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Golfstat
Founded by Mark Laesch
About Golfstat
Mark Laesch Portrait
Mark Laesch
Golfstat Founder

Golfstat History

Golfstat was started in 1984 as a name I gave a program that I wrote to keep my own golf statistics. A friend of mine suggested that Illinois State University (a local school) might be interested in keeping statistics for their players the same way I was (I kept a lot of negative statistics). They used the service and liked it. I remember the first year I charged them 25 cents a round.

The next year I sent out about 100 letters to other schools, but I only got one other school to sign up. However, that school was Oklahoma State, and when they won the National Championship a couple of years later, I was off and running in the statistics business on both the Men's and Women's sides.

Then in 1989, the NCAA Women were having problems with an outside firm they had hired to do their computer rankings. Some of the coaches who were using our statistics talked the NCAA into letting me have a chance at solving the problems they were having. I put together a system that worked flawlessly and I was off and running in that direction also. In 1992, the NCAA Men allowed me to start doing the same thing and we have proceeded to grow from that point.

What Does Golfstat Do?

For College Golf Programs:

  • Hired by the NCAA to administer the computer Ratings and Rankings used by the NCAA Championship selection committees for all divisions of NCAA Men's and Women's Golf.
  • Serves as Official Scorer for all NCAA Championships.
  • Hired by the NAIA to administer the computer Ratings and Rankings used by the NAIA Championship selection committees for NAIA Men's and Women's Golf.
  • Hired by the NJCAA to administer computer Ratings and Rankings for NJCAA Men and Women.
  • Developed and provides FREE Tournament Software for College Golf Tournaments.
  • Award the Golfstat Cup to the Men's and Women's Collegiate Golfer with the lowest yearly adjusted scoring average.
  • Provide statistical services and software for Men's and Women's College Golf Programs.
  • Provide information for both the GCAA and the NGCA to help select their All-Americans and Players of the Year.
  • Developed and provides Live Scoring for 200 Top Collegiate events each season.
  • Provides additonal Live Scoring services including action photo galleries, video clips, and player and coach interviews that are shown on Golfstat.com.
  • Present the Golfstat Statistical Awards to Teams and Players in the following categories: Par 3 Scoring, Par 4 Scoring, Par 5 Scoring, Putts on GIR, Greens in Regulation, Fairways Hit, Subpar Strokes per Round, and Total Short Game success.

For Juniors:

  • Offer the PREP Report for high school and junior golfers interested in playing at the next level. PING sponsors this report for all AJGA Members.
  • Within the PREP Report, created the Interactive Score Conversion that allows Junior players to match their talents to actual tournaments played in College Golf by using Golfstat's Adjusted Scoring average formula.

For College Golf Fans:

  • Offer the Family, Alumni, Friends Report (FAF) for those interested in following their favorite College Team or Player.

For Other Golf Related Organizations:

  • Official Scorer at 1998-2010 World Amateur Team Championships throughout the World.

  • Provides Live Scoring for Major Amateur events throughout the World.

  • Provide background information and scoring for College Golf Television and Webcasts.

  • Created and provide the statistical information used by Golf World magazine in their College Golf Poll Section.

  • Written scoring software for USGA tournaments.

  • Wrote the first points system software for the AJGA.

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