Look, I get it. You want to know how to attack pins in golf because you want to put yourself in a position to score. You want more birdie looks and tap in pars.
How do you attack pins, though?
- How do you aim? Where?
- How do you get it close?
- How do you get it close …AND not end up in a bunker or water?
I’m going provide you with some ideas below. There are variables to think about before you go attacking the pin. There’s even the question of whether you should attack the pin in the first place.
But if you simply want to know when you should and should not go hunting for pins on the golf course, the following table has a couple of formulas you can use.
| Lowest Score Wins Formula | Nick Clerawater, VP of Instruction at GOLFTEC |
|---|
| Handicap | When to Attack | What You Shoot | When to Attack |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20+ | Less than 60 yards | 100s | Less than 50 yards |
| 11-20 | Less than 80 yards | 90s | Less than 78 yards |
| < 10 | Less than 100 yards | 80s | Less than 120 yards |
| 70s | Less than 172 yards |
Attacking Pins in Golf: A Bad Idea?
Going for the pin is fun. It’s exciting to put the ball close. Everyone loves the feeling of having a tap in for birdie or par. There’s a strong argument that you shouldn’t go pin hunting, though — and that you’ll shoot lower scores in the long run with another strategy (which I’ll share in a second).
One reason attacking pins is a bad idea is that no one hits it close as they think. The further the your approach shot, the wider your dispersion. The dispersion gets even wider if you’re trying to hit the green from a bunker or the rough.
Proximity to the Pin from 100 Yards
| Handicap | Fairway | Rough | Bunker |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 27 ft | 31 ft | 44 ft |
| 8 | 34 ft | 39 ft | 49 ft |
| 14 | 40 ft | 46 ft | 56 ft |
| 20 | 48 ft | 56 ft | 62 ft |
| 26 | 53 ft | 60 ft | 70 ft |
Arccos data is less favorable for pin hunters. For example, for a 60-80 yard shot their data says that 0-5 handicaps get it to 41.38 feet from the hole on average. This is worse than the Shot Scope’s data from 100 yards.
No matter which data you choose to accept, the point is clear — you’re not getting it as close to the pin as you might think. Don’t feel bad, though — PGA pros are only getting it to 15-18 feet on average from 100 yards out.
The bottom line — no one is out on the course with a sniper rifle. All golfers are shooting with shotguns. The better you get, the tighter your spread — but no matter how good you get, you will still have a spread. You’re not going to put one in-between the eyes.
Why Does This Matter?
Since you’re unable to (consistently) put the ball close to the pin, then it’s important that you take your dispersion into account when planning your shot. Here are a couple of things to think about.
- Is the pin tucked? If you can put it close to the pin, can you hold the green?
- Is the green surrounded by bunkers? Are the bunkers deep? How good is your bunker play?
- Is the green surrounded by rough? Is it deep rough or a mix of rough and trees?
- Are there any water hazards?
If you’re attacking the pin on your approach shot, you need to weigh missing the green – which might be even more likely if you’re attacking the pin – versus the higher likelihood of going for the middle of the green.
When assessing this, think about the those factors above. If you hit it behind a tree or into the water, you’re out a stroke. You’ll be fighting to get up and down for bogey.
If you miss the green and perhaps can still get up and down to save par, will you have to work hard for it? Do you get up and down enough to justify the risk when combined with how well you score when attacking the pin?
Also, is there any benefit to taking the extra risk on? Do you need the birdie to win the match? Do you make enough birdies here to justify the risk?
For a lot of golfers and situations, I’d guess probably not. So it probably doesn’t make sense to attack the pin on most approach shots.
So what should you do instead?
Aim for the Middle of Greens Instead
A much better approach than attacking the pins is to aim for the middle of the green. This is a good strategy for most golfers (at least those most likely to read this article) because higher handicap golfers have wider dispersions and larger misses due to inconsistent ball striking.
Or ask yourself this — how many greens are you hitting in regulation? Here’s what the numbers look like according to Shot Scope.
| 0 HCP | 5 HCP | 10 HCP | 15 HCP | 20 HCP | 25 HCP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greens in Regulation % | 62% | 46% | 35% | 23% | 16% | 9% |
There are a couple of things to takeaway from these numbers.
- If you’re a 25 handicap hitting 9% or approximately 1.5 GIRs per round, it would make more sense to focus instead on hitting more GIRs. That would be the fastest way to shooter lower scores. Until you get to that 0-5 handicap level, does it really make sense to worry about attacking pins?
- If you’re not hitting these numbers or close to it, but instead are having to scramble to save par or bogey to achieve your current handicap, then you have to ask yourself if you’re aiming for pins and, if so, whether that is working for you. And wouldn’t it be so much easier to aim for the middle of the pin and two putt for par/bogey rather than have to grind out your scores?
According to golfers much better than me, aiming for the middle of the green and two putting is all you need to achieve a single digit handicap.
