What does Joe Average golfer typically shoot?

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

Breaking 100 is a big deal. It’s a right of passage, and far more enjoyable to play rounds with.

The average serious golfer plays to an 18, not 14.8 as the USGA reports. They are correct that people with official handicaps shoot to a 15.

If you count up all the penalties 18 is a good number for a serious golfer. Hacks rarely break 100. Your 105 would be considered the score of a decent weekend golfer.

The main issue is average drive distance. 205 yards. Second to that is where they end up and how people choose to make that escape shot.

The thing that will cap scores is the new double bogey rule. Theoretically, you can’t score more than 108. You can still shoot 150 or whatever.

[TimK1]

Amen to that! I hover around scratch to 3.4 depending on the time of year. I play with a lot of guys who are so dam good that it makes me look like a hacker. One kid at my club who is going to the tour overseas, I believe India Shoots 62 at my club most days and he tells me he is not good enough. I shoot 72 next to him and basically just stay out of the way.

I scratch local guy is no where near the level of even a low level pro. It's not close at all.

[TimK1]

I might get lucky once a summer and come within one or two of him but most days it is 10 shots at least. He hits it 50 yards past me off the tee and carries his 5 iron 215. LOL I hit mine 175 to 180 on a good day.

[Sean2]

Its's all relative...you are still better than the vast majority of golfers who play this game. :-)

[klebs01]

It’s NET double bogey and the highest handicap is 54. Ignoring rating and slope, this would allow a 162 to be posted on a par 72 course.

[LittleDufferBoy]

I'm the target for this post ...

15-30 rounds a year usually ... and have picked up the game more in the last year (from a 5-year hiatus where I played maybe once a year or less)

Playing as closely as I know how to USGA rules, my average score over the past year has been about 130 strokes per round with a best of 118.

Much of this is due to no formal coaching and not enough time to practice.

But yes, golf is hard ... being good at it is even harder.

[BB28403]

Everybody turn into the youtube channel called

badgolf

do a search, no spaces. This is normal everyday golfers! Enjoy! ?

[Loki]

I read in GD years ago that if you can break 100, you're in the top 25%, if you can break 80, top 3%. Given that, Joe Average probably averages 110.

[farmer]

Isn't it the case that most golfers do not have a hdcp? If that is true, then those with a hdcp are likely more serious and more skilled than the "average" player.

[Sean2]

The average HI for those that keep one is 14.

[hurley999s]

Correct. Outside of members at my clubs, I know roughly 20 people who id classify as “golfers” - they play from 2-3x a year to probably 20-30. Only 3 of them carry a handicap.

Overall I would set the over/under at 10% of golfers actually having a handicap. And you can imagine there’s bias there. So that average 14 HC is skewed - likely substantially - in favor of better golfers in general that even keep caps to begin with.

[hack2489]

Stumbled across this recently:https://golfingfocus.com/are-you-average-a-complete-guide-to-average-golf-handicaps/

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

Crap, is that how it works? I think people should start off on par 3 courses until they can graduate to executive then 9 hole courses before tackling regulation courses. 162 strokes minus 60 putts and chips on a 5800 yard course is 58 yards per stroke. 54HC isn’t even playing golf!

[Mustu]

Golf is hard. I play with random people all the time and most would be lucky to break 100 if they didn't take mulligans and took all the penalty strokes. I had a guy tell me a couple of years ago that I was the best golfer he's ever played with. I happened to be playing much better than my 10 handing that day, but the comment shows how bad most golfers are.

[MJBGolf]

Impossible to say, as very few W/E warriors are true to the rules. Mulligans and given putts incl. I would say that the average male golfer scores an average of 95-100, throughout a season. If everyone committed 100% to the Rules of Golf!? I would say that the average would be around 100.

If you play and register 20, 18 hole rounds and has an average score sub 80, then you belong in the Top 1% of all golfers, incl. the guys and the women you might watch on TV, during the W/E! Men and Women on Tour level are way ahead, it simply is a different game compared to what the average Joe’s are playing Saturday and Sunday mornings. I keep a handicap between 2-3 over the course of a season and has done so for quite a few years now. Whenever I get to play with an average you, they cannot tell the difference, they’re sometimes over the moon having played a round of golf with someone scoring Par or even an odd round of a couple under Par. Being in the line of business that I am, I get to see the best players of this great game on next to a weekly basis. I watch them hit balls in the practice areas and I watch them out on course. They’re simply next to phenomenal and if they belong in the T30 in the world, they are almost scary good, at what they do. If I had the best possible weather conditions, playing my absolute A-game Tee to Green and have a warm putter, holing everything within 6 feet. I would be very happy with a score of 85 and over the moon if I manage to score 79, breaking 80! My average would probably be around 90, if I play the same Tee and courses set up for Tour events. Unless they have an average score below 70,6 over the course of the season, they won’t keep their cards and playing rights for the next season. That’s how good they are! :-)

Average Joe would have an average of +125 on courses played by the Tour Pro’s.

