Golf Stat Software

[Hstead]

Looking to keep stats this year

I am not sure I posted in the correct forum, but I am looking for some good free golf software to track stats. I would something that I can use to analyze a little better where my strengths and weaknesses are.

Really I could make an Excel spreadsheet I guess, but I figure there is already something better out there somewhere.

I would like to track fairways, greens, chips, pitches, sand shots, putts etc.

Thanks for the input and ideas in advance.

[mP_au]

I use oobgolf.com to track ingame stats and post round stat. The "Addict" option is great. Recommended. Even works with Blackberry's and iPhones with minimal intrusion during a round.

[Stinger82]

I use mobilegolfstats.com

[redlabel]

I like the Make me Better scorecard on the Gold Digest site

[Hateto3Putt]

[quote name='mP_au' post='2161944' date='Jan 5 2010, 12:05 AM']I use oobgolf.com to track ingame stats and post round stat. The "Addict" option is great. Recommended. Even works with Blackberry's and iPhones with minimal intrusion during a round.[/quote]

Agreed. Oobgolf is nice.

[B Keller]

[quote name='redlabel' post='2162173' date='Jan 5 2010, 06:08 AM']I like the Make me Better scorecard on the Gold Digest site[/quote]

I have looked for this and didn't find it. Can you provide a link?

[thomaskelly]

Golf Tracker for Excel

[elmn8r]

+1 for oobgolf.

[David Hillman]

I can't find anything that will do everything I want, so I'm currently writing my own ( that will do almost everything I can imagine ). Winter is useful.

[hwwong]

Seems like Microsoft Excel would do the trick, no?

[redlabel]

[quote name='B Keller' post='2162228' date='Jan 5 2010, 07:56 AM'][quote name='redlabel' post='2162173' date='Jan 5 2010, 06:08 AM']I like the Make me Better scorecard on the Gold Digest site[/quote]

I have looked for this and didn't find it. Can you provide a link?
[/quote]

Try this

[url="http://www.golfdigestchallenge.com//profile.php"]http://www.golfdigestchallenge.com//profile.php[/url]

I like using it because it's quick, I'm really not interested in knowing what my average score is on par 4's between 358 and 359 yards.

[princekr]

Check out intelligolf

[url="http://intelligentgolfsolutions.net/"]http://intelligentgolfsolutions.net/[/url]

[ballzo]

I'm using two right now. One is a piece of shareware called golfcard. If you want a copy, I could try to get it to you somehow, just let me know. I have been using it for about 5 years. It works really well and the other one that I am using in conjunction is online at [url="http://www.mygolfdomain.com/"]http://www.mygolfdomain.com/[/url]

Both are good IMO. The shareware is easy to use and looks better but the online one has alot more stats. From what I have heard, the be all end all in stats programs was aviary but I tried to go to their site just now and its not there anymore so I'm guessing they went under.

[putt4_66]

I use two right now as well.

(1) [url="http://www.ShotByShot.com"]http://www.ShotByShot.com[/url]

and

(2) [url="http://www.Stracka.com"]http://www.Stracka.com[/url]


Stracka gives you raw basic GIR, PPGIR, Fairways, etc.

ShotByShot is awesome, but different. It uses a massive database of scoring info for all types of players, including touring pros. You give it your index and a goal index. It tells you were you're strong, where you're average and where you are weak. It tells you what parts of your game you need to work on to get to your goal. Plus, you get stats comparing you to your index, your goal index and against PGA TOUR pros.

[titto]

My stroke Tracker fore I pod easy...

[Guia]

You can keep stats on Ghin.com

[HackerD]

[quote name='DaveLeeNC' post='2129468' date='Dec 16 2009, 07:59 PM']I used my own, home-brewed system. And it is based on NOT recording stats. I just record the shots that I hit (all of them), dump them into my custom database, and then derive pretty much whatever stats I need at the time.

And all I record for each shot is 2 pieces of data (with an optional 3rd). The data is

1) How far I am from the hole
2) What club I am hitting

That is all. There is another field for anything 'weird' going on (like in a bunker, bad lie in the rough, obstructed by a tree, etc).

dave[/quote]
I'm going to try the above system this year, tracked in something like Excel. (Post copied from a different thread.) You can derive almost any stat you can think of if you capture this data.

