The Percentage Error Golf Game (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Percentage Error Golf Game (Video) - by Pete Styles

The Percentage Error Golf Game is a great way of practicing when you are on the driving range to give you instant feedback over the quality and the success level of your shots. So what we're going to suggest you do here is hit a series of shots to a flag, make sure you know a good distance for how far that flag is away, let's say, it’s 100 yards away, we are going to hit a series of 100 yard shots towards the flag. Then look at the average of how far away that shot is from your intended target and work out that in terms of a percentage of the distance. So if it’s a 100 yard shot, and my average distance is 10 yards away, I would say my percentage error is 10%, I am 10% away from the flag. If I've got a 200 yard shot and I hit the ball 10 yards away again, I am only 5% away from the flag, so that instantly I have got a percentage error how far away I am from the flag.

What we can then do is suggest where you should be for certain handicap brackets. Now some people would suggest that your handicap should be your percentage error. So if you are a 10 handicapper, you should be content with 10% margin of error. If you are a 20 handicapper, would give you a 20% margin of error. And that principle works out okay, works out quite nicely, apart from it’s a bit cruel on the really good golfers. So the scratch golfer, he is not allowed to miss the flag at all, or the one handicap golfer he is only allowed a 1% margin of error. So on those guys, it’s a bit tight because actually those guys the reason why they are so good not necessarily because they are straighter or more accurate than the higher handicap golfer, but they improve a lot on that putting and that chipping and they are going to save shots around the green quite often. So we might suggest we will put it into handicap brackets. So from a zero to a 10 handicap, ideally you want to try and aim for a 5% margin of error. From a 10 to a 20% – 10 to 20 handicap; you are going to be in the 10% margin of error and then from a 20 handicap and above you are in a 20% margin of error. That's just a rough guideline. But clearly the lower percentage of error you could have, the better you are going to be. So you could even take this down to a chip shot, little 50-yard shot how close do I want to be there? Well, a 50-yard shot, you hit a 20 yards away, that's not good. You want to be within 5 yards, 10 yards maximum. But a 200-yard tee shot, if you hit that 20 yards away well that would be quite good because that's only 10%. So hit different distances, hit different shots, work out the percentage error and then see whether that equates to your handicap, bring the percentage error down, you will bring your handicap down for sure. 2015-07-07

The Percentage Error Golf Game is a great way of practicing when you are on the driving range to give you instant feedback over the quality and the success level of your shots. So what we're going to suggest you do here is hit a series of shots to a flag, make sure you know a good distance for how far that flag is away, let's say, it’s 100 yards away, we are going to hit a series of 100 yard shots towards the flag. Then look at the average of how far away that shot is from your intended target and work out that in terms of a percentage of the distance. So if it’s a 100 yard shot, and my average distance is 10 yards away, I would say my percentage error is 10%, I am 10% away from the flag. If I've got a 200 yard shot and I hit the ball 10 yards away again, I am only 5% away from the flag, so that instantly I have got a percentage error how far away I am from the flag.

What we can then do is suggest where you should be for certain handicap brackets. Now some people would suggest that your handicap should be your percentage error. So if you are a 10 handicapper, you should be content with 10% margin of error. If you are a 20 handicapper, would give you a 20% margin of error. And that principle works out okay, works out quite nicely, apart from it’s a bit cruel on the really good golfers. So the scratch golfer, he is not allowed to miss the flag at all, or the one handicap golfer he is only allowed a 1% margin of error. So on those guys, it’s a bit tight because actually those guys the reason why they are so good not necessarily because they are straighter or more accurate than the higher handicap golfer, but they improve a lot on that putting and that chipping and they are going to save shots around the green quite often.

So we might suggest we will put it into handicap brackets. So from a zero to a 10 handicap, ideally you want to try and aim for a 5% margin of error. From a 10 to a 20% – 10 to 20 handicap; you are going to be in the 10% margin of error and then from a 20 handicap and above you are in a 20% margin of error. That's just a rough guideline. But clearly the lower percentage of error you could have, the better you are going to be.

So you could even take this down to a chip shot, little 50-yard shot how close do I want to be there? Well, a 50-yard shot, you hit a 20 yards away, that's not good. You want to be within 5 yards, 10 yards maximum. But a 200-yard tee shot, if you hit that 20 yards away well that would be quite good because that's only 10%. So hit different distances, hit different shots, work out the percentage error and then see whether that equates to your handicap, bring the percentage error down, you will bring your handicap down for sure.