Announcement and New GolfWRX Column

First, I am proud to announce that I will be doing and interview with Matt Adams on the Fairways of Life radio show on SiriusXM.

 

The interview will be this Thursday at 7:30 AM on the PGA Tour Channel which is on XM Channel 93 and Sirius Channel 208.  The interview will also be available on the Back 9 Network and you should be able to hear it on Adams' Web site at www.fairwaysoflife.com

 

In the interview we will be discussing 2012 Pro Golf Synopsis and the 'Moneyball Approach' to the game of golf. 

 

Now onto my latest GolfWRX column in understanding the critical holes in ANY golf tournament.

 

 

One of the questions I had about the game of golf before I started researching the statistical data of the game was, “What holes should I focus the most on in practice rounds of a tournament?”

Generally, I thought the holes to focus on were the most difficult holes. But, I often wondered if the easiest holes were where I should direct my attention, because losing a stroke against the field is still losing a stroke nonetheless. As usual, after doing the research, the answer ended up being somewhere in between.

First, we have to understand that the length of the tournament plays a big factor as to what the critical holes are. In one-round tournaments, which are fairly common in amateur events, anything can happen. In those tournaments, my data has shown that the best finishers are generally are the ones who play the toughest and the easiest holes the best. However, as the number of rounds increase — almost all PGA Tour events are four rounds — things change quite a bit.

In a three-, four- or five-round event, the holes with the greatest standard deviation separate the contenders from the rest of the field. This is where the top finishers in an event usually gain the most strokes on their competitors, and for that reason I have labeled these as ‘Critical Holes.’ Using historical data and basing it on three-year, give-year and 10-year trends, I have been able to identify the Critical Holes on almost every course that the Tour plays. This allows my Tour clients to better focus their attention on the holes that have the greatest influence on where they finish in each event.

Read More: http://www.golfwrx.com/75943/the-critical-holes-in-golf-tournaments/