In today’s article, we’ll talk about one of the most important stats in the game: Greens in Regulation. If you’re unfamiliar, a green in regulation (or GIR) is achieved when a player reaches the green two strokes (or less) under the par of a hole. So it basically happens anytime you’re putting for Albatross, Eagle, or a Birdie.
I mentioned that is one of the most important stats in golf because it measures your game as a whole, not just one aspect of it since you need to do a bit of everything well.
For example, you could hit a great driver but if your follow-up shot with iron wasn’t very good, you’ll miss the green.
The opposite can be true: if you hit a bad driver, you’ll be in a tight spot where you’ll only reach the green if your next shot is great. If you’re looking to lower your scores, a great way to do so is to focus on increasing your GIR%.
After analyzing millions of golf rounds from TheGrint, we created a chart showing the Greens In Regulation % by Handicap Bracket and hole par.
Let’s dig in to see what the data tell us!
The GIR stat gets calculated automatically using the # of putts and your score on the hole.
Some data nuggets that we can take from the chart above:
- For the most skilled golfers, Par 5s are the easiest holes to reach in regulation. Why? My guess is that the two most important factors that come into play are their ability to hit longer shots than their less-skilled peers.
- On the opposite side of the spectrum, the higher handicapped players achieve a successful GIR most frequently on Par 3s.
- Players with handicaps between 16 & 17 achieve GIR exactly the same amount of times in both Par 5s and Par 3s. On the same note, this also happens to players with a handicap between 5 & 7 BUT on Par 3s and Par 4s.
- For the majority of golfers, the hardest holes to achieve a GIR in are Par 4s.
To find out how do you stack up against your peers, head over to the STATS section in TheGrint App and go to the Greens In Regulation screen (it will be the 5th screen).
These amazing insights are only available for our PRO members, so if you haven’t upgraded yet, click here!
You can also check out this fascinating graphic to see how hard is to be in regulation from the fairway and from the rough, see more here
Enjoy your golf!
