Can the typical golfer hit the green from 150?

[SafeBogey]

From the white tees, the course I play at has three par 3s between 150 and 160, one at 175 (way uphill, plays 190 or more) and one at 200+. I generally hit 1 or 2 of these greens, and I almost never hit the longer ones. (I have often purposely laid up on these holes when not feeling comfortable with my long irons.) The other three are 7/8 irons and manageable.

[Aguirre]

I'm sort of surprised that nobody but myself has questioned the OP's "80% fairways" number.

[MS256]

I'm sort of surprised that nobody but myself has questioned the OP's "80% fairways" number.

Why argue about something you don't really know?

He hits it 220 yards. Maybe he plays on wide fairways. Maybe he's accurate at 220 yards. Maybe he's exaggerating. Maybe he's taking a rough guess. Maybe it's just a figure of speech to indicate he's usually in the fairway.

My wife probably hits over 80% fairways because she can't hit it far enough to miss the fairway (and she's fairly accurate).

I'm quite sure my boss hits over 80% fairways because he's the most accurate player I've ever seen with any club.

[vangator]

Why argue about something you don't really know? He hits it 220 yards. Maybe he plays on wide fairways. Maybe he's accurate at 220 yards. Maybe he's exaggerating. Maybe he's taking a rough guess. Maybe it's just a figure of speech to indicate he's usually in the fairway. My wife probably hits over 80% fairways because she can't hit it far enough to miss the fairway (and she's fairly accurate). I'm quite sure my boss hits over 80% fairways because he's the most accurate player I've ever seen with any club.

I have to agree here that hitting 80% is not out of the question. Hitting fairways is not hard when you cut back on your swing. Hitting near 100% would not be a stretch for a good golfer if just trying for 200-220 yard tee shots. But that would leave a lot of long approaches. That's the tradeoff. The goal is to get as much distance off the tee as you reasonably can so your approach shots are manageable. That's why the pros bomb heir drives.

[Dave2512]

Hard to say without seeing the op play in person. Maybe he could post other stats. However I play the course he mentions, not often but I do. Can see FIR 80% on the example he used because the play there is fairway wood or long iron from the tee to keep it out of the water. That is why the abundance of 150 approaches on 18. Despite being an old park style course the fairways can be very wide there. I may get up early and play this course tomorrow morning.

[bste]

yea, considering the size of the greens they play and their accuracy, it is suprising

[jackieMoon]

I can honestly say I can hit the green from 150 probably 60-70% of the time. Now being close to the hole is another question but that's my strong point in my game

[David in FL]

I can honestly say I can hit the green from 150 probably 60-70% of the time. Now being close to the hole is another question but that's my strong point in my game

You should be on tour...... ;-)

[Dave2512]

I wonder how many people that think they do this or that actually keep stats. My experience when you are strong in one stat usually goes with being weak in another unless they tie together. For whatever reason the stat threads don't get any action. My guess is because few actually take the time to input every single round because it is tedious. If you track stats you don't have to guess. It's a worthwhile effort, and also humbling.

[mcanadiens]

I don't know what my number would be here, but it probably sucks.

All that really matters at the moment, is that on no 12 Sunday, I stuck a 155-yarder to 12 feet and made the putt for birdie. The rest of em can bite the big hairy one.

[Zeph]

I've seen many with a very high fairways hit percentage, but still shooting high scores. Often elderly that don't hit it very far, but straight and predictable. It is easier to hit the fairway when your driver goes 220 than 280, and when you use a hybrid or something off the tee.

[CarlSpackler]

Thinking over the whole premise of this thread, can someone even define what a "typical golfer" is? I would tend to think that a typical golfer would be someone with a similar handicap as mine, but so would everyone else.

[FooFader]

Thinking over the whole premise of this thread, can someone even define what a "typical golfer" is? I would tend to think that a typical golfer would be someone with a similar handicap as mine, but so would everyone else.

I'm taking typical to be roughly the median of people playing the game. Meaning, better than occasional players and hackers but worse than the large majority of club golfers. I see this theoretical person as playing a little bit worse than bogey golf most days but breaking 90 every now and again. Definitely hitting less than 5 GIR and will hit a couple of tops and chunks every round. Do others agree with my perception of typical? I think we will all agree though that us people on TST are not typical :-D

[Zeph]

If "typical" means everyone that plays golf, the typical golfer very rarely hits the green from 150 yards, since there are so many out there without a handicap. The average handicap may be around 18, but that number goes up if we include everyone.

[Aguirre]

Maybe he plays on wide fairways. Maybe he's accurate at 220 yards. Maybe he's exaggerating. Maybe he's taking a rough guess. Maybe it's just a figure of speech to indicate he's usually in the fairway.

Call me maybe.

[MacDutch]

During my bad rounds I hit one or two greens. On a good day 40%. And I am way better than the typical golfer, because I am addicted and have time on my hand to play three times a week. Can the typical golfer hit the green from 150 yards? Yes, once in a while, but I would bet him to do it every day :-)

[vangator]

I'm taking typical to be roughly the median of people playing the game. Meaning, better than occasional players and hackers but worse than the large majority of club golfers. I see this theoretical person as playing a little bit worse than bogey golf most days but breaking 90 every now and again. Definitely hitting less than 5 GIR and will hit a couple of tops and chunks every round. Do others agree with my perception of typical? I think we will all agree though that us people on TST are not typical :-D

I think this is my perception of typical also. I think the quality of golfer has gone down over the years based on my observations from my work league. We have really reduced our employee numbers from their peak in the 80's, so the pool has gone down. We used to have a couple of dozen single digit cappers in our league, at least. now we're down to a handful. I'm the A player on my team and would play the A player from the opposing team. Sometimes I have to give a stroke a hole.

[MasonAsher2014]

If shooting at a pin tucked towards the edge of the green, they can be on the fringe or fairway and putt the ball, but it doesn't register as a GIR.

I agree didn't think about that. I was thinking 25% ended up in rough.