If you happen to be piling up club championships and your Handicap Index is in the low single digits, there’s little doubt you are an uber-talented golfer. But what about the rest of the golfing public? At what point are you considered a “good” golfer? A Handicap Index adds some context, although the answer remains subjective.
For a sport so maddeningly difficult to master, what does an amateur golfer have to shoot to be considered “good” at golf?
That was the question CBS Golf’s Colt Knost — who is also one-half of GOLF’s Subpar podcast duo — posed to some of the sport’s best players at this week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. And if you needed any sort of evidence of just how compelling (or controversial) this topic is, the video has already been viewed more than 4 million times in less than 24 hours on CBS Golf’s Instagram page.
As you can imagine, the answers to the burning question were not universal.
“I think if you can shoot in the 80s I feel like you’re a serviceable golfer,” said World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
“If you are shooting 85 or under, I think you are pretty good at golf,” said Xander Schauffele.
World No. 3 Cameron Young had a slightly higher bar to clear.
“I feel like anyone that shoots around 80 is realistically pretty good at golf,” he said.
Meanwhile, two European Ryder Cup teammates have much higher standards. Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy both said you have to break 80 to be considered a good player. Their Ryder Cup captain, however, allowed for a little more grace.
“I would say break 90,” said Luke Donald.
Collin Morikawa wouldn’t offer a number, but he did have more context to add than anyone else.
“I don’t think there’s a number, but I think you have to be able to finish out every hole without like picking up a 2-footer,” he said. “But to be good at golf, not make a double bogey.”
Pressed for a number, Morikawa still didn’t budge.
“There’s no score, just without a double bogey,” he said. “You can shoot 90, that’s 18 over, but all bogeys.”
We can also turn to our friends at the USGA for help answering this question. Last year, 3.68 million golfers in the United States alone kept a handicap and posted a domestic record of 82 million rounds. Only 2 percent of those male golfers were scratch, and less than 1 percent of females were scratch.
But we already know scratch golfers are considered good.
The average handicap, however, was 14.0 for male golfers and 28.8 for females. The USGA also broke down the percentage of golfers in each handicap range, and the largest for men (26.48 percent) was in the 10-14.9 handicap range. According to their data, 29.81 percent of the men who kept a handicap last year were single-digit players.
So, what do you consider “good” at golf? That answer remains as subjective as ever. But if you happen to be asking this author — he agrees with the European Ryder Cup skipper.