I’m sure this sounds like I’m trying to cast attacking pins in golf as the worst thing you can do. That’s not my intent at all. What I want to show you are the risks associated with it and that there are often more efficient strategies to make more birdies, shoot lower scores, and lower your handicap — assuming that’s what you’d like to do.
You do what you want. Just know that you don’t need to be as aggro as attacking pins to go low on the golf course. A conservative strategy will work fine.
One last thing — if you do decide to take this advice and aim for the middle of the green, be sure to aim for the back yardage. Across the board golfers tend to hit their shots shorter than they expect (for a variety of reasons). Odds are you’ll hit more GIRs with that alone.
Even If You Get It Close, Odds Are You’ll Miss Your Birdie Putt
The last thing I will point out about attacking the pin and getting it close so that you can try to make more birdies is that the odds of you making your putts is probably less than you think. This table shows the make percentage for a couple different types of players for distances up to 20 feet.
| Distance | Tour Pro | Scratch Golfer | 90 Shooter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 99% | 99% | 95% |
| 3 | 96% | 93% | 84% |
| 4 | 88% | 80% | 65% |
| 5 | 77% | 66% | 50% |
| 8 | 50% | 41% | 27% |
| 10 | 40% | 33% | 20% |
| 20 | 15% | 14% | 6% |
Using the data above, the average proximity for a 2 handicap hitting a shot 100-yard shot from the fairway is 27 feet. They are making that putt between 10%-14% of the time.
That’s on average. Say the same player hits a shot on the positive end of the bell curve and gets it to 10 feet. Even still they’re making the putt only once every three tries. And even if they get it to 5 feet – which would feel like a sniper shot for sure – they’re still only making three out of five putts.
Birdies don’t happen as often as many amateur golfers think. If you look at the actual birdie data, it’s crystal clear.
| Handicap | Double Bogeys per Round | Birdies per Round |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
| 8 | 1.9 | 0.8 |
| 14 | 3.5 | 0.4 |
| 20 | 5.5 | 0.2 |
| 26 | 6.1 | 0.1 |
For PGA Tour pros, they average between 2.5-5 birdies per round, and they make most of those on par 5s when they can reach the green (or real close to it) in two shots.
Birdies just don’t happen that often. And in case I haven’t made it clear enough throughout this article, attacking pins and making more birdies isn’t even the easiest way to lower your score. If anything, it’s one of the reasons why you’re not shooting as low as you could.
The name of the game is to minimize your errors. That’s clear just looking at the table. How much lower could a 26 handicap golfer go if they were to focus on more GIRs and reducing the number of double bogeys they made per round?
I’d say far more than they will from chasing pins.
Whatever, Matt! Just Tell Me How to Attack Pins in Golf
Say you want to go pin hunting anyway. How do you do it? There are a few things you’ll want to know first:
- You’ll need to know your club distances. Not just estimates either. You’ll want to have accurate numbers that you collected on the range or course using a shot tracker like Shot Scope. Or you can use a simulator. You can’t expect it to put it close if you don’t know your exact yardages.
- You should know your shot zones or dispersion. Even if you’re attacking the pin, you’ll still have a shot zone. You’ll want to account for that when figuring out how to put it close. You’ll also want to avoid hazards so that if and when you do miss, you don’t lose a stroke or put yourself in a bad spot trying to get up and down.
- You’ll want to have an idea of what the greens are like. Where are the undulations? How and where will the ball roll out?
- What are the risks? Where are the hazards?
Knowing where the pin is isn’t enough. If you’re just aiming at the flag stick but don’t know your numbers or where the hazards are then, be honest with yourself, you’re not trying to get better at golf.
All you want to do is get lucky.
When Should You Chase Pins?
These are the formulas I recommend you use when deciding when to chase pins in golf.
| Lowest Score Wins Formula | Nick Clerawater, VP of Instruction at GOLFTEC |
|---|
| Handicap | When to Attack | What You Shoot | When to Attack |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20+ | Less than 60 yards | 100s | Less than 50 yards |
| 11-20 | Less than 80 yards | 90s | Less than 78 yards |
| < 10 | Less than 100 yards | 80s | Less than 120 yards |
| 70s | Less than 172 yards |
In addition, you’ll also want to weigh other factors too.
- Where the pin is located
- If there are hazards and where those are
- Your dispersion and how that will play out over the green and hazards
- The weather — how accurate are you going to be in the wind or rain
- Your score or place in a match or tournament
- How close to the pin you are
- The club you’ll use to hit the green
Ultimately, the choice to chase pins is yours and you’ll need to decide if and when it makes sense.
I would argue that if shooting lower scores is your goal, that you’ll attack the pin only when you’re real close, have a buffer in your score, or when the pin placement gives you a lot of margin for error.
There are a lot of nuances of course, plus you need to weigh your own abilities and entertainment factor when deciding when and how to attack pins in golf.