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- Strokes Gained measures every shot against a baseline, revealing exactly where you lose (and gain) strokes compared to golfers at any skill level
- The four SG categories -- Off the Tee, Approach, Around the Green, and Putting -- give you a complete, no-hiding-place picture of your game
- For most amateurs, SG: Approach is the largest source of lost strokes, yet it receives the least practice time
- Tracking SG over 10+ rounds exposes your true weaknesses far more accurately than traditional stats like fairways hit or putts per round
- Directing practice to your worst SG category is the single fastest path to lower scores
Why Traditional Golf Stats Miss the Point
You finish a round, check the scorecard, and see 28 putts. Great putting day, right? Maybe not. If you only hit 5 greens and most of your first putts were from inside 10 feet after chipping close, that number tells you almost nothing about your putting skill. Meanwhile, your buddy had 34 putts but was putting from 25+ feet after hitting 12 greens. Who actually putted better?
This is the core problem with traditional stats. They count events (fairway hit: yes or no, green hit: yes or no) without measuring quality. A 300-yard drive into the rough and a 220-yard poke down the middle both count as fairway misses. A green hit to 5 feet and a green hit to 50 feet both count the same.
Strokes Gained fixes all of this. Developed by Columbia professor Mark Broadie and detailed in his book Every Shot Counts, it assigns a precise value to every single shot you hit by comparing it against what an average golfer would do from the same spot.
The Core Math Behind Strokes Gained
The formula is deceptively simple:
SG = Expected strokes (before shot) - Actual strokes used (1) - Expected strokes (after shot)
Here is a concrete example. You are 170 yards from the hole in the fairway. The baseline says the average golfer takes 3.20 strokes to hole out from here. You hit your approach to 12 feet. From 12 feet, the baseline says the average golfer takes 1.78 strokes. Your Strokes Gained on that approach:
Strokes Gained on that approach shot
You gained nearly half a stroke on a single shot. Now imagine measuring every shot across an entire round. The sum total tells you exactly how many strokes better or worse you were than the baseline, and where those strokes came from.
The Four Categories Explained
Broadie's framework splits the game into four categories, each capturing a distinct phase of play. Together, they account for every stroke in your round with zero overlap.
SG: Off the Tee
This covers tee shots on par 4s and par 5s only (par 3 tee shots count as approach shots). It measures both the distance and accuracy of your drives. A 290-yard drive into the rough might gain fewer strokes than a 260-yard drive in the fairway, depending on where the rough shot ends up.
Key insight: distance matters, but only when paired with reasonable accuracy. A 250-yard drive that stays in play is more valuable than a 280-yard drive that ends up behind trees 40% of the time.
SG: Approach
This includes any shot starting from 100+ yards that is not a tee shot on a par 4 or par 5. It captures your iron play, hybrid shots into par 3s, and second shots on par 5s. This is typically the largest category for amateur stroke losses.
Why? Because approach shots combine distance control, accuracy, and club selection all at once. Missing a green by 20 yards costs far more strokes than missing a fairway by 10 yards.
SG: Around the Green
Shots played from within 30 yards of the green when you are not on the putting surface. This includes chips, pitches, bunker shots, and those awkward half-wedge shots from the fringe. The baseline captures the difficulty of different lies (rough vs. fairway vs. sand) and distances.
SG: Putting
Every stroke taken on the putting surface. The baseline accounts for putt distance, so a two-putt from 40 feet gains strokes while a two-putt from 8 feet loses strokes. This is what makes SG: Putting so much more revealing than "putts per round."
NG Counting 30 putts and assuming you putted well
OK Using SG: Putting to account for distance and see your actual putting skill
What SG Looks Like Across Handicap Levels
Different skill levels lose strokes in different proportions. Understanding where your handicap bracket tends to bleed strokes can help set expectations.
A 20-handicap golfer compared to scratch typically loses roughly:
- SG: Approach -- about 6-7 strokes per round (the biggest gap)
- SG: Around the Green -- about 4-5 strokes per round
- SG: Putting -- about 4 strokes per round
- SG: Off the Tee -- about 3-4 strokes per round
A 10-handicap compared to scratch:
- SG: Approach -- about 3-4 strokes per round
- SG: Around the Green -- about 2.5 strokes per round
- SG: Putting -- about 2 strokes per round
- SG: Off the Tee -- about 1.5-2 strokes per round
The pattern is consistent: approach play is almost always the biggest gap. Yet most amateur practice sessions are spent on the driving range hitting drivers or on the practice green rolling putts.
How to Apply SG Thinking Without a Launch Monitor
You don't need ShotLink cameras or a $50,000 tracking setup. You need two things: consistent stat tracking and a reasonable baseline.
