WTF Is Strokes Gained?

Jan 16

Have you ever tracked traditional golf stats and wondered why your score didn’t reflect an improvement? Maybe you hit a lot of fairways or had only 28 putts yet your handicap still seems to be in limbo. Strokes gained can be your solution to explain why you aren’t getting the results you want and where to focus your attention in order to do so.

What is it?

Many golf stats like greens in regulation, fairways hit and total putts are calculated by the simple act of counting. These stats are usually gauged against the “ideal” or ultimate goal. For example, 18/18 greens, 14/14 fairways or the least amount of putts possible. However, traditional stats like these can leave room for loopholes and scenarios that don’t always equate to scoring.

For Example

Hitting all 18 greens but having putts > 60ft resulting in difficult 2-putts and most likely less birdies
Having 18 putts but they are all short and not birdie putts
Hitting all fairways with a shorter club leaving a longer approach [making it more difficult to hit greens and get close birdie looks]

Strokes Gained can help fill these loopholes. Strokes Gained [or shots gained as it was originally called] is a comparative stat that is used to gauge relative skill in different categories compared to a selected peer group. In other words, where you are making up and losing ground in the competition. These categories are; Off the Tee, Approach, Around the Green, and Putting. The peer groups usually include PGA tour, LPGA Tour, College Golfers, and scratch golfers. This means a player will be comparing their skills in these facets to other players and not just counting shots.

Strokes Gained can also determine the exact contribution to score of each individual shot by comparing it to the average. Therefore, you can analyze exactly how much a shot contributed to a player's score [relative to the peer group benchmark].

Strokes Gained Putting:

The easiest way to explain this is using the putting category and the PGA tour peer group:

A PGA tour player makes 50% of putts from 8ft

This means it takes a PGA tour player on average 1.5 shots to hole out (make it) from 8ft

Half of the time it takes 1 putt the other half takes 2 putts
1 + 2 = 3, 3 shots divided by 2 attempts = 1.5 average

Therefore if a PGA Tour player makes an 8ft putt in a PGA Tour round your strokes gained in the putting category compared to the PGA Tour peer group is +½ or.5 since it took .5 less than average to make

1 stroke
1.5 [avg] - 1 = +.5

The reverse is true if you 2 putt, its -.5 strokes gained

1.5 [avg] - 2 = -.5

This process is repeated for all putting distances and corresponding averages until the strokes through the entire round. This resulting number is referred to as “strokes gained putting” and is the number displayed on TV or on the PGA tour stats online. Essentially, a positive strokes gained means a given player is playing better than the field average [peer group]. A negative strokes gained means the player is below the field average.

Long game shots are a bit more complex as they are hole-dependent, meaning that the baseline strokes gained number is calculated for each hole during each tournament. They also need modifications for distance and lie. The driving distance or approach proximity needed to gain strokes is relative to the length of the hole/shot.

Strokes Gained Off the Tee:

Some holes it's more lucrative to hit the fairway and on others it's better to just advance it as far as possible. Either way, it is found by subtracting the average strokes to hole the remaining shots [what's left after the tee shots] from the overall hole’s scoring average.

For example: Par 4 430 Yards Scoring average on this hole is 4.06

Tee shot is hit 290 yards down the fairway leaving an approach of 140 yards
The average score from 140 yards in the fairway is 2.89
4.06 - 2.89 = 1.17 shots, 1.17 - (the 1 tee shot hit) = 0.17, this leaves +0.17 strokes gained off the tee

There are many advantages to tracking and analyzing strokes-gained data. Strokes gained total, which takes all of the respective categories and adds them together, will give you the player with the lowest relative scoring average (the player performing the best in a given tournament).

This has a strong correlation to scoring average but it's not always the same due to varying course difficulty. We can see this on the PGA Tour where there is variety in player’s schedules (not everyone plays every week).

Strokes gained also makes it easy to identify strengths and weaknesses based on the 4 main categories. Therefore, it can give a player the ability to strategize for capitalizing on strengths, and mitigate the amount of shots that put stress on their weaker skill sets.

Unfortunately, there are some possible pitfalls with strokes gained. At the highest level where stats are constantly updated, strokes gained works on a tournament-by-tournament basis. Therefore, stats for that week can be skewed by event specific anomalies such as bad weather, or an unusual number of excellent shots (like hole outs from the fair way). For example, if there is an unusually high amount of hole outs from a certain distance it will take a better shot from that distance to gain strokes. Consequently, the same shot could gain shots one week and lose it the next.

Another scenario that has potential to skew strokes gained stats is the number of shots taken in each category. For example, in a round where a player chips a lot, they will have more opportunities to gain shots chipping and if they execute these shots well, the strokes gained can seem a lot better than someone who hit more greens and didn't have as many opportunities to gain strokes chipping. In short, more chances to gain strokes can equate to a higher strokes gained value even though the player isn’t performing their best from a scoring perspective.

Finally, since strokes gained is based on averages, it can’t always tell you what is necessary to win, nor can it tell you which shots are more important in the moment, or how a player handles pressure. Therefore, mental and process are still immensely important.

Overall, strokes gained is a great way for players to categorically rank and compare their skills. It can even tell players which shots contributed the most to their scores. Even though there are some pitfalls, it is probably the most detailed and insightful way to judge how a player performs.

What do you think? Do you think there will be a better system in the future? If so, what needs to change?