Watch Your Handicap Plummet by Tracking These 3 Stats (But Not This Other One)

Stat #1: Greens in Regulation
Hitting more greens is the fastest way to drop scores!

Here’s a breakdown of handicaps and the number of greens per round they hit on average. Notice anything? The correltation couldn’t be more clear- hit more greens, shoot lower scores. Even if you consistently leave yourself lengthy 30-40 foot putts again and again, it doesn’t matter. If you are on the green in regulation, it’s going to be significantly easier to hole out in 2 strokes or less than if you’re anywhere off the green.

Next time you’re out there, don’t get sucked into flag hunting at tucked pins. Simply aim for the safest part of the green and it’s pretty much a guarantee you’ll see your scores plummet.

Stat #2: Putts Per Round x 1st Putt Distance
The Putter is the Equivalent of a Closer in Baseball

The putter is the equivalent of a 9th inning closer in baseball. If you have a good pitcher in the closing role, you’ll win a lot of games. If they’re a little shaky, well it could be a long season. All of the great work you do to get yourself in a good position for a score of par or better could be for naught. Keeping track of your putts can uncover a number of things, but perhaps the biggest one is 3-putt avoidance. In your last round, do you know how many times you 3-jacked? If than number was more than one, that’s too many times. 

In the graphic below, the average number of 3-putts per round is crossed with handicap levels and as you could have guessed, there’s a direct correlation.

To go a level deeper, start tracking your 1st putt distance, as well (also known as approach shot proximity). If you have too many putts per round (perhaps 34+, on average), you might be leaving yourself too many long putts on the green. This information can tell you if you need to work on your lag putting, or conversely, your wedge play. In the end, it’s all intertwined.

By tracking 1st putt distance, you can also cross-reference how many times you 1-putt, 2-putt or 3-putt from different distance intervals. If you notice that you rarely ever 1-putt from inside 6 feet, well perhaps you need to put in some some short putt consistency practice. Or maybe you’ll find that 3-putts rear their ugly head as soon as you’re putting beyond 15 feet. If that’s the case, you now have a starting distance to work on your speed control drills.

*Fun Fact: On the PGA Tour in 2023, the leader for the lowest 3-putt percentage was Maverick McNealy, with just ten 3-putts over 1,026 holes. This equates to roughly ONE 3-putt every SEVEN ROUNDS… incredible!

Stat #3: Scrambling Percentage
Get the ball up-and-down and see your scores also go DOWN!

“Not hitting it well all day and I gotta rely on 12 short game shots and getting 10 out of 12 up and down - thats what saves rounds or saves tournaments.”

- Tiger Woods

There’s a reason why Tiger Woods considers a good short game vital to shooting lower scores- it frees up the player to swing freely and make more aggressive swings to targets without worrying about misses.

Getting “up and down” refers to when you are off the green (generally inside 30 yards) and can get the ball in the hole in 2 shots or less. You might think a Tour Pro is automatic inside this distance, but the average up and down percentage on the PGA Tour is ~58%. So check the chart below and set your expectations accordingly. And if you’re not satisfied with your own up and down percentage, spend less time on the mats smashing bombs and more time on the chipping green.

What’s Missing? Fairways Hit Accuracy
You Can Certainly Track Fairways Hit, BUT…

You might have noticed that “fairways hit” was noticeably absent from this list. And I’m not saying you can or should omit this stat altogether. You can of course learn a lot about your driving game by tracking accuracy trends, especially if you keep track of your left and right misses.

The issue with fairways hit accuracy is that it doesn’t account for nuance. That is, a fairway missed could be 6” into the first cut or it could be deep in the woods. What’s more, if your driver has been failing you, you might choose to pull out your 3-iron on every tee and hit 12/14 fairways. But this would certainly make your approach shots a LOT more difficult with 40-50 additional yards to make up. And there might even be certain holes where it actually makes sense to miss the fairway. If there’s water down the left side and the hole actually dogs-legs to the right, you could cut off some yardage by playing through the right rough. Lastly, we’ve mentioned it before but the rough isn’t nearly as penalizing as you might think. Sure, U.S. Open rough for the Pros can crush their spirit, but most amateurs do not play on courses with 6” jungle grass. And the stats support this statement, as outlined in Chapter 10.

TODAY’S TRIVIA
Answer to Win a BirdieBall 3’x12’ Indoor Putting Mat
(1 winner chosen on 2/28/25 across all February trivia entries, 1,000 correct respondents minimum)

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