5 Golf Stats Every Serious Golfer Should Track
Not all golf stats are created equal. These five metrics—from strokes gained to putts by distance—give you the most actionable picture of your game.
You could track dozens of golf stats. Fairways hit, greens in regulation, sand saves, scrambling, penalty strokes, driving distance, up-and-down percentage—the list goes on.
But most of those numbers are noise. They tell you what happened without telling you what it means. If you want to actually improve, focus on these five stats. They give you the clearest, most actionable picture of where your game stands and where to work.
1. Strokes Gained by Category
What it is: Your strokes gained broken into four categories—off the tee, approach, around the green, and putting. Each number tells you how many strokes you’re gaining or losing in that part of your game compared to a benchmark.
Why it matters: This is the single most important set of numbers in golf analytics. It tells you exactly where you’re losing the most strokes and where practice will have the biggest impact. A golfer losing 5 strokes on approach and 1 stroke on putting should spend the vast majority of their practice time on iron play—but without this breakdown, they’d never know.
What to look for: Your worst category is your biggest opportunity. Compare your numbers to benchmarks for your handicap to see if a category is unusually weak or strong for your level.
How to track it: Record your rounds shot-by-shot in golfity. The app calculates strokes gained automatically for every shot and groups them into the four categories.
2. Proximity to Hole on Approach Shots
What it is: The average distance your ball finishes from the hole on approach shots—any shot aimed at the green from 30+ yards.
Why it matters: This is the stat behind the stat. Proximity to hole drives your putting stats, your birdie rate, and your scoring average. Hit it to 10 feet on average and you’ll make birdies. Hit it to 40 feet and you’ll be scrambling to make par.
Research from Mark Broadie shows that approach play is the biggest differentiator between handicap levels. Proximity to hole is the most direct way to measure it.
What to look for: Track your average proximity by club and by distance range. You might find you’re solid from 120 yards but fall apart from 170 yards. That specificity is gold for practice planning.
Benchmark: PGA Tour average proximity from 150 yards is about 25 feet. A 10-handicap is closer to 40 feet. A 20-handicap is around 55 feet.
3. Putts by Distance
What it is: Your putting performance broken down by distance ranges—inside 5 feet, 5–10 feet, 10–20 feet, 20–30 feet, and 30+ feet.
Why it matters: “Putts per round” is nearly useless because it’s contaminated by approach quality. Putts by distance isolates your actual putting skill. It shows you exactly where on the green you’re leaving strokes.
Maybe you make 95% inside 5 feet (solid) but only 20% from 5–10 feet (below average). That tells you exactly what to practice. Or maybe you three-putt 15% of the time from 30+ feet—meaning your lag putting needs work.
What to look for:
- Inside 5 feet: Should be 90%+ make rate. If not, this is costing you easy strokes.
- 5–10 feet: Tour average is about 50%. Most amateurs are 30–40%.
- 20+ feet: Two-putt percentage matters more than makes. Leaving the second putt inside 3 feet is the goal.
How to track it: golfity automatically breaks down your putting by distance when you track shot-by-shot.
4. Scoring by Par Type
What it is: Your average score on par 3s, par 4s, and par 5s separately.
Why it matters: This reveals scoring patterns you can’t see in your total score. Many golfers have a hidden weakness on one par type. Maybe you’re bogey-free on par 5s but average double bogey on par 3s. Or maybe you play par 4s at +1.5 over par but par 5s at +0.3—meaning your long game is strong but your mid-iron approach play is weak.
What to look for:
- Par 3s test your approach game directly (no tee shot advantage). High scores here usually mean iron play is the problem.
- Par 4s are the backbone of scoring—there are usually 10 per round. This is where most strokes are gained or lost.
- Par 5s reveal course management. If you’re making more bogeys than birdies on par 5s, you’re likely making poor decisions or struggling with longer approach shots.
How to track it: Any tracking mode that records hole-by-hole scores will calculate this automatically.
5. Awful Shots (Shots Losing 0.8+ Strokes)
What it is: The count of shots where you lost 0.8 or more strokes gained in a single shot. These are the big mistakes—the skulled chips, the topped drives, the three-putts from short range.
Why it matters: This is the fastest path to lower scores. The average 15-handicap hits 5–8 awful shots per round. Each one costs nearly a full stroke. Eliminating just 2–3 awful shots per round can drop your score by 2–3 strokes without changing anything else about your game.
Awful shots are also the most fixable part of your game. You don’t need to hit the ball like a tour player—you just need to avoid the worst outcomes. That’s easier to achieve through simple course management and fundamentals than through swing overhauls.
What to look for: Track where your awful shots happen. If they cluster in one category (e.g., approach shots from 180+ yards), you’ve found a specific weakness to address. If they’re scattered, it might be a course management issue.
How to track it: golfity flags awful shots automatically in every shot-by-shot round, showing you exactly which swings are costing you the most.
What About Traditional Stats?
Fairways hit, greens in regulation, and putts per round still have a place. They’re quick to reference and easy to understand. But they shouldn’t drive your practice decisions. Use them as a snapshot, not a strategy.
The five stats above tell you the why behind your scores. Traditional stats tell you the what. And when it comes to improvement, why is all that matters.
Getting Started
You don’t need to track everything at once. Start with strokes gained by category—it’s the single most valuable dataset you can build. After 5 rounds of shot-by-shot tracking in golfity, you’ll have enough data to see clear patterns and make informed practice decisions.
From there, dig into putts by distance and proximity to hole to refine the picture. Within a season, you’ll know your game better than most golfers who’ve played for decades without tracking anything meaningful.
