How many putts a scratch golfer, and a 5, 10, 15 or 20 handicap, takes to hole out from any distance, and how often each of them holes the first putt. These are the exact numbers Strokes Gained Putting scores your rounds against, printed straight out of the app rather than written up separately.
Strokes gained putting is not a score, it is a comparison. You putted from 8 feet and took two; a 10 handicap averages 1.71 putts from there, so that hole scored -0.29 strokes. Every figure the app shows you comes out of that one subtraction, which means the whole thing rests on a table of expected putts. This page is that table.
It takes two curves, and they answer different questions. The first is average putts to hole out: from 14 feet a 10 handicap needs 1.89 putts on average, counting the ones they hole, the ordinary two-putts and the three-putts together. That average is what strokes gained is measured against. The second is the chance of holing the first putt, which an average cannot tell you: 1.9 putts could be a golfer who holes one in ten and never three-putts, or one who holes a third of them and three-putts often. Both curves are below, for all five benchmarks.
The distance between the two ends of the range is wider than most golfers expect. A scratch putter holes half of everything inside 8.1 feet and does not average a second putt until 32 feet. A 20 handicap is at a coin flip from 4.5 feet and reaches two putts by 17. That is where the gap between them lives: a 20 handicap is barely worse from three feet, and hugely worse from thirty.
In the app the benchmark is one setting rather than a label stuck on each round, so choosing a different column here re-scores your whole history against it. That is what makes these numbers worth publishing: they are the yardstick, and you should be able to read the yardstick.
The figures a golfer would recognise, before the full tables. Read a row across to watch one standard of putting turn into the next.
| Statistic | Scratch | 5hcp | 10hcp | 15hcp | 20hcp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holes half its putts from | 8.1 ft | 5.6 ft | 5.2 ft | 4.9 ft | 4.5 ft |
| Averages two putts from | 32 ft | 24 ft | 22 ft | 20 ft | 17 ft |
| Holed from 6 ft | 66% | 45% | 42% | 39% | 35% |
| Holed from 10 ft | 40% | 26% | 24% | 21% | 18% |
| Holed from 20 ft | 16% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 7% |
| Average putts from 10 ft | 1.61 | 1.76 | 1.79 | 1.82 | 1.85 |
| Average putts from 30 ft | 1.98 | 2.04 | 2.06 | 2.09 | 2.18 |
| Three-putts from 30 ft | 6% | 11% | 14% | 16% | 23% |
Every figure here is derived from the two tables below rather than measured separately. The last row is expected putts beyond two, which at 30 feet reads as a three-putt rate; the third table explains it exactly.
The core table, and the one strokes gained is calculated from. Find the row for the distance you putted from: take fewer putts than the figure in your benchmark’s column and you gained strokes on that hole, take more and you lost them.
Notice how little of the range is really a two-putt. Nobody averages two putts from four feet, and no benchmark here needs a full three putts from anywhere — which is why an ordinary two-putt from 30 feet is a slightly good hole for most golfers, and from 8 feet a bad one.
| Distance | Scratch | 5hcp | 10hcp | 15hcp | 20hcp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ft | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.01 | 1.01 | 1.01 |
| 2 ft | 1.01 | 1.03 | 1.04 | 1.04 | 1.07 |
| 3 ft | 1.04 | 1.17 | 1.20 | 1.22 | 1.26 |
| 4 ft | 1.13 | 1.33 | 1.36 | 1.39 | 1.44 |
| 5 ft | 1.23 | 1.44 | 1.48 | 1.51 | 1.56 |
| 6 ft | 1.34 | 1.55 | 1.58 | 1.61 | 1.66 |
| 7 ft | 1.42 | 1.61 | 1.65 | 1.68 | 1.72 |
| 8 ft | 1.50 | 1.68 | 1.71 | 1.74 | 1.78 |
| 9 ft | 1.56 | 1.73 | 1.75 | 1.78 | 1.82 |
| 10 ft | 1.61 | 1.76 | 1.79 | 1.82 | 1.85 |
| 12 ft | 1.70 | 1.83 | 1.85 | 1.88 | 1.92 |
| 15 ft | 1.78 | 1.88 | 1.91 | 1.93 | 1.97 |
| 20 ft | 1.87 | 1.95 | 1.97 | 2.00 | 2.05 |
| 25 ft | 1.94 | 2.01 | 2.03 | 2.06 | 2.13 |
| 30 ft | 1.98 | 2.04 | 2.06 | 2.09 | 2.18 |
| 35 ft | 2.04 | 2.10 | 2.13 | 2.16 | 2.27 |
| 40 ft | 2.06 | 2.12 | 2.16 | 2.19 | 2.29 |
| 50 ft | 2.14 | 2.21 | 2.25 | 2.29 | 2.39 |
| 60 ft | 2.21 | 2.29 | 2.33 | 2.37 | 2.49 |
| 90 ft | 2.40 | 2.49 | 2.55 | 2.60 | 2.74 |
Broadie's figure stops at 40 ft, so these rows extend the amateur curves from the gap at 40 ft rather than reading a measured value off it.
