Make Percentage
Make percentage is the share of putts a golfer holes from a set distance, shown as a percentage. A make percentage of 40 percent from 10 feet means four of every ten putts tried from that range go in.
What is make percentage?
Make percentage answers a simple question: out of all the putts a player attempts from a certain spot, how many actually drop? It is almost always a putting statistic, and it is almost always tied to a distance. On its own, the phrase “make percentage” means little. Reported alongside a distance, it becomes one of the clearest ways to describe putting skill.
Distance matters this much because success on the greens falls off a cliff as the ball moves away from the hole. A three-foot putt and a thirty-foot putt are both single strokes on the scorecard, yet one is nearly automatic, and the other rarely drops. A single blended number would hide that gap. Broken out by distance, make percentage shows exactly how the odds change.
Golfers meet the term in two main places. The first is television. During broadcasts, graphics powered by the PGA Tour’s ShotLink system flash a putt’s make percentage before a player strikes it, so viewers know a 25-footer is a long shot rather than a routine chance. The second is stat-tracking apps such as Arccos and Shot Scope, which log every putt a golfer hits and report make percentages by distance band.
Make percentage is also the raw material behind more advanced putting stats. Strokes gained putting, the metric the PGA Tour uses to rank putters, is built directly on top of make percentages from every distance.
How make percentage is calculated
The math is straightforward. Make percentage is the number of putts holed from a distance divided by the number attempted from that distance, multiplied by 100. Hole four putts out of ten tries from eight feet, and the make percentage is 40 percent.
One detail trips people up, and it is worth getting right. “From 10 feet” and “from inside 10 feet” are not the same figure. Mark Broadie, the Columbia Business School professor who created strokes gained, has pointed out that the PGA Tour average is about 88 percent for putts inside 10 feet but only 40 percent from exactly 10 feet. The first number blends in all the short tap-ins closer than the marker. The second isolates a single distance. A make percentage always needs its distance defined the same way, or two figures that look comparable end up measuring different things.
Make percentage by distance on the PGA Tour
The best putters in the world make far fewer putts than a weekend of highlight reels suggests. The figures below come from Mark Broadie’s research in Every Shot Counts and PGA Tour ShotLink data, and they set the ceiling for what elite putting looks like.
| Distance | PGA Tour make percentage |
|---|---|
| 2 feet | 99% |
| 3 feet | 96% |
| 4 feet | 88% |
| 5 feet | 77% |
| 8 feet | 50% |
| 10 feet | 40% |
| 15 feet | 23% |
| 20 feet | 15% |
| 30 feet | 7% |
PGA Tour one-putt make percentage by distance. Source: Mark Broadie, Every Shot Counts; PGA Tour ShotLink.
Tour pros are close to perfect from inside three feet and roughly a coin flip from eight feet. Beyond fifteen feet, they are firmly in long-shot territory. Golf analyst Lou Stagner has noted that Tour players average only about one made putt per round from 13 feet 3 inches or longer. A 25-footer on TV that draws a groan from the commentary booth was never a putt the player expected to hole.
Make percentage by handicap
Amateur numbers sit below the Tour benchmark, though by less than most golfers assume. The chart below draws on Shot Scope’s database of recorded rounds, grouped by handicap.
| Distance | 0 HCP | 5 HCP | 10 HCP | 15 HCP | 20 HCP | 25 HCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–3 ft | 98% | 96% | 96% | 93% | 90% | 88% |
| 3–6 ft | 76% | 67% | 65% | 59% | 55% | 48% |
| 6–9 ft | 49% | 44% | 39% | 36% | 33% | 30% |
| 9–12 ft | 34% | 34% | 26% | 22% | 18% | 17% |
| 12–18 ft | 19% | 19% | 18% | 16% | 14% | 12% |
| 30 ft+ | 4% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
Amateur putting make percentage by handicap. Source: Shot Scope database, via MyGolfSpy.
Two patterns stand out. Inside six feet, skill separates players sharply: a scratch golfer holes about 76 percent from three to six feet, while a 25-handicapper makes closer to 48 percent. Past 18 feet, the handicap levels bunch together, because almost nobody holes long putts with any regularity. That is why lower handicaps are built more on avoiding three-putts than on holing long putts.
