This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
The Tiger Woods Show (or for some, The Tiger Woods Nightmare) continues this week at the Greenbrier Classic, a PGA Tour event that has quickly risen in stature since its debut in 2010. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
Angel Cabrera beat George McNeill by two shots last year, while in 2013 Jonas Blixt beat Steven Bowditch, Johnson Wagner, Matt Jones and Jimmy Walker by two. And in 2012, Ted Potter Jr. (where have you been?!?) beat Troy Kelly (whose name appeared on the U.S. Open leaderboard) in a playoff.
Our recommendation is obviously Walker, a two-time winner this year on the PGA Tour who ranks first in strokes gained-putting (gaining just nearly a stroke on the field each round), sixth in strokes gained-total, fourth in birdie average and eighth scoring average.
For the record, Potter has not made a start this season after breaking his ankle last fall. He hoped to return this week but is not in the field.
Who Is Playing
The field includes Tiger Woods (don't pick him), last week's winner Bubba Watson (pick him), Patrick Reed, last week's playoff loser Paul Casey (pick him), Daniel Berger, Jonas Blixt, Keegan Bradley, Ben Crane, Morgan Hoffmann, Kevin Kisner, Kevin Na, Patrick Rodgers, Justin Thomas and more.
Watson not only won the Travelers Championship last week but also now lives at the Greenbrier for part of the year, which should give him an upper hand at The Old White TPC. Last week en route to victory he ranked
The Tiger Woods Show (or for some, The Tiger Woods Nightmare) continues this week at the Greenbrier Classic, a PGA Tour event that has quickly risen in stature since its debut in 2010. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
Angel Cabrera beat George McNeill by two shots last year, while in 2013 Jonas Blixt beat Steven Bowditch, Johnson Wagner, Matt Jones and Jimmy Walker by two. And in 2012, Ted Potter Jr. (where have you been?!?) beat Troy Kelly (whose name appeared on the U.S. Open leaderboard) in a playoff.
Our recommendation is obviously Walker, a two-time winner this year on the PGA Tour who ranks first in strokes gained-putting (gaining just nearly a stroke on the field each round), sixth in strokes gained-total, fourth in birdie average and eighth scoring average.
For the record, Potter has not made a start this season after breaking his ankle last fall. He hoped to return this week but is not in the field.
Who Is Playing
The field includes Tiger Woods (don't pick him), last week's winner Bubba Watson (pick him), Patrick Reed, last week's playoff loser Paul Casey (pick him), Daniel Berger, Jonas Blixt, Keegan Bradley, Ben Crane, Morgan Hoffmann, Kevin Kisner, Kevin Na, Patrick Rodgers, Justin Thomas and more.
Watson not only won the Travelers Championship last week but also now lives at the Greenbrier for part of the year, which should give him an upper hand at The Old White TPC. Last week en route to victory he ranked first in driving distance, sixth in strokes gained-tee to green and ninth in strokes gained-putting. Nice combination.
Last week was Casey's second second-place finish this season, and he was first in greens in regulation and strokes gained-tee to green last week at TPC River Highlands. This season, he is 11th in strokes gained-total and 10th in scoring average.
We continue to support Kisner, who is on a roll since Augusta with two playoff losses (RBC Heritage and The Players) and strong finishes of T5 at Colonial, T8 at Memorial and T12 at the US Open. He now ranks 18th in driving accuracy, 34th in strokes gained-total, first in hole outs (shots that go in from anywhere off the green-he has 17) and 11th in putting from inside 10 feet.
As for how far the mighty have fallen, Tiger still does not have enough rounds to rank in any of the PGA Tour's statistical categories -- make a few more cuts and that will quickly change –- but consider this: he's only hitting 50 percent of his fairways, 57 percent of his greens and is losing 3.172 strokes per round to the field from tee to green. Let me repeat that: he is losing, PER round, 3.172 strokes to the field from tee to green. To put all that in perspective, the Tour averages for driving accuracy is 61.33 percent, greens in regulation is 65.01 percent and while there is no average for strokes gained-tee to green, his current amount would have him ranked next to last on the PGA Tour. The only guy worse with enough rounds to count? Mike Weir, who is losing -3.825 strokes per round to the field.
