Every Shot Counts by Mark Broadie

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With Every Shot Counts Mark Broadie has written the most important golf book I have ever read. I say that because the book has done more to shape how I coach and deliver a golfer to their full potential than any technical manuscript before it.

Mark Broadie has done an exceptional job in sifting through the mountain of Shotlink data generated by the PGA Tour over the last decade. A Columbia Business School professor and avid golfer, Broadie is widely credited with coming up with strokes gained - a measurement of how much better or worse a golfer performs off the tee or from any given distance when compared with all other PGA Tour players.

The PGA Tour has been using strokes gained putting for a while now, but Broadie has also developed strokes gained driving for tee shots; strokes gained approach for shots of more than 100 yards; and strokes gained short game for shots of less than 100 yards, excluding putts. Add them together and you get total strokes gained.

From 2004-12 the top 10 players in total strokes gained were: Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Luke Donald, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson. A pretty impressive list and arguably the best players in the game over the last decade.

The author goes on to show how these proven golfers outperformed their counterparts - "Two-thirds of the strokes they gained were from shots outside of 100 yards and one-third was from inside 100 yards," Broadie said. "Putting accounted for just 15 percent of the scoring difference between the top 10 golfers in the world and the average PGA Tour pro."

Wow! I have quizzed many of my students over the past few weeks on how they would rank, in order of importance, the four primary areas that contribute to the standard of any golfer. I think one person (who had secretly read about the book and it's findings) got the order correct. Most of them had it completely backwards. It also shocked me how many ranked putting as the most important factor.

Here is the order: (followed by the player who gained the most strokes on their competitors over the last decade)

  1. Approach shots outside 100 yards (Tiger Woods)
  2. Driving (Bubba Watson)
  3. Short game shots inside 100 yards (Steve Stricker)
  4. Putting (Luke Donald)

To me this order is hugely important as it should influence the manner in which you go about improving. I have encouraged all my students to ramp up the amount of long iron, hybrid and driver practice they have been doing.

Essentially, good golfers are good because they hit it good.

markbroadie

The book also shows the importance of length and what an asset making the ball go a long way is. Bubba Watson has literally pummeled his competitors off the tee with brute power and speed. Now all of my competitive students work on speed sets to increase their clubhead speed as much as possible.

The book is filled with valuable nuggets for both the better and weekend golfer - far too many to mention in an article like this. It includes drills for putting and even ideas on how to approach challenging tee shots dependent on your ability. If you are an avid golfer or coach and you find that your progress has plateaued, do yourself a favor and go out and buy this book and commit to reading it twice. The second time with a highlighter in hand!

If you don't get anything from it call me and I'll refund you your money...

Distance: How to get more of it!

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There are three factors that go into making a quality golf shot; the distance the ball travels, the accuracy of the ball flight and the quality of the strike on the ball. Very often golfers are striking the ball well enough and hitting it straight enough, yet there is a definite lack of distance. In this case there is a need for speed. Jamie Sadlowski is the current World Long Drive Champion. He weighs in at 165 pounds and his longest drive in competition is 419 yards. He generates 140 mph of clubhead speed which equates to almost 200 mph of ball speed! I believe that hitting the golf ball further has very little to do with strength and everything to do with speed - and Jamie is certainly testament to that.

When running backs in the NFL train, they are often hooked up to wind resistance chutes behind them. They then run as hard as they can in an effort to overcome the wind resistance. This exercise gets them to run "stronger" but not necessarily faster. Sprinters on the other hand are hooked up to a device on the track that actually tows them down the track at a faster rate than they are accustomed to, thus getting their limbs to move faster than they are used to. This is the formula we need to apply to golfers who are in search of a few extra yards - and we all could do with that!

Try this drill consistently over the course of a month:

During each practice session count out 12 balls (and only 12

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