Up-and-Down Percentage
An up-and-down percentage is the share of missed greens on which a golfer needs only two strokes, one shot onto the green and one putt, to finish the hole. It measures how well a player recovers around the green.
What is an up-and-down percentage?
An up-and-down percentage tracks how often a golfer gets “up and down” after missing the green in regulation. Getting up and down means holing out in two strokes from off the putting surface. The first shot, usually a chip, pitch, or bunker shot, puts the ball “up” on the green, and the putt sends it “down” into the cup. The percentage counts how many times that happens out of every green a player misses.
The number exists because nobody hits every green. Even the best players in the world find the green in regulation only about two-thirds of the time, which leaves a handful of holes each round where the short game has to bail them out. An up-and-down percentage puts a single figure on that recovery skill, so it doubles as a quick read on the sharpness of a player’s short game.
Golfers use the term two ways. On the course it describes a single result, as in “nice up and down.” Over a round or a season, it describes a rate, as in “my up-and-down percentage was poor today.” The stat sits at the center of the short game because a reliable recovery turns a likely bogey back into par, and those saved strokes add up faster than almost anything else on the scorecard.
How an up-and-down percentage is calculated
The math is simple. Divide the number of successful up and downs by the number of greens missed, then multiply by 100.
Picture a golfer who misses 10 greens in a round and gets up and down on 3 of them. That is 3 divided by 10, a 30 percent up-and-down rate for the day. One round is a small sample, though. Track the number across five or ten rounds and the average settles into something far more honest than any single afternoon.
A missed green is the trigger for every attempt. If the ball finishes anywhere off the putting surface after the approach, whether in the rough, a bunker, or on the fringe, the attempt is live. Hole out in two and it counts. Take three or more and it does not.
Up-and-down percentage vs. scrambling
This is where most of the confusion lives, because the two terms are close cousins rather than the same thing. Both start from a missed green. They count different endings.
An up and down is the physical act of holing out in two from off the green, whatever the score. Scrambling is the official statistic tracked by the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, and it counts only the times a player makes par or better after missing the green in regulation. Every par-saving scramble is also an up and down. An up and down that leads to a bogey is not a scramble.
| Up and down | Scrambling | |
|---|---|---|
| What it counts | Two strokes to hole out from off the green | Par or better after a missed green |
| Score required | Any score | Par or better only |
| Where it is used | Casual play, personal stat tracking | Official tour statistic |
| Relationship | The broader term | A subset of up and downs |
For most golfers, the two numbers land close together, since people tend to talk about up and downs only when they save par. The gap shows up in one situation: a player scrambles for a bogey after a penalty or a wild tee shot. Under the two-stroke rule, that is still an up and down. It would never show up in a scrambling figure, though.
What is a good up-and-down percentage?
A good number depends entirely on skill level, and the distance between tour players and weekend golfers is wide. On the PGA Tour, the scrambling average sits around 58 to 60 percent, according to figures compiled by SwingU. The yearly leaders usually land in the 65 to 67 percent range. Clearing 70 percent almost never happens. Xander Schauffele managed it in 2024 at 70.49 percent, only the second player to top that mark since the Tour started tracking the stat in 1992. The record still belongs to Greg Norman, who scrambled 72.8 percent back in 1993, per Golf Compendium.
Amateurs sit well below that. The rough benchmarks that circulate among coaches look like this:
| Skill level | Typical up-and-down rate |
|---|---|
| PGA Tour average | ~58–60% |
| Scratch (0 handicap) | ~50% |
| 10 handicap | ~30–40% |
| 20-plus handicap | under 20% |
For most recreational players, saving one out of every three missed greens is a realistic and respectable target. A 20-handicapper who lifts a 15 percent rate up to 30 percent can save roughly two strokes a round without touching the long game, and that is why time spent on the short game pays off so quickly.
Common misconceptions
A few myths cling to the term, and clearing them up sharpens the definition.
The first is that an up and down must save par. It does not. The label describes the two-shot finish, not the number on the card, so getting down in two for a bogey is still an up and down. Only scrambling carries the par-or-better requirement.
The second is that an up and down has to come from a bunker. A sand save is one kind of up and down, the version played from a greenside bunker, but the term covers recoveries from the rough, the fringe, and bare lies just as readily. All sand saves are up and downs. Not every up and down is a sand save.
The third is treating the percentage as a flawless measure of short-game skill. It is a blunt instrument. A five-yard chip from clean fringe and a buried lie in a bunker over water both count as one missed green, so the number cannot separate an easy save from a heroic one. As Golfity points out, that is why serious analysts pair it with strokes gained data, which weighs the difficulty of each shot rather than treating them all alike.
Related Golf Terms
- Total score — The combined number of strokes for an entire round.
- Carding — The act of recording a score on the scorecard.
- Front nine score — The total strokes taken on holes one through nine.
- Net birdie — A score of birdie after applying handicap strokes on a hole.
- Back nine score — The total strokes taken on holes ten through eighteen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an up and down have to be for par?
No. An up and down is any two-stroke finish from off the green. The score does not matter, so a bogey save qualifies just as much as a par save. The par-or-better rule belongs to scrambling alone.
Is an up-and-down percentage the same as scrambling percentage?
Not quite. Scrambling counts only par-saving recoveries and is the official tour stat. An up-and-down percentage, as most golfers track it themselves, counts every two-stroke finish regardless of the score.
Does holing out from off the green count as an up and down?
No. Holing out in a single shot from off the green is a chip-in. An up and down needs two strokes: one onto the green and one putt.
Is a sand save an up and down?
Yes. A sand save is an up and down played from a greenside bunker, and the tours track it separately as its own statistic.
Does putting from the fringe count toward an up and down?
Yes. The ball only has to start off the putting surface. A putt from the fringe that finishes the hole in two strokes still counts as a successful recovery.
Sources
- PGA Tour. “Scrambling” (Around the Green stats). Accessed August 2026.
https://www.pgatour.com/stats/around-green - Golf Compendium. “Yearly Scrambling Leaders on the PGA Tour.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfcompendium.com/2021/09/pga-tour-scrambling-leaders-by-year.html - SwingU Clubhouse. Brendon Elliott, PGA. “Understanding Stats: Up-And-Down Conversion By Handicap.” Accessed August 2026.
https://clubhouse.swingu.com/statistics/understanding-stats-up-and-down-conversion-by-handicap/ - Golf Monthly. “What Does The Term ‘Up And Down’ In Golf Mean?” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfmonthly.com/features/the-game/what-does-the-term-up-and-down-in-golf-mean - Golfity. “What Is Scrambling in Golf?” Accessed August 2026.
https://golfity.com/blog/what-is-scrambling-in-golf/ - Golf Stat Lab. “Scrambling Percent.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfstatlab.com/stats/scrambling+percent
