PGA Tour vs the Club Golfer – Shot Scope

How do you compare to a PGA Tour player? Shot Scope take a look at the stats of amateur golfers and compare them to the elite of the game.

We will compare tee shots, approach play, short game, and putting to highlight just how good they really are, starting from the tee box.

Interestingly, the fairways in regulation are not astronomically better compared to the scratch golfer with the PGA Tour pro hitting roughly 11 fairways per round compared to the scratch golfer’s 9.

The main differentiator is the length off the tee. From one handicap benchmark to the next, we can see that the average tee shot length increases and this is no different when we compare the Tour player.

Whilst the average driving distance was 300y, the longer players like Rory McIlroy, averaged an incredible 326y off the tee and 53% FIR – slightly fewer fairways but the pros of this distance outweigh the cons of being in the rough.

Why does hitting it further, despite being in the rough, have more appeal than being shorter and in the fairway? The closer we are to the green, the easier it is to hit it.

Regardless, approach play reveals just how good the guys on Tour are, quite incredible really.

The scratch golfer, which makes up 1% of amateur golfers, is 30ft worse in terms of proximity from 175-200y and our 10hcp golfer is 71ft worse, that’s 10 yards and 24 yards respectively!

Our 10 handicapper, on the cusp of single figures, hits the green at this distance every 2 in 10 attempts compared to our Tour player who averages closer to 6 in 10.

When we reduce the distance by 100 yards we see just how dialed in the Tour players are.

Compared to the 20hcp benchmark, the PGA Tour average player is twice as likely to hit the green at this distance and has an average proximity ⅓ of that of the 20hcp – quite a significant difference. This is where scratch golfers begin to separate themselves from other amateur golfers.

There is a bigger jump from 10 to scratch than there is between a scratch golfer and the PGA Tour average – highlighting the importance of distance control with the shorter clubs.

What some may find surprising is that even from this distance, the 10 handicapper’s chances of hitting the green could be likened to a flip of a coin, and yet when amateurs miss the green they are very disappointed.

So, upon missing the green, how do we compare at trying to get up and down?

Surprisingly, the average PGA Tour player only gets up and down 5% more than our scratch player – the caveat to this stat, the conditions on course are drastically different from PGA Tour quality to the typical golf club.

That being said, the difference between being inside 10ft as opposed to being beyond it can have a big impact on the likelihood of making a putt.

From just inside 10ft we can see that the scratch player basically has a 50/50 chance of making the putt, but as we will learn below, when we move slightly beyond 10ft, the chances of making it drop considerably. However, the same can be said for the Tour players – there is a large drop off from after 10ft, so hitting inside this distance is key.

It is worth noting that the PGA Tour leaders from these distances are considerably higher. For example, from 10-15ft, Adam Scott leads the way holing 40% from this distance and the leaders from 5-10ft are holing nearly 70% of those putts.

All of our benchmarks see a large drop off when we move to the 9-12ft range and this is why being inside 10ft as opposed to beyond it is hugely beneficial in terms of make percentage.

It is worthwhile remembering these numbers the next time you are on course, it is very easy to be disappointed when a putt misses. However, the data shows that those putts around the 10ft mark are not as easy as you might think.

Performance statistics such as the ones outlined in this article allow comparisons to be made against not only fellow amateurs but also with the stars on the PGA Tour.

If you want to gain information and statistics like this on your game, Shot Scope offer a range of performance tracking solutions for every type of golfer with no subscription fees.