What a fairway is worth
Fairways hit counts how many par 4 and par 5 tee shots finish on the short grass, and on the published baseline a fairway is worth about 0.25 of a stroke against the rough at 150 yards, while a tee shot out of bounds costs 2.05. The stat is useful once it is priced: the miss that matters is the one into trouble, not the one into light rough.
What a fairway is worth
The tour tables price the same yardage differently from the fairway and the rough, and the gap is steady across approach distances. It is real, and it is smaller than the folklore: a quarter of a stroke, not a full one.
Fairway against rough by approach distance
| Approach | From the fairway | From the rough | The rough costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 yards | 2.800 | 3.020 | 0.22 |
| 125 yards | 2.865 | 3.098 | 0.23 |
| 150 yards | 2.945 | 3.190 | 0.25 |
| 175 yards | 3.055 | 3.290 | 0.24 |
| 200 yards | 3.190 | 3.420 | 0.23 |
| 225 yards | 3.345 | 3.558 | 0.21 |
The miss that matters
A drive into the rough costs about a quarter of a stroke. A drive into the water or out of bounds costs the stroke and the replay: 2.05 strokes on a 400 yard hole on the published table. So fairways hit is really two statistics folded into one, and the second one decides scores. The tee shot model below prices a driver, a 3 wood and a long iron on two holes of the same length, one with trouble far from the line and one with water thirty yards from it.
Fairway rate against expected strokes, two holes
A 400 yard hole, 35 yards wide (28 on the tight version), driver total 250 with a 22 yard side spread.
| Hole | Club | Fairways hit | Penalty rate | Expected strokes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open hole, trouble 80 yards out | Driver | 57% | 0% | 4.054 |
| Open hole, trouble 80 yards out | 3 wood | 65% | 0% | 4.165 |
| Open hole, trouble 80 yards out | Long iron | 69% | 0% | 4.323 |
| Water 30 yards from the line | Driver | 48% | 8% | 4.200 |
| Water 30 yards from the line | 3 wood | 53% | 6% | 4.280 |
| Water 30 yards from the line | Long iron | 61% | 4% | 4.386 |
On the open hole the driver’s lower fairway rate costs nothing that its distance does not buy back. On the tight hole the penalty rate decides it.
A good fairway percentage
Tour players hit about 60 percent of fairways and amateurs less, and neither number says much on its own: the fairway that matters is the one with trouble beside it. A useful target is a penalty rate off the tee near zero, and a fairway rate that is whatever the driver’s spread produces on holes where the miss is only rough.
In PinFlag
PinFlag derives fairways hit from the tee shots you log, and prices the tee shot before you hit it: put the aim on the fairway, the corner or the layup and read the strokes gained of each with your own driver dispersion drawn on the hole by Shot Cloud, hazards priced with the penalty included. Landing zones in Insights show where your drives actually finish.
Frequently asked questions
How much does missing the fairway cost?
What is a good fairways hit percentage?
Should I hit 3 wood to hit more fairways?
Is fairways hit a useful stat?
Which golf app does this on the course?
Related
Sources
- PGA TOUR statistics
- Mark Broadie, Columbia Business School (Wikidata entity)
- How PinFlag calculates strokes gained
Every figure on this page is computed from the published baselines, the same ones PinFlag prices your shots with. The scope of the figures: The lie costs are the published baseline; the tee shot rows come from the site’s tee shot model with a stated driver distance and spread on two example holes.
Get PinFlag for iPhone
PinFlag shows you this number on the course, for the shot in front of you, before you swing: any target priced with your own dispersion and the lie read from the course map, your real shots drawn on the hole, and two taps to log. Golfer is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with a 14-day trial on the annual plan through the App Store.