Strokes Gained - Why It Matters To All Golfers
In order to improve a golfer needs to understand their game, and data is the best way to clearly identify their strengths and weaknesses. Traditional stats focused on fairways hit, greens in regulation, sand saves and the total number of putts, but these measures don't tell the full story.
“In my view the main reason that traditional statistics don’t work is because golf is a multifaceted game, played in three dimensions – up, down, right, left, long and short. It cannot be properly represented by flat, YES or NO answers to one-dimensional questions.” Peter Sanders (President and Founding Partner of Shot By Shot)
An example of this would be to look at fairways hit. Would you rather hit a 300-yard tee shot that ends in the first cut of rough or a 195-yard tee shot that just makes the middle of the fairway? The Fairways Hit statistic treats all missed fairways the same, out of bounds, in a water hazard, or just 1 inch off the fairway.
Similarly, the number of putts per round does not take into consideration the distance of the first putt and places the same value on a 3-foot putt as a 30-foot putt. A 30-footer versus a 3-footer is clearly a more skilful and valuable putt but they are both recorded as a 1-putt in the traditional stat method.
This is where Strokes Gained comes into play.
Strokes gained is a quantitative measurement tool that allows us to better understand the quality of any shot taken during a round of golf, allowing for accurate assessment of a golfer's strengths and weaknesses.
Strokes gained allows for the comparison of every shot taken during a round of golf with a benchmark. At Arccos we use a scratch golfer (0 handicap) as our benchmark. It is also possible to compare with other benchmarks such as the PGA Tour.
Peter Sanders, our statistical consultant, has recorded over 314,000 rounds of golf in a proprietary database. By accessing this database Arccos is able to determine how a scratch golfer performs on any type of golf hole, and from any point on the hole (tee, fairway, rough, sand, putting green). This allows us to accurately benchmark a golfer's performance, subsequently identifying strengths and weaknesses.
For example, for a putt from 25 feet (from where a scratch player will take 1.9 putts) the golfer leaves the putt 4 feet short of the hole. The strokes gained calculation for the first putt would be as follows:
No. of putts a scratch player would take from 25 feet (1.9)
LESS
No. of putts a scratch player would take from 4 feet (1.1)
LESS
The putt (1.0)
=
Strokes gained for the putt (-0.2)
Meaning the first putt was 0.2 strokes worse than a scratch player.
However, for the second putt from 4 feet (from where a scratch player will take 1.1 putts) the golfer holes the putt. The strokes gained calculation for the second putt would be as follows:
No. of putts a scratch player would take from 4 feet (1.1)
LESS
The putt (1.0)
=
Strokes gained for the putt (+0.1)
Meaning the second putt was 0.1 strokes better than a scratch player.
Arccos totals all of these strokes gained calculations throughout your round of golf and converts the information into a handicap in order to make it easier to understand.
To learn more about Strokes Gained and how Arccos uses it visit our Tour Analytics section on Arccos Academy. Test your knowledge and take our Tour Analytics Quiz.