A distance between two listed rows is interpolated in a straight line, so an 11-foot putt sits halfway between the 10-foot and 12-foot rows. Anything shorter than 1 foot or longer than 90 uses the nearest row.
The most legible putting question there is: how often should a putt from here go in? This is the curve the app’s make-rate chart compares you against, and it does it using each putt’s own distance rather than the middle of the band it falls in.
It is also the column to check your expectations against. A 15 handicap holing a fifth of their 10-footers is not putting badly, and nobody at any level holes much more than one 20-footer in six.
| Distance | Scratch | 5hcp | 10hcp | 15hcp | 20hcp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ft | 99.9% | 99.7% | 99.4% | 99.2% | 98.9% |
| 2 ft | 99.0% | 96.7% | 96.3% | 95.9% | 93.0% |
| 3 ft | 96.0% | 82.7% | 80.5% | 78.4% | 73.8% |
| 4 ft | 87.2% | 67.2% | 64.2% | 61.1% | 56.2% |
| 5 ft | 77.2% | 56.1% | 52.7% | 49.2% | 44.6% |
| 6 ft | 66.2% | 45.1% | 42.0% | 38.9% | 34.6% |
| 7 ft | 58.5% | 39.0% | 35.9% | 32.7% | 28.7% |
| 8 ft | 50.5% | 32.6% | 29.5% | 26.3% | 22.6% |
| 9 ft | 44.5% | 28.6% | 25.9% | 23.2% | 19.7% |
| 10 ft | 40.0% | 26.1% | 23.6% | 21.0% | 17.6% |
| 12 ft | 31.4% | 20.7% | 18.6% | 16.5% | 13.4% |
| 15 ft | 24.0% | 16.6% | 15.0% | 13.4% | 10.4% |
| 20 ft | 16.2% | 12.2% | 11.0% | 9.7% | 6.8% |
| 25 ft | 10.8% | 8.7% | 8.0% | 7.2% | 4.9% |
| 30 ft | 8.5% | 7.9% | 7.7% | 7.1% | 4.9% |
| 35 ft | 6.0% | 5.4% | 5.1% | 4.8% | 3.7% |
| 40 ft | 4.2% | 3.6% | 3.2% | 2.9% | 2.1% |
| 50 ft | 2.4% | 1.7% | 1.3% | 0.9% | 0.7% |
| 60 ft | 1.4% | 0.9% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.4% |
| 90 ft | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
Broadie's figure stops at 40 ft, so these rows extend the amateur curves from the gap at 40 ft rather than reading a measured value off it.
Between them, the two tables above pin down a third quantity. Whatever a benchmark’s average putts are, the part not explained by holing out in one has to be putts beyond the second:
average putts = 2 − one-putt chance + putts beyond two
That last term is what this table shows. A three-putt contributes one to it and a four-putt two, so wherever four-putting is negligible it reads directly as a three-putt rate, and everywhere else it sits a little above one. It separates the two ways a putt costs you strokes: missing, and leaving yourself another one.
