[mi100hael]

Golf is a real-world activity that can be used for comparison here. It's a good candidate because there is a standard handicap rating system issued by a central governing body, and there are a large number of amateur players who play regularly, compared to other sports.

- Roughly 10% of golfers in the US maintain a handicap rating.

- "Today, the 2,417,905 who have a handicap included 2,051,675 “active posters,” meaning they posted at least one score in 2020. However, the average number of posted scores was 38, almost double the average number of rounds played by golfers overall last year—so it’s pretty clear that those who get a handicap are among the game’s most engaged participants." [0]

- "it has been found that on a given day the average golfer would be expected to post a score of approximately 100 strokes when following all the rules of golf" [1] which is 28 strokes over par. A 28 handicap is around the 5%-ile of golfers with a handicap [2]

- As such, those 10% of golfers with a handicap should overlap pretty heavily with the top 10-20% of all golfers. The 50%-ile of golfers with a handicap is 13 [2], so by extrapolation that should be 90-95%-ile of all golfers.

- 13 is still a solid handicap. That's someone who is breaking 90 (better than bogey golf) pretty much every round and likely has years of practice. Saying it "isn't very impressive because it's not that hard to do" would be an incorrect statement in my opinion.

- (as a sanity check, the 90%-ile of golfers with a handicap is a handicap of 5. Most D1 golfers will have a handicap right around 0, and D3 will be maybe 2. Given the number of casual golfers, it seems likely that only about 1 or 2 out of 100 are nearing that level.)

[0] https://www.linksmagazine.com/how-do-you-match-up-against-th...

[1] https://golftips.golfweek.usatoday.com/average-golf-handicap...

[2] https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/handicapping/han...

[ghaff]

It also shows that the population you're comparing yourself to, i.e. the denominator, matters a lot. If you're comparing yourself mostly to people who do some activity pretty regularly, top 5-10% means you're pretty good compared to the average person on the street who may never have touched a golf club. But if you draw your population from anyone who has ever taken a swing at a golf ball, 5-10% is a lot less impressive.