- 11 minutes ago
Ever wonder how often you should be making putts from 5, 10, or 15 feet? Using incredible data from Arccos, we reveal the make percentages for scratch golfers all the way up to 20 handicappers. The results might just surprise you and change how you practice.
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00:00Now when you watch professional golfers on TV, it seems like they're holding putts every
00:04time from all over the place, but what in actual fact is the reality of how often players
00:09of different abilities hold putts, especially from within that sort of 10-foot range?
00:14In this video, I'm going to be touching on the different handicap ranges and what your
00:17expectations should be in terms of holding out from different distances, and spoiler
00:22alert, you're probably not as bad at putting as you thought you were.
00:25All the data that I'm going to present in this video comes courtesy of Arcos, one of the
00:30leaders when it comes to performance tracking and analysis.
00:33If you're interested in getting a set of their smart sensors, I've put some handy links in
00:37the description below where you can get your hands on those for the best price in your area
00:40and use the code GOLFMONTHY to get 15% off.
00:44Right, we're here at the incredible Elsa course at Trump Turnberry, let's dive into those different
00:48distances and also those different handicap ranges to see how you compare.
00:55Right, so we're going to start with inside two feet.
00:58Now, for most golfers, most players, this would be inside the circle of friendship,
01:03you'd have a gimme.
01:04For a lot of players, it would be deemed as simply a tap-in, but actually, if you look
01:07a bit more closely at the Arcos data, it's interesting to see that every ability of golfer
01:13misses putts from this distance.
01:15Even scratch golfers are not holding this putt every single time.
01:19The data suggests that 97% of the time scratch golfers are holding this goes down to, you
01:24see, five handicap, 95%.
01:26Arguably, the most interesting is that the 10 handicap range from inside two-foot, 10 handicap
01:31golfers are making this length of putt 91% of the time.
01:35Basically, every 10 times a 10 handicapper has a two-foot putt, they're going to be missing
01:40it one out of 10 times, which is, I think, relatively high.
01:44It's interesting, if you're playing in a match against a 10 handicapper and you'd be thinking
01:48about giving them a putt from this distance, maybe you want to think again, especially if
01:52the putt's got a bit more break on it, that will obviously add a level of difficulty.
01:56So, where you might think it's a gimme or a tap-in, definitely reconsider because
02:00every ability of golfer does miss this putt from time to time.
02:04Hopefully, I'm not going to be one of those right now.
02:09Would you believe it?
02:10There you go, everyone misses them.
02:16All right, so now we've moved back slightly into this three-to-five-foot range. As you would
02:22expect, you can see the percentages in terms of the make percentages for the different handicap
02:26abilities does drop quite significantly. For a scratch golfer, it goes right down to 69%.
02:33Just under three-quarters of the time, scratch golfers are making this length of putt. You see it
02:39just dropped down considerably again for a five-index golfer, make 59%,
02:43a 10-index golfer makes 55% of this length of putt, 15-index makes 47%, and a 20-index
02:50makes
02:5145%. A couple of interesting things here. If you look at the PGA Tour average from this distance,
02:57it's just shy of 97%. There's quite a big difference between the best players in the world and the best
03:04amateur players in the world in terms of that difference between a scratch golfer and a PGA Tour
03:08player. Definitely, if you're a scratch golfer or a single-figure golfer, this is the distance where
03:12you can really make up some ground. The other thing that's interesting about this particular distance
03:17is that towards the latter part of it, look at those make percentages. This is around about the
03:22distance where 10 handicap golfers, 15 handicap golfers are missing as many as they're making. It's
03:28that really critical distance if you want to try to improve your game and you're in that handicap bracket,
03:33practicing from within this three to five-foot range, especially towards the latter part of that
03:37distance, so towards that four and five-foot range. This is a really crucial length of putt to practice.
03:42If you can improve your putting consistency from this range, you're going to make really good inroads
03:47on your scores and hopefully lower your handicap. Let's see if I can be better from this distance than
03:52I was at two feet. Phew, that's a relief. Some food for thought there in terms of the make percentages
03:59from this three to five-foot range. Clearly, it's an area to work on for the majority of golfers.
04:05If you make some strides in this area, you should definitely see your scores come down.
04:13Now we move on to the six to nine-foot range. I have to say, I was very surprised by
04:18the make percentages from the Arcos data. I would consider anything within this six to nine-foot range
04:23as a relatively decent chance if it's for birdie or saving par. I'd like to think that maybe whole
04:28slightly more of these than I would miss, but actually, if you look at the Arcos data, it tells
04:33us that every ability of golfer misses more putts from this range than they do make. Scratch golfer,
04:4040%, five handicap index, 34%, 10 handicap, 33%, so not a big drop from a five to 10 handicap there,
04:4915 handicap, 29%, and a 20 handicap, 26%. Actually, if you look at the difference between
04:57a scratch golfer and a 20 handicap index, there's not much disparity between the make percentages,
05:03around about 11%. Clearly, the range is a lot tighter from this distance. Ability seems to have
05:09less of an impact from six to nine-foot range. A couple of other interesting observations about
05:14this distance. If you look at the PGA Tour average from this distance, it's around about 53%
05:20from eight feet and 47% from nine feet. The sort of 50-50 make percentage is actually around about
05:28eight and a half feet for tour players. Even from nine-foot, tour players are missing more putts
05:33than they're making. Also, from this particular distance, around the seven-foot mark, so the
05:38closer end of this spectrum, is around that 50-50 make percentage for a five-index golfer. Again,
05:45that's a really critical distance to focus on in your practice. I think, generally speaking,
05:50this is a range of putts where you can really keep the momentum of your round going if you're
05:56holding a lot of putts from six to nine feet, especially in the six to seven-foot range. You're
06:00going to make some really big inroads on your scores if you can become more prolific from this area.
