After my round of golf yesterday with my friends Ron and Mike, I noticed a few positive aspects of my game that I need to focus upon moving forward. It is nothing profound, however it is important enough to move forward these skills in order to improve my overall golf game. Primarily, I will focus on improving my GIR (greens in regulation) as a starting point for my season. This might seem very obvious to any experience golfer and I accept that statement. However, it is the one aspect of my game that has been holding me back for years and this year it is time to change this trend. The question is how am I going to achieve this goal without sacrificing the rest of my game?

Hitting the green with a birdie putt left is the basic definition of hitting a green in regulation. This is the holy grail of golf and any experience player will tell you that GIR is the king of stats. I have known this for years and have half played at improving this stat. Well, this year, it is time to get serious and have a game plan moving forward.

I stopped taking stats a few years ago. After much thought, I decided it is time to gather some information to improve my game. Below are the stats I gathered in the past which I found very helpful. I am going to gather these plus one more stat to determine if I am on the right track.

As I look at the above stats, here is what they tell me. (I will explain the last stat I am going to gather at later). First, hitting the fairway. In order to improve my game, I need to hit as many fairways as possible. Generally, I will hit between 8 and 10 out of 14 (excluding the par 3s) during any given round. I want to improve that to 10 to 12 fairways per round. This will require more scrutiny of club selection and understanding which side (if any) of the fairway is my miss tendency. Being in play on the fairway is important in order to improve my GIR percentage.

The GIR and PUTT stat are very straight forward. However, here is the extra stat I think is important and will help me understand how to improve my GIR percentage. The last stat I will carry applies to the GIR above. I will record the distances I am hitting from in order to determine lay up distances if required. I realize that the closer I am to the green that my GIR percentage will improve. This is a truth for most golfers, but I also hit my 7 iron better than my 8 iron. So, hitting to a distance that is slightly longer might be the key to a higher GIR percentage. I will not know until I gather the data I need.

Lastly, I am going to aim for the center of the green for my approach shots. Normally, I go pin hunting and when I am dialed in, this approach works. However, more often than not it causes me to miss the green slightly. Therefore, I need to take this minor error from my game by aiming for the center of the green. The benefit about this approach is that most greens in the northern clime are smallish, so having a longer putt for birdie does not hurt.

As you can see, I am trying to improve my game by improving my GIR. This will take a bit of time to determine which areas of my game need to improve the most after I gather some data. I already have a general idea, but I want to be certain moving forward. Until I find out more, I will keep on the current course I am traveling with the addition of collecting some relevant data.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!