Shot Scope<\/a> have compiled detailed statistics on how golfers perform in May-August and compared it to performance between November-February. Their findings might just save you some shots in both seasons\u2026<\/p>\n\t\t\t\tOff the tee, we are around 12 yards shorter in winter<\/p>\n
The scratch player drops from a 289-yard summer average to a winter 278, while a 10-handicapper\u2019s summer 266 drops to 254, and a 20-handicapper\u2019s average goes from 240 yards in summer to 228 yards in winter.<\/p>\n
More positively, fairways found rises by around 2-3% across all handicaps, no doubt the result of softer turf holding the ball closer to its landing spot.<\/p>\n
On the green, we are actually better in winter<\/p>\n
A 15-handicapper makes 81% of putts inside 3\u2019 on smooth summer greens, but 84% on bobbly winter ones! A 25-handicapper\u2019s 72% summer make rate rises to 76% in winter.<\/p>\n
This could be because we are more positive on slower greens, but it could also be that, armed with the excuse of a bobbly winter green, we putt with lower expectations and less pressure. Only a scratch golfer shows a slight drop in performance in winter.<\/p>\n
Getting up and down is easier in winter<\/p>\n
Many club golfers raise their expectation of an up-and-down in summer when the conditions are nicer, but the data suggests that, if anything, we should be lowering them.<\/p>\n
Across all handicaps, up-and-down percentages are in fact a little better in winter than summer, with 5-handicappers jumping from 35% to 37% and a 15-handicapper from 23% to 25%.<\/p>\n
The data suggests the predictability benefits of firm, summer ground is more than offset by the difficulties created by firmer and faster greens.<\/p>\n
Is it easier to hit greens in summer or winter?<\/p>\n
Across all handicap levels, greens-in-regulation numbers are basically identical from summer to winter. This suggests that the typical winter measures such as pick-and-place and forward tees are equalising the otherwise less helpful conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before you blame the weather for every bad round, see what the numbers actually say. These insights will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-310904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}