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How Close Should You Hit Your Approach Shots?
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Jul 14, 2025
In this video, Dan Parker explains how close to the flag amateur golfers hit their approach shots into greens by handicap. With the help of data from Arccos golf, he also sheds a light on how many greens you should be hitting per round as well as how close you should be to the flag from different distances away. The chances are, you're not hitting it as close as you think you are - especially from short range, but Dan has all the answers in this video so be sure to watch to the end.
View Video Transcript
0:00
How close do you think you hit your average approach shots to this thing, the pin, on average
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I think it's a little closer than you think, and I've got all the data to prove it
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So I'm going to be breaking down handicap index by handicap index, the average distance away from the pin in two sets of values, right
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The first one is how far away they are when a greening regulation is hit
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So that's in two shots on a par four, three on a par five, and one on a par three
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I'm also going to give you the information of when a green regulation isn't hit
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How far away is this handicap index on average when they don't find the dance floor
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And all of this information has come courtesy of Arcos, who have now recorded over 1 billion, billion golf shots from real golfers on real golf courses
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This is valuable information. I've been using Arcos now for the best part of three years
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We're going to look at some of my data in a little bit. And if you want to get your hands and start using Arcos yourself
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I've put some handy links down in the description where you can find the best price in your area for a set of their smart sensors
1:01
One more bit of information before we get properly stuck in. Let's take a look at the green in regulation percentages on average per handicap index, right
1:09
So when I'm talking about the distance away in a green in reg, we know how often that's happening per handicap index, right
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Still with me? Bring the graph up. The green in regulation percentage for all distances this is per handicap index
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So for a scratch golfer, a zero handicap, 56% of the time, so only just over half
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46% of the time for a five handicap, 36% of the time for a 10, 27% if you're a 15
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and 20% of the time from all distances if you're a 20, right
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Everybody happy? The parameters are set? Let's go find out some information
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Okay, all set, and let's start with a zero handicap golfer, a scratch golfer
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a very competent golfer that we just found out is hitting the dance floor 56 at the time from all
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distances. So when they hit a green in regulation, they are on average 26 feet away from the pin
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And when I actually measure that out, it's quite far, isn't it? You think these golfers might be
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getting within 10 or 15 feet more often than not, but no, 26 feet on average. And for all shots
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and this is what I think is the impressive stat, from all distances, they are 44 feet away when
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they miss the green. So they're not, you know, snap hooking it out of bounds and all that. They're
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probably just missing it in a bunker or over the back or short So that a difference of 18 feet when this golfer does hit the green and when they don hit the green And for a little bit more context on that the PGA Tour average stands at just over 38 feet for all approach shots and all distances
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So they're actually quite close, but I guess those fine margins are more greens hit and more putts hold for those PGA Tour golfers
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Right then, next up, five handicap and 10 handicap golfers. So start with a five-handicap golfer
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On a green in regulation hit, they are 28 feet away from the pin on average
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So only two more than the scratch golfer. For all of their shots, though, it's 54 feet
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So a 10-foot difference there from the scratch golfer. That difference for the five-handicap is 26 foot between a green in regulation hit
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and a green in regulation missed away from the pin. Again, a little bit more than that scratch golfer, as you might expect
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Moving up to a 10-handicap golfer, when they find the green in regulation, and they are on average 31 feet away from the pin
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And when they miss it, they are 65 feet away from the pin. Those numbers are going to start to creep up, as you might expect
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And that's the difference for the 10 handicapped when they do and don't hit a green of 34 feet
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Which again is pretty significant. You see those bad shots now are getting worse
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And again, when I measure out 31 feet, it's quite a long way on a green, isn't it
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So, you know, you think these golfers that might be better than you, they're not pin hunting all the time, dancing the ball around the flag
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they are just happy to get on the green as most of us should be now i fall into this so as i promised
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here's my data warts and all uh i'm a 6.5 index as i currently speak uh from my last 10 rounds this
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is not from all my across shots over the years from my recent golf when i hit the green regulation
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i'm on average 26 feet away which is the same as a scratch golfer might i add when i miss the green
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though it goes horribly horribly wrong and i'm 56 feet away it's either glory it's glory or bust
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with me at the minute it seems over my last 10 rounds anyway a difference of 30 feet when I do
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hit a green and when I don't. I might expand that out actually because on the Arcos app you can show
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different periods of time maybe I do all time next time see how my golfs are over the last three years
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who knows but again really interesting stats there to get an idea of how far away which is
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quite far away these really good golfers are. Okay let's look at 15 and 20 index golfers now
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Now the 15 index goal for when they hit a green in regulation is 33 feet away from the
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pin on average and for all shots including those ones that are missed it 75 feet on average Again unsurprisingly we getting a bit wider here That difference is 42 feet between the green in reg hit and the green in reg missed For 20 handicap golfers the green in reg percentage
