What Percentage of Golf Is Putting?

Of all the sayings in golf, Drive for show, putt for dough might be the most repeated, but what does the data actually say? We're going to break down exactly what percentage of shots in a round are putts, why that number can be a little misleading, and most importantly, how you can use this knowledge to practice smarter and shoot lower scores.

The Straight Answer: What the Numbers Say About an Average Round

Let's get right to the core of the question. Based on decades of shot tracking from the PGA Tour and massive amateur databases like Arccos, putting consistently accounts for about 40% to 43% of all strokes taken in a round of golf.

That percentage holds remarkably steady across different skill levels, which might surprise you. A Tour professional isn't necessarily a "better" putter because they have dramatically fewer putts, they're better because their ball striking leaves them closer to the hole to begin with. The total volume of putts remains a huge chunk of anyone's score.

Let’s make that percentage tangible:

• If you shoot 100, roughly 40-43 of those shots are on the green.
• If you shoot 90, you’re looking at about 36-39 putts.
• For a player shooting 80, that's typically 32-35 putts.
• And for a scratch golfer shooting 72, it's right around 29-31 putts.

When you see it laid out like that, the reality hits you: for most golfers, more strokes are made with the flatstick than with any other single club in an 18-hole round. No other part of the game even comes close to that volume. The numbers don't lie. Improving your putting has a direct, one-to-one impact on lowering your final score. Saving just one putt every six holes is an instant three strokes off your handicap. But simply counting your total putts isn't the whole story.

A Smarter Way to Judge Your Putting: Strokes Gained

While the "40% rule" is a great starting point, modern coaching has moved toward a much more insightful metric: Strokes Gained: Putting. Don't let the name intimidate you, the concept is quite simple and powerful.

Instead of just counting how many putts you take, Strokes Gained compares your performance on a single putt to how a PGA Tour professional (or any other benchmark group) performs from that exact same distance.

Here’s a simple breakdown:

• From 8 feet, Tour pros average 1.5 putts to hole out. They make it 50% of the time.
• From 33 feet, they average 2.0 putts. It's a coin flip whether they two-putt or three-putt.

So, let's say you're facing a 33-foot putt. You step up and roll it stone dead, tapping in for a two-putt. In the old way of thinking, you’d just say, "a decent two-putt." With Strokes Gained, you actually performed exactly at the level of a Tour pro on that single shot. You gained 0.0 strokes. Now, imagine you step up to an 8-foot putt and sink it. Since the average is 1.5 putts, by one-putting you gained +0.5 strokes on the field. Conversely, if you miss that same 8-footer and two-putt, you lost -0.5 strokes.

Why is this better? Because it gives you credit for the difficulty of the putt. A three-putt from 60 feet isn't a failure - it's pretty average! A three-putt from 6 feet is a major error. Just counting "36 putts" at the end of a round doesn't tell you if you were rolling it great from outside 20 feet and missing the short ones, or vice versa. Strokes Gained tells you exactly where your strengths and weaknesses are on the green.

The Honest Truth: Is a Putt Ever an Island?

Now for the most important coaching insight I can give you on this topic. While a scorecard shows putting as 40% of the game, that number is a symptom, not just a cause. In golf, every shot is connected.

Think about it: the shot you hit before the putt determines the difficulty of the putt itself.

Let's map out two different golfers on the same par 4.

Golfer A:

• Hits a great drive down the middle.
• Hits a crisp wedge from 100 yards that lands 8 feet from the pin.
• Makes the 8-foot putt for birdie.
  Scorecard says: 1 putt.

Golfer B:

• Hits a slice into the right trees.
• Punches out back to the fairway, 160 yards from the green.
• Hits a decent 7-iron that finishes on the front edge, 50 feet away.
• Lags the first putt to 4 feet.
• Makes the 4-footer for bogey.
  Scorecard says: 2 putts.

Based on the numbers, Golfer B looks like a worse putter. But were they truly? Golfer B turned a potential disaster into a bogey by executing two excellent putts under pressure: a brilliant lag from 50 feet and a clutch make from 4 feet. Golfer A’s "better" putting performance was entirely set up by a fantastic approach shot.

This is the real key to understanding your own game. A high putt count isn't always a putting problem. Often, it's an approach shot problem. If you consistently leave yourself 30, 40, or 50-foot putts, your problem isn't making long putts - nobody does that consistently. Your problem is hitting your irons and wedges closer to the hole.

