Three-Putt Avoidance
A putting statistic that measures how often a golfer takes three or more putts to finish a hole, expressed as the percentage of holes that end in a three-putt. A lower number is better, because it means the player three-putts less.
What is three-putt avoidance?
The name reads a little backwards. A player with a three-putt avoidance of 2% did not avoid 2% of their three-putts; they three-putted on 2% of the holes they played. The smaller the figure, the better the putter, which is why the golfers at the top of the list carry the lowest percentages rather than the highest.
The statistic exists because par assumes two putts on every green. A par-4 is built on the idea that a strong player reaches the green in two shots and then needs two putts. Take a third putt, and that hole almost always turns into a bogey or worse, so three-putt avoidance is a way of counting how often a golfer leaks a stroke on the green.
One detail trips people up. The PGA Tour files this number under the label “3-Putt Avoidance,” and it counts three-putts and anything worse. A four-putt lands in the same bucket. Scottie Scheffler four-putted the final green on his way to winning the 2022 Masters, and a hole like that would register here exactly the way a three-putt does.
Most golfers first meet the term on a putting app or a broadcast graphic during a tour event. It sits in the putting category alongside numbers like putting average and putts per round, and it answers one plain question: how good is this player at not wasting shots once the ball is on the green?
How three-putt avoidance is measured
The math is simple. Count the holes played, count the three-putts (and worse), then divide one by the other and turn it into a percentage. A golfer who three-putts 6 times across 90 holes, or five rounds, sits at 6.7%.
The PGA Tour has kept this stat since 1992, using its ShotLink system to log every putt at every event. Amateurs can track it just as easily. Because the formula needs only two figures, a golfer can build the number by hand, or let an app such as Arccos or Golfshake do it automatically.
Tracking it tends to change how a player thinks on the green. Total putts alone can mislead, since a round with lots of long birdie putts holed still racks up putts without any wasted strokes. Three-putt avoidance strips that away and isolates the mistakes, which is why plenty of golfers find it a truer read on their putting than a raw putt count.
What counts as a good three-putt avoidance rate?
Context matters, because the number swings hard with skill level and with how far the first putt starts from the hole. Tour professionals live in a different world from a weekend player, and both are worth seeing side by side.
| Level of golfer | Typical three-putt avoidance | Roughly how often that is |
|---|---|---|
| PGA Tour average | ~2.7% | About once every two rounds |
| PGA Tour leaders | Under 1.5% | A handful per full season |
| Scratch amateur | ~7.8% | About 1.4 per round |
| 20 handicap | ~20% | Around 3.5 per round |
| 25-plus handicap | ~24.5% | Nearly one every four holes |
Those amateur figures come from Arccos and analyst Lou Stagner, drawn from a large sample of recorded rounds, while the tour numbers come from PGA Tour data reported by golf.com. The single best season on record belongs to Greg Norman, who posted 0.97% in 1994 with just 11 three-putts across 1,134 holes. For years, he was the only player to finish a season under 1%. More recently, Scottie Scheffler ran a 1.88% mark through the 2024 season, 24 three-putts in 1,278 holes, and he was not even the tour leader that year.
Distance explains most of the gap. From 3 to 5 feet, tour pros three-putt roughly 0.14% of the time, effectively never. Push the first putt out to 33 feet and even the best players in the world three-putt about 6.4% of the time, according to PGA Tour data from golf.com. The further the ball sits from the cup on the first putt, the faster the number climbs for everyone.
Three-putt avoidance vs. other putting stats
Golf tracks several putting numbers, and they measure different things. Reading three-putt avoidance next to its neighbours makes it clearer what each one is actually telling a player.
| Stat | What it measures | What a good number looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Three-putt avoidance | Percentage of holes with three or more putts | Low, under 3% on tour |
| Putting average | Average putts taken per green hit in regulation | Around 1.7 on tour |
| Putts per round | Total putts in a round, regardless of anything else | Around 28 to 29 on tour |
| Strokes gained putting | Putting performance versus a benchmark field | Positive means better than the field |
The honest weakness of a raw putt count is that it rewards missing greens. A player who chips close and taps in can post fewer putts than someone who hit every green and lagged from distance, even though the second player putted better. Three-putt avoidance sidesteps that problem by looking only at whether a hole leaked a stroke on the green, which is why coaches often point to it before total putts.
What affects a golfer’s three-putt avoidance
Two things move the number, and they pull in different directions. The first is speed on the long putt. If a golfer regularly leaves the first putt inside a few feet, the second putt becomes routine and the three-putt rarely arrives. Distance control on lag putts, not a perfect stroke, is what keeps the figure low from long range.
The second is the short putt itself. Even a good lag is wasted if the putt coming back slides past the edge. Tour players convert almost everything inside 5 feet. That reliability is a big reason their three-putt avoidance sits so low, and a golfer who leaks short putts will three-putt more often no matter how well they lag from long range.
There is a strategic wrinkle worth knowing. Because the stat only cares about first-putt distance and short-putt reliability, missing a green and chipping close can quietly protect the number, which is why analysts treat three-putt avoidance as a read on green performance rather than a full picture of putting skill.
Related Golf Terms
- Proximity to the hole — The average distance approach shots finish from the cup.
- One-putt percentage — The rate at which a player needs only one putt on a green.
- Birdie average — The average number of birdies a player makes per round.
- Scrambling percentage — The rate of making par after missing a green in regulation.
- Bogey avoidance — A measure of how well a player limits bogeys and worse.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a low or high three-putt avoidance better?
Low. The figure is the percentage of holes that end in a three-putt, so a smaller number means the golfer three-putts less often. Tour leaders sit under 1.5%.
What is the average three-putt avoidance on the PGA Tour?
Roughly 2.7% in recent seasons, and the 1992 to 2021 average worked out to about 3.02%. That translates to a three-putt around once every two rounds.
Does three-putt avoidance count four-putts?
Yes. The stat records three putts and anything worse, so a four-putt or five-putt is logged the same way a three-putt is.
Can amateur golfers track their three-putt avoidance?
Easily. Count the holes played, count the three-putts, and divide. A putting app or a quick mark on the scorecard next to every three-putt does the job over a season.
Sources
- PGA Tour. “Putting Statistics: 3-Putt Avoidance.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.pgatour.com/stats/putting - Golf Monthly. “How Often Do PGA Tour Pros 3-Putt?” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfmonthly.com/tour/how-often-do-pga-tour-pros-3-putt - Arccos Golf. “Pros vs. Joes: Analyzing 3-Putts.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.arccosgolf.com/blogs/community/pros-vs-joes-analyzing-3-putts - golf.com. “How likely you are to 3-putt based on your handicap.” Accessed August 2026.
https://golf.com/instruction/how-likely-you-are-3-putt-based-handicap/ - LiveAbout. “The 411 on 3-Putts.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.liveabout.com/the-dreaded-3-putt-1563978 - Golfshake. “What Do Golf Stats Mean.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/14933/What_Do_Golf_Stats_Mean.html - Back2Basics Golf. “How To Avoid 3-Putting.” Accessed August 2026.
https://back2basics.golf/blogs/news/how-to-avoid-3-putting-and-the-common-mistakes-we-all-make
