July 9, 2026 · Caddie Tap course data team
Everyone asks it on the first tee: how far are we about to walk? Instead of guessing, we measured. Caddie Tap maps courses hole-by-hole for its GPS rangefinder, so we took 891 eighteen-hole US courses — over 16,000 holes — and measured every one along its playing line, plus every walk from green to the next tee.
The average 18-hole course plays 6,466 yards tee-to-green (median 6,568) at an average par of 71.4. But your legs don't play the scorecard: add the eighteen walks from green to the next tee and the average round covers 8,098 yards — 4.6 miles. That's before a single crooked drive. Count the wandering, the ball searches and the snack-cart detours of a real round and most golfers cover closer to six miles.
| Hole type | Average length | Holes measured |
|---|---|---|
| Par 3 | 178 yards | 3,959 |
| Par 4 | 385 yards | 8,958 |
| Par 5 | 517 yards | 3,100 |
The longest course in our data is RTJ Ross Bridge in Alabama at a monstrous 8,110 GPS yards — its 13th is a 681-yard par 5, the longest single hole we measured. The shortest full 18 is David L. Baker in California at 3,828 yards — proof a real round doesn't have to eat five hours. The longest walk in the data covers 8.65 miles; bring snacks.
Distances are measured along each hole's GPS playing line (tee → dogleg → green) from Caddie Tap's course database, using middle-tee geometry. Walking distance adds straight-line green-to-next-tee transfers; it excludes practice greens, cart-path routing and player wandering, so treat it as the floor for a walked round. Courses with incomplete or outlier geometry were excluded (891 of 1,140 qualified for course stats; 717 for walking stats).
Every number here comes from the same data that powers Caddie Tap on the course: live GPS to the green, a caddie club pick from your own carries, and one-tap scoring on iPhone and Apple Watch. Your course is probably one of the 1,140 in the directory.
Get Caddie Tap — Free on the App Store