Strokes Gained Calculator
Measure any shot against PGA Tour baselines — off the tee, approach, around the green and putting — the statistic that finally made golf stats meaningful.
Round totals
Strokes gained compares every shot against what a PGA Tour player averages from the same spot: SG = expected strokes before − expected strokes after − 1. Positive means you beat the tour benchmark on that shot. A scratch amateur runs roughly −2 per round against this baseline and a 15-handicap around −17, so negative totals are normal and useful — the value is in seeing which category costs you most. Baselines are the published tour tables, verified in this site's tests (an 8-foot putt averages 1.515 strokes, so holing it gains 0.515).
The rough costs more the further out you are
The intuition is that rough hurts most around the green, where you need control. The tour baselines say the opposite:
| Distance | Fairway | Rough | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 yd | 2.650 | 2.845 | +0.195 |
| 100 yd | 2.800 | 3.060 | +0.260 |
| 150 yd | 2.945 | 3.270 | +0.325 |
| 200 yd | 3.190 | 3.530 | +0.340 |
The gap grows at every step and nearly doubles across the range — 1.74× from 50 yards to 200. From 50 you can still get a wedge on the green out of most lies; from 200 you needed a clean strike to reach at all, and the rough takes that away. Read as distance rather than strokes it is starker: being in the rough at 100 yards leaves you exactly where a fairway shot from 176.1 yards leaves you. A drive that finds the rough has given back about 76 yards of the advantage it gained.
Sand is worse than rough everywhere, and the tee is not the best lie
At every distance the two tables share, sand costs more than rough. There is no crossover where the bunker becomes the better miss. The gap is not flat either: it is worst at the front, narrows to a minimum around 100 yards, then widens again. The greenside bunker carries about 21% more penalty than the 160-yard one.
| Distance | Rough | Sand | Sand costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 yd | 2.590 | 2.820 | +0.230 |
| 40 yd | 2.780 | 2.990 | +0.210 |
| 60 yd | 2.910 | 3.090 | +0.180 |
| 80 yd | 2.990 | 3.160 | +0.170 |
| 100 yd | 3.060 | 3.210 | +0.150 |
| 120 yd | 3.140 | 3.290 | +0.150 |
| 140 yd | 3.230 | 3.390 | +0.160 |
| 160 yd | 3.310 | 3.500 | +0.190 |
Read that last column carefully: it is the penalty against rough at the same distance, not absolute difficulty. A 160-yard bunker shot is still much the harder shot in raw strokes. What the shape says is that sand specifically punishes you most at the front, where the rough would have let you take a normal swing.
More surprising: a tee shot from 100 yards is expected to take 2.92 strokes and a fairway shot from the same 100 yards takes 2.80. The tee is the worse lie by 0.12 strokes, from a perfect flat surface with a tee peg allowed. That is not an error in the data — tee shots from 100 yards are par-3s, and par-3 greens are the most defended on any course. The lie is better, the target is harder, and the target wins.
A three-foot putt is almost pure downside
| Putt | Expected strokes | Gain if holed | Cost if two-putt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 ft | 1.053 | +0.053 | -0.947 |
| 5 ft | 1.256 | +0.256 | -0.744 |
| 8 ft | 1.515 | +0.515 | -0.485 |
| 10 ft | 1.626 | +0.626 | -0.374 |
| 15 ft | 1.799 | +0.799 | -0.201 |
| 20 ft | 1.898 | +0.898 | -0.102 |
| 30 ft | 2.003 | +1.003 | +0.003 |
| 50 ft | 2.150 | +1.150 | +0.150 |
Holing from three feet gains 0.053 strokes. Missing it and tapping in costs 0.947 — the downside is 18 times the upside. From twenty feet, holing gains 0.898 — 17 times what the three-footer pays. Long putts are where putting strokes are won; short putts are only where they are lost. The baseline crosses two strokes at 29.66 feet. Beyond that a tour professional is more likely to three-putt than to hole out, which is the honest way to read a thirty-footer: it is a lag, and treating it as a chance is how three-putts happen.
How to use
- Enter the starting distance and lie.
- Enter where the ball finished.
- Read the strokes gained or lost against the baseline.
- Track categories over rounds rather than judging one shot.
Frequently asked questions
What is strokes gained?
The difference between the number of strokes a shot actually took to advance the ball and the number a benchmark player would have expected to need from the same position. A shot that leaves you better off than expected gains; one that leaves you worse off loses.
Why is it better than traditional statistics?
Because fairways hit and greens in regulation treat every outcome as equal. Missing a green by a yard into light rough and missing it by forty into a bunker both count as one missed green, which is obviously not the same. Strokes gained measures the actual cost.
Who invented it?
Mark Broadie, a Columbia business professor, who developed the method from ShotLink data and published it in the early 2010s. The PGA Tour adopted it officially, and it reshaped how players and coaches allocate practice time.
What did it reveal about putting?
That putting matters considerably less than the old adage suggests. Broadie's analysis found that approach play accounts for the largest share of the difference between good and great players, while putting explains far less than the phrase 'drive for show, putt for dough' implies.
How many rounds do I need for meaningful numbers?
More than most people expect — golf is noisy, and a single round tells you almost nothing. A dozen or more rounds is where category-level patterns become trustworthy, and judging your approach play from one bad afternoon is exactly the error the statistic is meant to prevent.
Should I compare myself to tour baselines?
For finding your relative weaknesses, yes — that is what the comparison is for. As a standard to feel bad about, no. The useful output is which part of your game is furthest behind the rest of your game, not how far you are from a professional.
🔒 This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, logged, or stored.