Why do scratch golfers make fewer mistakes than you on the golf course?

They’re frustratingly good, aren’t they? Those scratch golfers – they find fairways, hit rapier iron shots, and get up and down from everywhere.

Well, they don’t really. No golfer does. Not even the pros. But what they do very well is make fewer mistakes than you out on the course.

On YouTube, Hannah Holden used Shot Scope data to run through the habits of scratch golfers than can also help lower your scores and, on the latest episode of The NCG Golf Podcast, Tom Irwin and I recounted five of these and talked about their impact.

Watch Hannah’s video below, or click the banner below to hear what Tom – who is a scratch golfer himself – has to say about them.

Manage your misses

Left, right, off the planet – yes, we all miss a lot. But, Tom Irwin explains, software gives you the chance to see where you’re predominant bad shot comes from – and do something about it.

“Any data, from any software, will tell you the most likely place you’ll miss with any club,” he said. “That’s a really important bit of information If you can get an understanding about what your pattern is, and particularly what your pattern is on certain types of holes.

“If you’re playing golf at the same place regularly, you’ll probably begin to understand that you always hit X type of shot on X numbered hole. I think at most ‘normal’ golf clubs, and on most ‘normal’ golf holes, there is a better and worse place to miss and, I think, this is particularly true on tee shots.”

Don’t aim at the pin

Flag-hunting. We all love it, don’t we? Especially when a perfectly struck shot comes to rest deliciously close to the pin. But how often does that really happen?

Irwin said: “What percentage of scratch golfers do you think come up short? It’s about 20 per cent and for 15 handicappers that number rockets to over 50 per cent.

“This is a really good practical example. I think even tour pros do this. So if you’ve got a front flag, particularly on a par 3 or a second shot into a short 4, you think you want to hit it close. You zap the flag and you’ve got your number to the flag at the front of the green.

“But because we all mishit it, or we all think we hit the ball slightly further than we do, that’s the number one reason everyone comes up short. It’s a particular devil on short flags.”

He added: “To those front flags, you should always be trying to hit it past the flag. You might have a yardage of 140. It the flag is at the front you should be thinking about trying to hit it 145 – trying to git the ball further than the flag to compensate for that mis-strike.

“The same is obviously true of left and right flags. I think automatically aiming at flags is the curse of the mid-handicapper.”

Shot selection around the greens

You’ve come up short and you want to get up and down. What do you think the best club is to make that scenario the most likely? The answer is definitely going to surprise you.

Irwin explained: “We all watch loads of tour golf where it’s de rigueur to get a lofted wedge out and use the bounce and get it checking on the second bounce. The people who do that are incredibly skilled and practice that shot a lot.

“What does Shot Scope say is the best club to use around the green? The stats on this are pretty amazing. They say the best club to use most often is a putter. Scratch golfers get up and down 81 per cent of the time with a putter and just 41 per cent of the time with a lob wedge.

“Move to mid handicappers and those numbers change to 70 per cent and 20 per cent. After a putter, the second most likely club to lead to an up and down for a scratch golfer is an 8-iron.”

Irwin added there were some caveats – shots where a putter could be easily employed were likely to be easier than those with a lob wedge, which might also be from a bunker or coming over deep rough.

“But the point remains that trying to use something with the least possible loft, and get the ball on the ground as quickly as possible, is the much lower tariff shot to choose for most golfers.”

Manage your expectations

Who doesn’t huff and puff over a bad shot from time-to-time? How often are we dis-satisfied with our own golf? We should have hit it further, or stuck it closer to the hole, or holed that putt.

“That dissatisfaction creeps into everything. It creates muddled decisions and it creates tension. There is a massive thing in managing your expectations. Shot Scope has got some stats around this,” Irwin said.

“From 150 yards, so that’s a big 9 for me or a little 8, how often do you think a scratch golfer would hit the green?

“It’s 50 per cent. So half the time a scratch golfer is going to miss the green and that balloons to just 20 per cent for a 15-handicapper. And the average distance that player would finish from the green is 140 feet.

“So while you might stand there with your mid-iron thinking, ‘my expectation is I’m going to git the green here’, actually most of the time if you’re within 10 yards of the green that’s your expected outcome.”

Understand your weaknesses

This one’s a bit joined up. It links in with many of the other topics we’ve already discussed. Let’s allow Irwin to have the final word.

“If you’re a terrible bunker player, then trying not to go into bunkers is a big thing,” he said. “Shot Scope says an average 15-handicapper is 50 per cent less likely to get up and down from a bunker than if they’re not in one.

“If you’re on a par 3 that’s well bunkered on one side, your first priority is ‘don’t hit it in a bunker’ and then you’re back to those stats around the short game.”

He added: “Having gone through these Shot Scope numbers, and Hannah’s video, you do learn that golf is as much about managing your bad shots as it is anything else and trying to avoid those big numbers. No one hits good shots all the time.”

Now listen to The NCG Golf Podcast

Tom Irwin and Steve Carroll discuss these scratch golfer trends in more detail and also talk about the dramatic events at the PGA Championship. You can listen to the full episode here.

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