PGA Features

Club golfers will begin the season with a goal of reducing their handicap to a certain number.

Television coverage of golf on the other side of the pond can do wonders for your improving game, if you know exactly what to pick up on explains Brocton Hall PGA professional Nevil Bland.

If you watch golf on the television you may well have noticed a difference between the way the European Tour is covered and how it differs on the USPGA tour. I don't mean the weather or the 'You're the man' hecklers! - but the fact that the US media focus much more on the statistical performance of the professionals than the Europeans. Greens hit in regulation, fairways hit and the number of putts are the three most common statistics referred to but there are many others which you may find useful to track in your own game.

Many times a club golfer will begin the season with a goal of reducing their handicap to a certain number - "I want to get down from 18 to 14 this year", or "I want to get to single figures this year" is something I hear quite a lot. But it takes more than just saying it.

The question is what do you need to focus on to achieve this target and what are the interim targets to aim for?

Let's assume you want to reduce your handicap by four shots and it's now halfway through the year with your handicap hasn't changed. An analysis of your statistics would help to show you what's hurting your scores. Areas to pay attention to should include:

• The number of fairways hit
• The number of greens in regulation (don't forget that if your handicap is 18, you should hit every par 4 in three shots, not two, to consider it a green in regulation)
• The number of putts
• The number of approach shots left short
• Total distance of putts holed (add up the distance of all the putts you've holed in a round including everything from a one inch tap-in to a 30-foot snaker and try to get the number as high as possible)
• The number of times you've made a bad decision

You will soon be able to structure better goals for yourself, so instead of targeting a four shot handicap reduction you could aim to hit four more greens per round in regulation.

To achieve this goal you would need to analyse your game further. Do you under club and miss greens short? Are you too aggressive off the tee and have to play too many shots to the green from the rough, or do you simply aim at tight hole locations instead of aiming for the heart of the green?

If you begin to hit more greens in regulation and your scores don't improve then the emphasis would move onto your putting. Do you need to work on your lag putting to leave yourself an easier second putt or do you now hit more greens but leave yourself with too many downhill putts from the back of the green? In some cases you may be better to deliberately underclub to leave an uphill putt or chip.

Stats will show you what to do and what to work on and the more you look into them the more fascinating this game becomes.

Nevil Bland is head golf pro at Brocton Hall and ranked in the world's top 100 clubfitters. For more information, call 01785 661 4850 or email nevil.bland@foremostgolf.com