What is putts gained and how do you calculate it? Read on to learn about the one and only metric to measure how well you are putting.
Mark Broadie is a professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. On top of that, he's an avid golfer and has spent a lot of time analyzing the causes of golfers' success.
After his first article, "Assessing Golfer Performance Using Golfmetrics", which revolutionized golf metrics with the strokes gained metric, he published another article about measuring putting on the PGA Tour.
As in his previous article, he starts by telling us the limitations of current stats for putting:
So, Broadie says we need a better measure of putting skill, and that is putts gained.
Putts gained measures the number of putts better or worse than the field from a given distance.
Putts gained = PGA TOUR average putts to holeout from the distance - Actual putts to holeout
If we add the putts gained for each hole we will get the putts gained for a round, which is a very sound metric of the quality of the putting in that round.
You can calculate your putts gained for any round using Golfity and you can also use our simple strokes gained putting calculator for a quick calculation, free and no sign up needed.
Bryson DeChambeau hit a 417 yards drive at the 2020 Ryder Cup, how many strokes did he gain with that?
If you want to lower your scores reducing the number of awful shots should be one of your key priorities.
If you want to know if you are putting well, putts gained is the way to go and golfity will calculate your putts gained
Mark Broadie is the creator of strokes gained, the best metric to analyze golfer's performance
You can see your strokes gained by category for each hole in the new scorecard stats we have at Golfity.