We recently had occasion go through a round in which we both played pretty well, and we’ve devised a nifty way of looking at looking at the “why”s of this round.
We first listed each of the SV Skills, then assessed the result for each skill each time the opportunity to use that skill came up. We used a three-point scale to keep things simple: 1 point for a poor result, 2 points for an average result, and 3 points for a good result.
Because this scale is based on our abilities (i.e. 3 is “better than average for us”), it provided a quick bit of insight into why we were able to score better than average. Let’s take a look at the results:
As you can see, during this round in which we scored a bit better than average, we averaged better than our average in the two SV④ skills. The SV③ skills were slightly better than average, and we had a reasonably good day on our short putts. The rest of the skills were basically average to below average, but these are lower SV-ranked skills, so they don’t affect our score as much.
(Note: we skip GamePlanning in our charts because we’re always pretty good at it – after all, we literally wrote a book on GamePlanning. 😀 We also consider ourselves good green readers, so we’d only ever write down a 1 when we flub a read… otherwise it’s 2s and 3s across the board.)
The beauty of this is that everyone, if they are truly honest with themselves (and reads and understands Lowest Score Wins :D), can grade themselves using the same scale with “2” representing an average result. We’ve created a basic chart that you can download and print, and we encourage you to do the same thing after some of your rounds – particularly those in which you score better or worse than average.
It should shed a lot of insight into what skills were lacking and, if a pattern emerges, will signal a recommended shift in where and how you’re allocating your practice time.
I have a question about this. When you say we should evaluate based on our abilities, with 2 being average, should we be using a measuring stick that’s a little bit above our current skill level or do you mean an actual snapshot average of my skills at the time?
Example: I’m awful at driving the ball. I’ll bomb one down the fairway once a round, that’s a 3. I’ll hit one OB, that’s 1. But, if I hit one that’s playable from the next fairway over, is that a 2 because that’s a reasonable and expected result? I would think to mark that down as a 1 because it identifies an area that needs improvement.
Second Example (similar): I don’t make enough 4 foot putts. When I miss one (or several during the course of a round), do I mark that down as a 2 or a 1?
I guess what I’m asking is how to balance my actual skill level vs how good I think I should be, for the purpose of identifying specific areas in need of improvement?
Bill, good question. Unfortunately, the answer remains somewhat ambiguous.
The point of the exercise is to demonstrate what is contributing most to your scoring (good or bad). If you hit another fairway but have a good chance to reach the GIR or nGIR, a drive into a parallel fairway may be a 2 – after all, you didn’t top it 40 yards, you didn’t hit it in a hazard, you didn’t hook it into the trees, etc. In any of those situations, it’s clearly a 1.
A missed four-foot putt is almost always a 1 because odds are you should make those – even 90s golfers make those more than they miss. You won’t make 100% of them, but if you have four during a round, consider making 3 of 4 your average. Give yourself a 2 for one miss, but any miss after that gets a 1.
If you were somehow able to be perfectly exact with your self-assessment, and luck never played a role in the results (though having only three numbers to choose from minimizes the importance of good/bad luck), you’d average near a 2.0 for everything during a typical round, just above a 2.0 during lower scoring rounds, and below a 2.0 during higher rounds.
The important point is to score yourself consistently. Don’t grade your driving more strictly on a day when you drive the ball well, then let up on yourself when you drive the ball poorly a different day – if both average 2.1 you won’t learn anything about what is contributing to your better- or worse-than-normal scores.
Thanks for answering my questions. I think I have a pretty good idea of how to assess my rounds now, without getting too strict (and unrealistic).
In the picture, it only shows the blank chart, without any numbers filled in. In the text you refer to this completed chart, could you upload that as well?
Sorry, Han, we goofed when updating yesterday and replaced it with a blank one. The original is back online. We apologize for the booboo. 🙂
Thanks!