AlignIQGOLF / PERFORMANCE

Strokes Gained category 02

Strokes Gained: Approach

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.

Category boundary

Approach includes par-3 tee shots and other non-putts played from more than 30 yards. The shot stays in Approach even when it finishes on the green; category assignment follows the starting position.

What counts

  • Every par-3 tee shot.
  • Full shots from fairway, rough, sand, pine straw, or recovery positions beyond 30 yards.
  • Penalty strokes charged to an approach that caused them.

What to log

  • Starting lie and distance to the hole in yards.
  • Ending lie and distance; use feet when the ball finishes on the green.
  • A recovery lie only when a normal advance is blocked, not merely because the ball is in rough.

A worked shot

150 yards from the fairway to 20 feet on the green
Expected before
2.945
Expected after
1.870
Stroke used
1
SG vs Tour
+0.08

The numbers above are calculated at render time from AlignIQ’s production SG engine. They are not copied into this page, so the example cannot drift away from the calculation used in the app.

How to interpret it

Approach SG compares the expected strokes before the swing with the expected strokes from the position it leaves. Proximity alone is incomplete because 20 feet from 150 yards and 20 feet from 80 yards begin from different expectations.

A common mistake

Do not recategorize a shot from where it finishes. A 150-yard fairway shot that reaches the green belongs to Approach; the next stroke begins the Putting category.

Where the benchmark comes from

The primary comparison uses Mark Broadie’s published PGA Tour expected-strokes tables and putting model. AlignIQ interpolates between published distances within the same lie, never across lies. A holed ball has an ending value of zero. When a required source value is unavailable, the engine returns no SG number.