Scoring

Strokes gained

Total strokes gained against the selected benchmark.

Unit

strokes

Direction

Higher is better

Minimum sample

1 eligible

Version

1.0.0

How Ringer calculates it

Σ(expected start - expected end - 1 - penalties)

Evidence rules

IncludedOnly current, confirmed shots assigned to this category with usable start and finish evidence.

ExcludedDrafts, voided or superseded revisions, non-strokes, unusable locations, and attempts missing a measurement required by this formula.

DenominatorThe number of eligible attempts after the stated exclusions—not every hole or every round by default.

Missing dataIf no eligible denominator remains, Ringer returns unavailable and displays “—”, never 0% or NaN.

Classification

Benchmarked metric. Every eligible counted stroke is compared with the active expected-strokes model, then Driving, Approach, Short Game, and Putting values are summed with penalty strokes applied once.

Sources and context

Mark Broadie — Assessing Golfer Performance on the PGA TOUR (2011)benchmark and methodology USGA — The Importance of Strokes Gainedmethodology context

Provenance

Metric key: scoring.strokes_gained_total
Calculation version: 1.0.0
Effective: September 4, 2026