Strokes gained is not just measuring distance; it’s measuring the combination of distance, accuracy and efficiency. Despite being in the “bomb and gouge” era, thinking smashing the ball off the tee as far as you can will be better for your strokes gained is not true at all. It’s more about how accurate and consistent you can be.
We know that 80% of double bogeys by single-digit handicappers follow a mistake off the tee, so if you can weed out those mistakes off the tee, you’re going to lower your score.
My advice is to hit the longest club that you can while making it a priority to keep the ball in play and avoid errors (penalties, chip outs, etc.).
Peter Sanders is the President and a founding partner of ShotByShot.com, a unique strokes gained analysis program that helps golfers determine the precise strengths and weaknesses of each facet of their golf game, the system SwingU uses for its Versus product.
Peter has worked with PGA Tour players and major champions such as Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover, Smylie Kaufman, Zack Sucher, Sepp Straka, Dylan Frittelli and Michael Thompson to analyze and interpret their data for game improvement.
Read more from Peter on his Niblicks of Truth blog at ShotByShot.com.
