Counting putts doesn't tell you the truth. A guy can take 32 putts and have a great day on the greens, and another guy can take 26 and have a bad one. Here's exactly what strokes gained is, how it works with real numbers, and why it changes what you should be practicing.
What Is Strokes Gained in Golf?
Strokes gained is a way to grade every shot by comparing it to how an average player would do from the exact same spot. Instead of asking "did you hit the fairway" or "how many putts did you take," it asks "did this shot leave me better or worse off than average?"
That's a big deal, because the old stats treat every shot the same. A 3-footer and a 60-footer both count as one putt. A fairway hit 230 yards out counts the same as a fairway hit 300 yards out. Strokes gained doesn't. It knows that a 3-footer should almost always go in and a 60-footer almost never does.
It started in 2011 as a putting stat and then spread to every other part of the game. Today it's how tour players, coaches and a ton of amateurs figure out where they're actually losing shots.
How Do You Calculate Strokes Gained?
You calculate strokes gained by taking the average strokes to hole out from where the shot started, subtracting the average from where it finished, and then subtracting one for the shot itself.
All right, let's do the math out loud. You've got an 8-footer. The tour average from there is 1.50. You make it in one. So 1.50 minus 1 is 0.5. You just gained half a stroke on the field.
Now say you two-putt from that same 8 feet. That's 1.50 minus 2, so you lost half a stroke. Which means an 8-footer is basically a coin flip for a tour player. Make it and you gain half a shot. Miss it and you lose half a shot.
And here's what gets me. A three-putt from 6 feet is way worse than a three-putt from 50 feet. From 6 feet, the average is 1.34, so a three-putt costs you 1.66 strokes. From 50 feet, the average is 2.14, so a three-putt only costs you 0.86. Same number of putts on the scorecard, completely different damage.
The same formula works for every shot. Say, as an example, the average from a par 4 tee is 4.0 strokes, and after your drive you're in a spot where the average is 2.8. That drive gained 0.2 strokes: 4.0 minus 2.8 minus 1.
What Are the Four Strokes Gained Categories?
The four strokes gained categories are off the tee, approach, around the green and putting. Add them up and you get strokes gained total.
Off the tee covers your tee shots on par 4s and par 5s. This is where distance and accuracy with the driver show up.
Approach covers the shots into the green, including tee shots on par 3s. That's all your iron and wedge play from outside the short-game zone.
Around the green covers chips, pitches and bunker shots from within 30 yards of the edge of the green, not counting anything on the putting surface.
And putting everything on the green. Combine off the tee, approach and around the green and you get strokes gained tee to green.
So if you're losing 3 strokes a round and you don't know where, this is how you find out. Maybe your driver is fine and it's your approach shots. Maybe it's the putter. The categories tell you where to spend your practice time instead of guessing.
What Is Strokes Gained Putting?
Counting putts is a bad way to measure putting because it ignores how far away the putts started. If you hit it close all day, you'll take fewer putts even if you putt badly. If you're always 40 feet away, you'll take more putts even if you putt great. So if you've been grading your round on total putts, stop. It's mostly telling you how good your iron play was.
Strokes gained putting is the putting category on its own how many strokes you gain or lose on the greens compared to the baseline, after accounting for how far away every putt started.
This is the one most golfers should care about first, and here's why. Putting is the one part of the game you can practice every single day without a range, a course or a tee time. And the putts that move the number are the short ones.
For example. from 3 feet, the tour average is 1.05. Miss one and you lose almost a full stroke. From 8 feet, it's 1.50, so every make is half a stroke in your pocket. The 3 to 8-foot range is where rounds get saved or thrown away.
And that's where most amateurs fall apart. From 6 to 12 feet, scratch golfers make about 43% of their putts and 25-handicaps make about 35%. That's almost one extra make every dozen tries, and it adds up over a round.
So here's a tip. If you want to gain strokes on the greens, spend your practice time on 3 to 8-footers and on speed from long range so you stop three-putting. You can do all of that at home. A BirdieBall putting green gives you a realistic surface for those short putts every day, and these putting drills you can do at home and drills for speed control are a good place to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does strokes gained mean in golf?
Strokes gained measures how many strokes a shot gained or lost compared to a baseline, usually the PGA Tour average, from the same spot. A positive number means the shot was better than average. A negative number means it was worse.
How do you calculate strokes gained putting?
Take the tour average number of putts to hole out from your first putt's distance and subtract the number of putts you actually took. From 8 feet, the tour average is 1.50, so a one-putt gains 0.5 strokes and a two-putt loses 0.5.
Who invented strokes gained?
Mark Broadie, a professor at Columbia University, introduced strokes gained to golf in 2011. It started as a putting statistic and was later expanded to every part of the game. He also wrote the book Every Shot Counts about it.
What is a good strokes gained putting number?
On tour, anything positive means you putted better than the average tour player that day. For an amateur measured against a tour baseline, a negative number is normal. The goal is to see your putting number get closer to zero over time.
Conclusion
Strokes gained is worth tracking if you already keep track of your rounds, you're trying to break a scoring barrier like 90 or 80, or you're not sure whether your driver, your irons, your short game or your putter is costing you the most strokes. If you're brand new and still learning to make solid contact, you can skip it for now. Get the basics down first, then start tracking once you're playing regular rounds.
