When it comes to the most elusive achievement in golf, the UK performs better than any other country in the world. That’s according to data compiled over three million rounds of golf by the GPS and scoring app, Hole19, which found the UK has achieved more holes-in-one than any other country.
The Hole19 Global Golf Report, the first of its nature, has been compiled from users of the app between April 2014 and January 2016, spanning over 50 countries.
It found that, of the 6,400 holes in one that have been recorded in this time, 15% have come from the UK. This puts the UK at the top of the league table with double that of its nearest rival Germany (7.5%). The other nations making up the top five are: Spain (4.7%), Australia (4.1%) and Ireland (4%).
The report, which will be released biannually, looks at the global state of the game when it comes to on-course performance. It includes stats and information on; popular courses, pace of play, scores, fairways and greens in regulation, handicaps and course length.
Unfortunately for the UK, the report also records information including average putts taken per round. The data found that the UK fares particularly poorly at this aspect of the game, coming in at 25th in the world with an average of 34.9 (putts per round). This is behind countries such as Thailand (34.1), Finland (34.6) and Turkey (34.8). When it comes to putting efficiency, Denmark comes out top with an average per round of 32.8 putts.
Commenting on the data, Anthony Douglas, founder, Hole19 Golf said: “Amazing things happen on the golf course everyday but, without the ability to record and track the stats, individual moments and insights get lost. That is why we compiled the Hole19 Global Golf Report – to connect the world of golf and tell the stories of people, countries and courses that make the game what it is. Sharing experiences is as much a part of the game as the clubs and it’s vitally important players, regardless of geography or time zone, have a forum to do that.”
Looking further afield, the data also found that the pace of play globally shows no signs of speeding up with an average time per 18 hole round standing at four hours 15 minutes. In terms of fairways hit in regulation, golfers in India come out best with a respectable 60.2%. This is followed by: Morocco (58.8%), China (56.2%) and Vietnam (54.2%).
Golfers in Finland boast the average lowest handicap (14.2) followed by fellow Nordic countries Sweden (15.9) and Iceland (16.1). Golfers in the UK rank much lower down with an average handicap of almost 20 (19.8). Although that is still way ahead of last placed China, which comes in at a maximum of 26.
While part of the pleasure of golf may be in the exercise and walking, when it comes to average round distance, think yourself fortunate you are not playing regularly in Mongolia where the average course length is 6,690m. This is ahead of Paraguay (6,077m) and Botswana (6,055m).
Hole19, which assists players on the golf course with GPS distances, hole map imagery, stat tracking, and more, has now amassed over 700,000 users around the world. Its team has mapped over 38,000 courses, which represents more than 95% of golf courses worldwide while it has users & courses in over 154 countries with the largest number of users coming from; USA, UK, Germany, Canada and Sweden.
Hole19 is a free to download app and is available on iOS, Android, Apple Watch and Android Wear. For more information, please visit www.hole19golf.com