This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
This week we go to Jack's place for the Memorial Tournament, where David Lingmerth is the defending champion and a great field is lowered by one with Justin Rose's withdrawal. Here's our stats review.
Breaking News: More Strokes Gained Stats Official
Just in the process of writing this week's column, the PGA Tour made official three additional strokes gained stats: off the tee, approach to the green and around the green. For more information on these stats and how they are calculated, here's the PGA Tour's explainer.
What Jordan Spieth Did Right
We all know how Jordan Spieth won last week at Colonial: he made seemingly everything he looked at on Sunday and got a lucky chip in birdie on 17 to boot. But lost in some of that is this: he made the most birdies, 22, was seventh in strokes gained-tee to green, gaining 8.358 shots on the field, and while second in strokes gained-putting, was first in fewest bogeys in the field with five. His all-around game finally came around, and it came through big for him Sunday as he broke the drought. I recommend him this week -- if his game carries over from what we saw at Colonial, Muirfield Village sets up perfectly for him.
Jordan Spieth 2016 vs. 2015
Let's now compare Jordan Spieth 2015 vs. 2016, with the help of the new strokes gained stats.
Those iron shots
Breaking News: More Strokes Gained Stats Official
Just in the process of writing this week's column, the PGA Tour made official three additional strokes gained stats: off the tee, approach to the green and around the green. For more information on these stats and how they are calculated, here's the PGA Tour's explainer.
What Jordan Spieth Did Right
We all know how Jordan Spieth won last week at Colonial: he made seemingly everything he looked at on Sunday and got a lucky chip in birdie on 17 to boot. But lost in some of that is this: he made the most birdies, 22, was seventh in strokes gained-tee to green, gaining 8.358 shots on the field, and while second in strokes gained-putting, was first in fewest bogeys in the field with five. His all-around game finally came around, and it came through big for him Sunday as he broke the drought. I recommend him this week -- if his game carries over from what we saw at Colonial, Muirfield Village sets up perfectly for him.
Jordan Spieth 2016 vs. 2015
Let's now compare Jordan Spieth 2015 vs. 2016, with the help of the new strokes gained stats.
| YEAR | OFF TEE | APPROACH GREEN | AROUND GREEN |
| 2015 | 15th | 11th | 7th |
| 2016 | 9th | 106th | 1st |
Those iron shots
This week we go to Jack's place for the Memorial Tournament, where David Lingmerth is the defending champion and a great field is lowered by one with Justin Rose's withdrawal. Here's our stats review.
Breaking News: More Strokes Gained Stats Official
Just in the process of writing this week's column, the PGA Tour made official three additional strokes gained stats: off the tee, approach to the green and around the green. For more information on these stats and how they are calculated, here's the PGA Tour's explainer.
What Jordan Spieth Did Right
We all know how Jordan Spieth won last week at Colonial: he made seemingly everything he looked at on Sunday and got a lucky chip in birdie on 17 to boot. But lost in some of that is this: he made the most birdies, 22, was seventh in strokes gained-tee to green, gaining 8.358 shots on the field, and while second in strokes gained-putting, was first in fewest bogeys in the field with five. His all-around game finally came around, and it came through big for him Sunday as he broke the drought. I recommend him this week -- if his game carries over from what we saw at Colonial, Muirfield Village sets up perfectly for him.
Jordan Spieth 2016 vs. 2015
Let's now compare Jordan Spieth 2015 vs. 2016, with the help of the new strokes gained stats.
Those iron shots have given him problems all year -- up until last week -- and the stats bear that out, too.
Jason Day's on Fire
Jason Day's win at the Players was impressive for many reasons -- don't overlook the bogey putt at 9 on Sunday that Spieth (and he) agreed was the biggest shot he hit all day -- one of which being that even as conditions got tough and he made two double bogeys early on Saturday and went backward and forward like everyone did, his rankings stayed really, really solid. For the week, obviously buoyed by the Thursday 6, he ranked third in strokes gained-tee to green, eighth in strokes gained-putting, T2 in birdies, first in driving distance and T15 in greens in regulation. That's consistency over multiple days. This is a home game for him, and he's a great threat to win this week if he bounces back well from the two weeks off.
Rory McIlroy got his W
Speaking of home games, McIlroy won his home country's open, The Irish Open, and the tournament he hosts two weeks ago, slogging through rain-soaked conditions to get the victory in the process. But stats-wise it wasn't as dominant as you might think: 23rd in driving accuracy, ninth in driving distance, 51st in putts per GIR, 58th in putts per round (there's no ShotLink on the European Tour), it wasn't like he was a runaway champ. Yet there was one stat the winner by three who hit two of the best down the stretch fairway woods you'll ever see was first in: greens in regulation at 83.3 percent. If he comes anywhere close to that number this week at Jack's place -- or Oakmont, for that matter, in two weeks -- he may well become your champion.
David Lingmerth's 2015 Triumph
Last year Lingmerth hit 68 percent of his greens, nearly 77 percent of his fairways, and had a strokes gained-putting number of 1.569, all of which will greatly help you around Muirfield Village where preciseness is necessitated. He has struggled this season, however, with no top-10s since his playoff loss at the CareerBuilder back in January. A 133rd ranking in strokes gained-putting isn't helping the cause, and is a long way off from last year's feat. I don't recommend him this week.
