How hard is it to become a scratch golfer? These crazy stats offer hope!
Lou Stagner writes on X as the Golf Stat Pro and he recently discussed the bewildering difference between perceptions of scratch golfers and the reality.
His point was that so many handicap golfers are absolutely convinced that a scratch golfer does everything so well – and so much better than they do.
But the truth is that scratch golfers are far from perfect.
Being introduced to this reality can be quite freeing and set us up to make small improvements to our own game – perhaps not necessarily helping us ultimately become scratch golfers but you never know!
Of the 68 million golfers in the world, fewer than 1% are scratch. They aren’t superhuman.
This mega-thread of scratch stats will SHOCK you and reset your expectations.
BOOKMARK THIS THREAD!
Revisit when you feel bad about golf!— Lou Stagner (Golf Stat Pro) (@LouStagner) October 25, 2024
Here are the pick of Lou’s revelations:
Number one: “They average 2.2 birdies per round. That’s it. They aren’t scratch because they make a lot of birds.”
Number two: “They average about 260 yards with driver. They are not carrying every tee shot 300+.”
Number three: “They hit about 50% of fairways. They are not stripe machines that never miss a fairway.”
Number four: “They average about 10 greens in regulation per round. They miss nearly half the greens!”
Number five: “From 110 yards in the fairway, they are getting it up and down about 1 out of 10 times. They are not stuffing it close and making bird every time with a wedge!”
Number six: “From 122 yards in the fairway … they are more likely to hit it outside 30 feet than inside 30 feet!”
Number seven: “They do NOT have a scoring average of even par. A scratch player … playing a par 72 … with a 71.5 course rating … and a 131 slope rating … will have a scoring average of about 75 over their last 20 rounds.”
Number eight: “Average proximity from 90 yards in the fairway is ~26 feet. They are not hitting everything inside 10 feet!”
The lessons to be learned here are simple but profound.
Getting a new driver for Christmas is a really good idea but you don’t have to pound it and you don’t have to obsess about being arrow straight. Hit it well and concentrate on a little more distance than accuracy.
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Don’t fret if you miss the greens. Good golfers miss half of them so take the hint – get a new wedge and practice around the greens with it.
TaylorMade Pitching wedge – BUY HERE
And with shortish approaches don’t over-inflate how close a good golfer hits it.
READ MORE: Get a grip! Why amateur golfers need to change their grips more often