How It Works
Data Driven Golf compares strokes gained to your target handicap — not only PGA Tour pros or scratch golfers. That makes the numbers meaningful for mid- and high-handicap players and lets you see where your game is actually losing strokes.
What is strokes gained?
Traditional stats like fairways hit and greens in regulation don't tell you how good each shot was. Strokes gained (SG) answers a simpler question: how many strokes did this shot save or cost compared to the expected result from that position?
- Positive SG — better than expected
- Negative SG — worse than expected
Example: a 20-foot putt on the green typically takes 2 strokes to hole for an amateur. Make it in one and you gain +1.0 SG. Three-putt and you lose 1.0 SG.
Why compare to a target handicap?
Classic strokes gained was invented for the PGA Tour. The "expected" number of strokes from any lie/distance is what a tour pro would average. That's a problem for amateurs — a 12-handicap hitting 150 yards to 20 feet is a great shot; for a pro, it's slightly below average.
Data Driven Golf scales the expected-strokes table to your target handicap and the specific course you're playing. A 10-handicap playing well sees positive SG; against a pro benchmark the same shot would read negative. The picture of where your game actually stands becomes much clearer, and practice priorities become obvious.
Reference data
The baseline is drawn from 500,000+ shots across every lie type and distance that come up in a round. The per-round calibration uses your USGA target score (course rating, slope, and your target handicap index) to anchor the expected-strokes table to your level, so the SG numbers reflect what a player at your handicap should expect from each position.
Strokes gained categories
Off the tee
First shot on par 4 and par 5 holes from the tee.
Approach
Any shot toward the green from 100 yards or more.
Short game
Within 100 yards of the hole, not on the green (chips, pitches, bunker shots).
Putting
Any shot from the putting surface.
How to use the numbers
After 3–5 rounds, one category usually stands out as your biggest loss. That's where your practice time gets the highest return. See the Features page for how this shows up in the stats tab (rolling trends, SG by distance, top shots).