Strokes gained for club golfers, explained simply

The idea in one paragraph

Every shot starts from a position, say 150 yards out in the fairway, and ends in a new one, say 15 feet from the hole. Strokes gained asks how many shots a typical golfer needs from each position and credits or charges you for the difference. A shot that leaves you in a better spot than the typical player would have is positive; one that leaves you worse off is negative. Add them up by part of the game (off the tee, approach, around the green, putting) and you see where you gain or lose.

Why the benchmark matters

The “typical golfer” is a choice. Against the tour, almost everything you do is negative, and the numbers are discouraging and not very useful. Against golfers of your own handicap, the numbers show where you are unusually weak or strong, which is what you need to decide what to practise.

The data problem

Proper strokes gained needs the distance and lie of every shot, and almost nobody records that on a club round. Simpler counts (fairways, greens in regulation, putts and penalty strokes) are a good first approximation, and most of them are already on your scorecard.

Using your scorecards

Caddora does the counting from a photo: scan the scorecard and it identifies where you are losing shots, ranked and measured against golfers of your handicap rather than the tour.

1. Collect a handful of recent cards.
2. Count fairways, greens in regulation, putts and penalties per round.
3. Compare each with golfers of your handicap, and turn the difference into shots per round.
4. The largest gap is where to practise first.