This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
The final PGA Tour stop before the Masters brings us to Houston for the Houston Open. But before we can get into the stats preview for this week, three off-course notes:
Jason Dufner's Divorce
We don't deal with players' personal lives around here much, but sometimes off-course distractions can impact on-course performance (see: Rory's run after calling off his engagement last year).
Consequently, those interested in Jason Dufner should note that he and his wife are divorcing. Dufner, who returned to the PGA Tour last fall after missing considerable time with a neck injury, has only two top-20 finishes for his 2014-15 season, most recently a T17 at Honda. His other 2015 finishes are three missed cuts (including last week at Valero), a T24 and a T49. He is 68th in strokes gained-total, hurt by a 134th-place ranking in strokes gained-putting. He is not in the field this week in Houston.
Who is NOT Playing
Also not in the field this week in Houston are Henrik Stenson and Jimmy Walker. Both have withdrawn, Stenson because of the flu, and Walker because he's "not feeling well" following his win last week in San Antonio. On the surface it appears that Stenson's illness is more serious, as GolfChannel.com reported he had to cancel a trip to Augusta as well. Nonetheless, both are something to keep an eye on for next week, especially with how tough spring allergies can get sometimes at Augusta National.
Zach Johnson's Putting Woes:
Drive for Show, Putt
The final PGA Tour stop before the Masters brings us to Houston for the Houston Open. But before we can get into the stats preview for this week, three off-course notes:
Jason Dufner's Divorce
We don't deal with players' personal lives around here much, but sometimes off-course distractions can impact on-course performance (see: Rory's run after calling off his engagement last year).
Consequently, those interested in Jason Dufner should note that he and his wife are divorcing. Dufner, who returned to the PGA Tour last fall after missing considerable time with a neck injury, has only two top-20 finishes for his 2014-15 season, most recently a T17 at Honda. His other 2015 finishes are three missed cuts (including last week at Valero), a T24 and a T49. He is 68th in strokes gained-total, hurt by a 134th-place ranking in strokes gained-putting. He is not in the field this week in Houston.
Who is NOT Playing
Also not in the field this week in Houston are Henrik Stenson and Jimmy Walker. Both have withdrawn, Stenson because of the flu, and Walker because he's "not feeling well" following his win last week in San Antonio. On the surface it appears that Stenson's illness is more serious, as GolfChannel.com reported he had to cancel a trip to Augusta as well. Nonetheless, both are something to keep an eye on for next week, especially with how tough spring allergies can get sometimes at Augusta National.
Zach Johnson's Putting Woes:
Drive for Show, Putt for Dough still exists sometimes:
Crazy stats for Zach Johnson this week. Phenomenal ball striking, 1st in strokes gained tee to green. 73 out of 75 in strokes gained putting
— Arron Oberholser (@ArronOberholser) March 30, 2015History Lesson
Now to those who are playing. The defending champion is Matt Jones, who won a playoff in dramatic fashion over Matt Kuchar. In 2013 D.A. Points beat Billy Horschel and Henrik Stenson by one and in 2012 Hunter Mahan beat Carl Pettersson by one.
Jones, Kuchar, Points, Mahan and Pettersson are all in the field. Horschel is not in the field.
Our pick is Jones, who quietly has snuck up some leaderboards in recent weeks, going T7-T14-3-T26 in his last four starts. He ranks 25th in strokes gained-putting and 34th in strokes gained-total.
Who IS Playing
The field includes Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, Anirban Lahiri, Keegan Bradley, Ernie Els, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Justin Thomas and Lee Westwood.
The virtues of Spieth and Reed -- in a positive light -- and Mickelson -- in a negative light (he blew up on Sunday last week with a final-round 76) -- are well documented, but we want to talk about Lahiri.
He's won twice on the European Tour this season in Malaysia and India, made the cut in all the three PGA Tour events he's played this season (T52 at the CIMB Classic, T28 at the WGC-HSBC Champions, T71 at Doral), is 22nd in non-member FedEx Cup points, a contender for the International Presidents Cup team and is hitting nearly 63 percent of his fairways and 75 percent of his greens on the European Tour.
He's not only a sleeper for this week at Houston but also next week at the Masters too, where it always seems like a relative unknown creeps up that leaderboard early in the week.
