How do you really compare to other golfers?
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In our biggest questions answered series, we crunched the numbers to find out just how often you should get up and down or hit greens in regulation depending on your handicap
What’s the best part of your game? You might knock it past your partners on a regular basis, or be deadly from six feet… but how do you know whether you’re better or worse than players of a similar handicap?
Thanks to shot- tracking gadget Game Golf, which now has more than 1.7 million rounds of golf tracked on its system, we can reveal exactly how YOUR game compares to that of thousands of other golfers within the same handicap range. Game Golf calls them “benchmarks”, and it means you can find out your strengths and weaknesses against thousands of other golfers.
Why is it useful? Well, if you’re well below average when it comes to putting, sand saves or hitting greens, you can do something about it. You can spend more time practising the things you now know you should improve.
That’s exactly what the world’s best players do, using stats to shape their practice. Dustin Johnson used to be below average from inside 100 yards, but, according to coach Claude Harmon, he’s “worked his butt off” with a launch monitor to hone his wedge game and climb to the top of the world rankings.
So how do you compare to others with your handicap?
Getting up and down from the sand
Scratch: 63%
5 handicap: 57%
10 handicap: 24%
15 handicap: 17%
20 handicap: 9%
28 handicap: 3%
Getting up and down
Scratch: 59%
5 handicap: 44%
10 handicap: 22%
15 handicap: 15%
20 handicap: 10%
28 handicap: 5%
How many putts should I really take on each hole?
Scratch: 1.6 putts per green
5 handicap: 1.72 putts per green
10 handicap: 1.87 putts per green
15 handicap: 1.93 putts per green
20 handicap: 2.01 putts per green
28 handicap: 2.13 putts per green
Hitting the green in regulation
Scratch: 69%
5 handicap: 62%
10 handicap: 41%
15 handicap: 31%
20 handicap: 23%
28 handicap: 14%
Finding the fairway with a driver
Scratch 56% (average distance 250 yards)
5 handicap 53% (average distance 249 yards)
10 handicap 48% (average distance 222 yards)
15 handicap 45% (average distance 208 yards)
20 handicap 43% (average distance 196 yards)
28 handicap 41% (average distance 171 yards)
