The 2018 holiday season is well underway, and golfers in northern latitudes everywhere have regretfully traded their clubs for shovels and ice skates until spring. Despite the lack of golf, I have often found winter a great time to reevaluate my golf goals and strategies, and it often starts with a plan for measuring and evaluating improvement.

A data-driven approach to golf is a great way to seek improvement, and there are numerous new technologies and books to help you plan and evaluate your new regimen. In the spirit of the holidays, I have selected a number of great holiday gift ideas if you or a loved one have a curious mind and a passion for improving your game.¹ Hopefully you will find something on this list that will make you a better player in 2019! (and if your passion would be better served through a more personalized approach, I am currently filling slots for spring coaching – email datadrivenplayer@gmail.com)

Technology

Data analysis is only as good as the available data, and recording detailed round statistics is usually the hardest part of a data-driven approach. Most people don’t want to take the time to record the distance, club, and result of every single shot. Fortunately, there are a number of new technological solutions to the data-recording problem. The reviews below highlight several good choices. As you will notice, there are a number of products delivering roughly the same service – none are a perfect solution and you will have to decide which one meets more of your personal preferences (e.g. would you rather have a device on your belt, your wrist, your glove, your pocket?)

Arccos Caddie Smart Sensors

Arccos is one of the easiest tools on the market today for recording quality data. Their sensors are placed on the back of each of your clubs and are automatically activated when you swing. The GPS sensors record both the shot location on the course and the club hit. This allows you to track the distances for each of your clubs and the overall result of each shot. Thus you get a large amount of your quality round data recorded without having to think about it! Additionally, the Arccos Caddie App will use your data to suggest clubs and strategies. The system does require you to keep your phone in your leading pocket, which could be a challenge for some people depending on their phone/pocket size. Additionally, you may need to adjust the specific results after the fact if some shots were not registered. Otherwise, it is a great product for making the recording of stats easy.

Game Golf Live Tracking System

Game golf is another great option for easily recording your shot data. Instead of using the motion of your swing and your phone, Game golf sensors use Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology along with a sensor usually worn on your belt. Register a shot by tapping the NFC chip (screwed into the grip of each club) on the sensor, which registers receiving the signal with a buzz. The sensor uses its GPS to record the location of the shot, allowing you to track the distances and results of every shot.

The results of your shots are sent in real time to the Game Golf phone app, which also includes ragefinder-like information for measuring distances while you play. Their system provides stats and insights as well as social elements like challenges. While it can be cumbersome to remember to touch each club to the sensor, Game Golf is another good way to easily track your stats.

Mobitee & PIQ Wearable Golf Sport Tracker

Another stat-tracking device, this one works very similarly to Game Golf: NFC chips are screwed into each grip and must be tapped against a sensor to record the shot. PIQ’s sensor is meant to be worn on the glove rather than the belt, which could be better or worse depending on your preference. A benefit of the PIQ sensor is that it has a small display which can act as a rangefinder – showing the distance to the hole without needing a phone.

An additional feature of the PIQ sensor is that it doubles as a swing analyzer; claiming to track tempo, swing speed, and swing path. Personally I am always a little dubious of distilling something as complex as a golf swing into just 3 data points, but the data could be useful in tandem with semi-regular lessons from a teaching pro. Overall this product looks to be another quality contender for recording your stats.

Shot Scope V2 Smart Golf Watch

Another shot tracking device involving chips screwed into grips, with a few differences. Rather than a phone, belt clip, or glove clip, Shot Scope uses a watch. Personally I am not a big fan of wearing a watch while I play, but the added advantage of the Shot Scope watch is that it doubles as a rangefinder with distances to the front, middle, and back of greens (as well as some hazards).

Like Arccos, Shot Scope will automatically record your shots; no need to tap the sensor. The exception is when you finally hole out – shot scope asks you to tap a button on the phone to record the location of the flag. While this is a bit of a nuisance and requires remembering, it does make it easier to track distances to the flag than any of the other systems.

Shot Scope also appears to provide more statistical data than its competitors, boasting over 100 stats. It tracks several unique statistics such as shots hit close to the hole and the fraction of putts missed short vs long.

Garmin Approach S20

The final technological solution to stat tracking is another watch. The downside to this product is that it does not differentiate between clubs the way that the others listed here do (no sensors to screw into grips). The biggest advantage to this product is its versatility: it is designed to be a daily-use smartwatch in addition to a golf tracking system (will receive texts, monitor steps, etc.).

The S20 will automatically detect most shots based on your wrist movement, but it will not register smaller-motion shots like chips or putts (these must be entered manually). The watch also acts as a rangefinder and can be used to keep score. It also can sync with the Garmin TruSwing Sensor for range work (see below).

While the S20 lacks many of the features of the products above, its biggest advantage is its usability as a smartwatch on its own (it claims a long battery life too). If you are interested in wearing a smartwatch anyway, this may be the product for you.

