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🏌️‍♂️ What Golf Taught Me About Data Analytics?

Jeremy Poon
Apr 1
2 min read

By Jeremy Poon, Senior Consultant and Golf Enthusiast

When I’m not conducting training on data analytics, you’ll likely find me on the golf course, chasing a little white ball.

Oddly enough, I’ve found that golf and data analytics share surprising similarities. Both are games of patience, precision, and strategy—and both are most rewarding when you master the follow-through.

Let’s walk the fairway together through the 6 steps of the analytics journey.

⛳ Step 1: Define the Problem – Where’s the Hole?

Every hole on the course begins with one question: Where do I need to go?

Analytics is no different. Before we dig into data, we need to ask: What problem are we solving?

Without a clear goal, you're just swinging in the dark.

💭 Step 2: Develop Hypotheses – What Might Be in the Way?

In golf, you scan the course. Trees on the left. A bunker near the green. Wind in your face.

In analytics, we build hypotheses—ideas about what might be causing the issue.

A good hypothesis is like knowing the wind direction—it guides every move after.

📥 Step 3: Collect & Process Data – Gathering the Gear

Just like gathering your clubs, you need the right data—cleaned, sorted, and ready to go.

Messy data is like using a driver on the putting green—it just doesn’t work.

📊 Step 4: Analyze – Taking the Swing

This is where the action begins.

In analytics, this means exploring the data, testing relationships, and looking for patterns that support (or challenge) your hypothesis.

A careful swing avoids the rough. So does thoughtful analysis.

🧠 Step 5: Interpret Results – Reading the Green

You've reached the green. Now it's about understanding what you see.

Interpretation brings out the meaning behind the numbers. It connects insights to decisions.

Insights without interpretation? That’s like guessing the break on a putt.

🎯 Step 6: Communicate & Influence – Sinking the Putt

The final putt wins the game—and in analytics, that means telling a compelling data story that others can act on.

This is where you become changemakers.

🎉 Join FYT’s Inaugural In-Person Data Storytelling Workshop!

If Step 5 and Step 6 are where your data game needs polish, join me for FYT’s first-ever organised by FYT Consulting, in-person workshop on Data Storytelling, hosted in a lovely Singapore hotel. Promotion ending soon!

🎁 What’s Included: