Junior Golf Rankings

Strokes Gained Is More Than Course Management

Strokes gained has become a common term in golf. So has dispersion, targets and course management. I think that is a good thing. Junior golfers are learning to think more about how they play the game instead of believing every problem can be fixed on the range.

But there is also some confusion about what all of these terms mean. Knowing course management and understanding targets and dispersion does not necessarily make someone a strokes gained expert. They are different areas of expertise, and that distinction matters when a junior golfer is trying to figure out where shots are really being lost and what to do about it.

I work with strokes gained data every day. When I look at a player's numbers, I am not just looking to see that the player lost 1.5 strokes on approach or gained .8 putting. That is the easy part. I want to know what caused those numbers. If a player lost strokes on approach, where did it happen? Was it from 100 to 125 yards, 150 to 175, or over 200? Was there a consistent miss? Were the carry numbers accurate? Did club selection contribute to it? Were there poor targets involved? Is the same thing showing up over the last five, ten or twenty rounds? Or did the player simply have one bad day?

That is, strokes gained analysis.

Course Management and Strokes Gained Work Together

Course management is obviously important. I use it with every player I coach. Targets and dispersion are important. Understanding how wide your shot pattern is and where the trouble is located can completely change the way you play a hole. But that is not the entirety of strokes gained analysis.

If I tell a player where to aim on a certain hole based on the location of a bunker, the width of the green and the player's dispersion, we are working on strategy. If I am studying that player's performance over a series of tournaments, comparing different areas of the game, finding where the scoring gaps exist and determining what is driving those gaps, we are doing strokes gained analysis. They work together, but they are not the same thing.

That distinction becomes especially important with better junior golfers because the gaps get smaller. A player trying to go from shooting 85 to 78 may have some fairly obvious places to improve. A player trying to go from a good national junior player to an elite junior, college player or professional may be looking for fractions of a shot.

Finding those fractions takes more work.

What do you actually do with the data?

If the answer is primarily about targets and dispersion, that may be very good course management coaching. But if you are looking for strokes gained analysis, you should also hear about monitoring performance, comparing rounds, identifying trends, breaking down different areas of the game and using those findings to help determine what the player should work on next.

That is where the data can get really useful. It might show us that we need to make an adjustment in strategy, but it can also point us toward a different setup in the bag, a lie-angle issue or something as simple as ball position. Around the greens, the numbers may lead us to look more closely at the types of lies a player is struggling with and whether technique, club selection or shot choice is really the problem.

Sometimes what we find has very little to do with mechanics. If a player's performance consistently changes late in a round, we start asking why. Are they becoming too focused on the outcome by the 15th hole? Are they staying present and committed to their routine? On Day 3 of an AJGA event, are they eating and hydrating properly enough to perform on the back nine? Those are things the data can help us identify instead of simply guessing at what went wrong.

Strokes gained gives us an incredible way to measure performance. The real value comes when someone who not only understands the numbers, but has lived out the numbers at the highest levels of golf. While also following them over time and turning that information into something the player can actually use.

For a junior golfer trying to find the next shot, that can make a big difference.