It’s normal to sit and watch a round of professional golf and marvel at the sheer talent seen at that level. However, at times a professional golfer will miss a shot that we believe that even we could execute, even if we are just the average weekend hacker. So how good is the average professional golfer?
How Good Are They?
For those that play weekly with single-digit handicaps, we all believe we have some solid skills. Sure, we have deficiencies that we have to work on and strive to shave a few strokes off our scores. The professional golfer also has challenges to overcome and spends countless of hours before and after rounds to add a few yards, curve the ball a bit more, sink a fraction more putts, all which can make the difference between winning and missing the cut in a tour event.
Big Differences Between Pro Golfers and Amateurs
One huge difference between the PGA Tour player and a low-digit handicap player is the pure power off the tee. Tour players bomb it out there an average of nearly 300 yards, outdistancing even the better amateurs by 50 yards. To put the distance into more perspective, the shortest hitting player on the PGA Tour averages about 270 yards, still 20 yards more than a low digit handicapper. In 2019 that player was Scott Langley, who missed nearly every cut in 27 tournaments despite breaking par over 50 percent of the time. The point is that even one of the worst statistically on the PGA Tour is infinitely better than top amateurs.
Most amateurs that carry a low handicap are consistent with their shots, including solid approach shots into greens and good rolls on their putts. Having said that, they are still a few tiers below club professionals, who are significantly less skills than touring pros and worlds away from the top PGA Tour pros.
Just how much difference is there between a golf professional and a professional golfer?
The club professionals are important for growing the game and providing instruction, but in terms of performance on the course, a club professional plays in sectional statewide events, and their own national event annually. The very best club professionals get the opportunity to play in the PGA Championship. Once there, however, the reality is that they have only a miniscule chance of making the cut. If that ever happens, it became a major storyline!
Expanding that to full-time tour status, assuming that club professionals would be granted that, they would miss nearly every single cut. None would ever keep their PGA Tour cards. Remember that the club professionals are significantly more talented than even the top amateurs. That’s how great PGA Tour players are. Yet this comparison still doesn’t quite give PGA Tour players their just due.
It’s easy to criticize when a tour player hits the very rare topped shot, flubbed chips, are bunker shots that remain in the bunker. For those that claim they could hit that shot better or more consistently, they are fooling themselves. Professional athletes in any sport are exponentially superior to any amateur player.
It’s been noted that the difference between a professional golfer and a 0 handicapper is about the same as between a 0 handicapper and a 12 handicap player. That’s an amazing comparison when you consider that a scratch player is still one that is considered very skilled! If you are a 12 handicapper and play against a scratch player, you will get 12 strokes per round. Consider that the 0 handicapper is at least 12 strokes worse than the professional player. Let that sink in just a bit. Of the nearly 30 million golfers in the United States, only a very small fraction of a percent are scratch golfers.
Can Other Professional Athletes Play Golf?
But what about top athletes in other sports taking up the game? Surely, they can perfect it and compete with the professionals, right? Not so fast. Hall of Famer baseball pitcher John Smoltz has consistently been among the top amateur players and has even played in a few Champions Tour events. While normally shooting in the low 70s on his home course, his first Nationwide Tour event in 2011 he missed the cut by 27 shots. This was against what is considered the “minor leagues” of professional golf. It must be noted that Smoltz has since performed much better but is still significantly worse than the professional tour players.
Another example of how difficult it is for even the top athletes in the world to succeed against professional golfers is football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice. While playing to a 1-handicap, Rice took his shot at a Nationwide Tour event. Much like Smoltz, Rice struggled to a two-day total of 163 and was nearly ten shots behind the next worst player.
How Hard Are Professional Golf Courses?
So how can a player shoot in the low 70s on their home course and fail to break 80 in a professional event? The answer is in the complexity of the golf course, which is another huge difference and makes what the PGA Tour players do even more remarkable. Shooting a 70 at your local course, no matter how difficult it may seem, is light years away from shooting 70 at Augusta National, Pebble Beach, or any of the other PGA Tour venues. The length of the courses are more extreme, lightning-fast greens, thicker rough, deeper bunkers, more narrow fairways, and you get the picture.
Pro Golfers Do Things Amateurs Will Never Do
Even if a top amateur strikes the ball as well as a tour professional, the professional excels infinitely more on the greens, which is the key to scoring. There was a statistic in 2013 that Steve Stricker drained 97 percent of his putts from inside of five feet, which translated into only four miscues on nearly 500 putts. Go to your home course and you could very easily miss that many in a single round of play.
It’s very easy to get caught up in how easy the game “appears” while watching an event on television. The best way to see how great the PGA Tour players are is to simply see them play in person. Take any professional on the practice tee and see how nearly every shot is hit crisply and exactly where they want to hit it. Play your toughest hole and your local course and play it 18 times and see how you perform. Most likely not well, right? It’s that difficult and even more so to play against PGA Tour professionals. Watch events with a new found appreciation as to how amazing these players really are!
