In “Feature Friday” we show off the best features of Roundabout so you can get the most out of your golf game.
In the new and improved Round Summary, we have condensed the key analytics and feedback into easily digestible and shareable images. Let’s cover exactly what you’ll see on Strokes Gained which requires a PAR subscription or higher after your first few rounds with Roundabout.
Strokes Gained
If you are not familiar with Strokes Gained, the concept is relatively simple. For every shot on the golf course, there are an ‘expected shots to hole out’ depending on your skill level. If the average 5 handicap golfer takes 3.5 strokes to hole out from 160 yards in the fairway and you are able to do it in 3, then you gain a half a stroke on the average 5 handicap. This concept can be extended to every shot on the golf course to break down exactly how you compare to your desired reference.
Target Handicap -> Reference
Roundabout supports 7 references for both male and females from Tour Pro to 25 handicap. You selected your reference as a target handicap when you set up your account, but you can change it at any time under Settings -> Target Handicap. The Strokes Gained from the Round Summary shows which reference you have selected in the top left. In this case, I have selected ‘Scratch’. This means that my golf performance will be compared to a 0 handicap for the purposes of Strokes Gained. Your performance relative to your selected target is shown as the white dots that you see throughout the graphic. However, Roundabout also shows your typical performance as the blue lines for each category. This is critical as in the above graphic, I am losing strokes for Approach to a scratch handicap (more on that later), but this is not atypical for me. This allows you to see at a glance how the day’s round compares to your target and to your average performance.
Strokes Gained Putting – Shots on the Green
Starting at the top of the graphic is Putting. For Strokes Gained Putting, all shots that are hit from the green are considered (lie = ‘Green’). On this day, I gained 0.0 strokes on a Scratch player. In other words, my putting was the equivalent of a 0 handicap. You’ll notice that with the blue line, I typically putt slightly better than a scratch handicap, so in this case it was not my best day with the flatstick. Strokes Gained putting was the first category to become more socialized on the PGA Tour and is a much better indicator of true putting performance than the traditional ‘number of putts’.
Strokes Gained Short Game – Shots <75 yards
Next on the graphic is Strokes Gained Short Game. In Roundabout, Short Game includes all shots less than 75 yards (69 meters) from the pin. The reason we chose this yardage is this is a distance at which most players are switching to a less than full swing to hit the shot. For this round, I gained +1.8 strokes on a scratch player. Another way to say that is I took 1.8 strokes LESS to hole out in short game situations than your average 0 handicap would have. This was a good performance for me as I average closer to 0 strokes gained for short game.
Strokes Gained Driving – Tee shots on Par 4 and Par 5 holes
Skipping over Approach for a second, Strokes Gained driving is a measure of your performance on tee shots for par 4s and par 5s. For this round at Tangle Ridge, I lost -1.1 strokes to a 0 handicap in the Driving category. The driving details in another Round Summary graphic will help me to understand why and what I could do better, but in the meantime I know where I stand. I typically play closer to a Scratch level, so this was a poor day for me driving.
Strokes Gained Approach – Everything else
Anything not attributed to the previous three categories is thrown in the Strokes Gained Approach bucket which would include tee shots on par 3s, punch shots from out of the trees, and shots from the fairway. In this round, I lost -3.6 strokes to my target handicap. This is clearly the area I need to work on the most as I typically lose over 2 strokes based on the blue line. By monitoring this closely, I can see if I am progressing towards my goals or slipping the other way. Similar to driving, there will be another Round Summary graphic that gives me details on what to work on to improve my approach game.
Summary
The Strokes Gained graphic in the Round Summary of Roundabout quickly breaks down your game into four primary buckets of golf competency. This allows you to set intermediate targets as you chase your target handicap as simply scoring better is difficult. One other quick note… You may hear the term in other forums of Strokes Gained Tee to Green (T2G) which is simply a combination of Driving, Approach, and Short Game. This detailed Round Summary is available to everyone with a PAR subscription or above after your first couple rounds. If you really want to improve, a BIRDIE or higher subscription gets you the details of each category so that you can focus on the right areas to improve with Roundabout.