So you want to improve your approach game. PAR Golf can help.

If you are already a PAR Golf user than you have probably seen the Strokes Gained analysis that leads you to believe you need to work on Approach, similar to below:

I've been playing well, but on this day I lost 6.7 strokes in Approach game to a scratch handicap. Looking at the vertical line representing my average performance, I typically lose 2 strokes to a scratch, so this was even worse than normal.

Approach game is all shots >75 yards that are not tee shots on par 4s and 5s.

PAR Golf doesn't stop there, scrolling down through the round summary will bring me to more quick details on my Approach game.

A quick glance at the above graphic from the summary shows that I lost 6.7 strokes to my reference (0 Handicap) with my Approach game. I only hit 43% of greens when I had a chance with my Approach game. Note that the metric is 7 / 16 rather than 7 / 18 because in this round I missed 2 greens due to poor DRIVES that are not part of Approach game and thus those have been removed from the analysis for Approach game.

That is certainly less than normal for me (~60%), but what jumps out is that almost all of my misses were short of the green (37%). This means I was either mis-clubbing or my strike quality was not good. I can dive further into Strike details if I enable tracking strike under Watch in PAR Golf Preferences.

On this particular day, it was very cold, which tells me I did not do a good job of taking more club to account for lower ball speeds in cold weather.

However, since I average losing 2 strokes with Approach in my last 20 rounds, I may want to dive in and can do so by tapping on the above graphic in the PAR Golf app to bring up further Approach details.

The strokes gained Approach line above shows your strokes gained performance specifically for Approach. Values that are greater than zero, GAIN strokes (or are better) relative to your reference. Values less than zero, LOSE strokes (or are worse) than your reference. Each dot represents an individual round moving from least recent (left) to most recent (right) for the currently filtered data set.

A line that moves upwards and to the right is IMPROVING. Good work!

A line that moves downards and to the right is DECLINING and needs attention.

A line that is highly variable (high peaks and low valleys) is inconsistent and unreliable.

A line that is relatively flat is consistent and dependable.

Smart club distances show how far you tend to hit your clubs and uses the median distance of all swings in the filtered data. In this case, you can see I don't have enough variation in the top end of my bag. Keep in mind that this is Total distance, not carry distance.

Average club distances show how far you tend to hit your clubs and uses the average distance of all swings in the filtered data. This means significant mishits and outliers can impact the overall number. In this case, you can see I don't have enough variation in the top end of my bag. Keep in mind that this is Total distance, not carry distance.

Strokes gained by club shows cumulatively which clubs you tend to lose (or gain) the most strokes with relative to a PGA Tour pro. In my case, it is no coincidence that the top end of my bag is where I really struggle. I need to work on 7I to 4I to have the biggest impact on my approach game.

I prefer not to focus on by club... as in Texas I can hit a 6 iron 190 yards or 120 yards depending on the wind. Instead, I prefer to look at it by distance to know where to focus. In this case 100-174 yards is where I should spend quite a bit of time as that is really where I lose the most strokes.

And just like that, PAR Golf has not only told me to work on irons, but it has specifically told me which irons, from which distance to work on. It also told me I tend to miss short... and left.

Actionable things to not only take to my practice or my instructor, but to know on the course. If there is trouble short or left... take more club and favor the right.

Not yet a PAR Golf user... What are you waiting for? Download now and start playing better golf!