Make percentage vs strokes gained putting
These two stats often appear side by side, and they measure related but different things. Make percentage is a raw success rate: what fraction of putts from a distance went in. Strokes gained putting takes those rates and turns them into a score that compares a player against the field, accounting for how far every putt started from the hole.
| Make percentage | Strokes gained putting | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Share of putts holed from a distance | Strokes gained or lost vs the field on the greens |
| Tied to distance? | Yes, always reported per distance | Yes, but rolled into one round-level number |
| Best used for | Setting expectations from a given range | Ranking overall putting performance |
| Origin | Basic stat tracking and TV graphics | Mark Broadie; adopted by the PGA Tour in 2011 |
How the two putting stats differ.
An example shows the link. If a player holes a 10-foot putt that the field makes only 40 percent of the time, he gains ground on everyone who missed. Make percentage supplies the 40 percent. Strokes gained converts that single result into a fraction of a stroke earned or lost.
What counts as a good make percentage?
There is no single good number. The answer depends entirely on distance: a 90 percent make rate is poor from two feet yet excellent from eight, so the only sensible way to read the stat is against a benchmark for the same range.
Inside six feet is where scoring is won or lost, so it is the range worth measuring most closely. A scratch golfer converts around 90 percent of putts inside six feet. A 10-handicap sits closer to 70 to 80 percent, and a 20-handicap lands nearer 55 to 65 percent, according to aggregated Shot Scope and Arccos data. Beyond 10 feet, even a modest make percentage is respectable, since the odds work against every golfer alike. The USGA has estimated that the average player takes about 40 putts per round, a reminder that missing most putts outside a few feet is simply how the game goes.
Related Golf Terms
- Ball striking — A combined measure of driving and approach-play performance.
- Strokes gained tee to green — Strokes gained across all shots except putting.
- Total driving — A combined ranking of driving distance and accuracy.
- Expected strokes — The baseline average used to calculate strokes gained.
- Strokes gained total — A player’s overall performance versus a scoring baseline.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good make percentage from 10 feet?
PGA Tour pros average about 40 percent from 10 feet. A mid-handicap amateur closer to 20 percent is in the normal range, so holing one in five from that distance is solid.
Is make percentage only used for putting?
In practice, yes. The term almost always describes holed putts from a distance. Other short-game results, such as getting up and down, are tracked with their own separate stats.
How is make percentage different from putts per round?
Make percentage measures how often putts drop from a specific distance. Putts per round counts total putts across 18 holes, which also reflects how close approach shots finish.
Why do TV broadcasts show make percentage?
The PGA Tour’s ShotLink system measures every putt’s distance, so broadcasts can display the historical make percentage from that spot and give viewers a sense of how hard the putt is.
Sources
- Broadie, Mark. Every Shot Counts (Gotham Books, 2014). Print.
- PGA Tour. “Stats — Putting.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.pgatour.com/stats - Shot Scope. “Putting Make Percentages by Handicap — How Do You Compare?” Accessed August 2026.
https://shotscope.com/blog/practice-green/stats-and-data/putting-make-percentages-by-handicap-how-do-you-compare/ - MyGolfSpy. “Putting Make Percentage by Handicap (Full Chart).” Accessed August 2026.
https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/putting-make-percentage-by-handicap-full-chart-are-you-above-or-below-average/ - Golfing Focus. “What Percentage of Putts Do Pros Make?” Accessed August 2026.
https://golfingfocus.com/what-percentage-of-putts-do-pros-make-tv-does-not-tell-the-story/ - Golf Digest. “The Putting Make Percentage Is the Stat We Don’t Need.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/the-putting–make-percentage–is-the-stat-we-don-t-need- - Golf Monthly (citing USGA). “Amateur Golfers Make Less Than 40 Percent of Putts From This Crucial Length.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfmonthly.com/features/amateur-golfers-make-less-than-40-percent-of-putts-from-this-crucial-length-arccos-data-reveals-stark-putting-truths