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excuse me, the green in reg difference is actually pretty similar. So if there's 20 handicap, it's 36 feet away from the pin
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but those missed ones are quite different from the 15 handicapper. When a 20 handicapper misses the green
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they're 85 feet away from the pin. On average, a difference between those two of 49 feet
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and I guess a nugget I think most golfers the average is about 19 I think the index
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at least here in the UK um just try and make those bad shots less bad is that a piece of advice that's
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useful probably because you can see the difference there of 49 feet between a good shot that finds a
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green a bad shot that misses is going to cost you a heck of a lot of shots so the next bit of day
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I'm going to talk about is when we work our way down the hole now per distance how close is each
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handicap index getting to the hole right this will become clear in a minute so I'm currently stood
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65 yards away from this pin behind me. And according to the Arcos data, I'll bring a table up now
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A scratch golfer from this distance on average will still be 30 feet away from the pin. Isn't
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that an interesting stat? I quite like that one. Working our way up, five handicap golfers 35 feet
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10 handicap 39 feet, 15 handicap 44 feet, and 20 handicap 46 feet on average. And that is between
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50 and 74 yards. So I'm 65 yards away here. And if you're an average golfer of 15 or 20 handicap
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you're going to be outside 40 feet from here and that is the average and that is okay that's the
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lesson we take from that is from this distance even though you feel like you should be taking
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on pins and putting it in gimme distance that that isn't happening and just getting yourself
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on the dance floor is what the average golfer is doing and at least gives you a chance to make a
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putt or two putt right so i'm working my way further away from the pin now stood at 110 yards away
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and here's the data for your handicap index and how close you should be getting to that
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from here with a little wedge in your hand. For a scratch golfer, their average distance away
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from that pin is 38 feet. Again, I think these are quite surprisingly large numbers
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Five handicap, 45 feet. 10 handicap, 53 feet. 15 handicap, 60 feet
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A 20 handicap golfer is gonna be 67 feet away from that pin on average
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Again, another lesson for you golfers out there is if you can, A, don't be too worried
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if you're miles away from the pin from here, but if you can tighten up that wedge game
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you're gonna start taking shots off because that's how these handicap indexes are working all the way down
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If we worked our way back a little bit further, let say I got to 140 yards right Scratch golfers on average I bring this table up again 45 feet away five handicappers 53 feet away 10 handicappers 62 feet away 15 handicappers 70 feet away
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and 20 handicappers, 77 feet away from that pin, from 140 yards away, so another 30 yards down that fairway
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Really interesting stuff. I'm gonna work my way a little bit further down the hole now, and we're gonna see this distance keep going up
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Right, so I've worked my way up to 180 yards away from that pin, not a lot of loft in your hand now
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and you can see those distances going up, And this includes all shots. This isn't just green regulation
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This is how far this golfer will be away from that pin regardless of where that ball goes
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So for the zero handicap, they'll be 72 feet away at this stage. That wouldn't hit this green, I don't think
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It's not a very big green. So the scratch golfer's missing this green. Five handicap, 84 feet
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10 handicap, 102 feet. 15 handicap, 124 feet. And 20 handicap, 144 feet
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You can see the differences between each index increasing here as well
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I think the skill level of the scratch golfer to the 20 handicap with a six or five iron in their hand
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is much broader than when they've both got a wedge in their hand, as we noticed
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I'm gonna do one last one, I'm gonna move up to about 220 yards away, and we're gonna look at
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how far away these golfers are when they're right back there. Okay, I'm 215 yards now away from this pin from behind me
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and quite frankly, looking at this table I'll bring up now, you're not gonna hit the green, none of these golfers do
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unless the green's 140 feet wide or long, which they aren't very often, are they
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So a scratch golfer from here will get themselves close enough, 140 feet away, five handicap, 158, 10 handicap, 182, 15 handicap, 205 feet
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and that 20 handicap, 226 feet away, which I can't even imagine on this hole, to be honest
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It's quite far away, isn't it? So again, that scratch golf was just getting themselves close
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probably trying to keep it in play, and an extra nearly 100 feet away, a 20 handicap is just trying
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to scramble from this stage. But I hope this gives you a really good idea, both of when that
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green regulation is hit how close each handicap index is and how far away they are the further
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away we get from the pin and the real way to understand where you sit in this field is to get
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Arcos for yourself use it as much as you can gather all that data and you can understand
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using their strokes gain tool and comparing against the stats I've spoken about today
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where you sit in that spectrum of all golfers right depending on what handicap index you are
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hope you enjoyed this video I hope you found it informative let me know where you sit
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in this bracket. If you know in the comments, I'd love to hear how you're getting on
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if you're using Arcos already. Hope you found it informative. Hope you've enjoyed it
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Until next time, I'll see you then
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