Strokes Gained Approach
Strokes gained: approach is a golf statistic that measures how many strokes a player gains or loses on the field with their approach shots into the green, compared to the average result from the same distance and lie.
What is strokes gained: approach?
Strokes gained: approach answers one question: how good are a golfer’s shots into the green? It looks at iron and wedge play, the part of the game that gets the ball from the fairway or rough onto the putting surface, and turns it into a single number that shows whether those shots helped or hurt the score relative to everyone else in the field.
The stat grew out of work by Columbia Business School professor Mark Broadie, whose research reshaped how golf measures performance. The PGA Tour adopted strokes gained: putting in 2011, then in 2016 it split its broader “tee to green” figure into three pieces: off the tee, around the green, and approach the green. Approach the green is the one most people mean when they say “strokes gained approach,” and it gets shortened to SG: APP or SG: Approach.
What makes it useful is context. A traditional stat like greens in regulation treats every green the same, but hitting a green from 90 yards in the fairway is a different task than hitting one from 200 yards in the rough. Strokes gained: approach builds that difficulty into the number, so it reflects ball-striking quality rather than the luck of the yardage.
How strokes gained: approach works
Every shot is compared to a benchmark: the average number of strokes a tour player needs to hole out from a given distance and lie. The PGA Tour built those benchmarks from its ShotLink system, which has recorded millions of shots and knows, for example, that the field averages about 2.8 strokes to finish from 115 yards in the fairway.
The math for a single approach shot is straightforward. Take the expected strokes from where the shot started, subtract the expected strokes from where it finished, then subtract one for the stroke just played.
Say a golfer has 115 yards from the fairway, where the field averages 2.825 strokes to hole out. They hit it to 10 feet, a spot where the average is 1.61 strokes. The calculation is 2.825 minus 1.61 minus 1, which gives 0.215 strokes gained on that one swing (GolfWRX). A great shot produces a positive number. A poor one goes negative. Add up every approach shot in a round, and the total is that round‘s strokes gained: approach.
What counts as an approach shot
The PGA Tour draws fairly specific lines around which shots qualify. According to the Tour’s definition, strokes gained: approach covers tee shots on par 3s, plus any non-tee shot on a par 4 or par 5 played into the green from beyond 30 yards (Golf Compendium).
That boundary keeps the categories from overlapping. A drive on a par 4 belongs to strokes gained off the tee. A chip from 20 yards sits inside the 30-yard cutoff, so it lands in strokes gained around the green instead. Par-3 tee shots are the exception that surprises people: even though they come off a tee, they count as approach shots, because the golfer is aiming straight at the green.
| Shot | Counts as approach? | Reason |
| Par-3 tee shot | Yes | Played into the green |
| Second shot on a par 4 from 150 yds | Yes | Non-tee shot beyond 30 yds |
| Drive on a par 4 | No | Off the tee |
| Pitch from 25 yds | No | Inside 30 yds, around the green |
| Putt on the green | No | Strokes gained: putting |
Strokes gained: approach vs. greens in regulation
For years, greens in regulation was the go-to measure of ball-striking. It counts how often a player reaches the green with at least two putts to spare, and the PGA Tour field hits roughly 67% while many amateurs land under 50% (The DIY Golfer).
The trouble is that greens in regulation only records a yes or no. It says nothing about whether a player stuffed the ball to three feet or scrambled it onto the fringe 60 feet away, and it ignores how long or hard the shot was. Strokes gained: approach captures all of that, which is why analysts treat it as the sharper tool.
| Measure | What it tells you | Blind spots |
| Greens in regulation | Did the ball reach the green on time | Distance, lie, proximity, course difficulty |
| Strokes gained: approach | How much the shot beat or trailed the field | Needs benchmark data to calculate |
Why strokes gained: approach matters
Approach play turns out to be the biggest separator between great golfers and good ones. In Every Shot Counts, Mark Broadie found that for the top 40 PGA Tour pros, approach shots accounted for about 40% of their scoring advantage, ahead of driving at 28%, the short game at 17%, and putting at 15%.
The numbers at the top of the leaderboard back that up. Elite players tend to gain between one and two strokes per round in their strongest category (golfity), and in 2023, Scottie Scheffler led the Tour in strokes gained: approach at 1.194 strokes per round (The DIY Golfer). To read the figure, a season average of 0.500 means a golfer is half a stroke better than the field on approach shots every round (Golf Compendium). Over four rounds, that half-stroke edge adds up to two shots on the rest of the field.
Can amateurs use strokes gained: approach?
In principle, yes, though it takes the right data. Because the stat compares a shot to a benchmark, an amateur needs a database of similar players to measure against rather than the tour field, which most golfers will never match.
Shot-tracking systems such as Arccos and Shot Scope solve this by logging each shot and comparing it to golfers of a similar handicap, so a 15-handicap can see where their iron play stands against other 15-handicaps. The result is the same kind of insight tour pros have had for years: a clear read on whether approach shots are helping or quietly leaking strokes.
Related Golf Terms
- Strokes gained — An advanced statistical method comparing a player’s performance to a baseline.
- Stroke index — A ranking of holes by difficulty used to allocate handicap strokes.
- Stroke — Any forward movement of the club made with the intention of hitting the ball.
- Stroke play — The most common format where the total number of strokes for the round determines the winner.
- Stinger — A low, penetrating tee shot designed to maximize distance and control in wind.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good strokes gained: approach number?
On the PGA Tour, anything above zero beats the field average, and the leaders sit around +1.0 per round. For amateurs measured against their own handicap level, a number near zero already signals solid approach play.
Is strokes gained: approach the same as ball-striking?
It is the closest single stat to it. Approach play is mostly iron and wedge shots into the green, so a strong SG: approach number usually points to a good ball-striker.
What is the difference between SG: approach and SG: around the green?
Distance. Approach covers shots into the green from beyond 30 yards, while around the green covers chips, pitches, and bunker shots inside 30 yards.
Does strokes gained: approach include putts?
No. Putting is tracked separately as strokes gained: putting. Approach stops once the ball reaches the green.
When did the PGA Tour start tracking it?
The Tour introduced approach the green as its own category in 2016, when it divided the older tee-to-green figure into three parts.
Sources
- PGA Tour, via Golf Compendium. “Strokes Gained: Approach the Green.” Accessed May 2026.
- Broadie, Mark. Every Shot Counts. 2014.
- CBS Sports. “There’s a lot to learn from golf’s strokes gained stats.” Accessed May 2026.
- GolfWRX. “Do you actually understand strokes gained stats?” Accessed May 2026.
- Keiser University College of Golf. “The Strokes Gained Statistics Are Explained.” Accessed May 2026.
- The DIY Golfer. “What is Strokes Gained Approach Shots?” Accessed May 2026.
- golfity. “Strokes Gained Explained.” Accessed May 2026.
