“Every Shot Counts,” by Mark Broadie, is a must-read golf book for everyone who picks up a golf club and hopes to improve their score. Golf is not a team sport, but rather an individual effort. Thus, using statistics to understand where you can improve is something all of us should consider. Mark Broadie offers example after example of how using statistics to improve your golf game.
In a broad sense, he demonstrates the following:
• What strokes gained is and how it was developed
• How to make the best decisions for games on the course
• What skills separate amateurs from the pros
• How to drop strokes
• How to understand strengths and pinpoint weaknesses
A professor at Columbia Business School, Broadie developed the strokes gained putting stat that was adopted by the PGA Tour in 2011. It has since become the gold standard for measuring putting performance. However, the strokes gained approach goes well beyond this single statistic to measure performance in all areas of the game.
Sean Foley, a Canadian golf instructor, has coached Sean O’Hair, Hunter Mahan, Stephen Ames, Parker McLachlin, and other PGA Tour professionals. Foley writes the following in the book’s foreword:
“Mark Broadie’s findings are very important to competitive players, more than anyone even understands yet. My getting a guy to make a little change in his technique is going to have less effect than getting him to recognize the truth in the numbers in front of him. For people who want to become better golfers, and for young golfers and college players, even if it flies in the face of what they’ve been taught, the numbers approach is the way to go.”
Foley also adds that the traditional golf stats today are like a plane that’s circling the airport until it runs out of gas. It’s going to either land or crash. He writes, “People are in a comfort zone, and they’re not willing to go through the pain or doubt that goes with developing a new way of thinking. But at some point, Mark’s approach will become how people determine golf performance. They’re just going to have to accept it, because it makes too much sense.”
In summary, Mark Brodie’s “Every Shot Counts” offers a revolutionary scientific approach to improving your golf game. This book is for any player who wants to understand the performance or pros and amateurs, improve golf skills, and make every shot count.
Publish by Gotham Books, “Every Shot Counts” is available online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble, retailing for $25.
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