2012 'Shocking' Ryder Cup Review

Wow! What a great a great Ryder Cup and an amazing Sunday of golf. A truly stunning result and certainly one of my top five most memorable golf broadcasts. I wanted to share of few of my impressions from the week. Here goes:

• Ian Poulter: I have always enjoyed Ian's 'confidence' - some might call it arrogance, but I've never seen it that way and I have also thought him to be a top player and competitor. Everything I believed about Ian James Poulter has now been tripled! He, (virtually) single-handedly, won the cup for Europe with his five closing birdies on Saturday. Those five holes and that win for Europe allowed them to hang on to a glimmer of hope for Sunday and without that glimmer they don't get the job done. He now owns the best all time Ryder Cup record for players who have played in at least 15 matches - that says something about IJP.
• Phil Mickelson: While I have never been a fan of Phil, this weekend I finally packed up my things and climbed on his bandwagon. One of the coolest things I witnessed all week was Phil clapping for Justin Rose when he hit a good shot or holed a long putt. He played with fire, he played beautifully, and above all else he was a true gentleman.
• Keegan Bradley: This guy is for real. He has tremendous heart and just like Poulter, has the make up to be a fantastic competitor for many years to come in the Ryder Cup. I did not get the benefit to the sideways look at putts and the twitchy, start stop pre-shot routine has got to go. I was glad I had the golf recorded so I could fast forward while he got ready to hit a shot....
• Jose Maria Olazabal: It was great for Ollie to get the win and it was obvious on his face how often he thought of his friend and mentor Seve Ballesteros. Seve truly was the 13th amn and I believe his influence played a laregr than appreciated role in the European victory. I enjoyed JMO's post victory quote: "All men die, but not all men live. Today you made me feel alive again!"
• Should Davis Love III get the blame? Completely ridiculous! If one putt or chip goes in for the US squad on Sunday the result is completely flipped and he's a hero.
• Bubba on the 1st tee: Perhaps one of my favorite moments of the event! I got chills the first time I saw it and I hope (believe) he has started a trend in the matches that will continue for a long time. You saw him do it first! Great stuff.

• Giving putts and conceding matches: Francesco Molinari was instructed in the 18th fairway to win the hole by Ollie. In my view there is a difference in retaining the Cup and winning the Cup. Same celebration and 'same' outcome, but winning is always better. I honestly don't think I would have given TW his putt either....
• Spirit of the matches: This Ryder Cup was contended by two excellent teams where many of the players seemed to be in form. The matches were great theater and the players conducted themselves in a classy fashion. I did not see anything that I thought to be underhanded.
• Sour grapes: The European team is sour when they lose and their fans claim gamesmanship and unsporting conduct when they lose (see Brookline '99). The US team and their fans are no different (see Medinah '12). Nobody enjoys losing - it's human nature and I'm okay with that.
• Top players on each team: For the Euro squad it must be Poulter who also gets Man of the Ryder Cup in my books. On Saturday afternoon he loaded up the whole event on his back and said watch this...A nod must also go to Rory McIlroy who played some incredible golf and carried the 'World No. 1' flag beautifully. For the Americans there were a few superstars: Jason Dufner, who just continues to get better; Keegan Bradley who fired up Phil and played liked a man possessed; and Phil, who not only played with passion again, but owned the 'classy moment' of the week. Dustin Johnson also quietly went 3-0.
• Duds: For the Euro team G-Mac and Westwood performed below expectations and for the US it can only be TW and Stricker who earned a measly half point out of 8 opportunities.
• Was this a 'miracle' comeback? No, not really. If you run the odds on a team coming back from a 10-6 deficit going in to Sunday you come out with a 19% chance. Even though it's only happened once before, not a miracle at all.
• Don't count your chickens: Here's an interesting piece written by ESPN's Gene Wojchiechowski on Saturday evening. Gene has been taking a beating for this one.....

In total I absolutely loved the event and it once again proves that the game of golf is in good shape. There are more than enough great players and characters to carry the game without Tiger being what he once was.

Amazing PGA Tour Stats from 2011

At the end of each year, with the help of ShotLink, the PGA Tour puts out a stat sheet that gives an in-depth review of various statistical categories. There are always some very interesting numbers - some of which I thought I'd share with you today...

Driving

• The PGA Tour average driving distance for all measured shots was 290.9 yards.
• The longest driver was JB Holmes at 318.4 yards while the shortest hitter was Brian Gay at 269.8 yards - that's almost 50 yards per tee shot!
• There were 21 golfers that averaged over 300 yards per tee shot. In 2000 John Daly was the first and only player to average over 300 yards.
• Rory McIlroy hit 51 out of 56 tee shots over 300 yards in the WGC-Bridgestone event.
• The longest drive of the year went to Dustin Johnson at 463 yards - it did involve a cart path!
• Joe Durant was the straightest driver hitting 75.65% of his fairways while Anthony Kim was the least accurate hitting only 46.99% of the fairways.
• No player led the field in driving accuracy en route to victory, while Bubba Watson led the field in driving distance for both of his victories.
• Seventy golfers had rounds where they hit every fairway  - a feat Joe Durant achieved four times!
• John Merrick had a streak of 36 fairways in a row!
• Darren Clarke only hit 41% of the fairways in winning the Open Championship.