As mentioned above: A different game! ;-)

We will have to do our best to enjoy our game, Tour Pros are constantly working on improving their game in order to keep their job. :-)

If they come to play the Average Joe’s courses, they would crush most of them into pieces, with scores between -6 - -10, every single round! It becomes a wedge and a putting contest! :-) At least the Male Pro’s! ;-)

Keep having fun, laugh at your success and your mistakes. Enjoy the fresh air and some exclusive time with you Buddies! “Thumbs Up”

[farmer]

^^^^^ Same sport, different game.

[northgolf]

Bad golf is hard, good golf is easy.

Hard: tee shot in the woods, attempt miracle recovery, next shot out of deep rough, chunk it short side with trap between you and pin, blow it over the green with a bladed wedge, yip it barely on the green and watch it roll out to 6' above the hole, three putt. Snow man.

Easy: hit it in the fairway, knock it in the middle of the green, putt and either tap it in or pick it out of the hole, repeat.

Having experienced both with more than my share of the first, that is how it feels to me.

 

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

Yeah, sure seems that way, and boring too. You’re telling me you don’t enjoy watching Phil play?

It’s funny you mentioned experiencing both, I assume you mean in each round too?

[Sean2]

I would love to play consistently boring golf. :-)

[Justsomeguy]

End the thread.

[andrue]

For the sake of the sport what matters is that Joe Average enjoys the experience ;)

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

Haha. Good one!I can endure 5 hour rounds just to allow Joe to play. The thing is, anyone shooting 120 doesn’t generally look like they’re actually enjoying themselves. But I certainly won’t say anything to deter them from enjoying the game.

[northgolf]

I have shot a 65 as a twentysomething (started that round birdie, eagle, par, birdie, eagle - could have been better if I didn't get gassed and bogey two of the last three holes) and I shot anywhere between 75 and 95 this past year

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

Great score! Would love to be able to say that.

Yes 75-95 is pretty typical range when you score properly.

[sigmapete1]

Here's a good breakdown by handicap, although as the article mentions, casual golfers don't have a handicap so the real numbers are likely much higher. https://www.underpargoals.com/percentage-golfers-break-par/

[Pepperturbo]

The more I see the term "hacker" used and realize friends typically shoot between 90-100, the more that label doesn't fit them. The friends I speak of want to follow the rules and want to do their best. They even ask me what the golf rule is for situations. I've never seen them bump the ball.  They have been playing golf for years, too, just lack the natural athletic ability that carries some people or the desire to do what's necessary to improve. One friend consistently cards in the 88-100 range with a decent golf swing, hit's driver pretty straight too, just poor shot judgment inside of 175yds with irons/hybrids and often lousy execution when it might mean something.  Best of all, they are not the ones that cause slow play. I can't in all honestly call him a hacker, just doesn't fit.

Surely the people that try their best ? and card 90-110, maybe higher are not hackers. Just people tackling a difficult game and can't or don't have what it takes to put it all together.

A true hacker, on the other hand, is someone that doesn't play by or care about the rules, bumps the ball all the time, doesn't have a swing, hits the ball in every direction, and seldom plays, and maybe doesn't bother keeping score. He's that guy that comes out a few times a year to hang with friends, play in a company shot-gun, pound the beers, and you can hear him off in the distance hooting and hollering maybe jumping up and down, over something that the rest of us take for granted. Hacker is someone that doesn't fix divots, pockets another player's ball, expects nothing, thinks of nothing, and probably shows up looking like he lives in a beer bar. He's the one that does some of that crazy cart driving stuff seen on Instagram; you know the guy that was screaming while driving his cart up a tree trunk or into a pond and contributing to 5-6hr rounds, etc.

A real hacker is a state of mind and behavior. Did I just have a PC ? moment.

 

[SNIPERBBB]

Hacker has always been a misused term in any industry. Except for political pundits, the usage for of hack is correct when applied to pundits.

 

Hacker never was meant to apply to computer geeks, the term cracker was reserved for the people that break into a computers. Hackers were the ones that made their computers better.

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

This is pretty true.

100 and breaking 100 is not a beginner’s score unless they’re particularly talented.

It’s difficult for me to admit it sometimes, but an average golfer shooting a 100 is not too far from what I’m capable when I’m all over the place. Particularly, if there’s a lot of deep rough that’s not playable on a course I’m not familiar. I’ve shot my fair share of 90s even as a single digit player.

88-100 is clearly not a pure novice. That player knows how to knock it towards the hole.

What I find surprising is how many people think this game should be easier than it is?

Breaking 100 is certainly a good milestone which I think puts a golfer about average?

[SNIPERBBB]

The game IS easier than what people think. The problem is we tend to try to run before we can crawl in this microwave society. Few actually start at the fundamentals.

[MMB1500]

You've nailed it. I'm keeping this one for future. ?