Fairways in Regulation (FIR) is a stat that golfers have kept forever. Did you know, however, that FIR does not correlate well to scoring? That’s because it is entirely possible to miss every fairway by just a few feet and still have a good chance to hit the green or advance the ball properly down the fairway. The FIR stat does not differentiate between those ‘little’ misses and the ‘big’ misses that really impact scoring, like hitting it OB or in the bushes. Both ‘big’ and ‘little’ misses are still considered missed fairways and are treated equally, which really doesn’t help the average golfer understand or track what is really causing them to lose shots off the tee.
In our Golfing Analytics app, we resolve this issue by tracking ‘Good Enough’ tee shots, which are ones that either hit the fairway or end up in the light rough, but still give you an open look for hitting your next shot. The more drives that you hit like that, the better your chance to shoot lower scores, which is ‘Good Enough’ for the average golfer.
