TheGrint HQ
6 minutes
Updated
October 20, 2026
What is a Grint? A Grint is a hole played in par or better: every par, birdie, eagle or better counts, and a bogey or worse does not. Your Grints % is the share of holes in a round that you play in par or better, so 8 Grints over 18 holes is 44.4%.
This guide covers how to count Grints and work out your Grints %, how the stat differs from greens in regulation, what golfers from scratch to a 36 handicap averaged in TheGrint's data, and where the name comes from.
If you keep score hole by hole in TheGrint, the scores you enter are all your Grints stats need, because a Grint depends only on your score against par.
A Grint is any hole you finish in par or better, whatever route you took to get there. Only the final score on the hole matters, so a scrambling par counts exactly the same as a textbook two-putt par.
The term is TheGrint's own. It is not an official golf term, so playing partners outside the app may know the same idea as simply "pars or better". Golfers who use TheGrint are called Grinters, and the stat shares its name with the app.
Your Grints % is the number of holes you played in par or better divided by the number of holes you played, multiplied by 100.
One round can swing a lot, so look at the number across several. Twenty Grints over four 18-hole rounds is 20 ÷ 72 = 27.8%, a steadier figure to compare with the handicap benchmarks below.
Grints % measures your final score on each hole, while GIR (greens in regulation) measures only whether you reached the green with two strokes to spare against par. Because the final score decides a Grint, putting and short-game play count toward it in a way they do not for GIR.
| What happened on a par 4 | GIR? | Grint? |
|---|---|---|
| On the green in 2, two putts for par | Yes | Yes |
| On the green in 2, three putts for bogey | Yes | No |
| Missed the green, chipped close, one putt for par | No | Yes |
| Missed the green, chipped and two-putted for bogey | No | No |
Reading the two together tells you more than either alone. A Grints % well above your GIR % means your short game saves pars; a Grints % close to or below your GIR % suggests strokes are slipping away on the greens. See what GIR is and what golfers hit by handicap for the other half of the comparison.
A good Grints % depends on your handicap: in TheGrint's data published in 2020, scratch golfers averaged 74% Grints, 10 handicaps 42%, 20 handicaps 20% and 36 handicaps 6%. The table shows the average at every second handicap level from 0 to 36, with the number of Grints per 18 holes each percentage works out to.
| Handicap | Average Grints % | About this many Grints per 18 holes |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 74% | 13.3 |
| 2 | 68% | 12.2 |
| 4 | 61% | 11.0 |
| 6 | 54% | 9.7 |
| 8 | 48% | 8.6 |
| 10 | 42% | 7.6 |
| 12 | 36% | 6.5 |
| 14 | 31% | 5.6 |
| 16 | 27% | 4.9 |
| 18 | 24% | 4.3 |
| 20 | 20% | 3.6 |
| 22 | 18% | 3.2 |
| 24 | 15% | 2.7 |
| 26 | 13% | 2.3 |
| 28 | 11% | 2.0 |
| 30 | 10% | 1.8 |
| 32 | 9% | 1.6 |
| 34 | 8% | 1.4 |
| 36 | 6% | 1.1 |
About the data: TheGrint calculated the average Grints % at each handicap level from 0 to 36 using hole-by-hole scores logged by Grinters, and published the results on August 31, 2020. The Grints-per-round column is simple arithmetic (percentage × 18). Treat the figures as a 2020 benchmark rather than a current count.
To use the table, find your handicap and treat the next level down as your target for your next few rounds.
Not sure how your handicap compares with other golfers? See the average golf handicap.
The name comes from a game TheGrint's founders played growing up: they earned a point for every hole they finished in par or better, and they called that result a Grint.
Bogey or worse earned nothing. TheGrint kept the name for its par-or-better stat: Grints % shows the share of holes you play in par or better.
TheGrint works out your Grints from the scores you enter hole by hole. A Grint depends only on your score against par, so the app derives it automatically from your scoring inputs. Scores are golfer-entered; TheGrint does not detect shots automatically.
Your Grints stats in TheGrint's Stats section show:
Free members see the headline Grints numbers in Stats; the detailed breakdown, with filters, is part of a Pro Membership on TheGrint. Pro also includes Insights, which benchmarks Grints alongside seven other stat categories against golfers at a similar skill level. See what Free and Pro include. For more advanced features, try TheGrint Pro free for 7 days.
To understand the pars you save after missing a green, pair your Grints with the scrambling stats.
In golf, a Grint means a hole played in par or better. The term comes from TheGrint, the golf app, whose founders played a game growing up in which every par or better earned a point called a Grint. It is not an official golf term, but it is the name of a performance stat in TheGrint's app.
On TheGrint app, a Grint is any hole you score in par or better, and your Grints % is the share of holes where you did it. Your Grints stats come from the hole-by-hole scores you enter. Free members see the headline numbers; the detailed breakdown, with filters, is part of a Pro Membership on TheGrint.
A good Grints percentage depends on your handicap. In TheGrint's data published in 2020, scratch golfers averaged 74%, 10 handicaps 42% and 20 handicaps 20%, which is about 13.3, 7.6 and 3.6 Grints per 18 holes. Beating the figure for your handicap is a good sign; the next level down makes a useful target.
TheGrint is where golf happens: a golf app that brings your golf world together in one place. Golfers use it to track scores, manage handicaps, understand their stats, measure improvement, compete with friends and discover courses. TheGrint started in 2012, its users are called Grinters, and the Grints stat is named after the founders' par-or-better game.
Enter your score on each hole and your Grints stats follow from it: your Grints %, your Grints per round and your Grints streak, round after round. TheGrint is free on iPhone and Android. Get started with TheGrint.
