: Suppose you went round in a score of 90 on a Par 72 course. Assume your set of clubs is made up of 1 Driver, fairway woods 3 and 5, Irons 3-9, Pitching Wedge, Sand Wedge, Gap Wedge, and Putter. That is 14 clubs (the legal limit).
For the purposes of this analysis let us group the clubs as follows
1 Driver4 Long Irons/woods 3W, 5W, 3, 44 Mid Irons 5,6,7,84 Short Irons 9, Pitching Wedge, Sand Wedge, Gap Wedge1 Putter
We can now convert those groupings of clubs into percentages of the total number in the bag, and we get 11%, 28%, 28%, 28% and 11% respectively.
Using the groupings above lets calculate the number of shots scored in each group and along with each the percentage of the total score. Suppose the breakdown is as follows
Driver, 10 shots. (11%)Long Irons/woods, 10 shots. (11%)Mid Irons, 10 shots. (11%)Short Irons, 20 shots. (22%)Putter, 40 shots. (45%)
Now the figures can be represented as percentage of total score by percentage group of clubs as follows
Driver: 11/7Long Irons/woods 11/28Mid Irons: 11/28Short Irons: 22/28Putter: 45/7
From this we can see clearly see that in this scenario the putting comprises the largest part of the score i.e. 45% of score taken by 7% of clubs. Incidentally, putting is always the biggest part of the score, but if your total score is high then it is likely you are taking a lot of putts, or another part of your game is in very bad shape!
If you were to improve just the putting part of your game to "regulation" i.e. 2 putts per green, you would save 4 shots per round i.e. break 90 and drop your handicap from 18 to 14. Not bad!
There are many other ways to analyse your score in this way. For example, instead of which club was hit on each shot, how about which type of shot? Tee shot, approach shot, chip shot, putt, sand shot etc. You may find you are spend far too much time in bunkers for instance.
Keep a log of your scores for a while and you can break down the data and easily see which part of your game is causing a problem, and therefore which part of the game you need to improve to have the greatest impact on your score.
How to Keep your Golf Game in Shape in Winter
In winter it can be quite a challenge to keep your golf game ticking over. Many of us just pack the clubs away into the garage and wait until spring to get them out again. Then we are faced with a month or so of very "rusty" golf until we start to click and get in the golfing groove again.Change your Golf Grips for Better Golf
Putting new grips on your golf clubs can be a inexpensive and effective solution to quickly give you more consistency in your game.How to Choose the Right Putter
Choosing the right putter to help your golf game is essential.