This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
Open Championship week is here, at the Home of Golf, St. Andrews. Jordan Spieth goes for the third leg of the Grand Slam, Dustin Johnson tries to right the wrong that was the end of the U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy will be on the couch recovering from his ankle injury and many others will attempt to sneak into the picture and ruin any major storyline. Here's our stats thread.
... But First, the Weather:
This is a stats thread. Not a prediction thread. So keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that the (current, it can always change) weather forecast for Friday and Saturday is atrocious, and as we learned with Tiger Woods in 2002, all it takes is one ill-timed squall line to ruin any chance of a Grand Slam. So while this piece won't touch on that, it's something to keep in mind.
What to Watch For
1. Look, you can't deny what Spieth is doing. Sees the criticism for playing the John Deere Classic versus getting to Scotland early, shoots around a round he hates in round 1, gets angry, shoots -20 the rest of the way and wins the tournament in a playoff. Mad respect there. He ranked eighth in strokes gained-tee to green and seventh in strokes gained-putting for the week. The former is impressive, considering how much trouble he had driving the ball at times. We certainly recommend him this week.
2. Rickie Fowler's win at the Scottish Open was huge. Birding three
Open Championship week is here, at the Home of Golf, St. Andrews. Jordan Spieth goes for the third leg of the Grand Slam, Dustin Johnson tries to right the wrong that was the end of the U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy will be on the couch recovering from his ankle injury and many others will attempt to sneak into the picture and ruin any major storyline. Here's our stats thread.
... But First, the Weather:
This is a stats thread. Not a prediction thread. So keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that the (current, it can always change) weather forecast for Friday and Saturday is atrocious, and as we learned with Tiger Woods in 2002, all it takes is one ill-timed squall line to ruin any chance of a Grand Slam. So while this piece won't touch on that, it's something to keep in mind.
What to Watch For
1. Look, you can't deny what Spieth is doing. Sees the criticism for playing the John Deere Classic versus getting to Scotland early, shoots around a round he hates in round 1, gets angry, shoots -20 the rest of the way and wins the tournament in a playoff. Mad respect there. He ranked eighth in strokes gained-tee to green and seventh in strokes gained-putting for the week. The former is impressive, considering how much trouble he had driving the ball at times. We certainly recommend him this week.
2. Rickie Fowler's win at the Scottish Open was huge. Birding three out of the last four to come back and win, a la the Players? Really impressive stuff. He averaged 303 yards in that final round off the tee, hitting just 8 of 14 fairways and 11 of 18 greens. So the way he bounced back when he didn't have his best stuff was really impressive. We recommend him this week as well.
3. Danny Lee won the Greenbrier and could have won the John Deere Classic if he had remembered that lift, clean and place was not in effect Sunday after it was Saturday. The one-shot penalty took him out of a playoff. He's probably the hottest golfer on the PGA Tour, and last week in defeat ranked T13 in greens in regulation and second in strokes gained-tee to green. If he keeps that up, watch out.
4. We wrote last week about Tiger and his fantastic proximity to the hole achievement at Greenbrier. Accurate irons will be huge this week because of the large greens but eliminating the big miss (i.e. don't go right on the Road Hole) could ultimately decide his fate. I'm still hesitant to pick him, but if you believe St. Andrews is like Augusta and personal knowledge plays a big factor, he could have a chance this week.
5. Every year there's always a European unknown (at least to the American audience) who sneaks up and plays a part over the weekend. Who will that be this year? Our bet is Andy Sullivan. The 54th-ranked player in the world finished sixth two weeks ago in France, tied for 13th at Memorial, sixth at the Irish Open and earlier this year won both the South African Open and the Johannesburg Open. In his PGA Tour appearance's this year he's impressively hit 76 percent of his fairways, nearly 66 percent of his greens and is gaining more than two strokes on the field per round.
The Barbasol Championship
There is an opposite-field event this week, the Barbasol Championship from the Grand National Course on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama. If your fantasy league includes this event, here's our recommendations, all golfers who played well last week at the Deere: Johnson Wagner, Will Wilcox and Chris Stroud. Sleeper: Martin Piller, the Web.com Tour winner last week.
