What does strokes gained actually measure?
Strokes gained compares every shot you hit to what a benchmark golfer would take from the same position, so it measures each shot against the situation it was played from rather than against par. Positive means you gained ground on the benchmark; negative means you lost it.
The problem it solves
Traditional statistics count events without weighing them. Fairways hit treats a drive that finished four feet into the rough the same as one that finished behind a tree. Putts per round punishes the golfer who chips close and rewards the one who misses every green and two-putts from forty feet.
Strokes gained fixes this by asking a better question: from where this shot started, how many more shots should it have taken to hole out — and how many did it actually take?
The baseline
Every position on a golf course has an expected number of shots to hole out, established from a large sample of recorded golf. From 150 yards in the fairway it is around 2.9. From eight feet on the green it is about 1.5.
A shot gains you ground if it improves your position by more than the one stroke it cost. Hit that 150-yard approach to eight feet and you have gone from 2.9 expected to 1.5, spending one shot to save 1.4 — so you gained 0.4 strokes on the benchmark with a single swing.
| Strokes gained on a shot | expected before − expected after − 1 |
Sum every shot in a round and you have your strokes gained for that round.
The four categories
Splitting the total four ways is what makes it actionable. A round is not one number but four, and they rarely all point the same way.
- Off the tee — every tee shot on a par 4 or par 5
- Approach — shots from outside 30 yards that are not tee shots on those holes
- Around the green — everything inside 30 yards that is not on the putting surface
- Putting — every shot played from the green
What it usually tells amateur golfers
The common finding is that the part of the game that *feels* worst is rarely the part costing the most. A topped drive is memorable and costs perhaps a shot. Thirty-three putts across eighteen holes is unmemorable and costs several.
It also explains why range sessions often fail to lower scores. Two hours of drivers addresses a category that may already be neutral, while the wedge play quietly leaking two shots a round goes untouched.
What you need to record
A full four-category breakdown needs shot-level data — where each shot started and finished. The Caddy collects that when you track shots during a round.
Score normally, without tracking shots, and you still get the measures that come from a scorecard alone: putts, greens in regulation, scrambling, three-putt avoidance and your handicap index. Less granular, but honest about what it knows.
Common questions
Do I need to track every shot?
For the full four-category breakdown, yes. Without shot tracking you still get putting, greens in regulation, scrambling and handicap figures from the scorecard.
What does a negative strokes gained mean?
That you lost ground to the benchmark in that category. Amateur golfers are negative against a scratch baseline in most categories, which is expected — what matters is which category is most negative.
Is strokes gained useful for high handicappers?
Yes, arguably more so. The gaps between categories are wider, so the part of the game costing the most shots is easier to identify.
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