Choices Around the Green
MikkelGolf.com Newsletter #17
Today’s newsletter is a bit of a reminder to myself, and a suggestion to readers out there who are parts of practice groups or golf teams.
Recently, as I was about to prepare a presentation using Google Slides, I happened to scroll back through some old slides under my account. I scrolled all the way back to a time that in some ways feels pre-historic now, the pre-Covid days. There were several presentations under my Google Slides account from 2017 to 2020, during which I was coaching with Greg Sands at Texas Tech.
One of the days at practice in 2019, we had set up three different pitch shots. As we were in the lead-up to a tournament on a course with severe run-offs around the greens, the three pitches were all in run-off situations. The players would call their shot, and I jotted down their first choice. I split the choices into two categories: “roll” or “fly”. Roll would be shots with a putter, wood, hybrid, or iron - basically anything where the ball was on the ground for the majority of the shot. Whereas fly would be a shot that either flew onto the green, or bumped once in the fairway before reaching the green.
After their first choice of shot (roll or fly), they had to hit the other type of shot as well. I recorded what they chose, how close they hit both shots to the hole, and their respective scores. We then looked at what the best choice was per shot by the expected score using strokes gained. At the next practice, we presented it to the team in the presentation I found on my Google Slides account.
Below are the different shots and results:
I’m not sure how clearly these pictures will come through in the newsletter. Either way, it’s difficult to get a real impression of these shots without being there in person. For the players however, who hot all these shots in practice, remembered what they saw and felt at that time over the shot.
With nine players, the experiment conclusions on roll vs. fly are by no means final. However, it’s still interesting to get an indication. Further, it’s interesting to see what type of shot your teammates chose first. It certainly makes the player think.
Just like we’ve seen with shot dispersions and target optimization on the long-game, I believe there’s quite a bit of strategy involved in short-game shot selection as well. It’s just very hard to pinpoint the right shot in any circumstance as every shot truly is different. Adaptability is such a massive part of short-game skill.
The reminder to myself is to do this type of exercise more often when in group settings. Set up a player choice of some sort and analyze what the best choice was in that particular circumstance.
Have a great week!
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