I gotta know if you are you surprised by the data?

This is the most complete breakdown ever of how far amateurs ACTUALLY hit driver.

No guesses. No range balls. Just cold, hard on-course data.

Let’s get into it:
🧵👇 Every year, Arccos drops the gold standard in amateur driving data.

Not range guesses. Not “I think I hit it 270.”

Shot-by-shot, on-course data. The 2025 edition is here, and it breaks it down by age, gender, and handicap.

Can a 10 index win one hole against prime Tiger Woods?

Let's run the numbers.
🧵👇 First, let's look at prime Tiger.

These numbers are from his 2000 season.
(20 events played, 9 wins, 17 top 10s)

They show what percent of the time he made each score.

Most golfers are delusional about what a ‘good round’ looks like...

... and it’s killing their game.

Let’s fix that.
🧵🧵🧵👇👇👇 This data is from real rounds, on real courses (the kind most of us play):

Par 72
Course rating: 71.0–71.9
Slope: 127–134
Yardage: 6100–6550 yards

AKA: your typical Saturday setup for many of us.

Do you want better mobility?

Stuck behind a desk all day, just like me?

This full-body mobility routine is transforming my golf swing (and my life)!

BOOKMARK this thread (it's gold).
🧵👇 About 6 weeks ago I reached out to my buddy @JGGolfFitness and asked him to put together a full body mobility routine for me.

Please stop right and give Jamie a follow! You'll love his content.

What’s your anti-cap?

🧵👇 Ever have a day where nothing goes right on the course?
Everyone does!

But how much worse are your bad rounds compared to your usual?

That’s where anti-cap comes in.

How I use a green book and putting chart to read putts.

QUICKLY and ACCURATELY.

🧵👇 It starts on the approach shot.

If you are playing with a pin sheet, get the hole location and take a quick look at the contours on and around the green.

Stop counting greens in regulation.

Start counting this stat instead.

GIR+1 might be your key to lower scores!
🧵👇 What's GIR+1?

Simple: You're on the green putting for no worse than par.

Par 3: On in 2 or better
Par 4: On in 3 or better
Par 5: On in 4 or better

I posted about the betting game wolf yesterday and a TON of players reached out asking how to play. This is my favorite game!

Here are the details, with a bunch of variations at the end.

If you play wolf and have different rules/variations, post them below!

🧵👇 Players Needed:
Best with 4 players.

Objective:
To win the most points by playing as either a Lone Wolf or as part of a team during each hole.

Is this you? ⛳️

"Hey Lou, I don't have time to get to scratch. I want to be a single digit that has a chance to break 80."

This mega-thread of 9 index stats will SURPRISE you.

BOOKMARK THIS THREAD!
Revisit for inspiration!
🧵👇 They average 0.8 birdies per round.

Yep - less than one bird per round!

Of the 68 million golfers in the world, fewer than 1% are scratch. They aren’t superhuman.

This mega-thread of scratch stats will SHOCK you and reset your expectations.

BOOKMARK THIS THREAD!
Revisit when you feel bad about golf!

🧵👇 They average 2.2 birdies per round.

That's it. They aren't scratch because they make a lot of birds.

What does the data say about grip pressure?

Let’s dive into a fascinating study that will help your swing:

🧵👇 A study by Liam Mucklow, Carson Hau, and Jonathon Collins looked at how different golfers...

...high handicappers, slicers, hookers, and pros...

...apply grip pressure during the swing.

What they found could help your game!

Some of my favorite Tiger Woods stats.

Prepare to have your eyelids blown back.

🤯🤯🤯 Tiger from 1999 to 2009:

Percent of events he won:
➡️34%

Percent of events he finished 9th or worse:
➡️32%

Over a 10-year stretch, Tiger was more likely to win than finish 9th or worse.

🚨 Want to drop 5 shots off your golf game? 🚨

It's all about understanding where you can improve.

Here's the breakdown of skill differences between different handicaps and how you should think about focusing your efforts:

🧵👇 The difference between a 10 index and a 5 index is 5 shots.

But where do these shots come from?

Let's break it down:

Here is a thread of the green contours for every hole at Pinehurst. (The slopes are WILD)

Bookmark this so you can refer to it while watching the broadcast this weekend.

I have roughly marked out round 3 hole locations.

These images are from @StrackaLine green books. You can use code DATALOU15 to save 15% at StrackaLine.

Hole 1 Hole 2

What are your chances to get up and down from a given distance?

Let's break it down by skill level and see what we can learn.

👇👇👇 The table below shows the chances of getting the ball in the hole from the fairway.

For each handicap index, there are three columns:

▶️Chances of getting the ball in the hole in 2 shots
▶️Chances of getting the ball in the hole in 4 shots
▶️Chances of getting the ball in the hole in 5 shots

Don't try and gain distance because “the woods are full of long hitters!”.

Is it true?

Does gaining distance really make you less accurate?

This thread has all the details.
👇👇👇 This is all from @ArccosGolf database.

For a golfer to be included:

Had to hit at least 200 drivers each year and they increased their median driving distance by at least 5% year-over-year.

Thousands of golfers met this criteria.

Let’s look at the results.

"Your worst putt is better than your worst chip!"

We've all heard it. But is it true?

Let's dive into the data and find out. 🏌️‍♂️

A thread on the "Texas Wedge" 👇👇👇 I analyzed shots from the fairway from two distances:

▶️12 yards (36 feet)
▶️20 yards (60 feet)

The results are fascinating. 📊

A mega-thread of stats from @ArccosGolf

🧵🧵🧵 If you have a median distance with driver of 284 yards, you are longer than 99.7% of the male amateurs that play the game.

"I think making guys hit some long irons again, and some mid irons, and being able to hit every club in your bag in a round of golf. I can't remember the last time when I've had to do that."

- Rory McIlroy

Is Rory right? Does he never hit every club?

Let's check the data. 👇 I looked at Rory's rounds from 2021 to 2023.

I looked at his tee shots on par 3s, and second shots on par 4s and 5s.

I created seven distance buckets:
➡️100 to 124 yards
➡️125 to 149
➡️150 to 174
➡️175 to 199
➡️200 to 224
➡️225 to 249
➡️250+

My putting studio is finally done!

The platform is 16 feet by 4 feet and adjustable.

I might never leave.

See you in a few weeks. Maybe. Details on the platform.

This is a torsion box. Video link below on how to make one.

I used 3.5 inch mdf molding for the honeycomb and baltic birch plywood for the skins.

Everything was glued with liquid nails and screwed.

Torsion box video tinyurl.com/mr4bh964… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

"More and more land" is NOT being gobbled for tee boxes as suggested below.

Report # 33 in the USGA Distance Insight Project studies this.

When you remove courses from the study that added land because of a new range, there was an avg DECREASE in land use of 1.2 acres.

🧵

https://twitter.com/NoLayingUp/status/1636753549546643458