Are Golfers Actually Getting Better? The Stats Reveal All

Every year we’re told about breakthroughs in golf swing analysis tools and club technology that promise longer drives, more greens hit and lower scores. But are golfers actually improving? We consulted with our data partner Shot Scope to analyze over 200,000 rounds of golf to compare how amateur golfers are performing in 2024 versus five years ago to find out if they have actually got any better in that time period.

WATCH: We compare the performance of golfers from 2019 vs 2024

Let’s start with the stats we all want to know about, that is average score and handicap, and interestingly among Shot Scope users, the average score per round improved slightly from 15.31 over par in 2019 to 14.97 over par in 2024. On average, in the same time period, the average handicap of users fell from 14.6 to 13.9. Now this could obviously be skewed by more low handicappers using Shot Scope products than high handicappers, but the data suggests that golfers are getting ever so slightly better.

But where are these improvements in scoring and handicap might be coming from? Let’s start on the tee box. Here, golfers have become marginally more accurate going from 34.8% of fairways found in 2019 to 35.1% in 2024 while the number of tee shots in trouble stayed flat. Distance was also up by just over five yards from 234.2 yards to 239.4 yards. So not only are golfers hitting it further now on average, they’re also managing to hit the ball a little bit straighter too, which suggests gains in clubhead speed, equipment efficiency, or user confidence in hitting driver more frequently and aggressively.

Greens in Regulation saw a nearly 2 percentage point improvement in that five year period going from 27.8% to 29.7%, signaling better approach play. Interestingly here, golfers are also now hitting their 7-iron around 3 yards longer on average which supports a trend toward stronger lofts but also better swing efficiency or improved technique.

Around the green, the up-and-down conversion rate improved slightly from 30.9% to 31.8% but bunker play actually got slightly worse. Fluffed short game shots, or the number of instances golfers required multiple shots from within 70 yards to hit the green, decreased by 0.5 times per round, which is a positive sign of less wasted shots.

Further improvements can be found on the green too with golfers in 2024 now taking fewer three putts versus golfers in 2019 from 2.1 three putts per round to 1.9. They’re also better from short range with the number of missed putts from inside 5 feet per round going down from 3.7 to 2.9, which represents a significant reduction of more than 20 percent.

So in summary, in most areas of the game it appears that golfers have got slightly better. Of course there are other factors at play but it’s reassuring to know that advances in technology and performance tracking is having a positive impact on our ability to play the game.