So while the 40% number is accurate in volume, the true leverage to improve your scores often lies in the 60% of shots you hit *before* you even pull out the putter. Shaving your average approach proximity from 40 feet to 25 feet will do more to reduce your total putts than almost any putting drill.

Building a Practice Plan That Actually Lowers Scores

Given all this, how should you divide your precious practice time? The classic advice is to spend 50-60% of your time on and around the greens, mirroring the statistical breakdown of a round. For a serious, low-handicap player, this is sound advice.

However, for the average mid-to-high handicap golfer, this might not be the most efficient path to improvement. If your swing produces a wild two-way miss off the tee and you rarely hit the green in regulation, you’ll get far more benefit from fixing that full swing than from grinding on 4-footers.

Here’s a more realistic practice plan for the amateur with limited time:

The 40/40/20 Rule

• 40% on Full Swing: This is your engine. Use this time with your driver, fairway woods, and irons to build a repeatable motion. Don't just bang balls. Pick a target for every shot and focus on starting the ball online with a predictable shape. This is your leverage for getting closer to the green on approach shots.
• 40% on Short Game (Chipping & Pitching): This is your score-saver. These are the shots from inside 50 yards that turn a missed green into a simple up-and-down. Practice different lie, different lofts, and learn to control trajectory. A great short game takes immense pressure off your putting.
• 20% on Putting: Yes, only 20%. But this has to be focused practice, not rolling a few putts before you tee off. If you only practice for an hour, that's just 12 minutes. So make them count by working on the two skills that matter most: speed control and starting line.

This balanced approach ensures you’re not neglecting the driver and irons - the very clubs that set you up for easier putts.

Three Drills to Fix 90% of Your Putting

If you're going to follow the 40/40/20 rule, you need to be extremely efficient with your putting practice. Forget just lagging balls aimlessly. These three drills address the foundational skills of distance control and aiming, which are behind almost every missed putt.

1. The Ladder Drill (for Speed Control)

Speed control is, without question, the most important putting skill. Proper speed makes your line less critical and virtually eliminates three-putts.

• How to do it: Find a flat part of the practice green. Place five tees in a line, each three feet apart (creating markers at 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 feet from your ball). Starting with the closest tee, your goal is to roll a putt that stops past the tee but before the next one in the "ladder." Putt one ball to the first "rung," the next to the second, and so on. If you come up short or go past the next tee, start over.
• Why it works: It forces you to feel the difference in stroke size needed for various distances, calibrating your body to the speed of the greens for the day.

2. The Gate Drill (for Starting Line)

Even a perfect read with perfect speed won’t go in if the ball doesn’t start on your chosen line. This drill gives you instant feedback on your clubface at impact.

• How to do it: Find a straight 4 to 6-foot putt. Place your ball down, and then place two tees just outside the heel and toe of your putter, creating a narrow "gate." The putter head should just barely fit through. The goal is simple: make your stroke without hitting either tee.
• Why it works: If you hit the outside tee, your path is coming too far from the outside-in. If you hit the inside tee, your path is too inside-out. It forces a pure, straight-back-and-through stroke path, teaching you to deliver a square clubface time after time.

3. Around the World (for Short Putt Pressure)

Nothing builds confidence like knowing you can drain everything inside five feet. This drill simulates game-like pressure and solidifies your stroke on the putts you simply have to make.

• How to do it: Pick a hole and place four balls in a circle around it at a distance of three or four feet - like a compass at North, South, East, and West. Your goal is to make all four putts in a row. If you miss one, you start the entire circle again.
• Why it works: As you make the first two or three, you start to feel the pressure mount on the final putt, just like you would on the course trying to save par. It trains you to execute your routine and trust your stroke when it matters.

Final Thoughts

Putting consistently makes up about 40% of the shots in your round, but the true path to better scores comes from understanding that the entire game is connected. By improving your tee shots and approach shots to leave shorter putts, and dedicating focused practice time to distance control and alignment, you stop trying to fix symptoms and start addressing the real cause of high scores.

Ultimately, a confident strategy on your shots leading *into* the green is what gives you more makeable birdie putts and eliminates those dreaded three-putts from 50 feet. We designed Caddie AI to help solve this exact problem by giving you simple, smart course management advice on every shot, so you can worry less about tough putts and more about tapping in for par. By analyzing the hole and even your specific lie, it helps you make the shot choices that turn stressful bogeys into easy pars.