Strokes Gained Putting?

[HawkeyeMS]

I was looking at the PGA Tour App yesterday and was drawn to the Strokes Gained Putting stat. No longer are the PGA counting average putts but some chaps with big foreheads have gone to work on the stats and come up with this new one which apparently is the most accurate way of measuring putting we've ever had. The basic premise is that for every putt length the work out how many shots, on average, the players take to get down from that distance and award you shots gained or lost depending on how many putts you take.

For example, if the average for a 10ft putt is 1.25 shots and you sink it, you gain 0.25 shots on the field. If you miss, you lose 0.75 shots to the field. At the end of the round, all this is combined to give you a figure either gained or lost against the field.

During the 3rd round of the Barclays, Tiger had 31 putts which isn't good on anyone's standard, but apparently gained 0.3 shots on the field with his putting suggesting that he actually putted quite well

I don't get it, can anyone enlighten me?

 

[fundy]

It takes into account how far each putt is, I dont know the exact answer but Im guessing Tiger hit a lot of edge of greens and hence had a long way to the hole a lot of the time. Also worth bearing in mind a lot of the players were complaining about the greens and how tough they were, that 31 putts probably wasnt actually as high as it may normally have been

 

[fundy]

Where do you get that he gained 0.3 shots from in round 3, seems to me he lost 1.6 shots, he has gained 0.3 for the tourney to date

http://www.pgatour.com/golfers/008793/tiger-woods/scorecards/#!/r027/2012

 

[Deadlydan]

Hmmmm, strokes goatee thoughtfully, very interesting, very very interesting!
Now if someone will make it nice and simples I may use it!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Didn't understand it when you explained it on the 3rd this morning and still none the wiser. I'll stick to using the Aimpoint chart and making as many as I can although anyone at Ascot will ever work out the stats!!!!! On the plus side you holed out much better in the main today and your net 75 was pretty good seeing you had no margin for error after the 7th

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

Golf stats are very curious things, the only one that I've ever considered to be of any relevance is the score you sign for at the end of the round.

In your example, Tiger having 31 putts doesn't sound great. But if he hit all 18 greens in reg, that equates to him shooting 5 under par. Or possibly even better if he hit one or more par 5's in 2 shots (I don't know if the GIR stat takes that into consideration?) Likewise, if someone had 20 putts but missed all 18 greens in reg, that would look like they had a brilliant putting day whereas they would have shot 2 over par.

Hence the reason I'm always very sceptical of golf stats.

 

[fundy]

Didn't understand it when you explained it on the 3rd this morning and still none the wiser. I'll stick to using the Aimpoint chart and making as many as I can although anyone at Ascot will ever work out the stats!!!!! On the plus side you holed out much better in the main today and your net 75 was pretty good seeing you had no margin for error after the 7th

http://www.pgatour.com/r/strokes-gained-putting-column/index.html

more info here Homer

 

[Deadlydan]

That lady on your pic is not wearing golf shoes! Shock! Is the dress code at yours very lax

 

[Ian_S]

I believe at the end of the round they apply an adjustment so that the sum of all players strokes gained putting equals zero, to normalise for greens that are tough or easy. So, to read his stats for round 3, it is saying that he had 31 putts, but if you put every player in the position Tiger's first putt was from on each hole, you'd expect the average number of putts over all players to be 29.396 (31 - 1.604).

I like it as a stat. It's not the most accessible, but I think once you understand what it means it tells you a lot.

 

[fundy]

That lady on your pic is not wearing golf shoes! Shock! Is the dress code at yours very lax

You're looking at her feet? some sort of fettish? insert winking smiley!

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Where do you get that he gained 0.3 shots from in round 3, seems to me he lost 1.6 shots, he has gained 0.3 for the tourney to date

http://www.pgatour.com/golfers/008793/tiger-woods/scorecards/#!/r027/2012

Ah yes, seems I was so confused working out the stat I misread the figures. That makes things make a little more sense, but only a little

 

[fundy]

Ah yes, seems I was so confused working out the stat I misread the figures. That makes things make a little more sense, but only a little

OK, to really confuse you, Sergio had 32 putts and gained 0.6 on the field lol (he hit 83% of greens and was a long way from the hole a lot clearly)

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Didn't understand it when you explained it on the 3rd this morning and still none the wiser. I'll stick to using the Aimpoint chart and making as many as I can although anyone at Ascot will ever work out the stats!!!!! On the plus side you holed out much better in the main today and your net 75 was pretty good seeing you had no margin for error after the 7th

+15 after being +11 through 8 was more than pretty good, play tomorrow like I did the last 10 holes today and who knows. I wonder what my SGP stats were today?

 

[HawkeyeMS]

OK, to really confuse you, Sergio had 32 putts and gained 0.6 on the field lol (he hit 83% of greens and was a long way from the hole a lot clearly)

I think maybe they need to rename it to Putting Index or something similar, relating it to strokes gained against the field doesn't really seem to make sense to me.

 

[Ian_S]

OK, to really confuse you, Sergio had 32 putts and gained 0.6 on the field lol (he hit 83% of greens and was a long way from the hole a lot clearly)

Yep, that's pretty much it. Looking at Shot Tracker, Tiger's average first putt was from 18.5 feet, Sergio's was from 23ft. So Tiger was 4.5 feet closer per hole than Sergio yet took only one fewer putt.

 

[Ian_S]

I think maybe they need to rename it to Putting Index or something similar, relating it to strokes gained against the field doesn't really seem to make sense to me.

But the unit is in strokes.

If you have player A who cards a 70 with +1 strokes gained putting and player B who cards 71 with 0 strokes gained, you know that it was player A's putting that was responsible for the lead.

 

[Imurg]

But why does it matter unless you're a Statto......?
Gaining shots on the field..?
That's done by making birdies when everyone else pars.........

Do they have a Strokes Gained -Driving stat?
Surely if you drive into the fairway you're likely to gain strokes on those in the field who don't. Oh hang on it's called Fairways Hit or similar....

Like the majority of Stats held by the PGA Tour, they exist to provide work for unemployed Statisticians who can't get jobs elsewhere.

To us they are completely meaningless. The only real stat that matters to us in a Pro event is the number of strokes taken.

AS an amateur you can't use this stat as you don't have access to the date from every other player.....

Waste of time...

 

[Foxholer]

It's an excellent way to measure THEIR putting ability.But totally useless for measuring ours - without a lot of faffing about!

I'll stick to my simple but admittedly rather unsubtle Putts-GIR.