PGA Tour Stats Review: Entering the Tour Championship

PGA Tour Stats entering this week's FedEx Cup final round at the TOUR Championship

NOTICE: The results grid was reduced for easier reading, starting with the U.S. Open. However, the AVERAGE statistics at the bottom of the grid will continue to reflect the data from completed 2011 tournaments. For results from earlier events, go here.

   

EVENT	WINNER	DRIVE	DRIVE	DRIVE	DRIVE	GIR	GIR		PUTTS	PUTTS		EAGLE/	BOGEY/
		%of56	RNK	DIS	DIS RNK	%of72	RNK	Per GIR	RNK	RND	RNK	BIRDIE	DBL
U.S. Open	R. McIlroy, -16	64.3	26	310.0	7	86.1	1	1.65		29.7	29	1/19	3/1
Travelers Champ.	F. Jacobson, -20	85.7	9	274.6	46	72.2	34	1.67	11	26.5	3	0/21	1/0
AT&T National	N. Watney -13	69.6	10	320.8	4	70.8	27	1.67	3	27.8	2	1/20	9/0
John Deere Classic	S. Stricker -22	64.3	58	318.0	12	73.6	33	1.55	1	25.0	1	1/25	3/1
Viking Classic	C. Kirk -22	64.3	43	292.0	12	79.2	12	1.63	10	27.3	12	1/24	4/0
British Open	D. Clarke -5	41.0		311.7		70.8				29.7		2/14	11/1
Canadian Open	S. O'Hair P1 -4	58.9	27	299.6	3	59.7	19	1.84	61	28.8	36	0/17	13/0
Canadian Open	K. Blanks P2 -4	69.6	7	283.6	42	70.8	1	1.78	43	30.0	66	1/14	10/1
Greenbrier Classic	S. Stallings P1	62.5	54	323.5	5	79.2	2	1.72	19	30.0	53	0/19	9/0
Bridgestone	A. Scott -17	64.3	15	319.6	6	70.8	9	1.63	4	26.5	4	0/21	4/0
PGA Championship	K. Bradley P1 -8	62.5		301.8		77.7		1.68		29.2		1/19	6/3
Wyndham Champ.	W. Simpson -18	69.6	15	310.5	13	79.2	13	1.68	2	28.8	9	3/17	3/1
Barclays-54 holes	D.Johnson -19	59.5	44	311.7	2	83.3	9	1.62	7	28.0	8	1/21	2/1
Deutsche Bank	W. Simpson P1 -15	62.5	44	299.4	40	65.3	35	1.6	2	26.5	3	2/17	6/0
BMW Championship	J. Rose -13	75.0	4	299.5	25	70.8	3	1.67	5	27.8	16	1/19	8/0
AVERAGE		65.2	26.6	300.5	21.4	73.0	14.7	1.67	13.3	27.8	15.1
2010 TOUR Champ.	J. Furyk -8	57.1	7	290.4	22	73.6	1	1.811	20	29.0	10	0/14	6/0
	L. Donald -7	46.4	16	278.9	27	70.8	3	1.725	7	29.3	16	0/16	7/1
	R. Goosen -6	53.6	11	293.6	19	65.3	14	1.72	6	28.3	4	0/15	9/0
	N. Watney -5	46.4	16	290.5	21	73.6	1	1.7	5	29.8	20	1/15	12/0
	P. Casey -5	58.9	4	269.5	30	70.8	3	1.75	11	29.0	10	0/15	10/0

Note: 2010 TOUR Championship rankngs are relative to 30-player field.

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

Justin Rose's two-stroke win over John Senden wasn't pretty, but a win is a win.

Rose coupled total driving and GIR (ball striking) with gathering birdies, 19, which was best in the field. Rose had eight bogeys. Our forward-looking lineup of the top-5 at the 2010 BMW showed an average of nine bogeys per player.

In his GIR stats, Rose's 70.8 (12.7 greens/18) ranked third. This is the fourth-best ranking in the season to date.

Rose's consistent accuracy off the tee coupled with his length and putting skills should be kept in mind when 2012 fantasy golf time comes around. He's shaky in closing, but he's certainly not the only one.

THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

The TOUR Championship field has substantial changes in the field year-to-year. Sixteen players from 2010 are not coming back this year. In the grid showing the top five from last year No. 1 Jim Furyk, No. 3 Retief Goosen and No. 5 Paul Casey didn't make it this year.

Also, some prominent 2011 players were in the 2010 field:

Justin Rose tied for 15th with Hunter Mahan at plus-1.
Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson tied for 22nd, at plus-3.
Steve Stricker and Matt Kuchar tied for 25th at 5-over.

The par-70 East Lake course will probably be set up to again stretch the talents of the top 30. The three customary "musts" are needed: greens-in-regulation, strong putting and effective scrambling. On a course that doesn't give up many birdies, you obviously must defend against bogeys - making up for a mistake will be hard to do - so players high on the bogey avoidance list are important picks. Length is nice but isn't a big benefit. Driving accuracy is also of lesser importance, but hitting from short grass will be far better than from East Lake's rough.

In round one last year, three players had the day's low round of 4-under 66, round two had Jim Furyk's single 65, round three had Nick Watney's 63 and Ernie Els shot a fourth-round 65. So some relative low scores are there, just not very low or not so many either.