How Many Greens In Regulation Should You Be Hitting Based On Your Handicap?

What exactly is a Green-in-Regulation (GIR)?

This may seem like a silly question. It certainly did to me until I recently met with two of my long-time clients — prominent golf instructors — and learned that they both (independently of each other) had been coaching their elite juniors that a GIR meant that an approach shot was successful. REALLY guys?

To be clear, a GIR is a ball reaching the putting surface in two or more strokes less than par, regardless of how it gets there. A few examples of GIR’s:

• A Par 5 green reached in two shots.
• A Par 5 missed in two but the short game shot hit on the green in three.
• A Par 4 green driven or reached in one or two shots.
• A Par 3 tee shot that comes to rest on the green.

How do I know the Number of GIR’s players should hit?

I developed ShotByShot.com, a Strokes-Gained analysis website.  We have been providing Strokes Gained analysis to players at all levels of the game since 1992,  collecting more than 320,000 rounds from thousands of players in the process.

What is so important about GIR’s?

In my opinion, GIR’s is the most important of the Old School, one-dimensional traditional stats. ShotByShot.com replaced these dinosaur stats with a more dynamic and informative analysis methodology – now known as Strokes Gained.  Those that have read my previous articles or visited my website will know these old stats as:

• Fairways Hit
• Sand Saves
• # Putts
• # Putts per GIR

In the ShotByShot.com program, Fairways Hit has been retained, but augmented by five categories of the severity of the fairways missed. (See my recent article explaining this further: How valuable is hitting fairways, really?) I kept GIR’s as they are an important positive in the game. First, it is an accomplishment to have been efficient enough to reach the green in regulation.  Second, is always represents some sort of a birdie opportunity.

The Numbers?

The GIR numbers below represent the number hit by each handicap group in the rounds when they play to their handicap, or the BEST 10 of their most recent 20 rounds. In other words, if you strive to get to Scratch (0 handicap), your best rounds should average about 12 GIR’s.

Finally, you might ask how could the 0-2 handicap group hit virtually the same Number of GIR’s as the PGA Tour average?  Here are a few reasons:

• The dramatic difference in the length of the courses played by the pros vs. amateurs.
• Pros tend to attack pins looking for birdies while amateurs learn to excel through consistency.

For a complete analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your game, log onto ShotByShot.com.