A free golf practice plan built for the golfer you actually are.
Answer eight questions about your game. Aftershot benchmarks your numbers against golfers at your handicap, tells you honestly what's carrying you and what's leaking strokes, and builds an offseason golf practice plan around the two or three things worth your time. The overview is on the page. The full plan — drills, protocols, a four-week schedule — is a PDF.
Three steps. Then a real plan.
Answer eight questions.
Handicap, fairways, greens, putts, up-and-downs, penalties, what's bugging you, and what you've got to practice with. No account, no download.
Get the honest read.
Your numbers against your handicap band, not the tour. What's carrying you, what's leaking, and which two or three things are actually worth the winter.
Take the plan to the range.
Or the basement. Named drills with a pass/fail number, and a four-week schedule that only uses the facilities you told us about.
Your offseason, planned.
- Your handicap band and how your numbers compare to it
- What's carrying you, stated plainly
- What's leaking strokes, and by how much
- Two or three priorities for the winter, with the drills named
- Full drill cards: setup, protocol, pass/fail number, progression
- A four-week schedule built around your priorities and facilities
- Re-test targets so you know in spring whether it worked
Average golf stats by handicap
Compare against your band, not the tour.
Average golf stats by handicap are the typical fairways hit, greens in regulation, putts, scrambling rate and penalties recorded by golfers in each handicap band. A 10–14 handicap averages about 86, hits 49% of fairways and 33% of greens, takes 34 putts and scrambles 29% of the time. Compare against your band, not the tour.
| Handicap | Avg score | Fairways | Greens | Putts | Scrambling | Penalties | The goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plus | 73 | 59% | 61% | 30.5 | 55% | 0.4 | go low — convert your looks and erase the one loose hole that costs a card |
| 0–4 | 76 | 54% | 52% | 31.8 | 45% | 0.7 | convert more birdies, avoid the loose bogey |
| 5–9 | 81 | 50% | 43% | 33.0 | 35% | 1.2 | break through — more pars and the odd birdie, fewer leaks |
| 10–14 | 86 | 49% | 33% | 34.3 | 29% | 1.9 | more pars, fewer doubles |
| 15–19 | 91 | 46% | 25% | 35.3 | 24% | 2.7 | steadier rounds — trade the doubles for bogeys |
| 20–24 | 96 | 43% | 21% | 36.5 | 21% | 3.7 | bogey golf — stop the doubles and triples |
| 25+ | 101 | 43% | 16% | 37.5 | 19% | 5.5 | just keep it moving — fewer blow-up holes, contact over distance |
SourcesBreak X Golf (3,788 rounds) · Shot Scope via Golf Monthly · Plus and 25+ rows are extrapolated beyond the data.
What to actually work on at each level
Plus handicap
The edges are tiny and specific: wedge proximity from the scoring range, make-rate from 8–20 feet, converting the looks you create, and the call between attacking a pin and playing to the fat side by lie and wind. Ball in play and clean contact are givens — nobody should be coaching you on fundamentals. Think in tendencies, dispersion, and percentages. The goal is to go low: convert your looks and erase the one loose hole that costs a card.
0–4 handicap
Marginal gains. The gaps are narrow and specific — wedge proximity from the scoring range, make-rate inside 10–15 feet, dispersion, and your process under pressure. Don't work on everything; find the one number furthest from the band and move it. The goal: convert more birdies and avoid the loose bogey.
5–9 handicap
You're sharpening a real game. Approach precision and short-game conversion are what separate you from single digits — tighten proximity from the scoring range, raise your greens in regulation, and clean up the wedge-and-putter conversion. Strategy matters now: smart misses, aim center. The goal is to break through — more pars and the odd birdie, fewer leaks.
10–14 handicap
The scoring shots. Approach play is the single biggest differentiator at this level, with killing the occasional blow-up hole and smarter course management — aim center, smart misses — close behind. The goal: more pars, fewer doubles.
