Nicole161106: I understand what Robert says about greens in regulation but it throws up a few interesting points. Say you reach a par 5 in 2, 50 ft from the hole, you 3 putt, does that mean you have taken 3 putts on that hole? , or does the 1st putt not count? What if you hole that 1st putt? Does that mean you have played 1 putt, or zero putts?
As I understand it, reaching a par 5 in two would be counted as a GIR. That means those who are more likely to go for the green in 2 could be "penalized" in the PPH based on GIRs because of 3-putts.
Nevertheless, I looked at the "going for it" statistic for par 5s. Even the best players are successful in hitting the green only about one-third of the time. With the standard course layout including only 4 par 5s, any bias or skewness introduced would become negligible in the aggregate (after a substantial number of rounds have been completed).