Strokes Gained on the PGA Tour

In 2011, the PGA Tour introduced the Strokes Gained statistics, a method for measuring performance better than traditional statistics (greens in regulation, fairways hit...) because it compares a player's performance to the rest of the field and because it can isolate individual aspects of the game.

The PGA started measuring total Strokes Gained and also "Strokes Gained: putting", which measures the performance on the green of each player compared to the rest of the field.

Since 2016, the PGA has added a few more stats to understand how each player is performing compared to the rest of the field, which are:

• "Strokes Gained: off-the-tee" measures player performance off the tee on all par-4s and par-5s
• "Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green" measures player performance on approach shots, which include all the shots that are not from the tee on par-4 and par-5 holes and are not included in "Strokes gained: around-the-green" and "Strokes gained: putting". This includes tee shots on par-3s.
• "Strokes Gained: Around-the-green" measures player performance on any shot within 30 yards of the edge of the green, but not on the green
• "Strokes Gained: Putting" measures how many strokes a player gains (or loses) on the greens

As you would expected, the sum of the four categories is the total number of Strokes Gained.

You can have your own Strokes Gained stats, just like any PGA tour player, if you track your scores using golfity. Just sign up, enter your data for a few rounds and you will know where to work to shave a few shots from your score!

More info: Strokes gained: How it works

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