What happens after the bad shot, after the bogey and on the back nine with a chance to win: what each stat counts, a real tour example, and the best three tour players in each.
Winners first, the rest of the field second. Always written in full: a bare “Clutch Factor” never says which number it is.
A shot played from native area, a waste area, a penalty area, a cart path or a grandstand.
Any penalty stroke on the hole: water, out of bounds, an unplayable.
The tee shot finishes in a bunker or waste. On a par 3 it counts only when saved for par.
Par or better is clutch (Ball Striking). Bogey is damage controlled (Damage Control). Double or worse is the damage. A source that cannot mark a lie says so; it never reads as zero trouble.
The trouble holes, made for par or better. The recovery gets back on plan; it never tries a second hero shot.
On tour: winners 85% (169 of 198), the field 62% (1,139 of 1,833).
Tee shot into the penalty area. Drop. 139 yards from the fairway to the green, then the 3-footer for par. Akshay Bhatia, who won that week in a playoff.
Putts from 5 feet and out on a par-or-worse hole, holed. A birdie putt on a green hit in regulation does not count.
On tour: winners 58% (213 of 367), the field 45%; winners faced 2.6 a round, the field 3.9.
The putt for par from 21 feet, holed by Akshay Bhatia: the putt that keeps a hole at par.
Stopped: no bogey in the next three holes. Answered: a birdie in them. From the scorecard alone, so every round has it.
On tour: stopped, winners 81%, the field 56%; answered, winners 72%, the field 51%.
Bogey on 7. Par on 8, par on 9, birdie on 10: stopped and answered, on the way to Chris Gotterup’s win.
The same trouble holes, held to bogey or better.
On tour: winners 98.5% (195 of 198), the field 88.5%; a double after trouble, 2% against 12%.
A recovery and a penalty on a par 3, made for 4: a bogey, not a double, on the day Chris Gotterup won.
The last nine holes of a round started within 3 shots of the lead: to par, and shots better than the field. Only when the coach gives the gap on the build form.
On tour: winners +1.8 on the field, the other contenders +0.7 (25 and 19 rounds: a direction, not yet a finding).
Started the day 2 shots back. Last nine: 7 under par, 5.6 shots better than the field: a final-round 60 and a three-shot win for Wyndham Clark.
From 20 of our tournament cards (54 bogeys with three holes to play). The other four need a shot log and fill in on the Raw and the player page as rounds come in.
From trouble, the club back to a normal lie, then a green or a full-swing number. Never a second hero shot.
Par-save putts from 5 to 10 feet: the first putt leaves them, the second makes them.
The reset hole: normal club, fully committed, middle of the green. The birdie comes from the putt.
Take the bogey before the double: the safe side of the green, two putts, walk off.
The plan does not change on the back nine: the same club, the same target, the same commitment.
The best-three numbers rank the players in our study with enough chances (15 trouble holes, 20 par-save putts, 12 bogeys with three holes to play); a winning week is in its winner’s numbers. Tour players are named (owner 2026-11-01); our own players never are.
We sell the coaching of the data, not the data. Grade by the rules on these pages, and when a rule changes, it changes in the house rules first and here in the next edition.