[youngskip40]

Can anybopdy confirm or deny the comment on Aviary Golf Software? I've also heard that this program is basically the holy grail of stat tracking software... but I can't seem to find any information on it, and the website still appears to be down.

[David Hillman]

[QUOTE]
I'm going to try the above system this year, tracked in something like
Excel. (Post copied from a different thread.) You can derive almost any
stat you can think of if you capture this data.
[/QUOTE]

I beg to differ.

Among other things, you can't derive fairways hit, or GIR, from just club and distance.

[DaveLeeNC]

[quote name='David Hillman' date='23 March 2010 - 03:17 PM' timestamp='1269371826' post='2335841']
[QUOTE]
I'm going to try the above system this year, tracked in something like
Excel. (Post copied from a different thread.) You can derive almost any
stat you can think of if you capture this data.
[/QUOTE]

I beg to differ.

Among other things, you can't derive fairways hit, or GIR, from just club and distance.
[/quote]

If you back up and read the full text of the quoted posts, you will see that the referenced system collects 2 pieces of information for every shot (club and distance) PLUS an optional 3rd piece (used to indicate a variety of things about a shot if if isn't 'normal' - B for in a bunker, L for a lie problem (like in the rough), O for obstructed (like behind a tree), FL for bad lie but in the fairway, etc. You can make this as simple or as complicated as you wish.

Putts (as in on the green vs. using a putter from off the green) are recorded in a separate place, so you know that you are on the green when you are at the end of the 'other shots'.

dave

[RookieBlue7]

I use golfcard on my iPhone which is based off of obbgolf

[hbear]

I've used a small program called GStat Pro for years and years now.
It's super cheap and will track ANYTHING you can imagine provided you input the information.
It's built off MS Access.

Works well for me, I've seen "fancier" trackers, but this one simply works.
In addition I'd hate in reinput all my information into a new program.

I also track certain specific things in excel to give me graphical information for things of interest to me.

Seems like a lot of work, but really it's only about 5mins after a round to input.

[David Hillman]

[quote name='DaveLeeNC' date='23 March 2010 - 04:51 PM' timestamp='1269381078' post='2336168']
If you back up and read the full text of the quoted posts, you will see that the referenced system collects 2 pieces of information for every shot (club and distance) PLUS an optional 3rd piece (used to indicate a variety of things about a shot if if isn't 'normal' - B for in a bunker, L for a lie problem (like in the rough), O for obstructed (like behind a tree), FL for bad lie but in the fairway, etc. You can make this as simple or as complicated as you wish.

Putts (as in on the green vs. using a putter from off the green) are recorded in a separate place, so you know that you are on the green when you are at the end of the 'other shots'.
[/quote]

I'm aware that you can make it as complicated as you wish. Like I said, I'm writing my own application to do it... there are 14 tables (so far) in the associated database. I'm probably over toward the complicated side.

That said, you still cannot get fairways hit from the above the information. As long as the 3rd field is optional, you just can't do it. Neither can you get GIR, without adding at least one more field ( either score relative to par, or the value of par for each hole ). Even then, you have at least one opportunity for error ( shots using a putter from off the green ). With club/distance/optional info as described, you also cannot get to sand save percentage, putts per round, scrambling and others.

At a minimum, you need to track where each shot wound up ( fairway, green, etc ) in order to derive most common statistics. However, you can do useful things with just that field, and score.

[DaveLeeNC]

[quote name='David Hillman' date='23 March 2010 - 08:44 PM' timestamp='1269391453' post='2336514']
[quote name='DaveLeeNC' date='23 March 2010 - 04:51 PM' timestamp='1269381078' post='2336168']
If you back up and read the full text of the quoted posts, you will see that the referenced system collects 2 pieces of information for every shot (club and distance) PLUS an optional 3rd piece (used to indicate a variety of things about a shot if if isn't 'normal' - B for in a bunker, L for a lie problem (like in the rough), O for obstructed (like behind a tree), FL for bad lie but in the fairway, etc. You can make this as simple or as complicated as you wish.

Putts (as in on the green vs. using a putter from off the green) are recorded in a separate place, so you know that you are on the green when you are at the end of the 'other shots'.
[/quote]

I'm aware that you can make it as complicated as you wish. Like I said, I'm writing my own application to do it... there are 14 tables (so far) in the associated database. I'm probably over toward the complicated side.

