If you really want to improve, start by following these 4 stats

Advanced analytics have made a huge difference to players at the highest level of the game. Leaders aren’t just like American captain Stacy Lewis using statistics and detailed knowledge to make doubles decisions at events like the Solheim Cup, individual players now have more intelligence than ever before to use in designing their personal improvement plans.

But what about recreational players? We may not have Shotlink at our disposal during each round, but according to top 100 GOLF teacher Justin Parsons, tracking statistics can be an important building block to any player’s game improvement plan, and it all starts with a few basic, easy-to-compile categories.

In a video posted on Titleist’s YouTube pageParsons explained how Shotlink data has enabled him to see where players on his tour list are performing poorly, enabling him to create a performance plan geared towards improving those areas.

“The more you can dig into your game and the more you can practice on your findings, the more your practice can target your results and your results can then improve,” Parsons said.

Getting started is easy. You can start tracking your stats using apps like GHIN, or just do it the old fashioned way by taking notes on your scorecard.

“At the most entry level, you can start holding maybe your own shots, your own greens,” Parsons said. “You can certainly start keeping track of how many shots you’re taking to get up and down within 30 yards. And maybe you can have a hit total.”

These four categories alone will tell you a lot about the state of your game. And once you identify a deficiency in a broad category like fairway hitting, you can dive even deeper into a more specific problem, like counting left or right errors. Or if hitting greens in regulation is an obvious issue, you can start tracking distances giving you more trouble. Ideally, you can relay that information to an instructor.

“Share that (information) with your club pro or your instructor and let them give you some ideas on some of the drills and some of the exercises that you might want to do to improve,” Parsons said.

Don’t have a personal trainer? GOLF.com has plenty of content to help you, whether you’re struggling with your tee shots, approaches or the short game. Click here to access our arsenal of instructional articles and videos. And to see a video version of Parsons’ advice on tracking statistics in its entirety, click here.

Editor of Golf.com

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural women’s varsity player class, Jessica can blow away anyone in the masthead. She can also drive them in the office, where she is primarily responsible for producing print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her series The original interview, “A Round With,” debuted in November 2015 and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.