How to Calculate the Scoring Average for Any Hole of Any Round of Any Tournament

Personally, I am a statistic lover, so I enjoy looking at and analysing the statistics for a golf tournament. One type of statistic that I am most interested in is the scoring average for holes during golf tournaments. These stats are readily available for European Tour events because the hole averages get posted there. However, for the PGA Tour, accessing that information is not that simple. You could figure out the scoring averages for a hole throughout the tournament, but it's a bit more difficult to figure out the scoring average of a hole for a specific round. You'll need to do some math to get the answer. I find this skill useful and fun to use because by having this skill you have the ability to rank the holes of a golf tournament from the toughest to easiest on any given day.

So, here's what you do. You go to pgatour.com's shot tracker for any tournament. And you click any random player. Here you'll see the scoring averages for the field hole-by-hole.

Let's say you want to find out the scoring average for a hole in the THIRD round. The scoring average for the hole after 2 rounds is 4.000, and the scoring average after Round 3 is 3.950.

First thing you do, is you check how many players have completed the second round and how many players that have completed the third round. Let's say, 156 players have completed the second round, and 72 players have completed the third round.

Multiply 156 by 2 (because there are 2 rounds, so each player played that hole TWICE). You get 312. This number is how many players who played that hole after the SECOND round.

Then add 72 to the 312 number. You get 384, which is the number of players who played that hole after the THIRD round.

Next, multiply the # of players for Round TWO with the scoring average thru TWO rounds. In this case, 312 * 4.000 = 1248.

Then you multiple the # of players for Round THREE with the scoring average thru THREE rounds. In this case, 384 * 3.950 = 1516.80.

Next, you SUBTRACT the round THREE product with the round TWO product. So, in this case, 1516.80 - 1248 = 268.80.

And finally, the last step, you DIVIDE the number you got in your previous step with the total number of players who have completed round THREE, since you're finding the scoring average for the THIRD round in this case.

268.80 / 72 = 3.733.

Therefore, the scoring average for this hole during the third round is 3.733. And there you have it.

LAST WARNING: Watch out for cases in which a player WITHDREW or got DISQUALIFIED prior to a round or during a round. In this case, the player's score for some holes would count towards the scoring average while the holes that the player did NOT play will NOT be counted in the scoring average!