This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
The PGA Tour moves to Las Vegas this week for the Shriners Open, which will feature 144 players instead of the 132 it should have. (It isn't a stats story but if you need a funny read, check out how that happened. Here's the stats column for this week:
The Field
To win in Vegas you gotta make tons, and tons and tons of birdies. (It usually takes 20-under or better to get it done, even after it shifted to a 72-hole tournament.) But who will make those birdies?
It could be defending champion Smylie Kaufman, who shot 61 on Sunday to get his first PGA Tour win. It could be Jimmy Walker or Brooks Koepka or former champion Ryan Moore, who are also in the field. Additional players in the field include Davis Love, Ernie Els, Wesley Bryan, J.B. Holmes, Vijay Singh, Keegan Bradley, Bryson DeChambeau, Graham DeLaet, Tony Finau, last week's winner at the Sanderson Farms Cody Gribble, Graeme McDowell, Jon Rahm, Webb Simpson and more.
Our picks are Koepka, Bryan and DeLaet.
Koepka is a birdie machine – he ranked sixth last year in birdie average and fifth in the birdie or better percentage – while also ranking 12th in SG-total and 10th in eagles, which obviously counts as part of this.
Impressively, even as Bryan racked up wins on the Web.com Tour, moonlighted for a bit on the PGA Tour and then ultimately stopped playing on the Web.com Tour after the Battlefield Promotion, his birdie
The PGA Tour moves to Las Vegas this week for the Shriners Open, which will feature 144 players instead of the 132 it should have. (It isn't a stats story but if you need a funny read, check out how that happened. Here's the stats column for this week:
The Field
To win in Vegas you gotta make tons, and tons and tons of birdies. (It usually takes 20-under or better to get it done, even after it shifted to a 72-hole tournament.) But who will make those birdies?
It could be defending champion Smylie Kaufman, who shot 61 on Sunday to get his first PGA Tour win. It could be Jimmy Walker or Brooks Koepka or former champion Ryan Moore, who are also in the field. Additional players in the field include Davis Love, Ernie Els, Wesley Bryan, J.B. Holmes, Vijay Singh, Keegan Bradley, Bryson DeChambeau, Graham DeLaet, Tony Finau, last week's winner at the Sanderson Farms Cody Gribble, Graeme McDowell, Jon Rahm, Webb Simpson and more.
Our picks are Koepka, Bryan and DeLaet.
Koepka is a birdie machine – he ranked sixth last year in birdie average and fifth in the birdie or better percentage – while also ranking 12th in SG-total and 10th in eagles, which obviously counts as part of this.
Impressively, even as Bryan racked up wins on the Web.com Tour, moonlighted for a bit on the PGA Tour and then ultimately stopped playing on the Web.com Tour after the Battlefield Promotion, his birdie average ranking held up; he was second at 4.75 birdies per round. He hits it long and putts well (first in putting average last season), so he's a good pick for this week.
DeLaet, meanwhile, is so overdue for his first PGA Tour win it must be paining him. He had a great chance last week until Gribble went nuts on Sunday. He finished T8 in Jackson, ranking 13th in SG-off-the-tee, 10th in approach to the green and ninth in putting. I like where his game is trending and I like him as a pick this week.
The Stat
Proximity to the hole is a big part of making birdies – closer you hit it, easier it is to make more of them and jump up the leaderboard. The early leaders in this stats category for the 2016-2017 PGA Tour season and in the field this week are:
Webb Simpson -- 24 feet, 2 inches
Kyle Stanley -- 25-4
Jon Curran -- 27-3
Michael Kim -- 27-5
Charles Howell III -- 28-2
Admittedly, it isn't a sensational list, so let's hone in on Simpson, the 2014 champion at this event, who has struggled since the anchoring ban has gone into effect. He missed the cut at Safeway, shooting rounds of 74-73 to start this season but showed progress in 2016 with a T3 at Colonial, T11 at Memorial, and a sixth at Congressional. For the season he was 11th in SG-tee-to-green, and eighth in proximity to the hole. Obviously the Safeway finish isn't a great sign but if he plays more like his 2015-2016 PGA Tour self he could find his way back into the winner's circle sooner rather than later.
The Weather
It's Vegas, so it's perfect. Sunny, light winds, temperatures near 80.
