What Your Strokes Gained Numbers Are Actually Telling You

← All articles

Strokes gained looks intimidating because it is a relative metric — your performance compared to a benchmark population, hole by hole, shot by shot. Once you know what each category means and which one usually moves the needle for amateurs, strokes gained explained becomes the most useful scoring lens you have. For most 15-handicaps, the answer is hiding in one specific category, and it is probably not the one you assume.

Mark Broadie's research at Columbia, built on PGA Tour ShotLink data and detailed in his 2014 book Every Shot Counts, turned vague concepts like "good iron play" into a precise, additive number. Most major launch monitors and stats trackers now report it natively or by import.

The Origin: Mark Broadie and ShotLink

The idea is simple. For every position on the course — distance to the hole, lie type, fairway versus rough — there is an expected number of strokes a tour player needs to hole out. Hit a great approach to 8 feet and your expected score drops by, say, 0.6 strokes. That is your gain on that shot. Hit it to 50 feet and you might lose 0.2.

Sum those gains across all your shots in a round, compared to a benchmark, and you get total strokes gained. Break it out by category and you get the four numbers that matter.

The Four Categories

SG: OTT — Off the Tee

Tee shots on par 4s and par 5s. This is where length and accuracy off the tee live. Drives that find the fairway with reasonable distance gain strokes; ones that go OB or 60 yards into the trees lose them.

For a 15-handicap, SG:OTT is usually slightly negative versus tour benchmarks but not catastrophic. The exception is players with a chronic two-way miss or a slice that costs penalty strokes — those golfers can leak 2+ strokes per round here.

SG: APP — Approach the Green

Every shot from outside roughly 30 yards, excluding tee shots on par 4s and 5s. This is full irons, fairway woods on par 5s, and longer wedge approaches.

For most amateurs in the 10 to 25 handicap range, SG:APP is the largest single category by strokes lost relative to the benchmark. The reason: approach distances of 100–175 yards happen on nearly every par 4, and every foot of proximity matters because it cascades into putt distance, scrambling rate, and birdie chances.

If you are a 15-handicap looking for the fastest scoring lever, this is almost certainly it.

SG: ARG — Around the Green

Shots from inside roughly 30 yards that are not putts. Pitches, chips, bunker shots, and short flops. This category captures scrambling skill more directly than any other.

A 15-handicap who shanks the occasional chip or skulls one over the green can leak 1.5–2 strokes per round here. A clean short game minimizes both the bad-miss tail and the average proximity after the recovery shot.

SG: PUTT — Putting

All putts. SG:PUTT is the most volatile category round to round because putting variance is high, but over a 10+ round sample it stabilizes.

The interesting wrinkle for amateurs: SG:PUTT often looks better than expected for 15–20 handicaps because the benchmark accounts for first-putt distance. If you only ever putt from 40 feet (because your approaches are loose), your putting per-shot looks fine even though your scoring is bad. The leak is upstream in SG:APP, not in putting.

A Simple "Start Here" Framework for 15-Handicaps

If you do not want to memorize four categories, use this:

1. Look at SG:APP first. If it is your biggest negative, fix it before anything else.
2. Look at SG:ARG second. If you have a bad-miss tail (blowing chips or stubbing wedges), it shows up here.
3. SG:OTT only if you have penalty strokes or persistent two-way miss issues.
4. SG:PUTT last, because it is the noisiest category and rarely the biggest leak for mid-handicaps.

For most amateurs, the order is APP > ARG > OTT > PUTT in terms of leverage. There are exceptions — a player who hits 75% fairways but cannot break 90 likely has an ARG/PUTT problem. The data tells you which group you are in.

Why APP Is Usually the Biggest Lever

Three reasons:

• It happens on almost every hole.
• Small proximity improvements compound across 14+ approach shots per round.
• It controls your scoring opportunity set — closer approaches mean shorter putts, easier scrambles, and more makeable birdies.

Inside The Cut, when we look at users who imported ten or more sim sessions and logged at least 5 rounds, the ones whose handicap dropped most over a 90-day window concentrated their practice on iron dispersion and approach proximity, not driver distance. APP is where the strokes were hiding.

How to Use Strokes Gained Without a Tour Setup

You do not need ShotLink. You do need:

• A way to log shots per round (a scorecard plus a few notes works).
• A consistent benchmark — most apps and launch monitors report against scratch or a chosen handicap level.
• A few rounds of data, not just one. Single-round SG numbers are noisy.

Tools that report strokes gained natively or via import include Arccos, Shot Scope, GolfMetrics, and the major launch monitors — TrackMan, Foresight GCQuad, SkyTrak, Uneekor, Full Swing, KGOLF — when paired with their session data exports.

Even rougher: track your average proximity from 125 yards across 5 rounds. If it is over 30 feet, your APP is almost certainly the leak.

Reading Your Numbers Without Getting Discouraged

Strokes gained is comparative, so a 15-handicap will see negative numbers in most categories versus tour benchmarks. That is expected and not the point. The point is the relative size between categories.

A round where you lose 3.2 strokes to APP, 1.4 to ARG, 0.8 to OTT, and 0.6 to PUTT tells you exactly where to spend the next four practice sessions. A round where you lose 0.5 to APP, 2.8 to ARG, and 1.2 to PUTT tells a completely different story — short game and putting deserve the work.

The lens matters more than the absolute number.

Sample Numbers to Calibrate Against

Rough benchmarks for total strokes gained per round versus scratch:

• 10 handicap: roughly -10 strokes gained total per round.
• 15 handicap: roughly -15 strokes.
• 20 handicap: roughly -20 strokes.

Whichever single category is contributing most to that total is your lever.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does strokes gained actually measure?

It measures how your performance on each shot compares to a benchmark population's expected number of strokes from the same starting position. Sum it across a round and you get total strokes gained for or against that benchmark.

What is the difference between SG:APP and SG:ARG?

SG:APP covers shots from outside roughly 30 yards (mostly full irons and longer wedges). SG:ARG covers shots from inside roughly 30 yards that are not putts (chips, pitches, short bunker shots).

Which strokes gained category should I work on first?

For most 10–25 handicap players, SG:APP. It is typically the largest single negative category and has the most leverage on scoring because approach proximity affects every downstream shot.

Can I track strokes gained without a launch monitor?

Yes, with a stats app that imports scorecards and rough shot positions. The accuracy is lower than ShotLink-style tracking but the category-level signal still shows up — especially if you log 10+ rounds.

The Bottom Line

Strokes gained explained, in one paragraph: SG:OTT is the tee box, SG:APP is approach play, SG:ARG is short game, SG:PUTT is putting. For most 15-handicaps, SG:APP is the biggest lever and the place to put your next 10 practice sessions. The rest of the categories matter, but they rarely matter more.

Import your sim session or snap your scorecard and ask Chase which category is bleeding strokes the fastest — The Cut keeps the trend across rounds, so you stop guessing.