What is Strokes Gained? Strokes Gained Explained [2022]

24 November 2022

A phrase becoming more and more popular in the golf industry… but what is strokes gained? What does it mean and how can it help improve your golf?

Strokes gained is a way of analysing a player’s performance level when comparing every aspect of their performance with other players within a particular dataset. It measures the golfer’s performance taking into account, the hole length, shot length, lie type of every shot and putt during a round of golf. Using this measurement to analyse performance, allows golfers to gain a greater understanding of which areas of their game they may need to work on in order to improve their overall scoring average.

Strokes gained uses a simple formula to figure out whether a shot was better or worse than average, and then how much better or worse it was, before producing a +/- number for that shot. For most golfers, comparing strokes gained against Tour, they will see mostly negative numbers.

What is strokes gained?

In simple terms, strokes gained gives golfers a score for every aspect of their game. This score can vary, depending on what the comparison is against. Benchmarks such as PGA Tour are commonly used and amateur related benchmarks, such as scratch golfer or 15 handicap golfer, are less common. Your strokes gained score will be either a positive or negative number. Negative numbers tell you how many shots the golfer has lost compared to the defined benchmark, whereas positive numbers highlight how many shots have been gained against said benchmark.

Typically, strokes gained is a widely used statistic on the PGA and European Tours, and often TV coverage refers to these new style of golf statistics in their broadcasts. With so much media coverage, many amateur golfers wonder not only ‘what is strokes gained’ but also, what their strokes gained data might be in the different aspects of the game. This is where Shot Scope comes in.

How can Shot Scope help you track strokes gained?

Shot Scope, the industry-leader in performance tracking technology, allows users to review ‘strokes gained’ data for all facets of their game on the free mobile app or web dashboard. The release of strokes gained from Shot Scope offers a strokes gained overview which benchmarks users’ statistics against Tour golfers.

This full game overview shows strokes gained for tee shots, approaches, short game, putting and includes filters such as the last 5 rounds, 10 rounds, or previous years. For all Shot Scope users, strokes gained will be backdated to include previous years’ data (200+ million shots) to ensure the best possible experience.

Shot Scope users can also dive into detailed strokes gained statistics about various aspects of their game. For example strokes gained based on hole distance, shot distance, strokes gained by lie type and of course, strokes gained tee to green. These same sub categories also apply to all aspects of the game (tee shots, approaches, short game and putting).

Stroked Gained for amateurs

The final element to strokes gained from Shot Scope allows golfers to benchmark their performance against other handicap levels. For any golfer looking to improve, this feature helps to give clear direction of which aspects of their game they need to sharpen up in order to achieve their goal of improvement or handicap reduction. Comparisons can be made against six different handicap benchmarks (scratch golfer, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 handicap). More specific handicap benchmarks may become available in future software updates.

Hopefully this blog has helped answer the question of ‘what is strokes gained’ and you can now look forward to analysing your strokes gained statistics on the Shot Scope mobile app.

About Shot Scope V3

Shot Scope design and manufacture golf GPS watches, shot tracking devices and laser rangefinders. Shot Scope’s mission is to help golfers improve on course strategy and make the game more enjoyable for all.

Using products such as the Shot Scope V3, Shot Scope PRO LX+ and Shot Scope H4 Handheld device, golfers can effortlessly track every shot they hit on the golf course and their strokes gained analytics on the web dashboard or mobile app. All Shot Scope GPS devices comes preloaded with the Shot Scope’s in-house course database of 36,000+ worldwide courses, allowing changes to a course to be instantly uploaded within as little as 48 hours.

Shot Scope users have unlimited access to Tour-quality performance statistics with the touch of a button. More than 100 different analytics – including strokes gained – can be reviewed via the Shot Scope mobile app or web dashboard on different clubs, tee shots, approaches, short game and putting.

Check out this review on Shot Scope V3.

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Shot Scope products are available to buy at www.shotscope.com, Dicks Sporting Goods – USA, PGA Superstore – USA, American Golf – UK and Golfbox Australia.