75% of the strokes elite juniors gain 🧠
MikkelGolf.com Newsletter
How do elite juniors separate themselves from the field?
Let’s use the dashboard I launched last week - containing all of the data from the 2024 season on the Norwegian Junior Golf Tour - to look for clues. (You can find the dashboard yourself and play around with it HERE).
In this snippet of the dashboard, I’ve filtered for all players ranked outside the top-10 using the “yellow-number” logic.
I’ve highlighted the bottom-right chart. The chart reflects strokes per round vs. the top-10 in:
a) Birdies or better - darker grey
b) Bogeys or worse - lighter grey
As players ranked outside the top-10 are selected for, the chart now reflects the separation between the top-10 and the rest of the field.
The difference is staggering in all divisions. The light grey bars reflecting bogey and worse avoidance, far outweighs the darker birdie or better bars.
Let’s look at the two oldest divisions visually:
In the boys division, limiting mistakes (avoiding bogeys and worse), account for 74% of the separation from the field. On the girls side, the proportion is even higher, at 86%.
The value of bogey avoidance is not a new concept. Experts like Scott Fawcett of DECADE have been highlighting the impact of improved bogey avoidance for years. We also looked into the same topic last year, but at the time we only looked into the winners. You can find that post HERE.
However, the numbers from this year are staggering to me. More than three fourths of strokes by the elite in junior golf are gained by avoiding mistakes.
How to apply this information:
There are a number of factors that go into improving one’s bogey avoidance. I covered some of those in last year’s post. The main one is obviously to improve one’s skills. However, I think many juniors and amateurs overlook their strategy and mentality while competing.
I hope the numbers convince competitive players reading this that the best defense in golf is not offense.
The main task, even on an easier hole, is to hit the green in regulation. From there, even on a makeable putt, the first line of action is to secure good speed control.
When hitting the ball out of position - get it back in position.
When missing the green - take pride in getting it up-and-down.
The best defense in golf is to avoid accumulating mistakes.
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