Lou Stagner's Newsletter #116

Where Your Double Come From

Author

Lou Stagner
October 10, 2025

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Weekly Quiz!

To see the correct answer, click the “CONTINUE” button at the bottom of the next page.

Good luck! 😀 

For a 10 index from 100 yards in the fairway, what percent of shots will finish MORE than 25 yards from the hole?

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Where Your Doubles Come From

Huge shoutout to my good friend Michael “Hutch” Hutchinson for the data and analysis. Hutch is the Senior Director of Data Science at Arccos and a scratch stick.

He is a MUST FOLLOW on X (twitter):
https://x.com/hutch_golf

The Data

The table above is a break down of how often players make double (or worse) when they commit one of the 5 mistakes, as well as the percent of their doubles where this mistake occurs.

The headline: As handicap rises, every mistake is more likely to become a double (or worse).

Play it smarter

  • Tee shots: Optimize for in-play, not “fairway.” Pick targets well away from penalties. Big numbers start with reloads.

  • Approaches: When there are penalty strokes in play on the approach shot, you need to be very conservative with your target.

  • Short game: Goal #1 is guaranteeing your next shot is a putt. Eliminate those double chips.

  • Putting: Spend time practicing speed control and do not neglect dialing in the speed of the greens before the round.

If you only remember three things

  1. Avoid penalties. They’re the fastest path to doubles at every level.

  2. Kill the re-chip. Sometimes a careful, boring short-game choice will save strokes.

  3. Lag like it matters. Three-putts are a growing share of doubles as handicap climbs.

Bottom line: You don’t need more birdies… you need fewer disasters.

 Finally...

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  • Listen to the “Hack it Out Golf” podcast on Apple or Spotify.

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    Have a great week!

Lou Stagner