🚨New Data on RickRunGood

📢 Fore, Please…

For the last year, I’ve been rebuilding my entire database. I’ve been tearing everything down to the studs and building it back up, shot-by-shot. I did this for a few reasons:

1) When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but now I have a slightly better idea.

2) I needed the ability for all my data sources to “talk to one another”. This is a global game and the data comes in from a variety of sources in a variety of formats that need to be cleaned and connected.

3) I wanted to be able to calculate (and invent!) new stats myself. Having everything broken down to the raw shot-by-shot information will allow me to do anything … in theory.

4) I think it’s cool.

You are going to see lots of new stats, features, and models over the course of the new few weeks and months. Today, I am launching the first salvo into that mission:

🎯 Radar Data.
🔗Link: https://rickrungood.com/pga-pro-tools/radar/

Details on this release below ⬇️

📝 Something To Note

This release is data that falls under the “Radar” category of ShotLink. These are shots that need to be measured by some type of launch monitor (Trackman) which are then passed along to me.

I am considering this tool in beta. If you think something isn’t working as intended, don’t hesitate to let me know. It may run slower than other tools (there’s a ton of data in there!). After a bit of time making sure everything is running properly, these new metrics will be added to the Custom Model for your use but I’m holding them back for now.

 🫠 Shot Shapes

Over the years, adding shot shapes has always been a target of mine but the data hasn’t been complete enough. Those days are now behind us.

On each player tab, you’re able to visualize the “9 Windows” which was a drill that Tiger Woods made famous. This shows you the shot shapes (right to left, straight, left to right) combined with the trajectory (low, middle, high) for all drives that a golfer hits in a season. For example, Scottie Scheffler (above) varies his trajectory quite a bit, but heavily favors a left to right shot.

Rory McIlroy (above) often works the ball in both direction off-the-tee but only hits higher draws. He will rarely go low with a draw (at least on purpose). Jake Knapp (below) loves to keep the ball close to the ground and hits 60% of his drives that would be considered “low” on TOUR.

🔢 More Advanced Data (Ball Speed, Apex, Launch Angle)

You’re going to hear me reference the advanced metrics like ball speed and club speed much more frequently. These types of stats do a really good job of stripping out all the variables in golf, which is a game with millions of variables.

For example, using driving distance as a comparative metric is nuanced. How firm was the golf course? What was the shape and undulation of the hole? What altitude were they playing? Was the wind helping or hurting? What was the temperature? I could go on for days.

But ball speed and club speed are quite pure. How much power did the golfer impart on the club and how did that impact the middle for the millisecond it was on the club face? That’s it. It’s not impacted by wind or course or anything else. It’s a much better way of comparing golfers. Similar to how Strokes Gained Putting is superior to Putts Per Round.

Launch Angle, Apex High, Spin Rates, Curve (and others) are all be included in this update.

🎖️ Leaderboards

Not only can you deep-dive each golfer but you can also view the leaderboard. I thought this was critical so that you could compare golfers across the TOUR or across a specific field.

Alejandro Tosti sports a 183 MPH ball speed that launches barely over 6°. That’s insane! Michael Thorbjornsen has a similar speed but launches it nearly twice as high (11.68°).

When a golf course has 12 dogleg lefts, you’ll be happy to find out that Akshay Bhatia hits 84% of hits shots from right to left, the highest rate on TOUR.

If you’re seen enough and want to get your hands on this, the new Radar Tool is live right now on my website.

🔗Link: https://rickrungood.com/pga-pro-tools/radar/

🫵 Now It’s Your Turn

The #1 reason for me to rebuild the database was for innovation. Now that I have most everything on a shot-by-shot basis, there are no boundaries. Anything can be calculated. So this is where you come in.

Have you ever wanted to invent a stat?
Is there something you’ve been dying to see on RickRunGood.com?

Maybe you want to know how golfers fare on par putts from 8-10’ — that’s possible now!
Maybe you want to see the SG: Off-the-Tee numbers for holes with water on the left — sure thing!

It’s time to speak up.

Reply to this email with your thoughts, ideas, and feedback. I might not be able to respond to all of them, but I will collect all the responses and use them to inform decisions moving forward.

As always, thank you.

Rick