What is strokes gained in golf?
Strokes gained compares each shot you hit to what a benchmark golfer would average from the same lie and distance. A positive number means the shot beat that benchmark. Because every shot is measured on the same scale, a drive and a three-foot putt can be compared directly.
How is strokes gained calculated?
For each shot: the benchmark number of strokes from where you started, minus the benchmark from where you finished, minus one for the shot you played. A holed shot finishes at zero. Add those up across a hole and the total equals the benchmark from the tee minus the strokes you actually took.
Do I need an account?
No. Your round is stored in this browser, so a refresh will not lose it and nothing is kept on a server. To score a shot, only its lie and distance are sent — no name, no round, no account, nothing stored.
What if I do not remember every shot?
Enter the holes you do remember; the categories still work. Or switch to Putting only and log just the putts, which needs nothing but the distance of each one.
How exact do distances need to be?
Close is fine. Being ten yards out on an approach barely moves the number. Putting distances matter most, because the benchmark changes quickly over a few feet, so estimate those as carefully as you can.
Which benchmark should I pick?
Pick the golfer you are trying to become, not the one you are. Comparing against a level slightly above you shows where the gap actually is. The same round can read very differently against a Tour player and against a 20 handicap.
Why does an out of bounds cost exactly two strokes?
You replay from the same spot, so the benchmark where the shot finished is identical to the benchmark where it started and the two cancel out. What is left is the shot you played plus the penalty stroke: exactly −2.00.
Is strokes gained better than fairways hit and greens in regulation?
It answers a different question. Fairways and greens count outcomes without weighing them, so a drive finishing one yard into the rough counts the same as one in the trees. Strokes gained prices the difference. Both are shown here, because the traditional numbers are familiar and make the strokes gained figures easier to read.
What is a good strokes gained number?
It depends entirely on the benchmark. Against a PGA Tour baseline almost every amateur is deeply negative, and that is normal. Against your own target level, zero means you played to that standard. The categories matter more than the total: they tell you which part of your game to work on.
Who invented strokes gained?
Mark Broadie, a professor of quantitative finance at Columbia Business School, developed it using the PGA Tour ShotLink data set. The Tour adopted strokes gained: putting in May 2011 and the tee-to-green categories followed.