How Many Golfers Break 80?

break 80 scorecard — Breaking 80 is a lifetime achievement for some golfers

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How many golfers break 80?

When golfers break 80, it is seen as passing another significant milestone. Golfers start off with the aim of going round a course in double figures, that is to break 100; then the aim is to break 90, then 80. But how many complete the final stage of this journey? The short answer is very few.

According to the United States Golf Association, the average male handicap is 14.1 and the women’s one is 28. So, presuming that this Average Joe Golfer plays to his handicap – and most of the time he will not – and then, if you also presume his course handicap is the same as his handicap index, then he goes round in 86 on a par-72 layout.

This 86 is already one of his better rounds – the World Handicap System calculates a handicap index on the average of the best eight rounds from the player’s previous 20. Then that golfer is faced with getting round in a further seven fewer shots than that.

That is just to break 80 once. As to how many golfers break 80 on a regular basis, well the National Golf Foundation reckons that only about 5% of golfers do.

So how can golfers break 80? It is by putting well. Look at the stats of the average 8-handicapper and they claw back shots from the course on the green. Analysis by Arccos shows that a typical 8-handicapper will average 33.4 putts per round. Or put it another way, as the par of a hole presumes two putts, the typical 8-handicapper is around 3 under par on the greens but 11 over in getting to the green.

Or as Arccos puts it, “the best amateur players are, on average, also the best putters. That tracks for the PGA Tour as well, where it’s very common for players atop leaderboards at the end of the week also to rank highly in Strokes Gained Putting.”

Contributing Writer Roderick is the author of the critically acclaimed comic golf novels, Summer At Tangents, which was one of Country Life magazine's Books of The Year for 2024 and nominated for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, and Crime Wave At Tangents. Golf courses and travel are Roderick’s particular interests. He writes travel articles and general features for the magazine and website and compiles the magazine's crossword. He is a member of Trevose and has played golf in around two dozen countries. Cricket is his other main sporting love. He is also the author of five non-fiction books, four of which are still in print: The Novel Life of PG Wodehouse; The Don: Beyond Boundaries; Wally Hammond: Gentleman & Player and England’s Greatest Post-War All Rounder.