Greens in Regulation and Putts Calculator
Greens in Regulation and Putts Calculator
Greens hit in regulation as a percentage, putts per hole and per round, and how often you got up and down from the greens you missed. Three conventions that no governing body defines — which this page states rather than attributing.
Greens in regulation
Greens ÷ holesSeven greens hit in eighteen holes, 32 putts, and four up-and-downs from the greens missed
Formula
putts per hole = total putts ÷ holes played
up and down % = up-and-downs ÷ (holes played − greens hit) × 100
- in regulation means par − 2
- the green reached with two strokes to spare for putting: one shot on a par three, two on a par four, three on a par five. The ball must be on the putting surface, not merely close to it
- a putt is a stroke on the green
- the convention counts strokes played with the ball on the putting green and nothing else, so a holed chip from the fringe is not a putt. That makes putts per hole flatter the player who misses greens narrowly and chips well
- the up-and-down denominator is the greens you MISSED
- not the holes played. Dividing by holes played instead gives a smaller and quite different number, and it is the commonest way this figure is quoted wrongly
- nought holes is refused
- and so is a count of greens hit larger than the holes played, or more up-and-downs than greens missed. Each would produce a plausible percentage from an impossible scorecard
- no thresholds are offered
- this page puts no bands on the percentage, because the only published benchmarks are professional tour averages and the tour’s own stat pages could not be read as text — which is recorded in the references rather than filled in with a remembered number
Worked example
Seven greens hit in eighteen holes, 32 putts, and four up-and-downs from the greens missed
7 ÷ 18 × 100 = 38.9% of greens hit in regulation
Eighteen holes less seven greens hit leaves 11 greens missed
Four up-and-downs from those eleven is 4 ÷ 11 × 100 = 36.4%. Divide by the eighteen holes played instead and you get 22.2%, which is the usual way this figure goes wrong
32 putts over eighteen holes is 1.78 a hole, which is 32.0 per 18 holes — the same number, because the round was eighteen holes
Play nine holes, hit four greens and take sixteen putts and the putts-per-hole figure is the same 1.78, while putts per 18 holes is again 32.0: that is the test of a rate, and it is why both rows are printed
Enter nineteen greens hit in eighteen holes and the page refuses rather than returning 105.6%
Enter twelve up-and-downs from eleven missed greens and the page refuses that too
What counts as a green in regulation
| Par of the hole | On the green in | Putts left to make par |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | one stroke | two |
| 4 | two strokes | two |
| 5 | three strokes | two |
| 6, where a course has one | four strokes | two |
The same scorecard, six ways, and which rows are rates
| Figure | This example | Does it grow as you play more? |
|---|---|---|
| Greens in regulation | 38.9% | no — it is a percentage of holes played |
| Greens missed | 11 | yes — a count |
| Putts per hole | 1.78 | no |
| Putts per 18 holes | 32.0 | no — the same rate, scaled to a round |
| Up and down from a missed green | 36.4% | no, and its denominator is the greens MISSED rather than the holes played |
| Putts per green hit in regulation | 4.57 | no — and it is the row that shows why putts per hole is a poor putting measure on its own |
Three conventions, and who publishes them
Greens in regulation is the statistic that explains most golfers’ scores better than any other, and the definition is a piece of arithmetic rather than a rule: a green is hit in regulation when the ball is on the putting surface in two strokes fewer than the par of the hole. One shot on a par three, two on a par four, three on a par five. The two strokes you have left are the two putts the hole’s par assumes, so the question the statistic asks is simply whether you arrived with both of them still in hand.
One thing worth being straight about: the figure this page is built on is not defined by anybody with authority over golf. The Rules of Golf govern how the game is played and the Rules of Handicapping govern what a handicap is; neither defines this. It is a statistical convention, kept by tours, by club computers and by players, and it is useful precisely because it is simple. So the page states the convention it implements, in words, and does the arithmetic on the counts you enter rather than attributing a definition to a body that has not published one. Where a source for the convention could be read it is named in the references, and where none could be, that is said as well.
There is a sourcing admission to make here, and it belongs on the page rather than in a footnote. The body that does publish these definitions for professional golf is the PGA Tour, whose stat pages carry its own wording for greens in regulation and for scrambling. Those pages build their text in the browser rather than in the document the server sends, so two attempts to read them returned a current leaderboard and no definition at all. Nothing on this page is therefore quoted from the tour, no tour average appears anywhere on it, and the percentage carries no coloured bands — because the only published benchmarks for it are tour averages, and a remembered number is not a source.
