Every Shot Counts: Using the Revolutionary Strokes Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy

by Mark Broadie

Overview

Columbia Business School professor Mark Broadie’s paradigm-shifting approach that uses statistics and golf analytics to transform the game. 
 
Mark Broadie is at the forefront of a revolutionary new approach to the game of golf.  What does it take to drop ten strokes from your golf score? What part of Tiger Woods’ game makes him a winner? Traditional golf stats can't answer these questions. Broadie, a professor at Columbia Business School, helped the PGA Tour develop its cutting-edge strokes gained putting stat. In this eye-opening new book, Broadie uses analytics from the financial world to uncover the secrets of the game of golf. He crunches mountains of data to show both professional and amateur golfers how to make better decisions on the course.  This eagerly awaited resource is for any player who wants to understand the pros, improve golf skills, and make every shot count.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592407507
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/06/2014
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	93,799
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Broadie is the Carson Family Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. Broadie’s business research addresses issues in financial risk management. He is a member of the United States Golf Association’s handicap research team and is a former club champion at Pelham Country Club.

Table of Contents

Foreword Sean Foley ix

Introduction xiii

Part I Golf Performance

Chapter 1 Putting is Overrated: Why Conventional Wisdom Gets It Wrong 3

Chapter 2 Numbers Talk: Quantifying the Importance of Putting 13

Chapter 3 Strokes Gained Putting: A Better Measure of Putting Performance 28

Chapter 4 Scramble and Switcheroo: What Simulation Can Tell Us About Golf 58

Chapter 5 Strokes Gained Off the Green: A Better Measure of Tee-to-Green Golf Performance 78

Chapter 6 Distance, Accuracy, and the Secret of Tiger Woods: Measuring the Performance of Pros and Amateurs 96

Part II Golf Strategy

Chapter 7 Putting Strategy: Using Data and Physics to Improve Your Putting 129

Chapter 8 Tee-to-Green Strategy: How Data and Optimization Can Lower Your Score 162

Chapter 9 Practice With a Purpose: Golf Games and Drills to Measure and Improve Performance 184

Chapter 10 The 20th Hole: Summing Up and Looking Ahead 208

Appendix 213

Glossary 245

Acknowledgments 251

Art Credits 255

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

PRAISE FOR EVERY SHOT COUNTS

“Broadie is the pioneer of the strokes-gained approach to PGA Tour statistics … Players are taking notice.” 
—ESPN.com

“Broadie [is] a devoted golfer with his fingertips on a wealth of golf information.” 
—The New York Times

 “An absolutely fantastic book!  It could change the way people play the game.”
—Edoardo Molinari, European Ryder Cup star

Editorial Reviews

"Broadie [is] a devoted golfer with his fingertips on a wealth of golf information" — New York Times

PRAISE FOR EVERY SHOT COUNTS: 

"How much do distance and accuracy matter in golf?  Mark Broadie’s new approach provides compelling and sometimes surprising answers to these and other questions at the heart of golf.” 
—Mark King, CEO TaylorMade Golf Company
 
"Mark Broadie brings new insights to the ShotLink data set and uses that data to enhance understanding of both the professional as well as the amateur game. His analysis will surprise both avid golfers and laymen alike."
—Steve Evans, CIO PGA TOUR

Praise for Mark Broadie:

“Broadie is the pioneer of the strokes-gained approach to PGA Tour statistics … Players are taking notice.” 
—ESPN.com

“Broadie [is] a devoted golfer with his fingertips on a wealth of golf information.” 
—The New York Times

 “An absolutely fantastic book!  It could change the way people play the game.”
—Edoardo Molinari, European Ryder Cup star

"Broadie is the pioneer of the strokes-gained approach to PGA Tour statistics…Players are taking notice." — ESPN.com

Thanks to his golf shot database, Broadie was able to do away with the old-fashioned, simplistic stats we hear about on TV and figure out how the game is truly played. Just as baseball's statistical pioneers overthrew the tyranny of ERA and RBI by developing more meaningful metrics, Broadie saved golf from GIR with a concept called "shot value…Broadie's analysis helps us answer a question that it's never really been possible to solve before: How do you accurately compare one player with another? — Slate

From the Publisher