009: Will Knauth – Using Math to Improve Strategy, How to Gain Speed Efficiently

The Tournament Code

Will Knauth (@freewilllyyyy) talks about how he has used his knowledge of math and statistics to go from a 76.2 stroke average as a freshman to a 71 stroke average senior year. Will just finished playing college golf at Carnegie Mellon, where he double majored in physics and math. Will also won twice in that senior year and was the recipient of the Byron Nelson Award. Currently, Will is a graduate student at Columbia University pursuing a Ph.D. in statistics. On top of that, Will has developed several machine learning tools in order to analyze golf strategy better.

Will's appearance on the D3 Golf Guys podcast can be found here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/33ImXNmq2kXB3aK5D6IylF

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(01:26) – Will’s entry into competitive golf

(06:08) – how to be comfortable in a competitive round

(12:18) – tournament week post-round routine

(16:11) – engaging with Scott Fawcett

(20:26) – the math behind Bryson’s U.S. Open win

(27:33) – feeling dejected during a bad round

(30:03) – winning for the first time in college

(33:47) – finding a new putter

(36:07) - working on the golf swing

(44:02) – speed training over the winter

(50:30) – learning from nerves in tournament golf

(1:02:02) – thinking about numbers in a round

(1:08:05) - what Will would tell himself as a junior golfer