Less than 1% of golfers have an average handicap index that is scratch or better. In fact, the average golf handicap in England last year was 17.1 for a male golfer and 27.2 for female players.
Lots of us have aspirations to play scratch golf. But what does it take to get your handicap down to zero, and how does a scratch golfer fare compared to an average handicap golfer? I looked at the Shot Scope stats to find out what you need to do to become a scratch golfer. For this article, we will be comparing stats from the average scratch and 15-handicap golfers.
Scoring
According to Shot Scope, a scratch handicapper averages 2.01 over par for a golf season. In comparison, a 15 handicap averages 18.41 over par meaning despite a 15-shot handicap difference there is a 16.4-shot difference in scoring average.
Off the Tee
The average scratch golfer hits their driver 285 yards. That is 55 yards further than a 15 handicapper, who hits their driver 236 yards on average. Perhaps surprisingly the disparity in fairways hit isn’t huge, scratch golfers hit 50% of fairways with 15 handicaps only down at 47%. So to lower your scores you should be working on your driver speed rather than your accuracy.
Approach Play
A scratch golfer has an average approach shot distance of 148 yards, for 15-handicap golfers this jumps up to 189 yards, showing you the effects of differing driving distances.
When we dive further into the numbers, scratch golfers are way more consistent at hitting greens than every other handicap category.
Rather interestingly, they aren’t hitting the ball as close to the pin as much as you may think. Even with a lob wedge in their hands, where you would expect them to be extremely accurate, they only hit the ball to 38 feet on average which is the width of half a green. By the time you get to 7-iron, the proximity is 68 feet, which is the size of a full green.
This is however very accurate compared to the 147 feet average for 15 handicappers which is much bigger than the size of the green. So next time you are taking your approach shot and trying to perfect it landing just over the bunker to a front pin it would be an idea to remember this image and play more conservatively.
Short Game
When scratch golfers miss the green, do they get up and down every time? It turns out they are only salvaging par just over half of the time. From all lies scratch golfers get up and down 54%, when we move into bunkers this drops to 37%.
For average golfers, this drops to 34% and 18% from the sand. If you want to make up some ground on scratch golfers, I would definitely suggest practising your chipping.
Putting
There are two key areas scratch golfers are gaining on, the putting green. The first is three-putt avoidance. A scratch golfer on average only three putts every 35.7 holes. That’s once every two rounds. In comparison, the average handicap golfer has three putts every 9.7 holes, which is nearly twice a round. Over a season, those shots quickly stack up!
Golfers have a perception that scratch golfers hole loads of putts, but they only have 2.1 fewer putts a round. From over 30 feet scratch handicaps only hole 4% of putts, for a 15 handicap this only drops to 2% which isn’t a massive difference.
So where are scratch golfers picking up their shots? They hole 25% more putts from 6 to 12 feet. So if you want to work on your putting, do some lag putting to eliminate those three putts and work on holing out from inside 12 feet.
What do you think about these stats, did anything surprise you? Find out more about tracking your stats with Shot Scope here.
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