Sand Save Percentage by Handicap: What Is Normal?
A scratch golfer saves par from greenside sand a little more than one time in three. A 25 handicap does it one time in ten. Here is sand save % by handicap from 0 to 25, with the rest of the stat line next to it.
Sand save percentage by handicap runs from 37% for a scratch golfer down to 10% for a 25 handicap. A 10 handicap saves par from a greenside bunker 20% of the time and a 15 handicap 18%, so a mid-handicapper gets one save in every five or six trips into the sand.
Even scratch is well short of the tour. PGA Tour players save par from the sand about half the time, while a scratch amateur converts a little more than one bunker in three.
Sand save percentage by handicap: the table
| Handicap | Sand save % | Saves per 10 bunkers | Up and down (inside 50 yards) | Typical score | SG around the green |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scratch (0) | 37% | 3.7 | 54% | 74–76 | -0.5 |
| 5 | 23% | 2.3 | 47% | 79–81 | -1.0 |
| 10 | 20% | 2.0 | 39% | 84–87 | -1.5 |
| 15 | 18% | 1.8 | 34% | 90–92 | -2.0 |
| 20 | 15% | 1.5 | 31% | 95–98 | -2.5 |
| 25 | 10% | 1.0 | 25% | 100–103 | -3.0 |
| 30 | n/a | n/a | n/a | 105–108 | -3.5 |
The sand save and up-and-down columns are Shot Scope data, published in MyGolfSpy’s short game chart by handicap and in MyGolfSpy’s piece on how often you should get up and down from a bunker. “Saves per 10 bunkers” is the same percentage turned into a count. Scores come from our average score by handicap table. Strokes gained around the green (per round, against a PGA Tour baseline) comes from the Broadie-based benchmarks for every handicap. Shot Scope’s chart stops at 25, so the 30 row stays blank. We didn’t extend the curve.
The tour figure of about 50% is the PGA Tour’s long-run average, which we cover with the full definition in what is sand save percentage.
What counts as a sand save
A sand save is a hole where your ball went into a greenside bunker and you still made par or better. Holes without a greenside bunker visit don’t count at all, so the denominator is bunker visits, not holes played. Fairway bunkers are left out.
Shot Scope’s numbers come from rounds logged by its users with tracking hardware. The chart gives one figure per handicap level and doesn’t say how many rounds sit behind each one, so treat them as a typical level rather than an exact target.
What’s normal: reading the sand save curve
The big drop is at the top. Scratch to 5 costs 14 points of sand save rate. From 5 all the way to 25, the rate falls another 13. The best players separate themselves in the bunker in a way the rest of the handicap range doesn’t.
From 10 to 20, the curve is almost flat. A 10 saves 20% and a 20 saves 15%, a 5-point gap between players who score about 11 strokes apart. Bunker play barely explains the difference between those two golfers.
Sand roughly halves your save rate. Line up the sand save and up-and-down columns. A 10 handicap gets up and down 39% of the time from inside 50 yards but only 20% from greenside sand. A 25 drops from 25% to 10%. At every level from 5 to 25, a greenside bunker turns a decent chance at par into a long shot.
Most bunker visits end in bogey or worse. At 18%, a 15 handicap walks off with bogey or worse after more than four of every five bunker visits. That’s normal for the level, and it’s why one bad bunker hole rarely says much about your game.
Sand saves and the full stat profile by handicap
Sand saves are one line in a stat profile. Here is the rest of it.
| Handicap | Score | GIR | Fairways | Putts | Up and down | Sand save | Penalties | SG off the tee | SG approach | SG around the green | SG putting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scratch (0) | 74–76 | 62% | 50% | 30.5 | 54% | 37% | 0.56 | -0.8 | -1.5 | -0.5 | -0.4 |
| 5 | 79–81 | 46% | 51% | 31.5 | 47% | 23% | 0.91 | -1.4 | -3.0 | -1.0 | -0.8 |
| 10 | 84–87 | 35% | 50% | 32.5 | 39% | 20% | 1.62 | -2.0 | -4.5 | -1.5 | -1.2 |
| 15 | 90–92 | 23% | 47% | 33.5 | 34% | 18% | 2.45 | -2.7 | -6.0 | -2.0 | -1.5 |
| 20 | 95–98 | 16% | 45% | 34.5 | 31% | 15% | 3.03 | -3.4 | -7.5 | -2.5 | -1.8 |
| 25 | 100–103 | 9% | n/a | 35.5 | 25% | 10% | 4.67 | -4.2 | -9.0 | -3.0 | -2.2 |
| 30 | 105–108 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | -5.0 | -10.5 | -3.5 | -2.5 |
Sources by column:
- GIR: our greens in regulation by handicap table, from Shot Scope’s amateur data.
- Fairways hit: Shot Scope’s handicap averages for the 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 handicap.
- Putts: our putting average by handicap, which stops at 25.
- Up and down: our scrambling percentage by handicap table, from the same Shot Scope chart.
- Sand save: the Shot Scope chart above.
- Penalties: our penalty strokes per round by handicap table, from Shot Scope’s e-book Traditional Statistics v Strokes Gained.
- Strokes gained: Mark Broadie’s research, per round against a PGA Tour baseline.
Why sand saves matter less than they feel
Bunker shots are memorable. A thin one over the green or two swings to get out sticks with you longer than a missed 8-iron. The scoring math is smaller than the memory.
Strokes gained around the green covers every chip, pitch and bunker shot, and a 20 handicap loses only 2.0 strokes a round more than a scratch player there. On approach, the same gap is 6.0 strokes. Bunker shots are a slice of that 2.0, so even a big jump in sand save rate moves your score less than a modest gain with your irons.
Sand save percentage also treats every save the same. A splash to two feet and a blast to 30 feet followed by a holed putt both count as one save, and a buried lie counts the same as a perfect one. Strokes gained around the green measures each bunker shot against an expected-strokes baseline instead. To see what a single bunker shot is worth from a given distance, run it through the strokes gained calculator.
How to read your own sand save rate against your handicap
Sample size comes first. Most golfers find only a handful of greenside bunkers in a round, so a single round’s sand save rate swings wildly. Wait until you have 20 or more bunker visits before comparing yourself to the table.
Then find your handicap row:
- Sand save above your row, score at your row: your bunker play is helping, and the strokes are leaking somewhere else. Check approach first.
- Sand save below your row, up and down at your row: the problem is specific to sand rather than your short game in general. Check SG around the green on the holes where you found a bunker.
- Both below your row: the leak covers chips and pitches as well as bunkers. Compare your SG around the green to your row in the benchmark table.
For one level in full detail, see what a 5 handicap, 10 handicap, 15 handicap, 20 handicap, 25 handicap or 30 handicap shoots.
Your sand saves against your handicap
The table describes a typical golfer at each level, and your own row could look quite different. One 15 handicap finds two bunkers a round and saves neither, while another finds one every other round and gets up and down from it. Both shoot 91.
Log 3 rounds and golfity shows your numbers against your handicap.
