What Players Are Gleaning From ShotLink

PGATour.com's Sean Martin gets a few players to talk about their use of ShotLink to identify flaws, and while too many still refuse to share what they glean as if these state secrets will unravel the tour, the ones that do show what a fascinating tool stats can be for elite players.

Martin writes:

Players like Johnson, Spieth and Jason Day hold year-end meetings to analyze the past year and map out a plan of improvement for the following one.

For the past few seasons, the ShotLink statistics showed Day that his wedge game needed improvement. It’s an area he addressed and it has paid dividends.

Day, who won the 2014 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Match Play Championship, finished first in proximity to the hole from the fairway from 125-150 yards (18 feet, 7 inches) in 2013-14 after finishing 166th in that category the previous season. He averaged 25 feet, 3 inches in 2013.

“We knew that we needed to improve. It’s sheer numbers. If you have that amount of wedges in your hand and you don’t capitalize on them, you need to … do something about it,” Day said. “If I can get better at those and sneak out one to three more birdies, that could sneak maybe a top-10 or top-5 or a couple more wins a year.”
The statistics also showed him that he still needs to make strides between 50 and 75 yards. He ranked 116th (16 feet, 6 inches) in that category in 2013-14.