Hitting a green in regulation - no matter your skill level - is a wonderful feeling. Striking a ball just as you had intended into the heart of the green and leaving yourself at least a birdie putt can take a lot of stress out of your game and, of course, ability to score.
And as a batch of data from Shot Scope, our official data partner, has proven, successful birdie attempts can actually be few and far between for mid-to-high handicappers.
But how many greens in regulation does your average Joseph or Josephine hit when participating in a full round? Well, using the exhaustive data from Shot Scope, we can gain a very good idea.
Let's start by defining the 'average' golfer. For the point of this article, we've taken the Shot Scope statistics for a 15-handicapper. However, in the table below we've also listed the G.I.R statistics for a range of handicaps to give you an idea of how your game might compare against other players.
A 15-handicapper, on average, hits 23% of greens in regulation over the course of a round, which is a little over four (4.14). A scratch golfer, meanwhile, hits 52% of greens in regulation. Over 18 holes, on average, that's a fraction over five more greens.
When you look at the numbers that the best players in the world are managing, it becomes clear just how accurate these golfers are, and how they're able to consistently shoot such low numbers.
If you were to look now at the G.I.R leaders on the PGA and LPGA Tours, they'd comfortably be averaging somewhere in the mid to high 70s. In other words, they're giving themselves lots of birdie chances.
More amateur golfers are starting to track their shots, which allows them to analyze their strengths and weaknesses
How Many Greens In Regulation Does An Average Golfer Hit?
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | G.I.R | Avg No. Of G.I.R Per Round |
PGA Tour Avg (2024) | 66.75 | 12.02 |
LPGA Tour Mid Ranked (2024) | 67.90 | 12.22 |
Scratch | 52% | 9.36 |
5 Handicap | 37% | 6.66 |
10 Handicap | 32% | 5.76 |
15 Handicap | 23% | 4.14 |
20 Handicap | 19% | 3.42 |
25 Handicap | 15% | 2.7 |
Source: Shot Scope
What can you take away from this? Maybe you need to find a way to improve your approach play. However, perhaps you're missing lots of greens because your driver is putting you in too much trouble off the tee, often leaving you no choice but to hack it out back onto the fairway.
Perhaps the best way to learn what you need to work on is to start tracking your shots and analyzing your data.
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