The Numbers

Phillippians 2:13 

"For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose."

Unless you live under a rock, you may have noticed something about our culture.  We are obsessed with numbers.  Just take a look around you and you'll see what I'm talking about.  Every single time any news is reported, a statistic is included.  Any time a person does something significant, it's measured and compared to someone else.  Heck, even when I post this blog I'll be able to see how many people viewed it, when they viewed, how they viewed, and what country they viewed it from.  Do you use social media? Every button you press while using it is being analyzed.  As someone who is always seeking knowledge I find this natural. In our desire to learn and understand, we analyze the numbers.  There is hardly anything I can think of in this world anymore that isn't somehow analyzed, measured, or given a quantifiable figure to define it.  We desire to understand the world we are living in and I'm no different.  I analyze the world around me constantly.  I'm not suggesting we are all like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, but it's hard for me to ignore our cultures obsession.  We measure everything, and golf is no different.  

Allow me to illustrate what I mean.

If you keep up with the golf world you've probably seen or heard some new things and words being used in the past ten years, but especially the last three to five.  Data driven golf has taken over the game, and you'd be hard pressed to find a tour professional who isn't somehow incorporating it into his game.  Let's start with the most known and popular piece of technology, a 25,000$ orange box. This orange box is called Trackman, it measures club and ball data through the hitting area of a golf shot.  It is just one of many new measuring tools being used by the best in the world. 

If you're watching on tv, trackman will produce numbers like these (left side of the screen) and another technology called pro-tracer will track the ball.

This data tracking has become so common that if you stand on a PGA Tour or European Tour range during warm-up or practice round days, you'll probably see more guys checking out their numbers than not.

It doesn't stop there.  Oh no we are only getting started! Your performance on the course is now becoming more quantifiable.  Statistical programs are being used by almost every tour professional and I'm no different.  In fact, I'm using two of them!  One is called ShotByShot and the other DECADE.  Here is a small glimpse of the numbers I'm able to gather from each.

It doesn't stop there either. Golf course management, planning, green reading, and decision making have all becoming quantifiable and measured by numbers. Here is what a PGA Tour yardage book looks like inside.

Ever wonder what the heck a tour pro may be looking at in a yardage book when he only has a eight foot putt left to finish the round? He's looking at numbers. Here's a peek at a professional greens book that many pros are using. 

I could go on and on but I imagine you get my point.  We are obsessed with measuring and counting.  Now, before you go thinking that I'm about to spit out some old-school mumbo jumbo about how this all takes away your feel and it's not natural let me stop you right there. I am a HUGE fan of all this data.  Why? 

As the old saying goes "the ball doesn't lie". 

When I analyze with numbers Ive felt it helps eliminate that odd opinion of another that could potentially lead me down the wrong road.  The numbers are non-biased, fact based, and most importantly measure everyone the same way.  I find that extremely useful. I could tell you everything from my spin loft and average attack angle on my driver in 2016 to my current make percentage in the past month from sixteen feet.  Ive used every piece of information and technology listed above and anything else I felt could make me better.  My desire to improve, gain knowledge, and compete led me to do so.

It also led me into a common trap that a lot of us fall into and one that is not new to me... 

Self - Reliance. 

I sit here writing to you in amazement of how hard this game can be.  A string of bad golf over the past few weeks combined with a recent neck issue and I'm humbled yet again.  How is it that I could be technically swinging as well as I ever have been, have more data than ever before, more experience than ever before, and struggling?  Well after beating my head against a wall I'm wondering the same thing!  So I decided to look back over some old stuff and see what I could find. I'm grateful that I made writing a habit when I was around a senior in high school, because now at times like these I can learn from where I've come from to how I've gotten to this point.  Opening up some old journals and scanning over them I didn't find and old swing thought that clicked.  There wasn't any trackman data that made me realize what's wrong.  There were some numbers though that stood out..  

When I look at that picture I don't just see dates and blog posts.  I look at my journal and ironically my personal entries seem to dip in quantity just like the above numbers do.  "So what's the point" you may be thinking. How does journal entries and blog posts lead to a higher golf score and can the two be related?

Yes they can.

2016 was my most successful year to date (in golf terms).  Through all of my struggles and battles up to that point I was consistently learning more about who I am, who God is, and growing closer to Him.  I wrote more because I was discovering good news that I needed to document and share.  However, as soon as I came across a smidge of worldly success and had more data on my hands I subtly and slowly started to change.  Within my own mind I started to justify my success not by my growing closer to God and leaning on Him while struggling uphill, I justified it with my "better technique" and "better numbers".  I started to believe I was the one who was in control and the one who was creating my own success.  I didn't do this intentionally, it slowly and subtly showed.  This realization leads me to understand something that the majority of you who read this won't like to hear (myself included often times).

WE ARE NOT THE AUTHORS OF OUR OWN SUCCESS

Now, before you click the red (x) at the top left of your screen hear me out.  

In 2005 when I began this journey in golf I was a 13 year old kid who had nothing better to do than go hit some golf shots.  I couldn't break 85 for 18 holes if you asked me and I grew up playing on a nine hole golf course that is 3000 yards if you stretch it out, with greens that run 9 on the stimp meter if you're putting downhill.  I had no AJGA membership, no professional swing coach, 6 months of play-able weather and a set of old RAM clubs with a Zebra putter.  

(I wore jeans to my first high school match)

The numbers weren't exactly in my favor and anyone with half a brain would say the percentages were against me to have any real success in competitive golf.  I'll tell you what the numbers couldn't measure though...

IMMEASURABLE

UNQUANTIFIABLE

INTANGIBLE

perfect will from a GOD who is

IMMEASURABLE 

UNQUANTIFIABLE

& INTANGIBLE

If you want to believe you are the author of your own success I'm not going to stop you.  You go right on believing you're the captain of your own ship and calculating the numbers to your destination.  I'm going to stick with the Captain who took the 13 year old kid with old RAM clubs to a state championship, multiple collegiate wins, the Mackenzie Tour and the Web.Com Tour, and three different countries all while chasing the same ball he used to chase around the 3000 yard nine hole golf course in rural Iowa.  The Captain of my ship defies the numbers, and when I look back I am in awe of it all.

The odds are you probably don't live under a rock and yes, you've probably seen how numbers obessesed our culture is.  However, you are living on a rock that's floating and spinning in space. I wonder what the odds, percentages, and numbers are on that?