- 9 hours ago
In this video, Dan Parker explains how close to the flag amateur golfers hit their approach shots into greens by handicap. With the help of data from Arccos golf, he also sheds a light on how many greens you should be hitting per round as well as how close you should be to the flag from different distances away. The chances are, you're not hitting it as close as you think you are - especially from short range, but Dan has all the answers in this video so be sure to watch to the end.
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00:00How close do you think you hit your average approach shots to this thing the pin
00:03on average? I think it's a little closer than you think and I've got all the data to prove it.
00:12So I'm going to be breaking down handicap index by handicap index the average distance away from
00:17the pin in two sets of values right. The first one is how far away they are when a greening
00:22regulation is hit. So that's in two shots on a par 4, three on a par 5 and one on
00:26a par 3.
00:27I'm also going to give you the information of when a greening regulation isn't hit. How far away is
00:32this handicap index on average when they don't find the dance floor? And all of this information has
00:37come courtesy of Arcos who have now recorded over 1 billion, billion golf shots from real golfers on
00:44real golf courses. This is valuable information. I've been using Arcos now for the best part of three
00:49years. We're going to look at some of my data in a little bit and if you want to get
00:52your hands
00:53and start using Arcos yourself, I'll put some handy links down in the description
00:56where you can find the best price in your area for a set of their smart sensors. One more bit
01:02of information before we get properly stuck in. Let's take a look at the greening regulation
01:05percentages on average per handicap index, right? So when I'm talking about the distance away in a
01:12greening reg, we know how often that's happening per handicap index, right? Still with me? Bring the
01:17graph up. The greening regulation percentage for all distances this is per handicap index. So for a
01:23scratch golfer, a zero handicap, 56% of the time. So only just over half, 46% at the time
01:29for a five
01:30handicap, 36% of the time for a 10, 27% if you're a 15 and 20% of the
01:36time from all distances if you're
01:38a 20, right? Everybody happy? The parameters are set? Let's go find out some information.
01:46All set and let's start with a zero handicap golfer, a scratch golfer, a very competent golfer that we
01:52just found out is hitting the dance floor 56% at the time from all distances. So when they hit
01:57a
01:57greening regulation, they are on average 26 feet away from the pin. And when I actually measure that out,
02:04it's quite far, isn't it? You think these golfers might be getting within 10 or 15 feet more often
02:08than not, but no, 26 feet on average. And for all shots, and this is what I think is the
02:13impressive
02:13stat, from all distances, they are 44 feet away when they miss the green. So they're not, you know,
02:19snap hooking it out of bounds and all that. They're probably just missing it in a bunker or over the
02:23back
02:23or short. So that's a difference of 18 feet when this golfer does hit the green and when they don't
02:29hit the green. And for a little bit more context on that, the PGA Tour average stands at just over
02:3438
02:34feet for all approach shots and all distances. So they're actually quite close, but I guess those
02:40fine margins are more greens hit and more putts hold for those PGA Tour golfers.
02:48Right there, next up, five handicap and 10 handicap golfers. Let's start with a five handicap golfer
02:52on a green and regulation hit. They are 28 feet away from the pin on average. So only two more
02:58than the scratch golfer. For all of their shots though, it's 54 feet. So a 10 foot difference there
03:03from the scratch golfer. That difference for the five handicap is 26 foot between a green and regulation
03:09hit and a green and regulation missed away from the pin. Again, you know, a little bit more than that
03:14scratch golfer, as you might expect. Moving up to a 10 handicap golfer, when they find the green
03:20regulation, they are on average 31 feet away from the pin. And when they miss it, they are 65 feet
03:26away from the pin. These numbers are going to start to creep up, as you might expect. And that's the
03:30difference for the 10 handicap when they do and don't hit a green of 34 feet, which again is pretty
03:35significant. You see those bad shots now are getting worse. And again, when I measure out 31 feet, it's
03:42quite a long way on a green, isn't it? So, you know, you think these golfers that might be better
03:45than
03:46you? They're not pin hunting all the time, dancing the ball around the flag. They are just happy to
03:50get on the green, as most of us should be. Now, I fall into this. So, as I promised, here's
03:55my data,
03:56warts and all. I'm a 6.5 index, as I currently speak. From my last 10 rounds, this is, so
04:02not from
04:02all my Arcos shots over the years. From my recent golf, when I hit the green in regulation, I'm on
04:06average 26 feet away, which is the same as a scratch golfer, might I add. When I miss the green,
04:12though, it goes horribly, horribly wrong, and I'm 56 feet away. It's either glory, it's glory or bust
04:17with me at the minute, it seems, over my last 10 rounds anyway. A difference of 30 feet when I
04:21do hit
04:21a green and when I don't. I might expand that out, actually, because on the Arcos app, you can show
04:27different periods of time. Maybe I'll do all time next time, see how I'm a golf swimmer the last three
04:30years. Who knows? But again, really interesting stats there to get an idea of how far away, which is quite
04:36far away, these really good golfers are. Okay, let's look at 15 and 20 index golfers now. The 15 index
04:45golfer, when they hit a green in regulation, is 33 feet away from the pin on average, and for all
04:50shots, including those ones that are missed, it's 75 feet on average. Again, unsurprisingly, we're
