Stats

How The Yips
measures your game.

Every number in the app is here — what it means, how it's calculated, and where the baseline data comes from.

Strokes Gained

Strokes Gained is a methodology developed by Mark Broadie (Columbia Business School) and adopted by the PGA Tour. It measures the impact of every shot by comparing what happened to what was expected from that position.

SG (shot) = Expected strokes before − 1 − Expected strokes after

A positive number means you played that shot better than expected. Negative means you gave a stroke back. The sum across all shots on a hole equals the difference between your score and the baseline expectation from the tee.

The four categories

Off the Tee

Tee shots on par 4s and par 5s. Measures how well your drives set up the rest of the hole.

Approach

Par-3 tee shots and any full-swing shot more than 30 yards from the green.

Around the Green

Chips, pitches, and bump-and-runs from 30 yards or closer. Excludes putts.

Putting

Computed from your first-putt distance. Compared against your selected putting baseline profile.

A note on our baselines. The expected-strokes numbers behind Strokes Gained come from two sources: the Tour Pro baseline uses PGA Tour ShotLink data (Broadie), sampled at 50-yard intervals. Amateur tier baselines (Scratch through 25 HCP) are derived values — built by applying additive offsets to the tour baseline, using publicly available research from Broadie, the USGA, and Shot Scope make-percentage data. These are The Yips' own derived approximations — not numbers published by any governing body.

Shot Quality — Good / Bad

Shot quality is self-assessed by you in the moment — the app doesn't compute it from GPS or distance. It's a two-choice judgment you make right after logging a shot, and it's about execution, not outcome.

Good

You executed the shot you intended. The strike felt right; you committed and carried out the swing or stroke you planned.

Bad

You did not execute the shot you intended — a mishit, chunk, blade, or a swing you knew was wrong the moment you made it.

A well-struck drive that takes a bad bounce into a bunker is Good. A thin blade that somehow rolls onto the green is Poor. Results involve things outside your control — wind, course conditions, bad bounces. Execution does not. That separation is what makes this stat useful.

The app requires at least 5 quality-tagged shots per club before showing percentages. Below 60% good, a club is flagged as needing practice. Distance averages shown in your bag use good shots only — so you see what the club does when you hit it well, not your mishits dragging the number down.

The classics — explained

Green in Regulation

You hit the green in regulation when your ball is on the putting surface with at least two putts remaining. On a par 4 that means reaching the green in 2 shots; on a par 5, in 3 shots; on a par 3, off the tee.

GIR = score − putts ≤ par − 2

Fairway Hit

Tracked on par 4s and par 5s. You record whether your tee shot ended up Far Left, Left, Hit (fairway), Right, Far Right, or a Miss-Hit. Only "Hit" counts as a fairway in regulation. Par-3 tee shots are excluded.

Up and Down

You missed the green in regulation — but still made par. With one chip or pitch and one putt. That's an up and down. A measure of short-game rescue ability.

Putts per Hole

Average number of putts taken per hole. Tour average is around 1.73. Most amateurs are between 1.9 and 2.1. The putting SG stat tells you more, but putts per hole is the fast check.

Club Distances

Every shot you log with a club and distance builds your personal distance profile. The app shows two numbers per club:

  • Average — mean across all recorded shots for that club.
  • Trimmed average — mean of good shots only (requires 5+). This is the number to trust when picking a club on the course.

Distances are recorded by GPS when available — the app captures the start and end coordinates of each shot. Manually entered distances are used when GPS isn't available.

Scoring breakdown

Each hole is classified relative to par:

Eagle2 or more under par
Birdie1 under par
ParEven
Bogey1 over par
Double2 over par
Double+3 or more over par