Great news, Shot Pattern users! Your stats are now available in a detailed PDF report format.
The report is incredibly detailed and gives you tremendous data about your game. If you’ve been tracking every round in Shot Pattern, you’re going to be excited by this reward! If you haven’t started tracking your rounds yet and want a sneak peak at all the report has to offer, you can see an example report below:
Building Your Golf Improvement Plan with AI
I’m using AI all the time for building Shot Pattern, business, and several other life tasks. However, I’ve always found that it struggled to really nail the output when it came to giving more than generic golf advice.
With the advances in AI, and the detail in this report, that’s no longer the case. I think most golfers can get tremendous guidance from AI, but there are a few critical details to be aware of in order to make sure you’re getting accurate, trustworthy responses.
1. Upload the most detailed data you have.
A generic dashboard with fairways, greens, and putts doesn’t provide near enough detail. You’ll get absolutely nothing of use if those are the only stats you have. Even screenshots with the “Big 4” strokes gained categories or your “Tiger 5” score killers don't dig deep enough to get to the “why” behind the “what”.
This is where the new PDF report takes things to the next level. There’s more data here than most people care to parse through. However, it’s this kind of data that the AI tools thrive upon and can help you make sense of.
Pro tip: The report pulls from the filters you have set before you hit the export button. I suggest toggling to your “Last 20” rounds. I also set my report to 18-hole rounds only.
2. Benchmarks are crucial for context
“Help me get to scratch” means absolutely nothing unless the AI tool has context as to how a scratch golfer performs. Even telling the LLM to “Act like an expert golf coach” isn’t near enough guidance to make sure it has the context it needs to provide good recommendations. You need real data.
Your Shot Pattern report contains benchmarks on driving distance, accuracy, approach performance, short game proximity, putting make rates, and more. Without these benchmarks, AI is mostly guessing how far you are from where you need to be.
3. Ask for prioritization, not “tips”
A great prompt would say: “Identify my three highest-leverage opportunities. Show me the data supporting each one, separate skill problems from strategy problems, and give me a practice and on-course plan.” That skill-versus-strategy distinction is huge. Shot Pattern can even identify shots that were inside a player's normal dispersion but still found a penalty—suggesting the problem may have been aim or club selection, not execution.
4. Make the tool state its confidence
Tell it: “Don't guess. Cite the stats you're relying on, consider sample size, distinguish facts from inferences, and tell me when the data isn't sufficient.” That's one of the easiest ways to make an AI-generated improvement plan more trustworthy. Stats can tell me that putting or approach play needs work; they generally cannot, by themselves, tell me what mechanical swing flaw caused it.
5. Use a powerful model
I used ChatGPT 5.6-Sol cranked up to Pro to get what I considered terrific output. I’d encourage you to use a powerful model to get the best output. This isn't because the arithmetic is difficult; it's because you want the model to connect dozens of statistics, weigh sample sizes, distinguish correlation from likely causes, and prioritize competing opportunities. A quick-response mode is fine for “summarize my stats.” For “build me the best plan to lower my handicap,” give it more reasoning time.
Those are the keys! In working with golfers the biggest mistakes I’ve seen have been relative to #’s 1 and 2. You have to have great data, and you have to provide the right benchmarks. I’m really excited by the possibilities here. Expect more from Shot Pattern in this direction soon.
Have you been using AI with your Shot Pattern stats to help improve your game? I’d love to hear what you’re doing and how you’re using different AI tools!
