So you want to improve your Short 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 Short Game, similar to below:

Short Game includes all shots less than 75 yards that are not on the putting surface (green). In this case, the user lost 3 strokes to their 0 Handicap reference, leaving room for improvement.

Scrolling down through the summary brings you to the Short Game section.

From the Short Game graphic, it reminds us we lost 3 strokes to our 0 Handicap reference and then breaks down our performance near the green from different lies in terms of proximity and scrambling.

Scrambling is often thought of as a short game stat and is the ability to get the ball in the hole in two shots or less when not on the green. The problem with scrambling is it is often just as big a reflection of putting and actually muddles short game and putting performances together, whereas Strokes Gained allows us to remove putting from the Short Game performance. In this case, the Short Game graphic breaks down total performance and performance from starting lies of Fairway, Sand, Rough, and Other (Recovery). This allows you to quickly see that across all shots inside 75 yards, the user averages 27 feet and was able to get up and down 42% of the time on 14 attempts.

They were worse out of the sand (39ft average on 3 attempts) and better out of the rough (23ft on 9 attempts).

While the sand performance is significantly worse than the others, it is also important to realize that number of attempts are low so while it may be easy to practice and reduce that proximity, there aren't many opportunities to apply that improvement.

Additionally, if you struggle from one area (such as sand), you can certainly practice that area to improve, but you can also choose better targets and work on approach or driving to avoid hitting into sand in the first place. Both approaches will improve your overall strokes gained and scoring.

The best way to impact Strokes Gained Short Game is to leave yourself in better positions... Better lies... Not short sided.

I only suggest working on Short Game if it is worse than your other categories and you are throwing many strokes away or 2 chipping. Otherwise time is typically better spent on better Approach shots and targets / course management.

In this case, the user has 5 two chips from the graphic! Meaning practice on Short Game is warranted. You should always strive to get on the green in a single shot for Short Game shots.

Near greens indicate missing a green in a spot where you can putt from the fairway and is very close to a green in regulation.

The percent of distance covered by chip shot indicates how much closer to the hole you are advancing it with your short shots. Strive to get this above 70%.

Clicking on the graphic brings up Short Game Drill Down statistics.

The Strokes Gained Short Game line above shows your strokes gained performance specifically for Short Game. 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 downwards 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.

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