This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
The PGA Tour's fall portion of the 2014-15 schedule shifts east this week for the McGladrey Classic from Sea Island, Ga. This event has one of the sneaky strong fields of the year as many well-known PGA Tour players live in the Sea Island region. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
The defending champion is Chris Kirk, who won by one over Briny Baird and Tim Clark. In 2012, Tommy Gainey beat David Toms by one, in 2011, Ben Crane beat Webb Simpson in a playoff, and in 2010 Heath Slocum beat Bill Haas by one shot.
Our pick is Simpson, who tied for fourth last week in Las Vegas, ranking second in strokes gained-tee to green and tying fourth in strokes gained-total.
Who is Playing
This field, as mentioned, is pretty stacked. Besides host Davis Love III, it includes Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson, Jonathan Byrd, Tony Finau, Lucas Glover, Bill Haas, Russell Knox, Ben Martin, Sam Saunders and Nick Watney.
Besides the obvious picks in Kuchar, Johnson, and Haas, we really like Finau this week.
Finau, a former Big Break contestant who earned his card via the Web.com Tour, has had an extremely solid start to his 2014-15 PGA Tour season. After nearly winning the Big Break Invitational three weeks ago, Finau opened up this season T12-T7, and has opened some eyes with his 321.9 yard driving distance average, which, believe it or not, is not first (rookie Daniel Berger leads at 324.3 yards) on the PGA Tour. But
The PGA Tour's fall portion of the 2014-15 schedule shifts east this week for the McGladrey Classic from Sea Island, Ga. This event has one of the sneaky strong fields of the year as many well-known PGA Tour players live in the Sea Island region. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
The defending champion is Chris Kirk, who won by one over Briny Baird and Tim Clark. In 2012, Tommy Gainey beat David Toms by one, in 2011, Ben Crane beat Webb Simpson in a playoff, and in 2010 Heath Slocum beat Bill Haas by one shot.
Our pick is Simpson, who tied for fourth last week in Las Vegas, ranking second in strokes gained-tee to green and tying fourth in strokes gained-total.
Who is Playing
This field, as mentioned, is pretty stacked. Besides host Davis Love III, it includes Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson, Jonathan Byrd, Tony Finau, Lucas Glover, Bill Haas, Russell Knox, Ben Martin, Sam Saunders and Nick Watney.
Besides the obvious picks in Kuchar, Johnson, and Haas, we really like Finau this week.
Finau, a former Big Break contestant who earned his card via the Web.com Tour, has had an extremely solid start to his 2014-15 PGA Tour season. After nearly winning the Big Break Invitational three weeks ago, Finau opened up this season T12-T7, and has opened some eyes with his 321.9 yard driving distance average, which, believe it or not, is not first (rookie Daniel Berger leads at 324.3 yards) on the PGA Tour. But he's also showing touch as well, as he's fourth in greens in regulation, helping lead him to a sixth-place ranking in strokes gained-total and fourth in scoring average. So if you want to look at a young guy to pick this week, Finau is our recommendation.
Sunday Surgers
These players played well on Sunday in Las Vegas and may very well carry that good play into this week:
Adam Hadwin - Hadwin, the star Canadian who played so well in the Web.com Tour Finals, moved up 43 spots on Sunday with a 63 that led to a T10 finish. For the week he ranked seventh in strokes gained-putting and gained a whopping 6.5 strokes on the field on Sunday.
Aaron Baddeley - Baddeley worked his way up the leaderboard on Sunday via a final-round 66 that led to a tie for 33rd at the Shriners Open. For the week he was 23rd in driving distance and T16 in sand saves.
Nick Watney - Watney's Sunday 66 bumped him up 18 spots to a T16 finish. Buoyed by a five birdie, no bogey round, Watney ranked fifth in strokes gained-putting last week.