06:05I've got a putt here from about seven feet. Let's see if I can talk the talk and roll this
06:11one in.
06:15Lovely. There we go. Obviously, clearly, a lot better from mid-range than I am short-range.
06:20Six to nine feet, some really interesting data there, but I think if you've got expectations
06:24around making more putts than you miss from this distance, think again because, actually,
06:28every ability of golfer is missing more than they make from this range.
06:35All right, so now we've moved a little bit further away. This T-peg is 10 foot away from the
06:41hole.
06:41Actually, the difference in ability level make percentage from 10 foot and out is remarkably
06:46close, even closer than it was from six to nine feet. Even from this distance, the percentages
06:52are very tight. Actually, if you move a little bit further away from the hole, so 25 feet to 39
06:57feet,
06:57the difference between all the handicap ranges that we've talked about from scratch, all the way up to
07:0120 handicap is only 1%. Very little difference there between your make percentages from that slightly
07:07longer distance. Obviously, we know from further away from the hole, we know that higher handicap
07:13index golfers are going to be three-putting a little bit more frequently than lower handicap
07:16golfers, but in this video, we're only really talking about make percentages. It's interesting
07:19to note that from this sort of distance, 10 foot and out, the difference between those ability
07:25levels is negligible. If you look at the stats from the PGA Tour, the best player on tour from outside
07:3025 feet only makes 10% of putts. That was Wyndham Clark in the season just gone. The tour average
07:36from outside 25 feet in terms of make percentage is 5.5%. Clearly, even tour players are not banging
07:43in those 25 footers all that often. Clearly, you can't be expected, regardless of your ability, to make
07:51an awful lot of putts from at 10 feet and longer. Clearly, where the gains are to be had is
07:57from shorter
07:58range. That's where you can make really big progress versus your competitive set. This boy,
08:04in particular, is 10 foot away. Let's see if I can buck the trend of make percentages and knock this
08:09one
08:09in. That looks tasty. Oh my God, it's broken loads. Clearly, I'm among my peers in missing putts
08:17from 10 foot as a three handicap index golfer. Don't be expected to be making putts from 10 foot and
08:23out.
08:24Your best strategy is to make sure you get the pace right and try and eliminate those three
08:28putts, especially if you're in those higher handicap brackets, 15 and 20. That's where the three putt
08:34percentages really rise, and you could definitely make some progress on your scores in terms of
08:38keeping those three putts off your card from 10 foot and out. Hopefully, you found this data useful
08:44in terms of seeing where you fit in among those make percentages from different distances. Clearly,
08:49the beauty of it is it really shows you where you can make big inroads on your handicap level if
08:54you're looking to improve and break into the next handicap level. Seeing where those 50-50 splits
08:59are in terms of make and miss percentages is really crucial. For most golfers, watching this video is
09:05probably closer to the hole than you thought it was before you started watching this video. Hopefully,
09:10that managed your expectations a bit and maybe helped you realize that you're not as bad at putting
09:15as you thought you were and that the biggest amount of progress could definitely be made from quite
09:20close to the hole. We saw the disparity between putts from outside 10 foot was very close indeed,
09:26regardless of the handicap level. If you're looking to improve your putting, clearly, from shorter
09:31range is the way to really hone in your practice and spend a lot of time practicing your putts from
09:35those sorts of different distances inside nine feet. The USGA say that the average golfer takes around 40 putts
09:44per round, which is just over two per hole. Clearly, another way to improve your scores is to eliminate
09:50the number of three putts you have on any given hole. Improving your putting from short range is going
09:55to really help contribute to reducing the number of three putts. If you are interested in improving your
10:00putting from short range, do check out the Golf Monthly website because there's an incredible array of
10:05tips, drills, and practice routines that you can try that would definitely help your consistency from
10:10short range. Don't forget, if you've enjoyed any of the data in this video and you want to get hold
10:14of a set of Arcos smart sensors for yourself to get your own data on your own game, do click
10:19the link
10:19in the description to get your hands on those for the best price in your area. Don't forget to use
10:24the
10:24code GOLFMONTHLY at checkout to get 15% off. Hopefully, you enjoyed this video. The one takeaway I'd
10:30want you to have from watching this video is that you're probably not as bad at putting as you thought
10:34you
10:34were. That's all from me here from the Elsa course at the beautiful Trump Turnberry. Hope you enjoyed
10:40the video and I'll see you next time.
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