How Many Bogeys Do You Make a Round?

How many bogeys or worse do you make during the average round? These potential disasters have a huge influence on the scores you record. Limiting mistakes and keeping dropped shots off the card is an essential objective for all golfers, from those looking to improve their handicaps to players competing for major championships.

Players on Tour

During his spectacular 2019 season on the PGA Tour - culminating with victory in the FedEx Cup - Rory McIlroy dropped shots on just 12.42% of holes he played across 19 events, 152 bogeys or worse in 1,224 holes to be precise. That's a remarkable statistic and testament to the Northern Irishman's tremendous consistency throughout the campaign, but an even more startling fact has recently shone the spotlight on the subject. 

Impressive LPGA star Jin Young Ko - the world number one and two-time major winner this year - has just gone an astonishing 114 consecutive holes bogey free on tour, which is believed to be a record, although past data is difficult to verify, surpassing the 110 set by Tiger Woods at his peak at the turn of the century. Extraordinary.

The streak comes to an end after 114 bogey-free holes.

Incredible streak Jin Young! ????

Jin Young Ko's streak of 114 consecutive bogey-free holes is the longest known streak on the @LPGA Tour or @PGATOUR.

Earlier in her round she surpassed @TigerWoods 2000 streak of 110 holes. pic.twitter.com/zdwnBXQDhC

— LPGA (@LPGA) August 29, 2019

At the Masters, Francesco Molinari navigated 49 holes at Augusta National without a dropped shot, before losing his grip on the lead. Golfers have completed 72 holes without a bogey and won tournaments - Ko at the Canadian Women's Open and J.T. Poston at the Wyndham Championship are two fresh examples. Lee Trevino famously accomplished that rare achievement in 1974, while Scott Piercy uniquely completed all four rounds bogey-free at the AT&T Byron Nelson in May but did not win, finishing second.

The Average Golfer

But these are the elite players, who are beyond our understanding, what about the average golfers? We have analysed 100,000 rounds tracked on the Golfshake Score Tracker to discover how many bogeys you will make a round.

Bringing together each handicap into one statistic, our golfers as a whole make on average 13.4 bogeys or worse per round. This spans all levels - 70% of them rest in the middle ground of having a handicap between 10 and 23 - with 6% under 10 and 6% over 28.

The average four handicap golfer averages 5.8 holes per round greater than par, with that number rising to 9.3 for a nine-handicapper, essentially half the holes played being at bogey or worse. 15 handicap golfers drop shots on 12.3 holes during a round, with that increasing to 14.1 for a 20 handicap. Those on a 28 handicap will record 16 bogeys or worse in 18 holes.

However, what separates golfers across the categories isn't just the number of holes where they dropped shots, but how many, the frequency of true card-wreckers. The extremes. Bogeys themselves aren't especially damaging, but it's the doubles and worse that take their toll on the scorecard of the everyday golfer. 

The Average 10 Handicap Will Have