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Strokes Gained: What It Is and How VectorGOLF Uses It

Scorecard Apr 17, 2026 4 min read

If you have ever read a Tour broadcast graphic or used a modern golf app, you have seen strokes gained (SG): a single number that says whether a shot, a round segment, or an entire bag is beating or trailing a professional baseline. This article aligns that vocabulary with what you see inside VectorGOLF.ai.

Definition

For every shot, SG compares what you did to expected strokes for a reference player from the same start condition (lie, distance, and context the model knows about). Roughly:

  • SG > 0 — you “banked” fractions of a stroke versus the benchmark (fewer strokes than expected from that spot).
  • SG < 0 — you paid a penalty versus the benchmark (more strokes than expected).
  • Summing SG across shots on a hole reconstructs why a 4 on a par 4 was “worse than it looked” even when the scorecard only shows one number.

Research lineage

The methodology most apps reference traces to Mark Broadie (Columbia Business School), who used large-scale shot data to estimate expected strokes from anywhere on the course. That work helped shift golf analytics from raw counts (fairways, greens, putts) to quality-adjusted performance: the same two putts can be +SG or −SG depending on where they started.

Tour broadcasts and OEM analytics often present the same idea under four pillars—the same “buckets” VectorGOLF shows in the dashboard:

  • OTT — Off the tee (tee shots on par 4s/5s and tee shots on par 3s).
  • APP — Approach (shots toward the green from the fairway or rough, not specialty greenside lies).
  • ARG — Around the green (chips, pitches, bunkers, short runners).
  • PUTT — Putting on the green; distance bands use start distance to the hole when your import provides it.

How VectorGOLF implements SG

VectorGOLF is not a replacement for your launch-monitor physics reports; it complements them with on-course outcome analytics. For strokes gained specifically:

  • Shot-level import — We ingest per-shot rows (including category and SG vs pro) from the Tangent iOS workflow or compatible Golf Pad / CSV pipelines already supported in your dashboard.
  • Roll-up — Shots are grouped into OTT / APP / ARG / PUTT so your leak/strength cards read like the statistics you see discussed on TV.
  • Windowing — The Strokes Gained Insights panel summarizes roughly the last 180 days of imports and lets you focus on your most recent 1, 5, 25, or all rounds inside that pool.
  • Putting detail — When proximity-to-hole on putts is present, we split SG by meaningful distance bands (for example short versus mid-length versus long lag putts).
  • Trend — We compare recent rounds to prior rounds in the same window so you can see form changes, not just lifetime averages.

The numeric baseline in your import is provided by the shot-tracing ecosystem (for example Tangent’s tour-relative model). VectorGOLF preserves that engineering upstream and focuses on clarity, aggregation, and history in one place next to your launch-monitor and scorecard story.

Benefits for VectorGOLF players

  • Comparable language — OTT / APP / ARG / PUTT line up with coaches, podcasts, and Tour coverage.
  • Actionable prioritization — Share-of-loss style messaging highlights which pillar costs the most negative SG in your sample so practice time matches reality.
  • Form tracking — Round-total SG sparklines and split-window trends show improvement or drift before your handicap fully moves.
  • Integrated story — Same login ties SG to your bag, D-Plane diagnostics, and (optionally) wearable context—without siloing numbers across apps.

Open your dashboard after signing in, select the Strokes Gained Insights tab, and pair the view with Tangent import if you have not connected shot-level data yet.