Two of the rows beneath the headline are where readers most often go wrong. The up-and-down percentage divides by the greens you MISSED, not by the holes you played: four recoveries from eleven missed greens is 36.4%, and dividing by eighteen instead gives 22.2% — a plausible, smaller, wrong number. And putts per hole counts only strokes played with the ball on the putting green, which means it systematically flatters the player who misses greens and chips well, because the chip is not counted and the single putt that follows it is. That is the standing objection to putts per round as a measure of putting, and it is why this page prints putts per green hit in regulation alongside it.
The last row is the one worth sitting with. Thirty-two putts across only seven greens hit in regulation works out at 4.57 putts per green hit — an absurd-looking figure, and the absurdity is the information: eleven of those holes were reached some other way, usually with a chip that does not count as a putt. Read together, the rows say whether your scores came from the long game or the short one, which no single number can.
Keep every figure to the same set of holes. The page takes holes played rather than rounds precisely so that a nine-hole round, a practice eighteen and a run of six rounds can all be entered, and the putts-per-18 row exists to make those comparable. What it cannot do is mix two different sets: enter the greens from one round and the putts from another and every row will be wrong without any of them looking it.
The same conversion-rate shape, with the same difficulty about the definition, turns up across the plugin: football’s shot conversion calculator runs into a governing body that publishes no definition of a shot on target, which is the identical problem in another code. Within golf, the scoring average calculator is the total these parts add up to, and the course distance converter handles the yardages behind the approach shots that hit or miss these greens.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a green in regulation?
The ball being on the putting surface in two strokes fewer than the par of the hole: one stroke on a par three, two on a par four, three on a par five. It has to be on the surface — a ball just off the collar is a missed green. No governing body publishes this definition; it is a statistical convention.
How do I calculate greens in regulation percentage?
Divide the greens you hit in regulation by the holes you played and multiply by 100. Seven greens in eighteen holes is 38.9%. Use holes rather than rounds, so that nine-hole and eighteen-hole rounds can be added into the same count.
How is up-and-down or scrambling percentage worked out?
Up-and-downs divided by the greens you MISSED, times 100 — not divided by the holes you played. Four recoveries from eleven missed greens is 36.4%; dividing by eighteen holes gives 22.2%, which is the usual error. An up-and-down is a hole where you missed the green in regulation and still made par or better.
Does a chip-in count as a putt?
Not under the usual convention, which counts only strokes played with the ball on the putting green. That is why putts per round flatters a player who misses greens and chips well, and why this page also prints putts per green hit in regulation, where the effect shows up.
What is a good greens in regulation percentage?
This page does not say. The only published benchmarks are professional tour averages, the tour’s own stat pages could not be read when this page was written, and a number from memory is not a source — so the percentage is left unbanded and the gap is named rather than filled.
Related calculators
References
- Ballengee R. “What is a green in regulation in golf? What does that term mean?” The Golf News Net, 15 July 2021, thegolfnewsnet.com (read 15 Oct 2026; about 7,000 characters). A golf publication rather than a governing body, cited because no governing body publishes a definition of this statistic at all. “In golf, a player hits a green in regulation when their golf ball hits and remains on the putting surface” “of a hole in as many or fewer than the number of shots prescribed by the par of a hole”, with the par-4 and par-5 cases quoted in this page’s own table. The article does not use the phrase “par minus two”, does not say who defines the statistic, and does not mention scrambling or putts per round.
- PGA Tour. Stat detail pages at pgatour.com (attempted 15 Oct 2026, twice). Recorded as a sourcing failure rather than omitted: the tour is the body that publishes the scrambling and greens-in-regulation definitions used throughout professional golf, and its stat pages render those definitions in the browser rather than in the served document. Both fetches returned roughly 12,000 to 16,000 characters of navigation and a current leaderboard with no stat definition in them. So no tour definition and no tour average is quoted anywhere on this site, and this page’s percentage carries no bands.
- The R&A and the United States Golf Association. Rules of Golf, edition effective January 2023. The R&A’s “About the Rules of Golf” page states the edition is “effective from January 2023 for golfers worldwide” and that Clarifications “will continue to be released quarterly on the R&A and USGA websites” (randa.org, read 15 Oct 2026). A copy of the rulebook PDF was read the same day — front matter “Effective January 2023” and “© 2022 R&A Rules Limited and The United States Golf Association. All rights reserved.”; about 113,500 characters of extracted text, truncated after Rule 8, so Rule 21 was not readable in that copy. Checked specifically for an authorization or licensing clause of the kind the Rules of Handicapping carries: the front matter has none, and the only rights language is the copyright notice.