X handicap = ? putts per round

[saevel25]

I don't know that I'd quite call it "good" ... but I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call "anything over 30 putts" bad either.

I would agree, though, in the sense that as long as you're averaging under 2 putts per hole then it's not your biggest weakness (no matter how many greens you hit).

Theoretically even two putts per hole could be good if all your approach shots hit the green, but you still leave yourself over 25 feet on every putt.

If PGA Tour players average about 12 greens in regulation and scramble 50% of the time. Even if they two putt every other hole than the ones they scrambled on. Their baseline putts per hole is 1.83 not 2.0. Short game can really skew putting stats. Probably why strokes gained putting is a better metric.

[natureboy]

That 29 might not look so impressive but you have to understand they hit more greens in regulation than we do on average.If they only hit 9 greens id guarantee you that average would be more like 20 or so.When you hit more greens your gonna have more putts because your two putting instead of getting to chip up close to hole where 1 putting is a lot easier.When a pro is hitting 14-16 greens and has 29 putts then he made a good amount of birdies.

The hit more greens and on more difficult / longer courses. It looks like an average PGA pro would average around 27-28 putts per round on a course rated 72.

Didn't Brodie's "Every Shot Counts" debunk the importance of putts per round or per hole as a useless statistic?

Strokes gained is much more accurate better than PPGIR and Putts Per Round, but cumbersome to track individually without tech. If you combine putts per round with the number of pitch/chip/sand shots I think that will correlate better with average score for the same / similar course difficulty. I think scratch on a course rating of 72 would roughly be around 38 (putts + chip/pitch/sand shots) less if their long game was weaker than other scratch players and more if the long game was better than others of the same handicap.

Hi, the usual 'target' I use for my stats is as follows; 18 putts per round plus the number of GIR's you have. Easy formula on excel (makes me sound sad!) It means that if you 9 holes in regulation (GIR), then add this to 18 and your target for that round is 27 putts. It does sound extreme, but if you chipped and one putted every time you missed a green your handicap would race down. This formula also means that you can compare % with FIR and GIR to see which element of your game needs the most practice. Even with this tough target on putting, my comparison % show that it is my driving that is still the weakest part of my game. I use a (British) traffic light system, Red, Amber and Green for which ever part of my game needs the most attention, FIR, GIR or chipping and putting. If the Putting % is the worse, then the practice is very much focused on the short game and so on.

This is a very tough target since even the pros would have a hard time getting up & down 100% of the time even on an average course - maybe more like 80% ( greenside / ARG up & down). You might do 36-.7*(18-GIR) for a more reasonable number of 29.7 on a course rating of 72. Your target is a worthy one to shoot for though.

[DrvFrShow]

I tracked my putts per round last year. My high was one round of 43, and one round low of 29. My average over 36 rounds was 35 putts per round. This indicates that putting is not where I'm losing strokes.