Last updated: March 18, 2009
 
 
Return to main research page Conferences and seminars  
 
New York Times: The Long and Short of Which Shots Need Help, by Bill Pennington, July 21, 2008
 
Wall Street Journal: Tiger's Grand Slam Dream: Don't Bet On It, by Tim Marchman, March 3, 2009
 
Assessing Golfer Performance Using Golfmetrics
Abstract: The software application Golfmetrics was created to capture and store golfer shot data and to quantify differences in shot patterns between players of different skill levels. Across golfers it is shown, somewhat surprisingly, that longer hitters tend to be straighter than shorter hitters. Individual golfers can be measured relative to a benchmark to assess relative accuracy and to suggest whether to focus on increasing distance or decreasing directional errors. For amateur golfers, distance errors on short game and sand shots are shown to be about three times larger than direction errors. Shot value is a quantitative measure of the quality of each shot in comparison to a scratch golfer. Shot value analysis is a useful way to measure consistency, assess a golfer's relative strengths and weaknesses, and to indicate where practice and improvement are most needed. For amateur golfers a significant contributor to high scores is inconsistency, i.e., a relatively small number of awful shots. This research also quantifies the contributions of each part of the golf game (putting, short game, sand game or long game) to overall scores for golfers of different abilities. The long game is found to be the biggest factor in the difference in scores between pros and amateurs and between low- and high-handicap amateurs.

Chapter 34: Science and Golf V: Proceedings of the 2008 World Scientific Congress of Golf

Click here for pdf file
 
Why shots fall short: See the March 2003 issue of Golf Digest.
 
Where's the Hot Spot?
  Where should the ball be hit on this driver's clubface so that the ball travels the maximum distance? In other words, where is the club's hot spot? Which model drivers are the most forgiving? Mark Broadie, Lou Riccio, and Frank Thomas estimated statistical models using a large dataset of shots hit by a golf machine to answer these and other related questions. Their research formed the basis for the Where's Your Hot Spot? articles featured in the December 2003 and October 2001 issues of Golf Digest magazine.
May 2003 meeting of the USGA Handicap Research Team. From left to right: Richard Stroud, Lou Riccio, Kevin O'Connor, Frank Engle, Warren Simmons, Fran Scheid, Mark Broadie.