Your ranking has two parts you can trust today and two you can't yet. The top is solid. The bottom is solid. The two in the middle are close, and close is where a few rounds can fool you.
Here's why. A 15 handicap three putts about twice a round on average (Shot Scope data via MyGolfSpy, 2025). But that's an average. One round it's zero. The next it's four. Five numbers from your last few rounds can find a big leak, because a big leak shows up every round. They cannot separate two parts of your game that are a stroke apart.
Even the pros can't. On Tour, every shot is measured by laser. A 2025 study from Wharton looked at 553 player seasons. It found driving skill the data could tell apart from luck in 259 of them. Approach skill in 72. Putting skill in 3 (Brill and Wyner, 2025). The authors wrote that putting "appears nearly indistinguishable from noise." Mark Broadie told Golf Digest the number of measured rounds "has a big impact" on how any golf stat should be read (Golf Digest, 2018).
So if a full season of lasers can't settle a Tour player's putting, your last four rounds can't settle your middle two.
Trust the Ends
- Act on the top now. That is where this week's practice goes.
- Leave the bottom alone. It is your strength. It does not need your two hours.
- Hold the middle loosely. Don't move anything up or down until more rounds say so. Putting moves last, because it is the noisiest.
My own rule, from my own stats and the golfers I've worked with: three rounds to act on your biggest leak, ten to trust the full order. Those are my numbers, not a study's. Lesson 7 comes back to them.
The check
The tracker card is four boxes a hole, one for each part of your game. Eighteen holes, 72 ticks. After three rounds it shows your order from real shots instead of from memory. Print it, fold it, and put it with your scorecard.
The fastest way to run the same check is to log your rounds in the app. Logging takes about 30 seconds a hole. Three logged rounds is one of the app's three setup inputs, and once you've logged three, the app ranks your game from real shots.
Your one action this week
Mark the top and bottom of your ranking. Those two are settled. Then fill in the tracker card on your next round, or log the round in the app.
No round coming until spring? Don't try to settle the middle now. Give your practice to the top leak. The middle can wait. That is why it's the middle.
Mark the ends
Tap your four parts in Leak Rank order. Biggest leak first.
No ranking yet? Get it in 2 minutes.
3 more logged rounds to act on your biggest leak from real shots.
Kept on this phone. Change it any time.
Log 3 rounds and the app ranks your game from real shots. 30 days free at app.playready.golf. Code COURSE20 takes $20 off the annual plan, every year. Start free.
Tomorrow: we go to the course. Where your doubles start, and the one number to write on your card before the round.