Stats People Watch Out -- Lahiri's Rise and Fall
Anirban Lahiri is a rising star in golf. The face of Indian golf and a sure Olympian, Lahiri's appearances on various leaderboards at big name events and his wins in home country's open has raised his profile. But for stats nerds, what he's done the last two weeks needs to be noted. At the Nelson, he opened with 72 but bounced back with 65, only to finish on the weekend with a 71 to push him out of contention and a 66 to backdoor him into a T46 finish. Then at Colonial he opened with 65 before 70-68-68 settled him into a T6 and eight shots back of winner Jordan Spieth.
Breaking News: More Strokes Gained Stats Official
Just in the process of writing this week's column, the PGA Tour made official three additional strokes gained stats: off the tee, approach to the green and around the green. For more information on these stats and how they are calculated, here's the PGA Tour's explainer.
What Jordan Spieth Did Right
We all know how Jordan Spieth won last week at Colonial: he made seemingly everything he looked at on Sunday and got a lucky chip in birdie on 17 to boot. But lost in some of that is this: he made the most birdies, 22, was seventh in strokes gained-tee to green, gaining 8.358 shots on the field, and while second in strokes gained-putting, was first in fewest bogeys in the field with five. His all-around game finally came around, and it came through big for him Sunday as he broke the drought. I recommend him this week -- if his game carries over from what we saw at Colonial, Muirfield Village sets up perfectly for him.
Jordan Spieth 2016 vs. 2015
Let's now compare Jordan Spieth 2015 vs. 2016, with the help of the new strokes gained stats.
| YEAR | OFF TEE | APPROACH GREEN | AROUND GREEN |
| 2015 | 15th | 11th | 7th |
| 2016 | 9th | 106th | 1st |
Those iron shots have given him problems all year -- up until last week -- and the stats bear that out, too.
Jason Day's on Fire
Jason Day's win at the Players was impressive for many reasons -- don't overlook the bogey putt at 9 on Sunday that Spieth (and he) agreed was the biggest shot he hit all day -- one of which being that even as conditions got tough and he made two double bogeys early on Saturday and went backward and forward like everyone did, his rankings stayed really, really solid. For the week, obviously buoyed by the Thursday 6, he ranked third in strokes gained-tee to green, eighth in strokes gained-putting, T2 in birdies, first in driving distance and T15 in greens in regulation. That's consistency over multiple days. This is a home game for him, and he's a great threat to win this week if he bounces back well from the two weeks off.
Rory McIlroy got his W
Speaking of home games, McIlroy won his home country's open, The Irish Open, and the tournament he hosts two weeks ago, slogging through rain-soaked conditions to get the victory in the process. But stats-wise it wasn't as dominant as you might think: 23rd in driving accuracy, ninth in driving distance, 51st in putts per GIR, 58th in putts per round (there's no ShotLink on the European Tour), it wasn't like he was a runaway champ. Yet there was one stat the winner by three who hit two of the best down the stretch fairway woods you'll ever see was first in: greens in regulation at 83.3 percent. If he comes anywhere close to that number this week at Jack's place -- or Oakmont, for that matter, in two weeks -- he may well become your champion.
David Lingmerth's 2015 Triumph
Last year Lingmerth hit 68 percent of his greens, nearly 77 percent of his fairways, and had a strokes gained-putting number of 1.569, all of which will greatly help you around Muirfield Village where preciseness is necessitated. He has struggled this season, however, with no top-10s since his playoff loss at the CareerBuilder back in January. A 133rd ranking in strokes gained-putting isn't helping the cause, and is a long way off from last year's feat. I don't recommend him this week.
Stats People Watch Out -- Lahiri's Rise and Fall
Anirban Lahiri is a rising star in golf. The face of Indian golf and a sure Olympian, Lahiri's appearances on various leaderboards at big name events and his wins in home country's open has raised his profile. But for stats nerds, what he's done the last two weeks needs to be noted. At the Nelson, he opened with 72 but bounced back with 65, only to finish on the weekend with a 71 to push him out of contention and a 66 to backdoor him into a T46 finish. Then at Colonial he opened with 65 before 70-68-68 settled him into a T6 and eight shots back of winner Jordan Spieth.
The stats show this inconsistency: he's 48th in first-round scoring average and 36th in third-round average but 126th in round two and 123rd in final-round scoring average. Those numbers have to improve before he'll win on the PGA Tour. If you have him in a league where inconsistency is fine, start him as he's shown good form lately. If not, avoid him.
The Field
This field is spectacular and also includes Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Kevin Chappell, Bryson DeChambeau, Luke Donald, Jason Dufner, Ernie Els, Tony Finau, Smylie Kaufman, Justin Thomas, Matt Kuchar, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed and more.
The Weather
The weather in Columbus, Ohio will be up and down with rain chances Thursday, Saturday and Sunday with sun in between, light wind and temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s.
