England Golf - Men’s Team Performance Case Study
Scoring
England Golf have a team scoring average of +0.20 and strokes gained of -1.17 over the 344 rounds entered so far in 2024. They average 3.56 birdies or better per round, against 2.97 bogeys and 0.41 doubles.
With the majority of amateur golf in the UK being played on tough links courses and often difficult playing conditions it is to be expected to see a negative strokes gained when compared to a raw PGA benchmark.
Recent English Amateur Champion leads the way with a -2 scoring average over his 21 rounds, whilst Open Championship participant Matthew Dodd Berry is the next best with an average of -1 over his 51 rounds.
The team has a par 3 average of +0.11 per hole, with Zachary Chegwidden leading the way at +0.03. Interestingly Matthew, ranks 10th in par 3 scoring at +0.15 and shows great opportunity for him to improve further.
Par 4’s have averaged +0.07 for the team, with Harley and Matthew being the stand out performers, both averaging under par.
The team have taken good advantage of the par 5’s, averaging -0.26 per hole with five of the players averaging -0.34 or lower.
Tee
England golf has been strong off the tee with 5 of the players having a positive strokes gained despite a driving distance of 293Y, 7 yards shorter vs the PGA average.
Matthew leads the way off the tee, helped by playing a lot of his golf in the USA at college. He has gained an impressive 1.41 strokes, built by an excellent distance of 303Y, finding 68% of fairways and importantly a major or penalty miss of 3%.
James Claridge shows accuracy can still gain despite a driving distance of 287Y. James gains +0.48 strokes off the tee thanks to finding 85% of fairways, and an impressive 25Y target zone metric of 79%.
Mark Stockdale perhaps has the most potential off the tee. He loses -0.31 and ranks 6th in driving, however is 5th in distance and 3rd in accuracy whilst the major / penalty miss at 12% ranks him 10th in these destructive misses. If Mark can reduce this to below 6% and see more tee shots within a 45Y zone he would become one of the strongest drivers on the team.
Not surprisingly the bottom 3 drivers also rank in the bottom 3 in both accuracy and distance combined with having a higher Major/Penalty miss vs the team average.
These 3 players average 283Y off the tee vs a team average of 293Y and a driving accuracy of 51.5% vs the team average of 60%.
Approach
England golf have been strongest in their approach play with 6 players having a positive strokes gained and a team average of +0.35.
James Claridge leads the way with an impressive +1.80, which includes a green ratio of 74% vs a team average of 67%. He also ranks 1st in each distance range from the tee, fairway and semi rough.
As a team, from the fairway inside 150Y has been their strength with an SG / Shot of +0.07 vs 0.00 from outside of 150Y.
Interestingly 4 of the leading 5 players in scoring average also rank in the top 5 in approach play from outside 150Y. This demonstrates that whilst short irons and wedges are important the mid-long irons can be a real separator.
Thanks to strong approach play the team have kept hard misses to a minimum with an average of 8%, with only 2 players above 10%.
Short Game
Around the greens England Golf have been strong with a strokes gained of +0.11 and 7 of the 11 players have had a positive SG.
Eliot Barker has topped the list, gaining +0.35 per round which includes 51% of all shots finishing inside 6ft, and 68% of all shots inside 9ft.
What is very clear within the team is the bottom ranked 4 players who have lost strokes in their short game have all had the highest amount of ‘hard shots’ too. These 4 players averaged 35% of shots from hard positions vs the leading 7 players who averaged 16%.
A high number of hard short game shots sees a direct correlation with Strokes Gained around the green, as all 4 actually gain from easy or medium shot types but overall average -0.21 vs the other 7 players who gain +0.29.
For these players improving misses, and strategy on short par 4’s and par 5’s will significantly aid their short game, and scoring in return.
Putting
On the greens is where the team can find significant improvements with a team strokes gained of -1.30 per round. It is important to note that the raw strokes gained benchmark is based on PGA tour standard greens vs conditions in the UK and amateur events are likely on lower standard greens.
Harley Smith is ranked 1st in putting and averages -0.33, closely followed by Zachary at -0.36.
The top 3 ranked putters, Harley, Zachary and Ben are also ranked 1st in at least 1 key range inside 15ft.
Zachary is the number 1 inside 5ft with a conversion rate of 95%, Harley is the best from 5-10ft, averaging -0.03 per shot and holing 51% of putts, whilst Ben Brown ranks 1st from 10-15ft, holing 30%.
Speed control from outside of 40ft sees a good putt average (a putt that finishes within 8% of the start distance) of 51% vs a tour average of 63%. Effectively putting more pressure on their short range putting. Interestingly the two players who rank highest in this metric, are also ranked number 1 and 2 in overall putting, Harley and Zachary.