That said, you still cannot get fairways hit from the above the information. As long as the 3rd field is optional, you just can't do it. Neither can you get GIR, without adding at least one more field ( either score relative to par, or the value of par for each hole ). Even then, you have at least one opportunity for error ( shots using a putter from off the green ). With club/distance/optional info as described, you also cannot get to sand save percentage, putts per round, scrambling and others.

At a minimum, you need to track where each shot wound up ( fairway, green, etc ) in order to derive most common statistics. However, you can do useful things with just that field, and score.
[/quote]

Look - here is a par 4 "played well". You know it is a par 4 because you know which hole the data references and 'the system' contains the course information.

D,6i-160;20-2

Driver off the tee (pull the yardage from the system which has the card yardages), 6i from 160 yards (the cards says NOTHING else so you hit the fairway), the semi-colon says you are now putting from the green with 2 putts from 20'. And it is a GIR because it is a par 4 (data is in the system) and you only took two shots to get to the green.

Now that same hole played badly

D,4i-175-L,SW-22-B,P-14;13-1

You missed the fairway because you have a Lie problem (L) on your second shot. That shot obviously went in a bunker (B). Apparently you failed to hit the green from the bunker because you used a Putter from 14 yards for your 4th shot. You then two putted from 13'.

So you've missed the fairway, no GIR, no par, so sandie, you failed an up/down from 14 yards with a putter, and you double bogeyed the hole.

Been doing it that way for 6 years now. It does work (if you don't mind building your own system and managing it yourself). Once your system works the way you want it to, the only other overhead is to enter the course hole information (yardage/par) if you play a course and/or set of tees that are not yet in your system.

dave

ps. There is a case that this implementation can't handle and that is when you putt off the green.

[Pepperturbo]

Best program IMO, I looked a quite a few ... bought it years ago. I have the one to keep complete track of 20 people.  I keeps great stats and prints score cards with handicap holes; etc., reasonable too.  http://scorekeeper.com/index.htm

[David Hillman]

[QUOTE]
Look - here is a par 4 "played well". You know it is a par 4 because
you know which hole the data references and 'the system' contains the
course information.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, there's a magical 'system' in play which contains additional data. That wasn't originally mentioned. Seems to me like you'd also have to track those fields, at least the first time you play each course. And, of course, you need to track which course you are playing each round.

[QUOTE]
Driver off the tee (pull the yardage from the system which has the card
yardages), 6i from 160 yards (the cards says NOTHING else so you hit
the fairway)
[/QUOTE]

If the field is optional, as stated, you can't make that assumption. Cards says NOTHING could mean fairway, or could mean a good lie in the rough.

[QUOTE]
the semi-colon says you are now putting from the green
with 2 putts from 20'.
[/QUOTE]

Then the semi-colon is another data field, which is what I'm saying. You need more than just club and distance.

[QUOTE]
Apparently you
failed to hit the green from the bunker because you used a Putter from
14 yards for your 4th shot.
[/QUOTE]

Huh? Why couldn't it be a 52' putt?

Look, if it works for you great. I just don't want someone else to read this, and spend a season recording just club and distance, only to later find that they needed more data. Club and distance alone is very limited.

[DaveLeeNC]

[quote name='David Hillman' date='24 March 2010 - 11:53 AM' timestamp='1269445981' post='2337763']
[QUOTE]
Look - here is a par 4 "played well". You know it is a par 4 because
you know which hole the data references and 'the system' contains the
course information.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, there's a magical 'system' in play which contains additional data. That wasn't originally mentioned. Seems to me like you'd also have to track those fields, at least the first time you play each course. And, of course, you need to track which course you are playing each round.

[QUOTE]
Driver off the tee (pull the yardage from the system which has the card
yardages), 6i from 160 yards (the cards says NOTHING else so you hit
the fairway)
[/QUOTE]

If the field is optional, as stated, you can't make that assumption. Cards says NOTHING could mean fairway, or could mean a good lie in the rough.

[QUOTE]
the semi-colon says you are now putting from the green
with 2 putts from 20'.
[/QUOTE]

Then the semi-colon is another data field, which is what I'm saying. You need more than just club and distance.

[QUOTE]
Apparently you
failed to hit the green from the bunker because you used a Putter from
14 yards for your 4th shot.
[/QUOTE]

Huh? Why couldn't it be a 52' putt?

Look, if it works for you great. I just don't want someone else to read this, and spend a season recording just club and distance, only to later find that they needed more data. Club and distance alone is very limited.
[/quote]

I don't know what your problem is. But here is a list of corrections.

