BRISTOL, England – Golf Insider has published a data study analyzing the key differences between golfers who improved their handicaps over 12 months and those who did not. They analyzed the change in handicap for 257 golfers over the past 12 months and also collected data on playing habits, practice habits and wider aspects such as taking golf lessons and keeping stats.
The Average Club Golfer:
- Start handicap: 18.9
- Average handicap change: -2.82
- Played: 1.68 rounds/week
- Practised: 3.00 hours/week
- Went to the gym: 1.78 times/week
- Had 4.0 golf lessons/year
- Watched YouTube Golf Content for: 68.6mins/week
- Listened to golf podcasts: 23mins/week
- Spent: $842/year on golf equipment (excluding golf lessons, green fees and memberships)
- Kept playing stats: Yes 60.4%, Sometimes, 26.3%, No: 13.3%
- Kept practice stats: Yes 12.5%, Sometimes, 21.0%, No: 66.5%
Key Findings
1) Golfers who regularly kept playing stats showed an average handicap improvement of 3.38 shots, compared to an average improvement of 1.38 shots improvement for golfers who did not keep playing stats.
2) Golfers who lowered their handicaps reported 15% higher levels of focus and planning in practice than golfers whose handicaps increased, and 8% more focused than golfers whose handicaps did not change.
3) Playing more golf did not account for improvement. Golfers who improved their handicaps played fewer rounds of golf each week than golfers whose handicaps increased (1.6 rounds/week vs 2.02 rounds/week respectively).
4) Practising more hours did not account for improvement. Golfers who improved their handicaps practised fewer hours than those who improved (2.02 hours/week vs 3.37 hours/week respectively).
5) Taking golf lessons and having more frequent golf lessons was not associated with reducing handicaps unless you were over a 30 handicap at the start of the year.
The only significant practice variable explaining golfers lowering their handicap is their level of practice focus and planning.
Conclusions
Keeping regular playing stats and having a clear practice plan are the two factors you should focus on if you want to improve at a quicker rate.
Practising more or playing more golf is not likely to result in getting better without the above in place.
“Understanding golf performance is challenging. The best model we could create suggests all of the factors we analysed could explain 43% of handicap changes, meaning 57% of the variance could not be accounted for. This is pretty good in the realms of motor learning studies but shows the messy nature of golf performance.” – Will Shaw
The full data study analysis and results can be found here: https://golfinsideruk.com/how-to-lower-your-handicap
