Strokes Gained by Club: How to Find the Weakest Stick in Your Bag
TL;DRYou don't have a swing problem. You have one club costing you 2 strokes a round.
You do not have a swing problem. You have one club in your bag costing you 2 strokes per round, and until you identify it, every general "I need to practice irons" plan is wasted range time.
What weak-club leakage looks like
| Club | Usage / round | SG vs scratch |
|---|---|---|
| Driver | 13 | -1.1 |
| 3-wood | 3 | -0.8 |
| 4-iron | 2 | -0.9 |
| 5-iron | 3 | -1.2 |
| 7-iron | 5 | -0.4 |
| PW | 4 | -0.2 |
| 56° | 6 | -0.6 |
| Putter | 32 | -2.1 |
Source:Mark Broadie, Every Shot Counts; Arccos club-level strokes-gained reports.
How to read this
The 5-iron leaks 1.2 strokes on 3 shots — 0.4 strokes per swing. The driver leaks 1.1 strokes on 13 swings — under 0.1 per swing. The driver is fine; the 5-iron is on fire. Most amateurs would spend the next month on driver lessons.
What the on-course trackers actually catch
Systems like Arccos surface this in their per-club dashboards because no human can spot a 0.4-strokes-per-swing leak unaided. The leak is real, it is large, and it is invisible without per-club data. Five rounds gives a direction. Fifteen gives a verdict.
FAQ
What is Strokes Gained by club?+
It's Strokes Gained applied to a single club — say your 5-iron — versus a benchmark player using that same club from the same distances. It isolates whether a specific stick in your bag is a strength or a liability.
Which club is most often the amateur's weakest?+
For 10-15 handicaps, the long irons (4 and 5) and the 3-wood. Both produce wide dispersions and low strike quality but are used often enough to leak 1.5 to 2.5 strokes per round.
Do I need a launch monitor to see this?+
No. Modern tracking systems like Arccos and Shot Scope report SG per club from on-course data after 10-20 rounds. A launch monitor session confirms whether the leak is dispersion, distance, or strike.
Stop guessing what to work on.
Coach by ATX is launching soon. Join the waitlist and we'll email you the moment it's live.
We'll email you at launch.