Record key data every round
At minimum, track: tee shot result (fairway, rough, trouble), approach distance and result (green hit, miss direction), up-and-down attempts and results, and number of putts with first putt distance. This takes about 30 seconds per hole once you build the habit.
Accumulate at least 10 rounds
SG analysis is noisy on a single-round basis. A bad break or a lucky bounce can swing a category dramatically. Over 10+ rounds, the patterns become statistically meaningful and your true weaknesses emerge.
Compare against your own baseline first
Before comparing yourself to scratch, compare your SG categories against each other. If you're losing 5 strokes on approach and 2 on putting, it doesn't matter that both are worse than scratch -- approach is clearly the priority.
Prioritize your worst category for practice
Allocate 50% or more of your practice time to the category where you lose the most strokes. This feels counterintuitive if that category isn't fun to practice, but the data is clear: biggest weakness equals biggest opportunity.
Re-evaluate every 15-20 rounds
As you improve in one area, another may become the new bottleneck. SG analysis is not a one-time diagnosis -- it's an ongoing feedback loop that keeps your practice aimed at the right target.
Common SG Misconceptions
"I'm a bad putter, my scores would be so much better if I putted like a pro." Probably not. Broadie's research shows that the difference between the best and worst putters on the PGA Tour is only about 1 stroke per round. Meanwhile, the approach shot gap between a mid-handicapper and scratch is 4-6 strokes. Putting feels important because it's the last thing you do on each hole, but it's rarely the biggest lever.
"Strokes Gained only works for low handicappers." The framework works at every level. The baselines just shift. A 25-handicapper can compare against a 15-handicapper baseline and get equally useful insights.
"I need expensive technology to track SG." A pencil, scorecard, and honest recording will get you 80% of the way there. Apps and GPS watches help, but they aren't required to start.
NG Assuming putting is your biggest problem because three-putts are memorable and frustrating
OK Letting the SG data show you whether approach, short game, or putting is actually costing you the most
Turning SG Insights Into a Practice Plan
Once you know your worst category, the next question is what to do about it. Here are targeted approaches for each:
If SG: Off the Tee is your weakest: Focus on finding a tee shot you can repeat reliably. This might mean dropping from driver to 3-wood on tight holes. Practice with alignment sticks and a target window, not just "hit it far."
If SG: Approach is your weakest: This is about distance control and honest club selection. Spend range sessions hitting specific targets at specific yardages rather than mindlessly banging balls. Map your real carry distances (not the one perfect shot, but the average).
If SG: Around the Green is your weakest: Dedicate short game practice to getting the ball on the green and rolling. Practice from different lies: tight lie, fluffy rough, downhill chip. The variety matters because every situation around the green is slightly different.
If SG: Putting is your weakest: Distance control on lag putts (20+ feet) is almost always more impactful than working on 3-footers. If you can consistently two-putt from 30 feet, you'll eliminate three-putts, which is where most amateur putting strokes are lost.
The Compounding Effect
Here is what makes SG analysis so powerful: improvements compound. When you improve your approach play, you hit more greens, which means fewer scramble attempts needed, which means fewer short-game strokes even if your chipping doesn't change. Better tee shots give you shorter approaches, which improves your GIR rate.
A golfer who drops from losing 6 strokes on approach to losing 4 strokes doesn't just save 2 strokes on approach. The downstream effects on around-the-green and putting can add another 1-2 strokes of improvement. This is why SG: Approach is often called the biggest lever in amateur golf.
The Bottom Line
Strokes Gained is not just another stat. It's a fundamentally different way to understand your golf game. By measuring the quality of every shot against a baseline, it strips away the guesswork and shows you -- with mathematical precision -- where your strokes are going. The golfer who knows their SG breakdown and practices accordingly will improve faster than the golfer who guesses at their weaknesses.
Track your stats. Find the biggest leak. Fix it. Repeat.
References & Data Notes
- The Strokes Gained framework was developed by Mark Broadie, detailed in Every Shot Counts (Gotham Books, 2014). Baseline expected-strokes values are derived from PGA Tour ShotLink data.
- Amateur SG distributions by handicap level are based on aggregated data published by Shot Scope (2023 Performance Report) and Arccos (2023 Strokes Gained by Handicap study), tracking hundreds of thousands of recreational rounds.
- The claim that approach shots represent the largest SG gap for amateurs is consistent across Broadie's original research, Shot Scope data, and Arccos data.
- PGA Tour putting variance (best vs. worst) of approximately 1 stroke per round is from Broadie's published analysis of ShotLink data.