04:56getting a bit wider here. That difference is 42 feet between the green in reg hit and the green in
05:01reg
05:01missed. For 20 handicap golfers, the green in reg percentage, excuse me, the green in reg difference
05:08is actually pretty similar. So if there's 20 handicap, it's 36 feet away from the pin, but those missed
05:12ones are quite different from the 15 handicapper. When a 20 handicapper misses the green, they're 85 feet
05:18away from the pin. On average, a difference between those two of 49 feet. And I guess a nugget, I
05:24think
05:24most golfers, the average is about 19, I think the index, at least here in the UK, is to try
05:30and make those bad
05:30shots less bad. Is that a piece of advice that's useful? Probably, because you can see the difference
05:35there of 49 feet between a good shot that finds a green and a bad shot that misses is going
05:39to cost
05:39you a heck of a lot of shots. So the next bit of day I'm going to talk about is
05:43when we work our way
05:44down the hole now, per distance, how close does each handicap index get into the hole, right? This will
05:50become clear in a minute. So I'm currently stood 65 yards away from this pin behind me, and according to
05:54the Arcos data, I'll bring a table up now, a scratch golfer from this distance on average will still be
06:0030 feet away from the pin. Isn't that an interesting stat? I quite like that one. Working our way up,
06:05five handicap golfers 35 feet, 10 handicap 39 feet, 15 handicap 44 feet, and 20 handicap 46 feet on
06:12average. And that is between 50 and 74 yards. So I'm 65 yards away here, and if you're an average
06:18golfer of 15 or 20 handicap, you're going to be outside 40 feet from here, and that is the average,
06:23and that is okay. That's the lesson we take from that is, from this distance, even though you feel like
06:28you
06:28should be taking on pins and putting it in gimme distance, that isn't happening. And just getting
06:33yourself on the dance floor is what the average golfer is doing, and at least gives you a chance
06:36to make a putt or two putt. Right, so I'm working my way further away from the pin now, stood
06:41at 110
06:41yards away, and here's the data for your handicap index and how close you should be getting to that
06:46from here with a little wedge in your hand. For a scratch golfer, their average distance away from
06:50that pin is 38 feet. Again, I think these are quite surprisingly large numbers. 5 handicap 45 feet,
06:5710 handicap 53 feet, 15 handicap 60 feet, a 20 handicap golfer is going to be 67 feet away from
07:04that pin on average. Again, another lesson for you golfers out there is if you can, A, don't be too
07:09worried if you're miles away from the pin from here, but if you can tighten up that wedge game,
07:13you're going to start taking shots off because that's how these handicap indexes are working all the
07:17way down. If we worked our way back a little bit further, let's say I got to 140 yards, right?
07:23Scratch golfers, on average, I'll bring this table up again, 45 feet away, five handicappers 53 feet
07:29away, 10 handicappers 62 feet away, 15 handicappers 70 feet away, and 20 handicappers 77 feet away from
07:36that pin from 140 yards away, so another 30 yards down that fairway. Really interesting stuff. I'm going
07:42to work my way a little bit further down the hole now, and we're going to see this distance keep
07:45going up.
07:46Right, so I've went my way up to 180 yards away from that pin, not a lot of loft in
07:50your hand now,
07:50and you can see those distances going up, and this includes all shots. This isn't just green regulation,
07:54this is how far this golf will be away from that pin, regardless of where that ball goes.
07:59So for the zero handicap, they'll be 72 feet away at this stage. That wouldn't hit this green, I don't
08:04think. It's not a very big green. So the scratch golfers missing this green, five handicappers 84 feet,
08:0910 handicap 102 feet, 15 handicap 124 feet, and a 20 handicapper 144 feet. You can see the differences
08:17between each index increasing here as well. I think the skill level of the scratch golfer to the 20
08:22handicap with a six or a five iron in their hand is much broader than when they've both got a
08:27wedge in
08:28their hand as we noticed. I'm going to do one last one. I'm going to move up to about 220
08:32yards away,
08:33and we're going to look at how far away these golfers are when they're right back there.
08:37Okay, I'm 215 yards now away from this pin from behind me, and quite frankly, looking at this table
08:41I'll bring up now, you're not going to hit the green. None of these golfers do, unless the green's
08:45140 feet wide or long, which they aren't very often, are they? So a scratch golfer from here
08:49will get themselves close enough 140 feet away, five handicap 158, 10 handicap 182, 15 handicap 205 feet,
08:59and that 20 handicap 226 feet away, which I can't even imagine on this hole, to be honest. It's quite
09:05far away, isn't it? So again, that scratch golfers just getting themselves close, probably trying to keep
09:09it in play, and an extra nearly 100 feet away are 20 handicappers just trying to scramble from this
09:15stage. But I hope this gives you a really good idea both of when that green regulation is hit,
09:21how close each handicap index is, and how far away they are, the further away we get from the pin.
09:27And
09:27the real way to understand where you sit in this field is to get Arcos for yourself, use it as
09:31much
09:31as you can, gather all that data, and you can understand using their strokes gain tool and comparing
09:36against the stats I've spoken about today, where you sit in that spectrum of all golfers, right,
09:42depending on what handicap index you are. I hope you've enjoyed this video, I hope you found it
09:45informative, let me know where you sit in this bracket if you know in the comments, I'd love to
09:50hear how you're getting on if you're using Arcos already. I hope you found it informative,
09:54hope you've enjoyed it, until next time, I'll see you then.
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