What's a good GIR % after a year of playing?

[ryohazuki222]

So I'm coming up on my year anniversary with Golf........

My question to you all is what would you define as a "bad," "average," and "good" Greens in Regulation percentage after one year of playing a lot of golf (1-3 rounds a week).

[enduro]

Depends on the course. A short course you might expect to have more. I'd say after a year, 15-20% would be decent enough.

[wrx_junki]

Definitely depends on the course. I've been playing for a year and half and my GIR this year has been right around 35%.

[PiKapp23]

In one of the golf magazines this month Dave Pelz has a table that says based on handicap how many GIR players average. I was personally surprised at the numbers he posted (although I do not remember exacts now). He has found that a 10 handicap averages only 5 GIR a round and a scratch only averages (I might be off by 1 or 2 on that number). Being a 10 I thought I should be averaging more than I am (which is about 6), but it's interesting to see that I was actually above average. Based on that, if you could hit 2-5 GIR on average I think you're doing well as a new golfer. Of course that also depends on the yardages and the course (as others have said). Longer courses your numbers will be less as is the case with hard courses, so the short game is the critical part of the game for scoring. Work on chipping and pitching and GIR become less of an issue. (I think even pro golfers only average something like 12).

[jambalaya]

You're a 12.7 so I would say 40% would be pretty good.

[ryohazuki222]

For the sake of this thread..... let's assume a 6500-7000 course. Also let's assume a 125 slope give or take.

@pikapp.... thanks for bringing up that article.... I know what you're talking about -- im gonna try and find that magazine

[Shindig]

I would say that, after a year, hitting 2 out of 10 of the reasonable ones is a good goal. When I had been playing for a year, there were a couple long par-4s that, to reach, I would need to hit my driver 30 yards beyond usual, and follow it up with a perfect 3-wood to hit GIR. Those became 3-shot par-4s for me, and were typically easy 5s, even when I was struggling to break 100 consistently.

Look at your course and decide which holes you can reasonably reach in regulation without bringing big numbers into play. Try to hit as many of those as you can. But don't try a risky shot from a bad position just for a chance at GIR if you find yourself in trouble off the tee.

In short:
* GIR doesn't matter as much as where the approach lands. I'd rather a medium chip than a long putt in many circumstances, even if it isn't a GIR.
* Don't try to be a hero when it can cost you dearly
* 3-4 GIR/round is fantastic after a year. Although I see you're already a pretty good player on top of this!

[ScottRempel]

Ha...I went to look at my stats cause I thought they were terrible, but I'm actually at 40% FIR and 43.5% GIR over my last 20 rounds...not terrible but I'm definitey working to increase those numbers...especially the GIR. That being said, I've been golfing a lot longer then 1 year.

So yeah, for your HC and after only 1 year of golfing I would think average-good would be in that 25-40% range.

[Greg]

Ive been playing for a little over a year, im lucky to get maybe 1-2 for every nine, got 2 today for the 9 I played, those were my 2 pars, the rest were bogeys so I did really well for me.

[SubPar]

In one of the golf magazines this month Dave Pelz has a table that says based on handicap how many GIR players average. I was personally surprised at the numbers he posted (although I do not remember exacts now). He has found that a 10 handicap averages only 5 GIR a round ...(I think even pro golfers only average something like 12).

This sounds about right. A lot depends on how badly you miss them. If you don't miss by much or in bad places, you can get up and down almost as often as you would two putt. But hitting greens obviously gives you more birdie opportunities. I can only hit four greens and shoot 79 or 80. Once I hit 11 greens and shot a 73.

The best on tour is usually 75-80%, so if we could hit 40-50% we'd be looking pretty good. I hope to hit 10-12 tomorrow, but I'm playing 36 holes SubPar

[prutkows]

not sure what everyone else considers is "good" but i'm a little lower handicap than you and i'll tell you what my goal for GIR is currently whenever i go out and play.

I try to hit all the par 5's greens and at least half of the par 4's but rarely does that happen.

[ryohazuki222]

Thanks for the replies. Since I've started keeping stats I'm at 26% overall. A lot of that is that my driving KILLED me. I'm hiting roughly a third of GIR on par 3s (150-200 yards for the most part) and par 5s.

This month I really figured some things out off the tee box with the driver. For July I was at about a third of GIR overall with tons of fringe putts that (correct me if im wrong please) don't technically count as putts so my stat tracker doesn't count the GIR. Trying to hit GIR with mid-short irons and wedges is much easier than hitting long irons into greens.....

As per the reason of the thread:

GIRs are what make golf worth playing for me so it's my favorite stat. When I started out my irons were by FAR the weakest part of my game. Somewhere along the line I lost my driving distance completely and was struggling even reach GIR. Now I've gotten my distance back and then some... Currently working on hitting fairways and it's going well. Short game was always my saving grace.... Basically, I gave up everything and worked really hard on my iron game. In the process I lost some short game magic. But the short game is coming back now. since I feel my irons are at a good and reliable level given the amount of time I've put in I've started focusing more on that again. (example being.... for a long time I basically 3 putted ever GIR.... haha. now I'm averaging a birdie a round give/take).

So basically.... using this thread as a very very general guideline I'm trying to decide if it's ok to feel that I have a good GIR percentage (read as solid iron game for the time being) so I can start focusing more attention the driving and short game.

[ryohazuki222]

Woot! 55.5% GIR so far in August... with what feels like tons of ones on the fringe that I don't count.

Obviously it's just the divine powers of the golf gods bestowed upon me temporarily during my birthday month.

That and I always play ridiculously better after watching tiger woods play.... don't know why.

[SubPar]

...

It happens to a lot of people. Shows the importance of a positive visualization.

SubPar