Scratch golfers are good. But in golf, “good” is always relative. If you think the next step from scratch is turning pro, it is more than just a small leap. The gap between scratch and Tour-level golf is wider than most people realize.
Before any scratch players get defensive, consider this insight, not criticism. Use the data from Shot Scope to see where your game might still come up short.
For me, the most surprising difference is the approach shot proximity. Pros do not just hit greens, they hit it close.
The score gap is bigger than it looks (and from a shorter course)
The average scratch golfer is playing from a course around 6200 yards. The Tour players are playing closer to 7200 yards. That 1000 yards is a big difference, and the scoring average is at least three shots.
The average scratch golfer shoots around 74, and the average Tour professional is closer to 71.4.
This means that if we took the average scratch golfer and moved them back to 7200 yards, the scoring gap of about three strokes would widen.
Approach proximity is glaringly different
Approach shots are the next performance gap we examined. The average proximity for Tour players for all approach shots is around 37 feet. For a scratch golfer, it’s close to 65 feet. That extra thirty feet adds to some strokes throughout the round.
If you look at standard approach shots from 175-200 yards, the Tour pro usually hits their shot on the green 60% of the time. For an average scratch golfer using Shot Scope data, it’s only 37% of the time.
Long game accuracy (especially from 200+) is a hidden killer
Any golfer, scratch or professional, will tell you that greens get harder to hit the further you get from the hole. However, Tour players can often hit greens and leave themself makeable putts when they are playing from that 200-225 yard distance.
Scratch golfers are leaving themselves 78 to 102 feet from the hole and only hitting the green 25% of the time. It’s only half as often as the professionals, and certainly not enough to be thinking about scoring vs saving your score.
Short game and putting are close, but still a gap
Interestingly, the gap between scratch golfers and professionals in short game performance is smaller than in other parts of the game. That aligns with the advice most amateurs hear: improve your short game, and your scores will drop. For scratch players, it already has.
PGA Tour pros get up and down about 60% of the time, compared to 54% for scratch golfers. One-putt percentages are 40% on Tour and 34% for scratch players — not a massive difference.
The one area where scratch players still fall noticeably short is sand saves. Tour pros convert nearly 58% of their bunker shots; scratch players are around 37%.
Final thoughts
Scratch golfers are great players. It’s not easy to become a scratch golfer but Tour players are in another dimension. Whether it’s scoring on a longer course, hitting it closer from 200+, or making one more clutch up-and-down, it all adds up.
Darren Jeffries
1 year ago
Try seeing the pros in some of the bunkers scratch golfers hit out of at regular courses and then see if that gap shortens. The one thing, notably talked about by Bryson, who is a good of a voice to listen to as any, when he tries to beat the lowest round at a municipal golf course is that, the enormous difference in condition. He said conditions at Tour events are spectacular whereas the average Joe isn’t experiencing that.