This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
This week the PGA Tour moves to Doral for its annual journey to Miami and the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. Here's this week's stats thread.
First a Schedule Note
PGA Tour diehards will note that in recent years the Puerto Rico Open has also taken place this week, concurrent to Doral. This year that event was moved to be opposite the Dell Match Play (which is being played after Arnie's event this season), and we'll have a fantasy preview for that event then.
The Stat
The defending champion is Dustin Johnson, who put on a ball-striking clinic last year. For the week he ranked first in driving distance, tied for first in greens in regulation and was second in strokes gained-tee to green. You must be accurate on the Gil Hanse-restored Blue Monster, so we'll look at greens in regulation for those in the field this week:
Russell Knox - 76.88 percent
Branden Grace - 76.11 percent
Bubba Watson - 73.98 percent
Hideki Matsuyama - 73.81 percent
Paul Casey - 73.46 percent
Our pick here (amongst those we haven't previously spoken about) is Grace, who won the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters a couple weeks ago and has finishes of T4-T5-1-MC to start 2016. (The one missed cut was at the Honda Classic last week.) In the win he hit 76.4 percent of his greens, ranking 19th for the week. He also ranked first in putts per round. Put that combination up this week on the Blue Monster, and we'll be
This week the PGA Tour moves to Doral for its annual journey to Miami and the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship. Here's this week's stats thread.
First a Schedule Note
PGA Tour diehards will note that in recent years the Puerto Rico Open has also taken place this week, concurrent to Doral. This year that event was moved to be opposite the Dell Match Play (which is being played after Arnie's event this season), and we'll have a fantasy preview for that event then.
The Stat
The defending champion is Dustin Johnson, who put on a ball-striking clinic last year. For the week he ranked first in driving distance, tied for first in greens in regulation and was second in strokes gained-tee to green. You must be accurate on the Gil Hanse-restored Blue Monster, so we'll look at greens in regulation for those in the field this week:
Russell Knox - 76.88 percent
Branden Grace - 76.11 percent
Bubba Watson - 73.98 percent
Hideki Matsuyama - 73.81 percent
Paul Casey - 73.46 percent
Our pick here (amongst those we haven't previously spoken about) is Grace, who won the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters a couple weeks ago and has finishes of T4-T5-1-MC to start 2016. (The one missed cut was at the Honda Classic last week.) In the win he hit 76.4 percent of his greens, ranking 19th for the week. He also ranked first in putts per round. Put that combination up this week on the Blue Monster, and we'll be seeing Grace in contention down the stretch.
Keep an eye out on Knox as well, another steady player who won in China late last year and comes in off a T26 at Honda where he was T3 for the week in GIR, hitting 52 of 72 greens in regulation. That's good stuff.
The Field
It's a World Golf Championship, so it's got every big name that's healthy there. That means it's also the first time Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy are in the same field together, and along with Adam Scott (last week's winner), Bubba Watson (the winner two weeks ago), and everyone else who would like to enter The Big Four (or whatever number we're going to call it.)
Couple sleepers in my book: Danny Willett and Kevin Na. Wouldn't be surprised to see either contend or win.
The Weather
The winds in Miami are always a factor and it could be again this week. The forecast is OK not great, with partly cloudy to cloudy skies early in the week with highs in the low 80s followed by a chance of rain showers on Sunday with winds that'll be increasing as the week goes on but holding relatively steady between 5-15 mph.