I listed the data that I record on the course (which is the most critical since that is what takes time on the course). I can't imagine ANYBODY not recording the course that they played (unless they only play one course in which case there is no issue in the first place). BTW, I also record date. OH MY GOD - more unmentioned, burdensome data.

The most common 3rd field entry is "NOTHING". Like a NULL field in a database it can mean anything you want. In my implementation it has meaning (and a bad lie in the rough or in a bunker is not one of the allowed meanings). A required entry in this field is not automatic (hence it is optional).

Calling a semi-colon a 'field' is stupid and totally wrong and hugely misleading. IT IS A DELIMTER. If you don't know what one is, look it up. And you missed all the other 'data fields' (like comma's and dashes).

You asked why it couldn't be a 52' putt. It is because it wasn't recorded as a 52' putt. Had the hole been recorded

D,4i-175-L,SW-22-B;52-13-1

Then it would be a 52' putt. But it wasn't defined that way when the data was recorded. As recorded

D,4i-175-L,SW-22-B,P-14;13-1

It is a shot from the fairway with a putter.

Unlike you I am not going to make a claim that my prime motivation is the GRX reading public. I am PO'ed at having my system mis-represented by someone who doesn't understand it and have basically no concern that some golfer is going to record a seasons worth of data using only club and distance (and NOTHING else) and suddenly discover its limitations. I don't think the GRX community is that stupid.

dave

[juhayes]

Dave-

I'm pretty interested in what you're doing there. Do you capture that kind of input into an excel or access database and do any trending or analysis? If so, would you mind sharing the file. Ideally with some data, although whatever you'd be comfortable with.

I've been tinkering with the idea of building my own, but given the growing abundance of them, might just use one of the online ones, still, the relative simplicity of your capture system is awesome. Its better than the "custom cards" that are less wieldy.

[DaveLeeNC]

[quote name='juhayes' date='24 March 2010 - 04:04 PM' timestamp='1269461068' post='2338259']
Dave-

I'm pretty interested in what you're doing there. Do you capture that kind of input into an excel or access database and do any trending or analysis? If so, would you mind sharing the file. Ideally with some data, although whatever you'd be comfortable with.

I've been tinkering with the idea of building my own, but given the growing abundance of them, might just use one of the online ones, still, the relative simplicity of your capture system is awesome. Its better than the "custom cards" that are less wieldy.
[/quote]

[size="2"]I do this in MS Access (2003). At this point the 'system' has 6 years of data and at least 100 queries that I don't even know what they do any more :-). So it is about 75MB and not easily mailable.

But here are the key tables as a place to start. If you really think that some sample stuff would be helpful I'll see if I can strip it down to something transferrable, although MS stuff has this way of getting big even when empty. And surprisingly I am unable to copy/paste the design view of any of the table from Access to anywhere - irritating.

The key table is tShotData, which contains one record per hole as

Date (primary key)

Hole (primary key)

1st Shot Distance

1st Shot Club

2nd Shot Distance

2nd Shot Club

2nd Special (the optional field like B for bunker, etc)

same for 3rd through 6th shot

Putt1

Putt2

Putt3

Putt4

I use a MS Access form to populate the table. The form increments the hole, holds/inputs the date, pulls the 1st shot distance from the 'Holes Table' (which you can over-ride, of course) and calculates the hole score which is kind of a check/balance for input errors.

The other table that gets updated each round is::

tRounds

Date (primary key)
Course (4 character ID for course/tees)
Temperature (I added that recently, just for grins)
Other Comments (to be used as I see fit)

　

A couple of system support tables are:

tHoles
CourseID (primary key)
Hole Number (primary key)
Hole Length
Hole Par

　

tCourses

CourseID (primary key)
slope
rating
par (although this is redundant and not really required)

　

tConstants

a few constants that are handy in doing calculations like maximum up/down distance, maximum short putt length (see Scoring Zone Putting), etc. I started out hard-coding these and was instantly sorry about that.

This is what I track in my key 'output query' (qBRSummary - By Round Summary) - at least the stuff that can be calculated from what I have listed so far.

