The club is called The GIR Club. It is a reasonable guess that some of you have been too polite to ask what that stands for.
GIR is Greens in Regulation in the golf world. The GIR Club is a play on that acronym and, as you know, it stands for Golf. Indulgence. Retreats.
My goal is to improve the GIRs I hit in my golf game, so let's talk about that.
What it actually means
A green is hit "in regulation" when your ball is on the putting surface with two putts still to spare.
So the maths is always par minus two.
- Par 3 — on the green with your tee shot
- Par 4 — on the green in two
- Par 5 — on the green in three
That is the whole definition. It does not matter how you got there. A perfect drive and a crisp 7 iron counts exactly the same as a topped tee shot, a lucky bounce off a cart path and a skulled wedge that somehow stops on the fringe side of the hole. On the green, two putts to spare, that is a green in regulation.
Eighteen holes, eighteen chances.
Why it is the number that matters
Because a green in regulation is a par waiting to happen.
Get on the green with two putts in hand and the worst thing that normally happens is a bogey. Miss it, and you are chipping. Chip badly and you are suddenly looking at a double, and doubles are what ruin rounds.
It is also the stat that tells you the truth about your game. Putting gets the blame for a bad round far more often than it deserves. If you hit three greens and shot 95, the problem was not your putter.
How many should you be hitting
Here is roughly the number of GIRs you should be hitting based on your handicap, out of eighteen.
- Scratch — about 10
- 5 handicap — about 8
- 10 handicap — about 6
- 15 handicap — about 4 or 5
- 20 handicap — about 3 or 4
- 25 handicap — about 2 or 3
To me, the most interesting part of this data is the difference between a 25 handicap and a 15 is about two greens a round. The difference between a 15 and a 10 is another one or two.
Not ten. Two.
Two more greens a round is the gap between handicap brackets, and that is a completely different project from "get better at golf".
Why you are missing them
You are short. That is it.
Shot Scope's tracking shows the proportion of approach shots finishing short of the green climbing steadily as handicaps rise — around 38 per cent of misses at scratch, and around 70 per cent at a 25 handicap.
Seventy per cent. Not in the trees, not over the back, not pulled into a bunker. Short.
Which means most women reading this could hit more greens this season without changing their swing at all.
Six ways to hit more
1. Take more club
If you are short seven times out of ten, the fix is not a better strike. It is one more club. Take the 6 instead of the 7 and make a smooth swing rather than a hard one.
2. Aim at the middle. Always.
Not the flag. The middle. The middle of the green is the biggest target on the golf course and it forgives a shot that comes up a bit short, leaks a bit right, or does both. Tucked pins are for people who hit it to within fifteen feet on command.
3. Know your real distance, not your best one
Your 7 iron goes as far as it normally goes, not as far as it went that one time downwind in July. Most of us club ourselves off our career best and wonder why we are short.
4. On par 5s, lay up to a number you like
Everybody has a yardage they are comfortable with. Lay up to that one on purpose, rather than hitting it as far as possible and leaving yourself an awkward 40-yard pitch you hate.
5. From trouble, get back in play
A green reached from behind a tree is a story you tell for years. A green reached from the fairway is a par. Take your medicine and move on.
6. Count them
Track your stats: fairways hit, GIRs, number of putts. After ten rounds you will know exactly which part of your game is costing you, and it is usually not the one you think.
What this does to your handicap
Here is the math.
A green hit is usually a two-putt par, sometimes a bogey if you three-putt. A green missed is a chip and a putt if it goes well, and a chip, a chip and two putts if it does not. The difference between those two outcomes is roughly a shot, and sometimes two.
So picking up two greens a round is worth somewhere around two to three shots. Do that consistently over a season and your index moves a bracket.
No new driver. No swing rebuild. One more club and a target in the middle of the green.
The short version
On the green with two putts to spare. Par minus two. Eighteen chances.
Most of your misses are short, the gap between handicap brackets is about two greens a round, and the fastest way to find them is to stop aiming at flags and start taking enough club.
Come join me at a GIR Club tournament and show off your GIRs!
Come with me!
Wendy
The 2027 GIR Club Classic at Hammock Beach runs April 11–15, and the Fingerlakes Open at Turning Stone follows on July 18–22. Fields are capped, so join the waitlist and you will hear the day registration opens.
Sources
- Golf Monthly, reporting Shot Scope tracking data on greens in regulation by handicap index band
- GOLF.com, reporting Arccos per-round figures: five handicaps around eight greens, ten handicaps around six, fifteen handicaps around four or five
- Shot Scope, on approach shots finishing short of the green — around 38 per cent at scratch rising to around 70 per cent at 25 handicap
- Break X Golf and Golf Handicapp, both compiling Shot Scope and Arccos tracked rounds, which is where the disagreement between figures is easiest to see