This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
This week on the PGA Tour is the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where weather plays such a huge role across three golf courses used for the event. The celebrities and athletes will be out in force - including Justin Timberlake(!). Here's our stats preview.
The Field
This field is utterly stacked, led by Jordan Spieth and Jason Day and also including Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker, among others. But in a relatively new trend, it features two players, Bubba Watson and Justin Rose, who are here only because of their celebrity friends. (More on that from Golf Digest.)
Spieth and Mickelson and Snedeker are in best form of the bunch with Spieth nearly winning two weeks ago in Singapore, Mickelson's game coming around (more on that in a minute), and Snedeker winning two weeks ago in the horrendous conditions at Torrey Pines in a final round where he was 8.9 strokes better than the field.
Last Word on Rickie
For those who think that Rickie Fowler should have laid up on No. 17 on Sunday in either regulation or the playoff last week at the Phoenix Open -- and we're talking 4 iron to 100 yards-like laying up -- have a look at this ShotLink graphic courtesy of the PGA Tour's D.J. Piehowski. Absolutely nobody took that strategy Sunday.
The Stat
Multi-course events that don't contain ShotLink on all the courses make it tough to discern what stat is key this week. But this much is clear: at Pebble
This week on the PGA Tour is the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where weather plays such a huge role across three golf courses used for the event. The celebrities and athletes will be out in force - including Justin Timberlake(!). Here's our stats preview.
The Field
This field is utterly stacked, led by Jordan Spieth and Jason Day and also including Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker, among others. But in a relatively new trend, it features two players, Bubba Watson and Justin Rose, who are here only because of their celebrity friends. (More on that from Golf Digest.)
Spieth and Mickelson and Snedeker are in best form of the bunch with Spieth nearly winning two weeks ago in Singapore, Mickelson's game coming around (more on that in a minute), and Snedeker winning two weeks ago in the horrendous conditions at Torrey Pines in a final round where he was 8.9 strokes better than the field.
Last Word on Rickie
For those who think that Rickie Fowler should have laid up on No. 17 on Sunday in either regulation or the playoff last week at the Phoenix Open -- and we're talking 4 iron to 100 yards-like laying up -- have a look at this ShotLink graphic courtesy of the PGA Tour's D.J. Piehowski. Absolutely nobody took that strategy Sunday.
The Stat
Multi-course events that don't contain ShotLink on all the courses make it tough to discern what stat is key this week. But this much is clear: at Pebble Beach, during El Nino, you must drive the ball well to have any chance, even if the rough is a bit down and the hole locations a bit easy because it's a pro-am. Because come Sunday, Pebble can come back to bite. It's a weird event, though, because you do need to keep making birdies -- 22-under won last year, aided by the easier hole locations on the first three days (although there was a 65 and several 66s and the leaderboard Sunday, it also featured a couple 70s along with a 73 and a 74).
So with an eye for Sunday, here's the driving accuracy leaders in the field this week:
Thomas Aiken - 77.44 percent
Bill Haas - 74.00 percent
David Toms - 70.71 percent
Jerry Kelly - 70.00 percent
Colt Knost - 70.00 percent
Our recommendation is a real sleeper: Kelly. While the finishes this season don't really show it, T41-T68-T34-T9-T42, he always seems to crop up on leaderboards every couple weeks on the PGA Tour. He's ninth in driving accuracy for the 2015-16 PGA Tour season and in that T9 at Sony, he ranked T15 in this category and T36 in greens in regulation, both key stats for this week.
Phil's Time
Phil Mickelson missed a lot of putts last week in Phoenix -- he ranked 40th in strokes gained-putting -- and lost 1.420 strokes to the field in the final round. But his ball-striking for the week was strong: eighth in strokes gained-tee to green, T11 in driving accuracy, 12th in driving distance and T6 in greens in regulation. If he can eliminate the one out of bounds ball he had last week and keep it in play, this could be Phil's week to get back in the winner's circle.
The Weather
The weather at Pebble Beach for this event can be downright horrid some years -- but it won't be this week: Sunny skies, highs in the upper 60s and a light breeze, with it increasing slightly over the weekend. Great playing conditions.
