Simple maths opens eyes of pros to where real value lies

In March of this year in one of the smaller rooms at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center, two men stood on stage.

One was Sean Foley, golf coach to Tiger Woods; he stood a little way back as the other led the presentation to the 2014 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. That other gentleman’s name was Mark Broadie and his ideas have changed the way in which coaches and players are analysing the game of golf.

At its core, golf is a remarkably simple game. From an agreed starting point, one tries to get a small ball into a hole by striking it with an assortment of oddly-shaped sticks as few times as possible. With a simple game came simple measures of effectiveness: fairways, greens and putts. So, if Alice took 26 putts for a round while Bob took 28, golf would decree Alice to have been the better putter.