We all want to improve our Golf Handicap. But most of us usually just settle with our scores and enjoy our good days on the golf course. When we go to the driving range we practice every golf club in our bag and maybe more balls on the Driver because we enjoy it more or believe is more important. But should you practice your weakest area more?

The problem is that even though we have an idea of how good or how bad we are in one area, we don’t really know until we track it and compare to benchmarks. That’s why we are we are starting a series of articles that will help you compare to others in your handicap range, and see what people in your desired handicap range shoot to get to that level.

We will begin with GIR%. We ran an analysis with data from TheGrint, we looked at golfers from all Handicap Levels with at least 10 scores posted in our system and averaged their GIR% for those 10+ rounds. Then we averaged all users in the same handicap range and this was the resulting graph.

The way to read this is: Golfers with Handicap of 30 or more hit 6% of greens in regulation on average, golfers with Handicaps of 25-30 hit 10% of greens in regulations, etc etc.

We also put the information in terms of actual greens in regulation per round. So for example, scratch players (0 or better) hit an average of 12 greens. Which is surprising for most people.

How to use this graph?

Here is the important thing. If you want to get better this is a great tool. For example, if you are a ~12 handicap, and want to become single digit handicap golfer you know that you have to be able to hit 6 greens in regulation per round consistently. So by tracking your GIR with TheGrint you will be able to know whether or not you should focus your practice sessions more on your irons or driver.

Remember that to track your GIR at TheGrint you simply have to enter how many putts per hole you made. TheGrint will automatically calculate the GIR for you.

You can do similar analysis to this by going to the Trends section on TheGrint.com and comparing your performance with that of your friends. Find a friend with a handicap that you want to reach (add him in TheGrint) and see what his stats are. Then you will have a good benchmark of where to aim.

Enjoy your golf!