One of the very first things I examine with the PGA Tour players I work with is their basic scoring metrics. Those metrics include the following:

• Adjusted Total Scoring Average
• Adjusted Par-3 Scoring Average
• Adjusted Par-4 Scoring Average
• Adjusted Par-5 Scoring Average
• Adjusted Bogey Rate
• Adjusted Birdie Rate

The term “adjusted” means that actual average is adjusted based on the difficulty of the courses they play.

It’s important that golfers understand these metrics at a fundamental level to improve, because that is what the game is about: shooting the lowest possible score you can. And if you can better determine what your strengths and weaknesses are from a pure scoring perspective, you can then start to reverse engineer what you need to work on in order to get better.

Here’s five scoring metrics and/or strategies that can help you get your handicap trending in the right direction.

No.1: Par 4 Scoring Average

Sergio Garcia leads the PGA Tour in par-4 scoring average in 2014 at 3.96 strokes per hole. He also leads the Tour in scoring average, and ranks in the top-10 in GIR, sand save percentage, scrambling and approaches from 200-to-225 yards. 

The scoring average golfers have on par 4’s has the strongest correlation to their total scoring average. This is particularly true on the PGA Tour, because Tour players play roughly 11-to-12 par 4’s per round. The same holds true for the average amateur on an 18-hole championship course.

Par 4’s are the truest test of a player’s overall ability, however, that does not mean a good par-4 player cannot struggle in certain areas. Phil Mickelson has been a terrible driver of the ball historically, yet he plays par 4’s extremely well. Mickelson just happens to make up for it by being one of the best iron players in the world, arguably the greatest trouble-shot player of all time and generally a good putter with a great short game. Boo Weekley tends to be a good par-4 player as well, but he is one of the worst putters on Tour and has a mediocre short game. He just makes it up with incredible driving of the ball and good-to-great iron play.

In order to play the par 4’s better, I recommend working on what I call the four cornerstones of the game:

1. Driving
2. Long approach shot play (175-to-225 yards for scratch or better golfers, 150-to-200 yards for other amateurs)
3. Short Game (10-to-20 yards for less than 5-handicaps, 10-to-30 yards for 5+ handicaps with an emphasis on bunker shots)
4. Putting (3-to-15 feet for less than 5-handicaps, 3-to-25 feet for 5+ handicaps)

If one can practice these areas and start to see improvement on the range, then they will very likely see a dramatic improvement in their play on the par 4’s. But, if their par-4 play is a problem, then it is very likely due to one of these issues.

No. 2: Bogey Rate

Bubba Watson is No. 2 in Bogey Avoidance on the PGA Tour (Sergio Garcia is No. 1), making bogeys only 13.21 percent of the time. While he’s not considered a great putter and ranks near the bottom of Tour player in sand save percentage, he a leader on Tour in many ball striking statistics including driving distance and GIR. 

I list Bogey Rate second because it has the second strongest correlation to scoring average on Tour. The reason is that this stat includes all double, triple and quadruple bogeys. For all intents and purposes, the best somebody will do on a hole is make a birdie (eagles happen, but very rarely). Theoretically, however, a golfer can shoot an infinitely high score on each hole. And if a golfer makes a double bogey, they now need to make two birdies in order to break even. By then, they have already used up one-sixteenth of their round and are quickly running out of holes to make more birdies.

The other important facet to understand about bogeys is that they are often not related to a golfer’s short game. Instead, they are often related to a golfer’s ball striking ability. For example, even if a golfer is a terrible putter, if he leaves himself a 20-foot putt for birdie on every hole he’s not likely to three-putt that often. He may not make many birdies, but he is not going to make many bogeys either. That is why Hogan was such a great player even when he had the putting yips; he still hit the ball close to the cup repeatedly, and even his putting would not yield many bogeys.

I even came up with a game in 2013 Pro Golf Synopsis to help promote getting the ball closer to the hole called the “15/5 Score.” Here is how I recommend 10 handicaps or better to play it:

• 2 points for every birdie opportunity (putt or chip) inside 15 feet.
• 1 point for every par putt inside 5 feet.
• -3 points if the par putt is not inside 5 feet.
• +3 points for eagle putts inside 15 feet.

For golfers above with a handicap of 10 or higher, I would just go 1-stroke higher:

• 2 points for every par opportunity (putt or chip) inside 15 feet.
• 1 point for every bogey putt inside 5 feet.
• -3 points if the bogey putt is not inside 5 feet.
• +3 points for birdie putts inside 15 feet.

The golfer can only record one score per hole, so if a 4 handicap has a 12-foot birdie putt and leaves it to 2 feet, he or she can only record 2 points for the birdie opportunity inside 15 feet.

I admit that there are golfers who have high bogey rates because of their short game and putting. It’s just that poor ball striking tends to cause more bogeys than most golfers would believe. For those golfers who struggle with making bogeys because of their short game and putting, I advise that they work on their short game shots from 10-to-20 yards and their putting from 3-to-5 feet. The goal should be to make 90 percent of their putts from 3-to-5 feet. Once that is accomplished, move on to making 5-to-10 foot putts.

No. 3: Par 5 Scoring Average

Adam Scott leads the PGA Tour in par-5 scoring average at 4.45 strokes per hole. He ranks near the top in driving distance, driving accuracy and goes for the green on par 5’s 67.24 percent of the time, ninth most on Tour.

