How to correctly enter penalty strokes

It would have been nice to see Garmin answer this. I suspect they will not answer because they don't know.

My opinion, no clear answer on this. I have tested changing shots in the app or on website post round to see how changes impact performance stats. 

If you enter a number for "Penalties" on a hole the only place that is recorded is in the performance stats for "Number of penalties per round" based on last 10 rounds. It doesn't seem to impact any strokes gained, and it doesn't associate that penalty with any specific stroke. Makes sense as we are just recording number of penalties at the end of a round and watch has no idea what stroke generated that penality.

Now, if you go into the Golf App OR to the Garmin site and edit your strokes, you can maybe associate a penalty with a stoke.

But that is a big maybe. The app lets you specify "result of shot" so you can say "in play" or "out of bounds". Does it properly link the penalty to a stoke and properly do SG? No idea. I've added post round many penalties to tee shots and sometimes my SG gets worse but I've seen it improve which makes no sense.

Until Garmin clearly show SG per shot and with detail how it is calculated, how is anyone suppose to trust this nonsense data they call "Performance Stats"

Thanks for the answer. Yes it would be nice if someone from Garmin could weigh in on this. I am sure many people will have the same question. I haven't had the watch long so I haven't been able to experiment with it much. But if there no reliable way to associate penalties with actual shots, then this is poor, as how can one reliably calculate strokes gained. Even the pros hit it into hazards and OB now and again, This would be bad for a product with a premium price tag. I wonder how other products, e.g. Arccos deal with it.

It is a pity that no one from Garmin can answer this. Perhaps people can comment on what they do. If the tee shot is out of bounds do the select it with the watch and then select the next one and mark the first shot as out of bound in the app later? What about a provisional when the first is found. Do people select a club after both hits and delete the provisional in the app. I haven't used the watch that much so I don't know how these are handled. And for shorts into penalty areas, there doesn't seem to be an option to mark the shot as going into a penalty area (or incurring a stroke from that), so how does the watch/app know? Does anyone know hoe rival products deal with this?

I select the club I used right after I've made the shot.  If I'm playing a provisional I record that club as well.  Once I've putted out on the hole, I enter the total strokes played (including putts and penalties), putts, tee-off end location (left, middle, right) and penalty if incurred. That way the watch maintains the proper total stroke count for the round.  After I've ended, saved and uploaded the round info, either on the phone or PC, I then update the club used, shot status or add shots not recorded.  This action doesn't change the round's stroke count - seems Garmin keeps stroke recording separate from club/distance recording.  Seems a weird clunky way to do things but it does work OK for me.

Believe this should clarify.... forums.garmin.com/.../1250739

Afraid not. This just says you enter the penalty strokes and they are used for stats. But my question is how can Garmin correctly calculate strokes gained if it doesn’t know if the penalty strokes are due to the drive, approach, etc.

I am playing golf from the last 4 years. I use the Pinpoint Golf app during my playing sessions. It helps to [Embedded link removed] simply so that you know exactly where to improve the game.

Edited May 17, 2023: Embedded link removed per Terms of Use due to the non-Garmin site it led to.