15–19 handicap
Build consistency and cut the big hole. The leaks are penalties and loose tee shots as much as ball-striking — get it in play, advance it, and stop the doubles. Simple, repeatable swing thoughts beat technical overload. Approach precision is secondary to keeping the ball in front of you. The goal: steadier rounds — trade the doubles for bogeys.
20–24 handicap
The game here is penalties, OB, topped or chunked shots, and three-putts — not approach precision. Greens in regulation are rare and not the point yet. Get the ball in play, advance it, avoid the big number, and keep it to one swing thought. Bogey is a great score; the goal is to stop the doubles and triples.
25+ handicap
Make solid contact and keep it in play. Forget greens in regulation — the strokes are bleeding from penalties, topped or chunked shots, and three-putts. One swing thought at a time, advance the ball, and count any hole without a big number as a win. The goal: just keep it moving — fewer blow-up holes, contact over distance.
A verdict, not a chart.
Here's the read a 14 handicap gets from the numbers below. Two lines on what's working and what isn't, the drills by name, and the thing to leave alone.
87 · 6/14 fairways · 4/18 greens · 33 putts · up-and-down about 1 in 3 · 2 penalties
Your short game is carrying you.Approach play is leaking strokes.
You're scrambling better than most 10–14s. But 4 greens a round against a band average of 6 is where the doubles come from. This winter: Low-Point Ladder (8 of 10 divots ahead of the line), Aim-Center Approach, Fairway Gate. Skip: putting — you're already ahead of your band.
Your numbers are probably guesses.
Most golfers are off by ten points or more when they guess their scrambling rate or greens in regulation. That's fine for a starting point, but this plan is only as good as what you told it. Aftershot exists to replace the guesses with what actually happened, one hole at a time.
See how the app works →The stuff we'd ask too.
What should a 15 handicap practice?
At 15–19 the leaks are usually penalties and loose tee shots, not approach precision. The band averages about 91 with 46% of fairways, 25% of greens, 35 putts, a 24% up-and-down rate and 2.7 penalty strokes a round. If you're above that on penalties or below it on fairways, that's your winter: a repeatable tee shot that keeps the ball in front of you. If those are fine, look at three-putts next. The tool tells you which one from your own numbers, and names the drills.
What are average golf stats for a 20 handicap?
A 20–24 handicap averages about 96, hits 43% of fairways and 21% of greens in regulation, takes 36.5 putts, gets up and down 21% of the time and records 3.7 penalty strokes a round. Greens in regulation are rare at this level and not the point yet — the score moves when the penalties and three-putts go away. Bogey is a great score.
Do I need exact stats to use this?
No. Every question is a range — 4–5 fairways, 31–33 putts — and the engine uses the midpoint. A good guess gets you a good read. Just know that the plan is only as accurate as the numbers you gave it, which is why the app tracks them for real.
What if I don't have a range this winter?
Tell it. The last question asks what you can practice with — range, simulator, putting green, home, or nothing — and the plan only picks drills you can actually run. Home-only golfers get putting, short-game and mirror work, plus a line on what to do the day the range opens.
Is it free? What happens to my email?
Free, no account. The read on the page — your numbers against your band, strengths, leaks, priorities — costs nothing and asks for nothing. The full PDF with drill protocols and the four-week schedule is in exchange for your email. The PDF downloads right on the page. Tick the box if you also want the occasional Aftershot note by email; leave it unticked and you'll hear nothing from us. We never sell your data.
How long until it works?
The schedule is four weeks of two or three 30-minute sessions. Every drill has a pass/fail number, so you'll know by week four whether the number moved, and the plan gives you a target to re-test against in spring. What we can't promise is that your self-reported numbers were right — that part is on the app.
Those were your guesses. Now get the real numbers.
Play three rounds with Aftershot — talk after each hole — and the plan rebuilds itself on what actually happened. Free, three rounds a month.