Garmin TruSwing Golf Club Sensor

Unlike the round-tracking products above, the TrueSwing Sensor’s sole purpose is for swing analysis. After clipping this device to your club, it provides a great deal of data about your swing, including speed, tempo, path, and a 3D image of your swing plane. As noted above, the TrueSwing synchronizes with the Garmin Approach watch (though the watch is not necessary to use this product). It isn’t the sort of product that would be used on the course, but it is a good option for those looking to track data on the range.

Zepp Golf 2 3D Swing Analyzer

This is another swing analyzer as is the current product leader on the market. It uses a small device which is clipped to the back of the glove. The device measures a number of statistics for each swing, which can be viewed instantly on its app. It appears that the Garmin TrueSwing collects more data while the Zepp Analyzer has a better phone interface, including access to drills for various swing faults.

Books

All of the books listed below fit the style of the postings on this blog: they use technichal, data-driven analysis to determine better ways to play golf. If you are looking for more insight backed by evidence, these would be good reading options while waiting for the snow to melt.

Every Shot Counts by Mark Broadie

Mark Broadie has made a bigger impact on golf analytics than nearly anyone else in recent years. His Strokes Gained statistic has completely revolutionized the way we analyze performance and allows us to better compare players’ strengths and weaknesses on tour. This book is a detailed account of this new paradigm and the key lessons learned from it. I don’t agree with every conclusion he makes (more on that in a future post), but it is definitely a must-read for those interested in the intersection of golf and statistics.

Golf by the Numbers: How Stats, Math, and Physics Affect Your Game by Roland Minton

I have a particular love for this book not only because of its great investigations into a wide variety of shots but also because I am referenced in it! (I did some analysis on the Hardy Problem mentioned in previous posts, particularly on what it implies for golf teams) This book discusses a wide range of golf-related topics in math and statistics, from risk-reward play to handicaps to what made Tiger great. Each chapter is formatted well for a variety of reader backgrounds, with “Back Tee” sections containing the more technical matter.

Better Faster: The Modern Golfer’s Blueprint for Getting More from Less by Corey Lundberg and Matt Wilson

Corey Lundberg and Matt Wilson are the instructors behind the Curious Coaches blog. What I love most about their book is that it is not focused on instruction and technique (there are plenty of those on the market), but rather they focus on skills for developing a good game plan for improvement. Their approach is backed by research about learning and performance, giving their work the data-driven perspective readers of this blog will appreciate. (Their blog is also a treasure trove of learning and coaching knowledge – I highly encourage anyone interested in these fields to check it out!)

The Practice Manual: The Ultimate Guide for Golfers by Adam Young

Adam Young is the creator of his own blog, where he focuses on performance factors in golf. His book is an extensive, detailed plan for improving performance, covering material from the interaction of the club and ball to psychological theories of learning. He has a prescriptive method for how to use these principles to better practice and prepare for competition. This is another book that is focused not on instruction but rather the process by which improvement happens.

How to Break 90 by Andy Chao

This is a short and cheap book (free if you have Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited) that gets right to the point on the steps you can take to break 90. It is based on 4 key principles:

1. Always get the ball in play
2. Around the green, Always get the ball on the green in one shot
3. Always take less than 3 putts
4. Treat every shot with equal importance

These are pretty straightforward bits of advice, but together they focus on the key differences between a player who shoots in the 90s and one who shoots in the 80s. The rest of the book gives advice for how to practice and prepare for rounds. While I wish this author provided more evidence for his prescriptions, I have included this book because of its focus on creating concrete plans to achieve a goal. If you are looking to break 90 and want help designing a plan, this book may be an inexpensive place to start. (Note that this author has also written books on how to break 70, 80, and 100)

Golf Ball Putting Analytics by James C. Gerdeen

A few months ago I started to think about embarking on a research project about the technical features of putting. I came to discover someone already wrote a book on it! This book is very dense and difficult to read. It is certainly not for everyone. However, it does have great detail about the physics of putting in various conditions (uphill, sidehill, variable slope, etc.). Maybe I’m speaking to the 0.001% of the population with a passion for golf and physics like me, but if you are that person, you should check out this book (and send me an email, we need to connect!).

Newton on the Tee: A Good Walk Through the Science of Golf by John Zumerchik

This book is an excellent overview of the concepts in physics that affect golf swings and ball trajectories. The work is presented in an easy-to-understand manner and covers all the hits from intro physics: momentum, energy, force, and torque! If you are a science-minded golfer, this book is a good way to see where physics appears on the course.

The Physics of Golf by Theodore P. Jorgensen

This is more or less the book on physics and golf. I once heard someone suggest that Bryson DeChambeau is so good because he has done all the calculations of the physics of the swing. Well if he has, he is as good a physicist as he is a golfer because the governing equations are in this book and they are hard. Golf is a complex sport; much more complex than the basic projectile problems of intro physics would lead you to believe. This book, while old, is a great place to start if you want to learn in depth the way physics affects your golf game.

The Science of the Perfect Swing by Peter Dewhurst

This book is like a modern version of The Physics of Golf. It describes in great detail the physics of the swing, impact, ball flight, and roll. It covers a wide variety of physical scenarios (Want to know how your slice is affected by a tailwind? It is in here). The material is certainly dense but this is another great book for the science-minded golfer or instructor wanting to learn more about the physical causes behind every shot.