If you’ve ever looked at your stats after a good round of golf and wondered why you had so many shots, you’re not alone.
Many golfers expect their putting numbers to decrease as their greens in regulation increase. On the surface, this makes sense. More green shots should mean easier scores and fewer putts. But when you look at real performance data, that assumption doesn’t hold up the way most players think.
Using a large set of data from Shot Scope, we can see exactly how putting greens affect total shots per round and why some of your best golf rounds involve more shots, not fewer.
What the Shot Scope was looking at
The purpose of this analysis is simple: when golfers hit more putting greens than usual, what effect does that have on putting?
To answer that, Shot Scope looked at round data from two handicap groups: 15-handicappers and golfers with handicaps.
For each group, they compared:
- Rounds where the golfer hit fewer greens than their personal average
- Rounds where they hit for their normal number of greens
- Rounds where they hit more greens than their personal average
These tables show how the total shots per round changed as the greens increased in regulation.
15 players with disabilities
| Green Hit | Total Putts |
|---|---|
| 2 | 28.1 |
| 4 | 32.3 |
| 7 | 35.4 |
When 15 handicappers hit significantly more greens than normal, their total scores increase by more than three per round.
Scratch players
| Green Hit | Total Putts |
|---|---|
| 7 | 27.4 |
| 10 | 31.1 |
| 13 | 32.6 |
The same tendency appears at the level of scratches. More hits on the greens lead to more putts, even for elite players.
Why does this happen?
The key factor here is proximity to the hole.
When a golfer hits the green in regulation, his first shot often comes from 20, 30 or even 40 feet. When they miss the green, they are usually chipping or throwing from a much closer distance. This creates shorter first strokes and more knock.
So, as the greens in regulation grow:
- First hit distance increases
- Three-shot danger increases
In other words, the golfer reaches the green faster on the hole, which is a good thing, but naturally leads to taking more shots from longer distances.
Why stroke totals per round can be deceiving
The total number of shots per round does not tell you how well you did. It only tells you how many times you put.
The best rounds of golf often come with:
- Longer first shots
- More birdie chances
- Fewer chips and steps
This combination often results in higher shot totals but lower scores. Because of this, total strikeouts alone are a poor way to evaluate the performance of the placement. It doesn’t take into account how far your first shots are or how often you’re hitting the fairway without needing a short putt.
Smarter ways to evaluate placement
Instead of focusing solely on your total shots per round, pay attention to:
- Three shots per round
- Delay in setting performance from 20 plus feet
- Putts for the green in regulation and not in the round
- Average first shot distance
These metrics do a much better job of showing if your putting is improving or if you’re just hitting the green earlier on the hole.
conclusion
Hitting more greens doesn’t guarantee fewer putts, but it does create better scoring chances. Double putting on the green is still a better result than relying on repeated ups and downs. Watch out for three shots, not total shots.
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