Strokes Gained explained: what it is and how to use it

Golf Stats App · Updated 13 October 2026 · 6 min read

Strokes Gained measures how many shots you gain or lose with every single shot compared with a reference player. It is the most precise way to know where you are really losing strokes: off the tee, on your approach shots, around the green or on the green.

Why fairways, greens and putts are not enough

Traditional stats count what is easy to count: fairways hit, greens in regulation, putts per round. The problem is that they only tell half the story.

• Putts per round punish good short games: if you chip to two feet and hole it, you took "only" one putt, but the credit belongs to the chip. Players who miss lots of greens and get up and down will always have few putts, even if they putt poorly.
• Fairways hit don't separate a 270-yard drive down the middle from a 175-yard one on the edge of the rough. And a drive in the rough 110 yards out is often worth more than one in the fairway 200 yards out.
• Greens in regulation don't tell you how close you finished: six feet and sixty feet count the same.

The result: you look at your numbers, they seem "about average", and you still don't know what to practise.

How Strokes Gained works

The idea is simple. For every position on the course there is an average number of strokes a reference player needs to hole out from there: 150 yards in the fairway, 30 yards in a bunker, 12 feet on the green. Every shot moves you from one position to another, and Strokes Gained measures whether that move was better or worse than average.

A positive number means you gained shots on the reference; a negative one means you lost them. The method was made famous by Mark Broadie, a professor at Columbia Business School, in his book Every Shot Counts (2014). The PGA Tour has used Strokes Gained in its official stats since 2011, when it introduced Strokes Gained: Putting.

A hole-by-hole example

A par 4. The numbers are rounded examples, just to show the mechanics:

You made par, so the total is zero: the Strokes Gained on a hole always add up to the starting average minus the strokes you played. But now you know where: you gained a tenth with the drive and lost a tenth and a half with the first putt. Over a full round, and then over ten rounds, those tenths become an accurate map of your game.

The categories: where you gain and where you lose

Strokes Gained adds up by category. The classic four are:

1. Off the tee: tee shots on par 4s and par 5s.
2. Approach: shots into the green from outside short-game range.
3. Around the green: chips, pitches and bunker shots.
4. Putting: everything that happens on the green.

Golf Stats App also splits wedges (full shots from short range) from the rest of the approach game, and breaks approach, short game and putting down by distance: so you don't just learn that you "lose shots on approaches", but that you lose them from 130 to 165 yards, and with which club.

Who are you being compared with?

The baseline changes everything. If an 18-handicapper compares themselves with the PGA Tour, they will be negative in every category: that's normal, and it doesn't help you decide anything. To practise well you need a baseline close to your level, or to the level you want to reach.

That's why Golf Stats App lets you choose the benchmark: PGA Tour, LPGA Tour or a handicap level (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40). An 18-handicapper compared with a 10 sees straight away which parts of the game separate them from their goal.

How to use it to practise better

1. Collect enough rounds. One round is noise: one long putt dropping by luck changes everything. With five rounds you start to see a trend; with ten you see it clearly.
2. Find your most negative category. Not the one you enjoy practising: the one that costs you the most shots.
3. Drill down. Inside that category, look at distances and clubs: "approach" is too vague, "long irons from 165-200 yards" is a practice plan.
4. Practise that, then measure again. After a few weeks compare your latest rounds with the earlier ones: if the number goes up, the work is paying off.

More on this in the guide on how to lower your handicap with your stats.

Can you get Strokes Gained without sensors?

Yes. You only need three things for each shot: where you played it from (the lie), how far from the hole, and which club. With Golf Stats App you enter them after the round, or during it, in about 10 minutes for 18 holes; the server does the maths and you get the Strokes Gained of every shot, split by category, distance and club. No sensors on your clubs, and no subscription required to get started.