7 Surprising Stats About 5 Handicap Golfers

5 Handicap Golfer Stats

A 5 handicap golfer can be considered a very accomplished player, with most golfers never getting their handicaps down to that level and dreaming of one day having an index that low.

While they are undoubtedly accomplished golfers, there are some surprisingly stats of how they compile their rounds and how they could even lower their handicaps across all areas of the game, from driving to approach, short game and putting.

The stats in this piece from Arccos Golf, with data gleaned from more than 540 million shots from 11.5 million rounds worldwide.

So if you're a 5 handicapper and want to lower your handicap or if your goal is to reach a 5 index, take a look at these statistics...

1. From 150 yards in the fairway

From 150 yards in the fairway, wielding something like a 6-iron, 7-iron or 8-iron, the average 5 handicap golfer hits their shots inside 20ft just 19% of the time and inside 10ft just 6% of the time.

From the fairway, 5 handicappers find the green around 50% of the time from 148 yards out, showing just how crucial this distance is for low handicappers. Overall, they hit 46% of greens in regulation, which equates to 8.28 greens per round.

2. Fairways found with driver

Typical 5 handicap players miss more fairways than they hit with driver - although only just. With driver in hand, the 5 index players average 49.7% of fairways hit. That number only goes up 2.9% to 52.6% when using a 3-wood.

For those wondering, 5 handicap golfers average 245 yards off the tee.

3. Three-putts

From 30ft away, most 5 handicap golfers will be looking to, or thinking of, holing their putt for birdie or par. However, the data shows that they actually three-putt 20% of the time from that distance!

A one-in-five chance of three-putting from 30ft shows that 5 handicaps could shoot lower scores by working on their lag putting and from inside 5ft. In total, they tend to have two three-putts per round, with an average of 32.1 putts per round.

4. 300 Yard par 4s

According to the data, 5 handicappers average around 4.27 strokes on a typical par 4 of 300 yards - a surprising stat when nearly all players of that ability will be looking to birdie the shorter holes. Some might even try their hands at driving the green, or getting up close to it, despite the average distance off the tee of 245 yards.

If you're a 5 handicap, think of all the silly bogeys made on short par 4s and maybe look at taking an iron or hybrid off the tee to leave a simple wedge into the green.

5. Bogeys

The typical 5 index player makes bogey or worse on 44% of the holes they play. That equates to 7.92 holes of bogey or worse - and we know that 5 handicappers also make double or worse on roughly 1.6 holes per round yet make just 1.2 birdies per round on average.

It's clear that 5 handicappers looking to lower their indexes need to turn some of those bogeys and doubles into pars.

5. From 75 yards

From the fairway and just 75 yards out, a 5 handicapper is more likely to make bogey than birdie! 

The chance of them getting up-and-down for birdie is just 11%, while the likelihood of them taking four or more strokes to get down is double that at 22%.

6. Up-and-downs

You might think that 5 handicappers are short game wizards, but in actual fact they're just solid around the greens.

From within 25 yards, they only get up-and-down 46% of the time according to the Arccos data, but they find the green 94% of the time - meaning they rarely hit duffed or thinned chips shots. Overall, they average a distance of 14ft from the hole with chip shots inside 25 yards.

7. Inside 5ft

Another assumption about 5 handicap golfers might be that they hole everything from inside 5ft, but the statistics show that they only make 63% of putts between 3-5ft, which will certainly back up the data that they three-putt 20% of the time from 30ft.

They don't even hole everything inside 2ft either, with a make percentage of 93%.

5 Handicap Stats:

DRIVING DISTANCE: 247 yards

DRIVING ACCURACY: 49%

GREENS IN REGULATION: 46%

UP-AND-DOWNS 25-50YDS: 26%

UP-AND-DOWNS 0-25YDS: 46%

SAND SAVES 25-50YDS: 20%

SAND SAVES 0-25YDS: 28%

PUTTS PER ROUND: 32.1

PUTTS PER GIR: 2.0

PUTTS PER HOLE: 1.8

BIRDIES PER ROUND: 1.2

PARS PER ROUND: 8.9

BOGEYS PER ROUND: 6.4

DOUBLES+ PER ROUND: 1.6

PAR 3 SCORE: 3.4

PAR 4 SCORE: 4.5

PAR 5 SCORE: 5.1

Golf Monthly has also taken a look at scratch golfer stats, how a scratch vs 18 handicaps compare and 10 mind blowing amateur golfer stats.