-Date
-CourseID
-Number of Putts
-Net Putting (more about this later)
-Scoring Zone Putting (how I putted on all putts from 8' or less)
-Lag Putting Error
-# of 3 putts
-Score Against Par
-GIR's
-Birdies/Better
-Double Bogeys/Worse
-Up/Downs
-Sand Save Percentage
-Error At Par (how far from the cup after 1 stroke on a par 3, 2 on a par 4
or 3 on a Par 5) - this number has a stronger correlation with
Score Against Par than any other thing I calculate
-Handicap (what would your index be if you shot this score on this course 20 straight times - no T score adjustments)
-Fairways
-Birdie Opportunities - Birdie putts of 15' or less

　

Those numbers can all be calculated using the listed tables. But kind of the point of this is how much you can customize things.

For example I have another table that describes holes that I call "Driving Distance Comparison Holes". These are par 4's (occasionally par 5's) that are straight, although they might be uphill or downhill. But I occasionally recalculate my driving distance average on each of these holes and on each round my system compares my actual driving distance with the previously calculated average. This gives me a good idea of where my driving distance is going these days.

The next concept is VERY important to me and drives some additional calculations. And this is the concept of 'Par Putting'. I have another table with 99 records (one for each distance from the cup from 1' to 99'). The second entry in the table is my own opinion of what I should average to hole out from each of these distances.

For 1' and 2' it is 1.0 (should make all my 1 and 2 footers)

For 3' it is 1.1 (miss 1 of 10 3 footers)

For 5' it is 1.5 (make half my 5 footers)

For 20' it is 2.0 (equal number of hole outs and 3 putts)

For 50' it is 2.25

For 75' it is 2.47

And so on - mostly it is linear interpolation between a few key points and is just my own opinion of what "OK putting" is for my game. I average around 1 stroke over par putting for all my rounds.

So every hole has a net putting score. A good chip to 3' and make that 3 footer is -0.1 net putting. 2 putts from 20' is 0.0 net putting, 2 putts from 50' is -0.25 net putting while a 3 putt from that distance is 0.75 net putting.

So every round has a net putting score (sum of all the hole net putting scores). If I take my actual number of putts and subtract out the net putting score I get what my round would have been with 'a standard level of putting'. Sometimes 34 putts is not bad and sometimes it is horrible. I find this very helpful. An interesting side-note. My index tends to go up around 2 strokes every winter. 65% of that is putting - would never have guessed that.

The next thing I do is to take all my up/down opportunities and ignore whether or not I actually got up/down. But I add in net putting for where-ever I ended up after the chip/putt. So a chip to 5' is a 50% up/down (as I make 50% of my 5 footers per the table). A chip to 20' or worse is a 0% up/down and a chip to 2' or less is a 100% up/down, etc. This allows me to evaluate my chipping even when I am putting exceptionally well (or badly).

When I want to do timeline kind of analysis I copy my qBRSummary query (or whatever) results into Excel and do it there.

You never know what useful info you might get from this stuff. A few years ago I considered adding a gap wedge to my club set. It was pretty easy to go in and find all the shots that I would most likely have hit with a gap wedge had I owned one (was hitting a 3/4 PW instead). I found that I hit those pretty darn good, so I didn't get a gap wedge (at that time). I now have a gap wedge, but don't have a PW - same principle.

I recently built a new set of irons (Wishon 560MC's) and it seemed like I was hitting the 7i better than I have EVER hit any iron before (never had that feeling with any other club). It was easy to go into the data and see that, yea verily, I hit that club better than any club that I have ever hit before. I still don't understand why, however.

Like I said if you need more specific info (like my database) I will see if I can strip it down to something sendable (as opposed to the 75MB that it is right now.

dave

[/size]

[zenchili]

[quote name='putt4_66' date='07 January 2010 - 01:25 AM' timestamp='1262841945' post='2166328']
I use two right now as well.

(1) [url="http://www.ShotByShot.com"]http://www.ShotByShot.com[/url]

and

(2) [url="http://www.Stracka.com"]http://www.Stracka.com[/url]


Stracka gives you raw basic GIR, PPGIR, Fairways, etc.

ShotByShot is awesome, but different. It uses a massive database of scoring info for all types of players, including touring pros. You give it your index and a goal index. It tells you were you're strong, where you're average and where you are weak. It tells you what parts of your game you need to work on to get to your goal. Plus, you get stats comparing you to your index, your goal index and against PGA TOUR pros.
[/quote]

Shot by Shot is really good. Excellent analysis and the score cards/system they use, is really easy to use on the course. It's not distracting and it's really quick to enter online too.