What does GIR Greens in Regulation mean on the Golf Course?

GIR or Greens in Regulation is quite simply reaching the putting surface and having two putts left to reach Par.

So for example:

• On a Par 3 hole, to get GIR, you must land your first shot on the putting surface. You then have 2 putts left to take to get the par on the hole.
• On a Par 5 hole you would need to get onto the green, in 3 shots, leaving you 2 putts for Par again.

Why is this important to me?

Well of course the professionals use this approach as a vital statistic. However for the non-professional golfer it can provide a great opportunity to apply a working strategy on how to get par and therefore reduce your handicap see Golf Course Management and Club Selection. 

If you are missing many GIR's on the golf course then you can apply some analysis into why this is happening. Does your short game make you miss GIR? Are your drives from the tee forcing you to have to make impossible shots to reach the green? Are you slicing or drawing from the tee going Out-of-Bounds or into hazards?

Analysis makes improvement in Golf

Once you understand what is going wrong in golf you can make efforts to improve a particular aspect of your game. I work from the principle of resolving the highest error area first. For me at the moment my short game 40-80 yard shots is making me miss many GIR's so this is the area I am currently working on fixing. 

So know you know what GIR means.