This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
The PGA Tour begins two weeks in the Dallas area this week with the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, one of the most famous golf courses in the U.S., which sees some big names return to the fold. Here's our stats preview.
History Lesson
The defending champion is Adam Scott, who defeated Jason Dufner in a sensational playoff. Neither is a recommendation this week, both because of putting. Weekly column readers will remember how Scott was 193rd in strokes gained-putting coming into last week, and, following a missed cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, he's now 196th. Dufner, meanwhile, has not been the same since his neck injury last summer, and the resulting drastic diet to lose weight and get healthier. He also got divorced earlier this year, which could be a factor as well. He has no finish better than T17 in 2015 and ranks 165th in strokes gained-putting. Not good at all.
In 2013, Boo Weekley won by one shot over Matt Kuchar, and in 2012 Zach Johnson beat Dufner by one. Kuchar is not in this week's field.
Of those golfers we recommend Johnson, who has four top-10s in 13 starts so far this season. He ranks 19th in strokes gained-tee to green and 42nd in strokes gained-total. One thing to pause about: he's a fairly shocking 159th in strokes gained-putting, something Johnson admits himself he needs to work on.
Who Is Playing
Others in the field include Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Sam
The PGA Tour begins two weeks in the Dallas area this week with the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, one of the most famous golf courses in the U.S., which sees some big names return to the fold. Here's our stats preview.
History Lesson
The defending champion is Adam Scott, who defeated Jason Dufner in a sensational playoff. Neither is a recommendation this week, both because of putting. Weekly column readers will remember how Scott was 193rd in strokes gained-putting coming into last week, and, following a missed cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, he's now 196th. Dufner, meanwhile, has not been the same since his neck injury last summer, and the resulting drastic diet to lose weight and get healthier. He also got divorced earlier this year, which could be a factor as well. He has no finish better than T17 in 2015 and ranks 165th in strokes gained-putting. Not good at all.
In 2013, Boo Weekley won by one shot over Matt Kuchar, and in 2012 Zach Johnson beat Dufner by one. Kuchar is not in this week's field.
Of those golfers we recommend Johnson, who has four top-10s in 13 starts so far this season. He ranks 19th in strokes gained-tee to green and 42nd in strokes gained-total. One thing to pause about: he's a fairly shocking 159th in strokes gained-putting, something Johnson admits himself he needs to work on.
Who Is Playing
Others in the field include Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Sam Saunders, Daniel Berger, Erik Compton, Patrick Reed (whose cousin passed away earlier in the week; but Reed said he will play), Graham DeLaet, Hunter Mahan, Patrick Rodgers and Brandt Snedeker.
Our recommendations here are Spieth and Rodgers.
Spieth uncharacteristically missed the cut at The Players, admitting he had an alignment issue. But with more than a week off to fix the issues, Spieth should play well this week in front of his hometown fans in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. For the season the Masters champion is ninth in strokes gained-tee to green, sixth in strokes gained-putting and second in strokes gained-total. Impressive combo.
Rodgers, the Stanford graduate, tied for second last week at the Wells Fargo Championship, falling just short of clinching special temporary membership for the rest of the PGA Tour season (he needed a solo second place finish). He's playing the next three weeks and if he carries over the momentum from his solid play last week -- even with his double bogey-bogey finish -- he should be in prime position to acquire that status. Consider that for the week at Quail Hollow he ranked fourth in strokes gained-tee to green, gaining 10 shots on the field in that department, while averaging 314.6 yards off the tee (that put him eighth in the field) and hitting a little more than 68 percent of his greens (T22).
Rory Was Really Good
Sometimes we need to take a moment to look back and admire what we've just witnessed. Rory McIlroy's runaway victory last week was impressive on many levels, including statistically.
Consider that for the week he was: first in birdies (27), first in driving distance (321.1 yards), T19 in driving accuracy (55.36 percent), T2 in greens in regulation (77.78 percent), first in strokes gained-tee to green (a whopping 16.870) and first in strokes gained-total (with an even more whopping 20.083). No wonder he won by seven shots.
