Strokes Gained Explained Simply: Where You’re Actually Losing Shots | Rightee
The stat the pros use that most amateurs ignore
If you watch professional golf on television, you’ll hear the term “strokes gained” roughly once every four minutes. The commentator will say something like “He’s gaining 1.2 strokes on the field in approach play this week” and move on, assuming everyone knows what that means.
Most viewers nod along. Most golfers who hear the term assume it’s a complicated analytics concept that only matters at tour level. Both assumptions are wrong. Strokes gained is actually one of the simplest and most useful ideas in golf, and it’s arguably more valuable for a 15-handicap than a tour professional.
What strokes gained actually measures
At its core, strokes gained answers one question: “How did this shot compare to what’s expected from this position?”
Every shot you hit starts from somewhere and ends up somewhere. If you’re 150 yards from the hole in the fairway, the expected number of strokes to get the ball in the hole (based on thousands of rounds of data from golfers at your level) might be 3.1. If you hit your approach to 10 feet, the expected strokes to hole out from 10 feet is about 1.6. You took one shot and reduced your expected strokes from 3.1 to 1.6, a reduction of 1.5. Subtract the shot you actually took (1), and you “gained” 0.5 strokes on that single shot.
Do this for every shot in a round, add them up, and you have a complete picture of where you performed better or worse than expected.
The four buckets
Strokes gained is typically split into four categories that cover the full round:
Off the tee: Your tee shots on par 4s and par 5s. This measures both distance and accuracy together, so a 250-yard drive in the fairway might gain more strokes than a 280-yard drive in the trees.
Approach: Shots from more than 100 yards out aiming at the green. This is where handicap differences between golfers are often the widest, because it combines distance control, accuracy, and course management.
Short game: Everything from inside 100 yards that isn’t on the putting surface. Chips, pitches, bunker shots, and recovery shots.
Putting: Everything on the green. This is the category most golfers assume is their biggest weakness. The data usually says otherwise.
The surprise that changes how you practise
Here’s the insight that Mark Broadie’s research (the statistician who developed strokes gained) revealed, and that virtually every dataset since has confirmed: most amateur golfers lose more strokes in the long game than the short game.
That feels wrong. We all three-putt sometimes. We all chunk a chip. Those moments are visceral and memorable. But they’re not where the bulk of the strokes are actually leaking.
The biggest gap between a 20-handicap and a 10-handicap isn’t putting. It’s approach play. The 20-handicap misses more greens, misses them by a larger margin, and has longer chips and putts as a result. Improving approach accuracy, through better club selection, better distance control, and better course management, is worth more than any putting drill.
This doesn’t mean putting doesn’t matter. It does. But if you have limited practice time (and most golfers do), strokes gained data tells you where to spend it for the biggest return. And for most golfers, that’s the 100-200 yard approach shots, not the putting green.
You don’t need a tour-level system to start
Strokes gained used to require the PGA Tour’s ShotLink system and a team of statisticians. That’s no longer true. Any app that tracks your shots and compares them to a baseline of golfers at your handicap level can generate basic strokes gained data.
Rightee’s shot tracking and statistics feed directly into a strokes gained framework. After a few rounds, you’ll see your performance broken down by category and compared to golfers at your level. No PhD required. Just a few rounds of data and the willingness to look at what the numbers say rather than what your gut tells you.
The golfer who says “I need to putt better” might find out their putting is actually above average for their handicap, but their approach play is costing them 4-5 strokes per round. That single insight is worth more than a dozen hours on the practice putting green.
The stat the pros use that most amateurs ignore
If you watch professional golf on television, you’ll hear the term “strokes gained” roughly once every four minutes. The commentator will say something like “He’s gaining 1.2 strokes on the field in approach play this week” and move on, assuming everyone knows what that means.
Most viewers nod along. Most golfers who hear the term assume it’s a complicated analytics concept that only matters at tour level. Both assumptions are wrong. Strokes gained is actually one of the simplest and most useful ideas in golf, and it’s arguably more valuable for a 15-handicap than a tour professional.
What strokes gained actually measures
At its core, strokes gained answers one question: “How did this shot compare to what’s expected from this position?”
Every shot you hit starts from somewhere and ends up somewhere. If you’re 150 yards from the hole in the fairway, the expected number of strokes to get the ball in the hole (based on thousands of rounds of data from golfers at your level) might be 3.1. If you hit your approach to 10 feet, the expected strokes to hole out from 10 feet is about 1.6. You took one shot and reduced your expected strokes from 3.1 to 1.6, a reduction of 1.5. Subtract the shot you actually took (1), and you “gained” 0.5 strokes on that single shot.
Do this for every shot in a round, add them up, and you have a complete picture of where you performed better or worse than expected.
The four buckets
Strokes gained is typically split into four categories that cover the full round:
Off the tee: Your tee shots on par 4s and par 5s. This measures both distance and accuracy together, so a 250-yard drive in the fairway might gain more strokes than a 280-yard drive in the trees.
Approach: Shots from more than 100 yards out aiming at the green. This is where handicap differences between golfers are often the widest, because it combines distance control, accuracy, and course management.
Short game: Everything from inside 100 yards that isn’t on the putting surface. Chips, pitches, bunker shots, and recovery shots.
Putting: Everything on the green. This is the category most golfers assume is their biggest weakness. The data usually says otherwise.
