GIR/FIR On The Tour.

Watching the PGA tour on TV , you may be lead to believe that tour players hit most greens and fairways, but the reality is a little less romantic. While they do have very good GIR/FIR stats, the average is not as high as you might think.

After every event on the tour, the PGA website lists the latest GIR and FIR stats of the players on the Tour. The latest GIR stats show that the average GIR is 67,93% which equates to 12/18 greens on average per round.

Of course, there are some players that have higher GIR stats than others like Patrick Cantlay with an 80% GIR average at the top, while at the other end , Yoseop Seo averages 51% GIR.

On the Fairways in Regulation side, the numbers aren’t quite as good as the GIR stats.

The PGA Tour FIR average is just 58,84% or 8,2 /14 Fairways hit. Top ranked player for FIR is Shane Lowry with 83% hit off the tee and the lowest ranked player is Brandon Hagy with just 37,5 %.

What Causes The Error Rates?

If you reverse engineer the stats above and remember that these guys are the BEST in the world, have the best coaches, gear, equipment, analytics and everything else that opens and shuts, you will see that on average Tour Pros have a 32,08% MISS rate for greens and a 41,16% MISS rate for fairways!

In simple terms, this means that they will miss almost 6 (5,77) greens on approach in a round and almost 6 (5,76%) fairways in an average round.

Of course, there are sometimes extenuating circumstances like the weather that will affect accuracy, but these stats are compiled to include all the rounds played through all the events over the season.

So, what causes these error rates in players that have the best swings in the world?

The only answer to this is the swing mechanics.

The Swing Mechanics Are Faulty

The only common denominator in all of these players is that they have learned the same swing mechanics method as you have and herein lies the answer.

I have always stated that the reason that most golfers in the world struggle with consistent accuracy , distance and ball striking is because the swing mechanics method employed is fundamentally flawed.

It has too many moving parts, has too many interpretations and there are simply too many elements to remember and the sequence is too complex to achieve proficiency without spending thousands of hours and hitting thousands of shots.

When you consider that only a FRACTION of male golfers in the USA less than 10% have handicaps below 5 and only 1,85% of male golfers in the USA have handicaps of scratch or better, you have to ask why is it that the majority of golfers struggle with this game?

Why Are There So Few Single Figure Golfers?

There are only two possible answers this question.

1. The acquisition of skills to achieve this level of golf requires years of training and expense and that only the select few that have the natural ability and resources can achieve this.
2. That the swing mechanics method used for the past 400 years is fundamentally too complex and inefficient on multiple levels – which is why it takes so long for people to become good at this game.

Let’s expand on this a little.

If you are a weekend player or even if you play regularly, you probably have the view that you will be working on your golf swing mechanics for the rest of your life.

You probably believe that it is one of the most complex biomechanical movements and sequences to execute properly and you will probably never achieve a level of proficiency that will allow you to play the game at any respectable level- and by respectable , I mean sub 85 or better on average.

But, there is a major problem with this thinking.

The Human Body Is Capable Of More Complex Movements Than The Golf Swing

The human body is marvel of biomechanics and when you consider the number of actions that this structure of nerves, muscles and bones can execute, it’s staggering to think that out of all the golfers in the world-some 65 million – such a small percentage can execute this relatively simply action with proficient consistency.

So, either the golf swing is complex and required an inordinate amount of natural athletic ability which only a very few people have OR – the existing swing mechanics method is fundamentally flawed.

Occam’s Razor

The scientific precept called Occam’s Razor states that , ” all things being equal, the simplest explanations tends to the be the right one.”

So, what is more likely?

That the vast majority of people that play golf do not have the biomechanical ability to perform a simple action of swinging and striking a stationary target with a golf club OR that the existing swing mechanics method is outdated, ineffective and too complex?

I’ll let you decide.