What each stat means
The handful of numbers that explain a round, and what each one is actually telling you.
StatCaddy tracks a deliberately small set of stats — the ones that explain why you shot what you shot. Here’s what each is, and what it usually means when it moves.
Off the tee
Fairways hit
The percentage of driveable holes where you found the fairway. Par 3s don’t count.
Low fairway percentages cost you less than most golfers assume — unless they come with penalties, which cost you a great deal. Look at this alongside penalties off the tee rather than on its own.
Approach
Greens in regulation (GIR)
The percentage of holes where you reached the green with at least two putts left — one shot on a par 3, two on a par 4, three on a par 5.
This is the stat most strongly tied to scoring. If your GIR is climbing, your scores usually follow — unless the strokes are leaking back on the green.
Putting
Putts per round
Your total putts. Useful, but read it with GIR: hitting fewer greens often lowers your putt count, because you’re chipping on and holing one putt rather than two-putting from thirty feet. A falling putt count with a falling GIR is not an improvement.
3-putts per round
Worked out from your putt count on each hole. This is the cleaner putting number — 3-putts are almost always a speed problem from distance, and they’re the fastest putting fix available to most golfers.
Short game
Up-and-down success
When you miss a green, how often you get down in two — one chip or pitch, one putt.
This is the stat that rescues bad ball-striking days. A golfer with modest GIR and a strong up-and-down rate scores far better than the numbers suggest they should.
Mistakes
Penalties, split two ways
StatCaddy separates penalties off the tee from penalties in play, because they mean different things:
- Off the tee usually points at club selection or a swing fault under pressure — and it’s the more expensive of the two, because it costs you distance as well as a shot.
- In play more often points at decision-making: taking on a shot that wasn’t there.
Scoring
Scoring average against par
Your headline number. Everything else exists to explain this one.
Net score
Your gross score adjusted for your handicap, so rounds at different courses are comparable.
Birdies or better, doubles or worse
Worked out from your score against par. Two rounds can average the same and be completely different games — one steady, one full of birdies and blow-ups. This is where you see which you are.
Benchmarked against your handicap
Your stats are compared against what a golfer off your handicap would typically shoot — not against tour professionals. A 42% GIR means something very different off 8 than it does off 20, and being told you’re below tour average helps nobody.