The surprise that changes how you practise
Here’s the insight that Mark Broadie’s research (the statistician who developed strokes gained) revealed, and that virtually every dataset since has confirmed: most amateur golfers lose more strokes in the long game than the short game.
That feels wrong. We all three-putt sometimes. We all chunk a chip. Those moments are visceral and memorable. But they’re not where the bulk of the strokes are actually leaking.
The biggest gap between a 20-handicap and a 10-handicap isn’t putting. It’s approach play. The 20-handicap misses more greens, misses them by a larger margin, and has longer chips and putts as a result. Improving approach accuracy, through better club selection, better distance control, and better course management, is worth more than any putting drill.
This doesn’t mean putting doesn’t matter. It does. But if you have limited practice time (and most golfers do), strokes gained data tells you where to spend it for the biggest return. And for most golfers, that’s the 100-200 yard approach shots, not the putting green.
You don’t need a tour-level system to start
Strokes gained used to require the PGA Tour’s ShotLink system and a team of statisticians. That’s no longer true. Any app that tracks your shots and compares them to a baseline of golfers at your handicap level can generate basic strokes gained data.
Rightee’s shot tracking and statistics feed directly into a strokes gained framework. After a few rounds, you’ll see your performance broken down by category and compared to golfers at your level. No PhD required. Just a few rounds of data and the willingness to look at what the numbers say rather than what your gut tells you.
The golfer who says “I need to putt better” might find out their putting is actually above average for their handicap, but their approach play is costing them 4-5 strokes per round. That single insight is worth more than a dozen hours on the practice putting green.
The stat the pros use that most amateurs ignore
If you watch professional golf on television, you’ll hear the term “strokes gained” roughly once every four minutes. The commentator will say something like “He’s gaining 1.2 strokes on the field in approach play this week” and move on, assuming everyone knows what that means.
Most viewers nod along. Most golfers who hear the term assume it’s a complicated analytics concept that only matters at tour level. Both assumptions are wrong. Strokes gained is actually one of the simplest and most useful ideas in golf, and it’s arguably more valuable for a 15-handicap than a tour professional.
What strokes gained actually measures
At its core, strokes gained answers one question: “How did this shot compare to what’s expected from this position?”
Every shot you hit starts from somewhere and ends up somewhere. If you’re 150 yards from the hole in the fairway, the expected number of strokes to get the ball in the hole (based on thousands of rounds of data from golfers at your level) might be 3.1. If you hit your approach to 10 feet, the expected strokes to hole out from 10 feet is about 1.6. You took one shot and reduced your expected strokes from 3.1 to 1.6, a reduction of 1.5. Subtract the shot you actually took (1), and you “gained” 0.5 strokes on that single shot.
Do this for every shot in a round, add them up, and you have a complete picture of where you performed better or worse than expected.
The four buckets
Strokes gained is typically split into four categories that cover the full round:
Off the tee: Your tee shots on par 4s and par 5s. This measures both distance and accuracy together, so a 250-yard drive in the fairway might gain more strokes than a 280-yard drive in the trees.
Approach: Shots from more than 100 yards out aiming at the green. This is where handicap differences between golfers are often the widest, because it combines distance control, accuracy, and course management.
Short game: Everything from inside 100 yards that isn’t on the putting surface. Chips, pitches, bunker shots, and recovery shots.
Putting: Everything on the green. This is the category most golfers assume is their biggest weakness. The data usually says otherwise.
The surprise that changes how you practise
Here’s the insight that Mark Broadie’s research (the statistician who developed strokes gained) revealed, and that virtually every dataset since has confirmed: most amateur golfers lose more strokes in the long game than the short game.
That feels wrong. We all three-putt sometimes. We all chunk a chip. Those moments are visceral and memorable. But they’re not where the bulk of the strokes are actually leaking.
The biggest gap between a 20-handicap and a 10-handicap isn’t putting. It’s approach play. The 20-handicap misses more greens, misses them by a larger margin, and has longer chips and putts as a result. Improving approach accuracy, through better club selection, better distance control, and better course management, is worth more than any putting drill.
This doesn’t mean putting doesn’t matter. It does. But if you have limited practice time (and most golfers do), strokes gained data tells you where to spend it for the biggest return. And for most golfers, that’s the 100-200 yard approach shots, not the putting green.
You don’t need a tour-level system to start
Strokes gained used to require the PGA Tour’s ShotLink system and a team of statisticians. That’s no longer true. Any app that tracks your shots and compares them to a baseline of golfers at your handicap level can generate basic strokes gained data.
Rightee’s shot tracking and statistics feed directly into a strokes gained framework. After a few rounds, you’ll see your performance broken down by category and compared to golfers at your level. No PhD required. Just a few rounds of data and the willingness to look at what the numbers say rather than what your gut tells you.
The golfer who says “I need to putt better” might find out their putting is actually above average for their handicap, but their approach play is costing them 4-5 strokes per round. That single insight is worth more than a dozen hours on the practice putting green.
External Sources to Link
• Golf Insider strokes gained guide: https://golfinsideruk.com/strokes-gained-explained/
• Shot Scope explanation: https://shotscope.com/blog/practice-green/stats-and-data/understanding-strokes-gained/
• The DIY Golfer detailed breakdown: https://www.thediygolfer.com/golf-terms/strokes-gained