The useful idea
Traditional golf stats count events. Fairways hit, greens in regulation, and putts per round all matter, but none says how valuable a specific shot was from its actual starting point. Strokes Gained puts drives, approaches, short-game shots, and putts into the same unit: fractions of a stroke.
Every distance-and-lie position has an expected number of strokes required to hole out. Move the ball to a better position than the reference player normally would and the shot gains strokes. Create less value and it loses strokes.
What you need to calculate a shot
- The starting lie and distance to the hole.
- The ending lie and distance to the hole.
- Any penalty strokes caused by the shot.
Distances are yards off the green and feet on the green. If a required input is missing or outside the source table, AlignIQ returns no number. It does not substitute a plausible-looking estimate.
The four Strokes Gained categories
Off the Tee
Off the Tee measures the value created or lost by the opening tee shot on a par 4 or par 5. It prices both distance and the position left for the next shot.
Read the category guide 02Approach
Approach measures full shots played toward the green after the tee shot, plus tee shots on par 3s. The starting lie matters as much as the distance.
Read the category guide 03Around the Green
Around the Green measures non-putt shots played from 30 yards and in. Lie changes the expectation: fairway or fringe, rough, and sand are not priced as the same starting position.
Read the category guide 04Putting
Putting measures strokes that start on the putting surface. Distance is recorded in feet, and the ending position is either another putt or the hole.
Read the category guideHow to read the result
Positive means the shot gained ground against the selected reference. Negative means it lost ground. Zero means the shot created about the expected amount of value. The number describes the shot, not why it happened and not what the player should change technically.
A single result is a single observation. Patterns become useful only after enough accurately logged shots exist in the same category and context.
Source and calculation policy
AlignIQ’s Tour reference follows Mark Broadie’s published expected-strokes work from PGA Tour ShotLink data. The engine uses the published lie-and-distance tables, linear interpolation between source rows, a zero value for a holed ball, and explicit rules for category assignment. The scratch-amateur comparison is a secondary reference derived from Broadie’s published amateur material; Tour remains the primary line.