| Distance | Scratch | 5hcp | 10hcp | 15hcp | 20hcp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ft | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2 ft | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 3 ft | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 4 ft | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| 5 ft | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| 6 ft | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| 7 ft | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| 8 ft | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.6% |
| 9 ft | 0.5% | 1.2% | 1.3% | 1.4% | 1.6% |
| 10 ft | 1.0% | 2.2% | 2.5% | 2.7% | 3.0% |
| 12 ft | 1.4% | 3.5% | 3.9% | 4.3% | 4.9% |
| 15 ft | 2.0% | 5.0% | 5.6% | 6.3% | 7.5% |
| 20 ft | 3.2% | 7.0% | 8.2% | 9.4% | 12.2% |
| 25 ft | 4.8% | 9.5% | 11.3% | 13.0% | 18.3% |
| 30 ft | 6.5% | 11.5% | 14.0% | 16.3% | 23.3% |
| 35 ft | 10.0% | 15.5% | 18.4% | 21.2% | 30.8% |
| 40 ft | 10.2% | 15.9% | 18.9% | 22.0% | 30.8% |
| 50 ft | 16.4% | 22.7% | 26.2% | 29.6% | 40.2% |
| 60 ft | 22.4% | 29.5% | 33.5% | 37.5% | 49.2% |
| 90 ft | 40.4% | 49.7% | 54.7% | 59.9% | 74.2% |
Broadie's figure stops at 40 ft, so these rows extend the amateur curves from the gap at 40 ft rather than reading a measured value off it.
Inside 8 feet these are near zero for every benchmark, which is the point: from there, the extra putts an amateur needs are putts they missed, not putts they lagged. Past 30 feet it is the other way round, and almost the whole difference between benchmarks is speed control.
Take a 10 handicap, the benchmark the app starts new accounts on. The table says 2.03 average putts from 25 feet, so two-putting from there scores +0.03 strokes: par for that golfer, near enough to nothing. The same two putts from 8 feet score -0.29, because 1.71 putts is what is expected from that distance — a third of a stroke handed back on a hole that felt uneventful.
That is the whole engine. Holes add up across a round and rounds across a season, and those quiet 8-footers turn out to be where the strokes go. Working out which distances are doing it to you is what the app is for; these tables are what it measures you with.
The scratch column uses the PGA Tour putting data popularised by Mark Broadie in Every Shot Counts, gathered through ShotLink, which measures every shot played on tour.
The four handicap columns come from Broadie’s Assessing Golfer Performance Using Golfmetrics (Science and Golf V, 2008), which plots average putts against distance for four categories of golfer. As far as we can find it is the only published per-foot expected-putts curve for amateurs anywhere: the far larger modern trackers report make percentages in wide distance bands, and a band average cannot be read as a curve.
Two adjustments turn those four categories into these four columns. Only each category’s gap over the paper’s own tour curve is used, and it is added to the scratch row above rather than replacing it, so any systematic offset in reading the figure cancels out and the much larger tour sample stays the anchor. And because his categories are score bands rather than handicaps, their midpoints are converted with a standard score-to-handicap relation, which places them near a 4, a 16 and a 33 handicap; the five benchmarks interpolate between those.
The result is checked, not asserted. The same paper separately states, in prose, each category’s average two-putt distance and the distance it holes half its putts from — eight numbers arrived at independently of the plotted curves. Six of them belong to categories inside the range these benchmarks cover, and rebuilding those six from the tables above, at the handicap each of Broadie’s score bands converts to, reproduces five of them to within a foot: all three half-holed distances land within a third of a foot, and the middle-handicap two-putt distance to within an inch.
The sixth is the tour row, which averages two putts at 31.7 ft against this paper’s 30. That gap is expected rather than wrong: the scratch row follows ShotLink instead of this paper’s much smaller pro sample, and Broadie’s tour figure from ShotLink is 33 ft, so the curve sits between his two published numbers. The remaining two of the eight belong to his worst category, which converts to a 33 handicap — past the end of the range these benchmarks cover, so it is not part of the comparison. The app’s test suite holds every one of those checks, and the identity tying the two tables together, so a retune that breaks them fails the build.
Two limits are worth stating plainly. This data makes amateurs noticeably worse inside 10 feet than the banded make rates published by large consumer trackers imply. The sources genuinely disagree, and Broadie’s own separately stated figures disagree with those trackers too, so it is not an artifact of how the curves were read here; the app uses one coherent source rather than splicing two that contradict each other. The other limit is the top of the table: past 40 feet the figure stops, so the amateur curves are extended from the gap at 40 feet. Putts from there are rare enough that those rows only have to be sensible.
A benchmark is a reference point, not a diagnosis. Real putting depends on green speed, slope, grain and weather, and none of that is in these tables. Comparing your own rounds against one steady standard is what makes them useful, and it is also all they claim to do.
Strokes Gained Putting logs the distance of every putt as you play, in a couple of taps, and scores each hole against whichever column above you pick. It is free, it works without signal, and it installs on your phone straight from the browser.