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One way to assess your round performance is to keep track of you good shots and bad shots tee to green. On one edge of your scorecard make a tick mark for each good drive, approach, pitch or chip shot you execute (I don't track putts in this system). On another edge make a mark for each bad shot you make. (To me a good shot is one that is crisply struck and online to the target.) At the end of the round, add up your number of good shots and bad shots. Divide your good shot total by your bad shot total. The result is your good shot/bad shot ratio. During a particularly bad round this morning, my ratio was 0.43. Now that I've shown you mine, show me yours.

That's a good idea. I'll try that next time I play.

I do this on occasion, but I think it's key to not confuse a "good shot" with a "good result."

I've hit horrible shots that have rolled to within a foot of the hole, and then too I've hit what I thought was a great shot and miss the green entirely.

I'm a 5 handicap, been playing for 15+ years.... I hit maybe a dozen good shots per round, not including the short game. Including the short game, that number doubles, and it's more like 25. That would make my "good shot" percentages somewhere around .21%.

Matter of fact, I shot 77 today, right on my handicap, and my percentage was .22%

I typically average 80 rounds or better each season, which means that I'm getting out to play more than the average golfer. Thus, my own personal standards might be a little higher than others. It's all relative.

I don't know about myself, but I know it's not many. I play to about a 5 handicap as well and hit a few each round like I want...probably less.

I've heard Tom Watson say before that he normally hits 1 or 2 perfect shots a round. He's just a good enough golfer that his bad shots still end up pretty good.

There is a formula to figure out your long-game and short -game handicap. There was an article on this in the May 2006 Golf Digest issue (Tiger on the cover). The long-game handicap takes into account all shots required to make GIR plus any shots over 50 yards. For example, if it takes 35 shots (average for 18 holes ) to hit all greens in regulation and you had to hit 2 additional shots over 50 yards to reach these greens, you would divide the total number of shots 35 +2 = 37 divided by number of GIR (say 9) = 4.11. You then match that to the long-game handicap table. 4.11 is a 4 long-game handicap according to the table. To figure out short-game handicap your handicap for that particular round you then multiply the regular index X 2 and then subtract it from your long-game handicap. This will give you a true indication of your short and long game.

My index at the moment is an 7, my long-game handicap is a 3 and my short-game handicap is an 11. Obviously my short-game needs a lot of work but my long-game (tee to green) is in pretty good shape.

I read that article and now utilize those formulas to help determine how I practice. Very eye opening. Like most golfers, my short-game needs work.

Understand and agree with the above fully, Also play off a Handicap of 5 and i think it really is a personal thing, about what standards you yourself consider to be a perfect/Great shot, I know what a perfect shot feels like, and it is not all about it going in the hole etc, as the above states, i have hit many perfectly struck shots that did not exactly go where i wanted them to.
I remember playing with a Club Pro once in UK (He did Qualify for the open once!!) We started off on the first, He hit a great straight Drive maybe 270 ish, I said "Great Shot" He just replied "It was ok" Anyway, this went on for quite a few holes, in the end i did not bother to say anything Next Hole he hits another Drive straight down the middle 275 ish again, same as all the others to me!! He says to me then "Thats the Best Drive I Have Hit for weeks!!"
It looked exactly the same to me!! Only he knows how well he hits it and what he expects.