Par-5 performance is greatly influenced by the distance golfers have off the tee and their club head speed. We see a strong correlation between par-5 performance and the “go for it” rate on Tour. According to PGATour.com, a player is assumed to be going for the green if the second shot lands on or around the green or in the water. “Around the green” indicates the ball is within 30 yards of the edge of the green.

Take note that it counts as “going for it” any time a golfer hits their second shot within 30 yards of the edge of the green. So, a player could have a 300-yard shot to the hole and only be able to hit their 3 wood 250 yards, but it can still be considered a “go for it” if the ball is within 30 yards of the front edge of the green.

Obviously, golfers want to make sure it is feasible to attempt to reach a par 5 in two shots. If the shot requires the ball to fly over water that you’re not likely to carry, there’s no reason to go for it. On the other hand, I see a lot of amateurs and even Tour players lay up to a specific yardage when there is no real trouble instead of hitting their 3 wood as close to the hole as they can. Typically, this is a poor strategy.

All golfers, including Tour players, hit shots closer to the hole on average if the have a shorter shot; provided that the shot is from the same type of lie (fairway vs. fairway, rough vs. rough, sand vs. sand, etc). The idea of getting laying up to a golfer’s favorite yardage is faulty, because while a golfer may be able to stick it close frequently from a specific yardage, their variance in how close they can hit it to the hole becomes greater than if they were, say, 30 yards closer to the hole.

I have tracked numerous Tour players using ShotTracker and experimented with a few friends of mine that are amateurs. What we typically see is that a golfer’s money yardage is often not as money as they think it is.

The best case scenarios happen with Tour players. They will hit shots from their money yardage inside 5 feet, say, 20 percent of the time. And from 30 yards closer, they may only hit it inside 5 feet only 15 percent of the time. The real killer is not their good shots, however, but the deviation in all their shots. The money yardage will provide a greater variance in results than a shot that’s 30 yards closer to the hole. For every two times they hit it inside 5 feet from their money yardage, they may miss the green completely from that distance.

So, what we tend to see on Tour is that the longest hitters with high club head speeds tend to perform best on the par-5’s because they are playing them more like par 4’s. The good par-5 players that do not hit it long off the tee like Webb Simpson, Kevin Na and Matt Kuchar tend to be very aggressive in going for the par-5’s that they can go for and are good performers from 75-to-125 yards when they have to lay-up.

There is one very important caveat to this, however. Playing par 5’s well is mostly about being able to advance your second shot as close to the hole as possible. Most golfers get on a par 5 and are trying to bomb it off the tee to leave themselves with less club into the hole. The better par-5 players, on the other hand, often hit their “stock swing” driver and focus on making good contact and finding the fairway. That’s because even Tour players do not like hitting 3 woods out of the rough, and more often than not they will lay up if they are in the rough. The golden rule I stress to golfers is that any time your second shot is likely to be a 5-iron or longer, take your stock driver swing and focus on making good contact and finding the fairway. This applies for both par 5’s and long par 4’s.

No. 4: Birdie Rate

Rory McIlroy leads the PGA Tour in birdie average at 4.75 birdies per round. While he only ranks 72nd in Strokes Gained-Putting, he’s one of the most accurate players on Tour from 100-to-125 yards, 125-to-150 yards, 175-to-200 yards, 200-to-225 yards and 225-to-250 yards. 

Birdie Rate is often tied in with Par-5 performance because golfers birdie par 5’s almost three times more than they birdie par 4’s and almost four times more than they birdie par 3’s.

There are some Tour players that generate a lot of birdies, but do not play the par 5’s that well. Those players are usually good at one of or both of these areas:

• Shots from 125-to-175 yards
• Making putts outside of 15 feet

Typical amateurs who makes a lot of birdies but do not play par-5’s well will likely be performing very well from 100-to-150 yards.

Making putts outside 15-feet is a very fleeting metric. Even the best putters on Tour have a very inconsistent percentage of putts made from outside 15 feet. Typically, making putts outside 15 feet will move towards the mean. So the golfer that is making a lot of birdies because they are putting great outside 15 feet will eventually see that cease, because that make percentage is going to regress over time.

No. 5: Par 3 Scoring Average

Russell Knox leads the PGA Tour in scoring average at 2.96 strokes per hole. While he only ranks 114th in Strokes Gained-Putting, he ranks 30th in putts from 15-to-20 feet and hits his shots closer to the hole than any other player on Tour with an average of 31 feet 11 inches.

Par-3 performance is:

• 1-part iron play
• 1-part short game play
• 1-part putting outside 20 feet

Typically, if a Tour player performs at least two of these parts well they will perform better than average on par 3’s. Par-3 performance is also a bit fleeting because one part of it relies on making putts that are longer than 20 feet, which you now know is a fleeting metric.

Recent research that I have conducted shows that between the frequency of shots and shot performance, bunker play accounts for 50-to-55 percent of a Tour player’s short game performance. For amateurs with a 5 handicap or greater, it accounts for 75-to-80 percent of their short game performance. That’s why most amateurs should concentrate on their bunker play to improve their scoring average. And they could greatly help themselves by avoiding those bunkers in front of the green, where I found that Tour players hit their shots an average of 38 percent farther away from the cup that shots from the bunkers to the side of the green or in back of the green.

I hope this information allows golfers to better understand scoring, what to practice and how to generate a better strategy to improve their score. Good luck!