How to Use Strokes Gained to Find Your Weakest Link

To find your weakest link with strokes gained, log at least 5 rounds of shot-by-shot data through an app like Arccos, Shot Scope, or T5 Tracker, then look at which strokes gained category (Off-the-Tee / Approach / Around-the-Green / Putting) shows the largest negative number versus your handicap benchmark. For most amateurs, Approach play is the biggest leak (typically -1.0 to -2.5 strokes per round vs scratch), followed by Around-the-Green for higher handicaps. Strokes gained ranks your problems in stroke-cost order so you stop wasting practice time on the wrong category.

Strokes gained is the most powerful stat in golf. Tour pros use it to identify exactly where they gain and lose strokes against the field. And now, with affordable shot tracking technology, every amateur can use it too.

But most golfers either don’t understand strokes gained or don’t know how to act on it. Let’s fix that.

What Strokes Gained Actually Measures

Traditional stats like fairways hit and greens in regulation tell you what happened. Strokes gained tells you how much it mattered.

Here’s the concept: every shot in golf has an expected number of strokes to hole out, based on distance and lie. If you’re 150 yards out in the fairway, the average golfer at your level takes about 2.9 strokes to hole out. If you hit it to 15 feet, you now need about 1.8 strokes. You “gained” 0.1 strokes on that shot versus the average.

Add up all your strokes gained across a round and you see exactly where you’re better or worse than average — broken down by driving, approach, short game, and putting.

The Four Categories

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee — How your tee shots compare in both distance and accuracy. A long straight drive gains more strokes than a short straight drive or a long crooked one.

Strokes Gained: Approach — How your approach shots compare. This is usually the biggest differentiator between handicap levels. Hitting it closer to the hole on approaches is the fastest way to lower scores.

Strokes Gained: Around the Green — Chips, pitches, and bunker shots. How often you get up and down, and how close you leave it when you don’t.

Strokes Gained: Putting — How your putting compares from various distances. Surprisingly, this is where most amateurs think they lose the most strokes — but the data usually shows approach play matters more.

Finding Your Weakest Link

After 5-10 tracked rounds, look at your strokes gained breakdown. The category with the most negative number is your weakest link — the area where you lose the most strokes compared to your overall level.

Most amateurs find their biggest losses in approach play. They’re leaving themselves 30-40 feet from the hole when 20 feet would be realistic with better aim and club selection. Fix that, and scores drop without changing your swing.

Others discover they’re surprisingly good at ball-striking but hemorrhage strokes on the green. Different diagnosis, different fix — maybe it’s green reading, speed control, or alignment.

How to Get Started

You need a shot tracking system that calculates strokes gained. Arccos and Shot Scope both do this automatically. Clippd can analyze your data from multiple sources. Even manual tracking apps can work if you log every shot with distance and lie.

Play 5 rounds with tracking turned on. Don’t change anything about your game. Just collect data. Then review your strokes gained breakdown and you’ll know exactly what to practice.

That’s the power of data. Instead of guessing what to work on, you know. And knowing is how you get better faster.

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Strokes Gained Explained: A Deeper Dive (2026 Update)

Want to understand exactly how Strokes Gained gets calculated, what the numbers actually look like for amateurs, and which myths it destroys? This expanded section breaks down the math, the per-handicap benchmarks, and the four most common amateur misconceptions.

Why Strokes Gained Changed Golf Forever

Before 2011, golf statistics were broken. A PGA Tour player could be ranked #1 in driving distance, #1 in putts per round, and #1 in greens in regulation — and still be mediocre, because those stats didn’t account for context. Driving 320 yards means nothing if you’re hitting it into trees. Three-putting from 60 feet is not the same mistake as three-putting from 8 feet.

Columbia University professor Mark Broadie solved this with a model that compared every shot to a benchmark — the average number of strokes a PGA Tour pro needs to finish the hole from that situation. Beat the benchmark, gain strokes. Lose to it, lose strokes. The PGA Tour adopted it officially in 2011.

How the Math Works

From 150 yards in the fairway, the PGA Tour average to hole out is approximately 2.80 strokes. Hit your approach to 20 feet, two-putt: you used 3 strokes from that 150-yard position. Benchmark was 2.80. You lost 0.20 strokes total.

Drill into the parts: from 20 feet, Tour average is 1.87. You used 2.00. So you lost 0.13 on putting. Working backward, the approach itself accounted for negative 0.07 strokes. Every shot gets a score. Every category gets a total. At the end of the round, you know exactly where your strokes went.

What Strokes Gained Actually Reveals About Amateur Golf

When you analyze thousands of amateur rounds, the data tells a story that contradicts almost every driving range conversation you’ve ever had.

The average bogey golfer (90 shooter) loses approximately 18 strokes per round versus scratch. Here’s where they go:

Category	Strokes lost vs. scratch	% of total
Approach Shots	7.0	39%
Off the Tee	4.5	25%
Around the Green	3.5	19%
Putting	3.0	17%

The surprise: Nearly 40% of the gap between a bogey golfer and a scratch golfer is in approach shots. Putting — the thing that gets the most attention at most clubs — is the smallest category.

The average 100 shooter loses ~28 strokes per round, with approach (41%) and tee (29%) dominating even more. For a 100-shooter, 70% of strokes lost are in the long game. Putting practice will not move the needle nearly as much as hitting more fairways and more greens.

Strokes Gained Benchmarks by Handicap

Handicap	SG:OTT	SG:APP	SG:ARG	SG:PUTT	SG:Total
Scratch (0)	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
5	-1.2	-2.0	-1.0	-0.8	-5.0
10	-2.8	-4.0	-2.0	-1.7	-10.5
15	-4.5	-7.0	-3.5	-3.0	-18.0
20	-6.5	-9.5	-4.5	-3.5	-24.0
25	-8.5	-12.0	-5.5	-4.0	-30.0

Read this table carefully. The biggest category at every handicap level from 5 to 25 is Approach. The smallest category at every handicap level is Putting. If you’re trying to go from a 20 to a 15, you have 2.5 strokes of approach to gain — and only 0.5 strokes of putting.

The Four Amateur Myths Strokes Gained Destroys

Myth 1: “I need to improve my putting.” Unless you’re a low single-digit, your putting is probably fine. The average 15-handicapper averages 33 putts. A scratch golfer averages 30. That gap mostly disappears when you account for longer first putts (caused by missing more greens).

Myth 2: “I need to hit it farther.” A 20-yard longer drive into the rough is worse than a 20-yard shorter drive in the fairway. SG:OTT penalizes you heavily for hazards, trees, and deep rough.

Myth 3: “My short game is holding me back.” Around-the-green shots account for ~18–19% of the amateur’s gap. Meaningful, but not dominant. Missing fewer greens beats more chip practice.

Myth 4: “I just need to score better on par-5s.” Par-5s are where amateurs score closest to par. The damage is on par-4s, where 150–200 yard approach shots expose every weakness. Focus your improvement on the 130–180 yard range.

The One-Sentence Takeaway

You are losing more strokes to approach shots than to anything else — and you’re probably not practicing approach shots at all. Start tracking. Find your real leak. Stop wasting practice time on the wrong part of your game.

Last updated: 2026-04-28.

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