Approach Shots

• Boo Weekley led the tour in greens in regulations (GIR) with 71.68% - that's just over 12.5 greens per round. Keep in mind the average golfer hits 4 greens per round.
• Robert Garrigus and Graeme McDowell both hit 92% of the greens at Kapalua - the easiest course on tour to hit greens.
• 15 players manged to hit all 18 greens in a round and no golfer accomplished this feat more than once.
• Webb Simpson had a streak of 32 greens in a row!
• The hardest green to hit on tour was the 6th Hole at PGA National (29.98%). The hole is actually a par five for the members and is truly frightening.
• The course with the most hole outs from off the green was Harbourtown GL at 101. Primarily because the greens are literally miniscule and very easy to miss.

Around the Green

• Brian Gay led the sand saves category with a 63.40 % up and down rate.
• Greg Chalmers led the scrambling category with a 65.17% up and in rate.

Note: I do have a problem with the PGA Tour scrambling stat in that they measure scrambling for any shot to the green that is one stroke higher than regulation. This means that tee balls hit OB should be up and downed from the tee to convert and that pitches and chips played to a par five in three are not counted...not too much sense in that.  (Thanks to Pete Sanders from ShotbyShot.com for pointing this out to me)

• Five players led the field in scrambling in the same week that they won.
• Jason Dufner was 23 out of 24 for scrambling in the Waste Management event.
• Brian Gay and Paul Stankowski each had 17 consecutive sand saves!

Putting

• Luke Donald led the tour in the best stat on tour in my opinion - Strokes Gained-Putting with +.844. That means he gained an average of .844 strokes on the most "average" putter for every round he played and has led the tour in this category the last three years.  Boo Weekley, for all his hitting prowess, was last on -1.102 and Luke gained almost two strokes per round on Boo - just with the putter!
• Luke Donald had 1 three putt for every 80 holes of golf he played.
• On average Tour winners out performed the field by +1.426 strokes per round with the putter. That's only +5.7 better than the field average in a four round event...
• 6 out of 38 winners in 2011 led the field in strokes gained-putting and 25 of 38 winners ranked in the top ten.
• Charlie Wi gained +12.68 strokes on the field in the Crowne Plaza Invitational.
• Hunter Mahan only managed to make 219 feet of putts in the 4th round of the Deutsche Bank Championship.
• Three players managed to have 15 one putts in a round!
• Luke Donald had 483 consecutive holes without a three putt and Kevin Na made 676 out of 676 from inside three feet!

Scoring

• Luke Donald led the adjusted (?) scoring average at 68.86 while Webb Simpson led the actual scoring averages at  69.16.
• Webb Simpson had 60 rounds of scoring in the 60's and 13 out of 98 rounds that were bogey-free.
• Four players had 11 birdies in a round and three players made 27 birdies in a four round event.
• 4% of all rounds on tour were completely bogey-free.
• Luke Donald had 17 consecutive sub-par rounds (I have those all the time!) and Briny Baird had 12 consecutive rounds in the 60's.

The PGA Tour currently keeps a total of 416 various stats on each player for every round they play and with the help of some very smart people each stat category is getting deeper and better as they move forward.  Ever read the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis? Well golf is finally starting to apply sabermetrics to the massive amount of data they collect every year - and they're better off for it.

You cannot improve upon something if you cannot measure it! I believe that statement to be true and I know that quality stats are vital in helping any serious golfer improve.  That is why I have aligned with noted statistician Peter Sanders and his fantastic site ShotbyShot.com. With this site you have the ability to truly assess your strengths and weaknesses. You even have the ability to judge your putting against scratch handicap golfers in a strokes gained type format - the only other way to get something similar is to become a Tour player!

To all my students: If you are serious, and I believe you all are, please contact me about a fantastic opportunity for us to participate at ShotbyShot.com. After all, if you want to improve something we have got to measure it....

The Open Championship 2011 Royal St. Georges

My favorite tournament of the year is finally here.  If I had one event I could win it would be the Open Championship - I just love the effects of the weather and the truly brilliant golf courses on the Open rota.  

Last time at St. Georges Ben Curtis was the grateful recipient of Thomas Bjorn's untimely demise in a greenside bunker.  By the way - has anybody seen or heard from Mr. Bjorn since that fateful day?

This year I really like the chances of the young guns and were I a betting man I would have a hard time going against these five:

Rory McIlroy - Golf's new golden boy.  He simply must be on everybody's shortlist of champion golfer candidates.  After the dominant showing at Congressional and last years showing at St. Andrews and this year at Augusta...you get the picture.

Louis Oosthuizen - Not sure why I like him as he hasn't done much in the year since holding the Claret Jug (top 10 at the US Open), but I just feel he'll be inspired to be playing major championship links golf.

Rickie Fowler - a stellar showing at last years Open Championship after a horrible opening round.  He is due for something good to happen...

Dustin Johnson - he's got to show up at some point this year in a major right?  I believe he'll come from out of nowhere to challenge this week.

Charl Schwartzel - okay I know I have two young South Africans on my list, maybe I'm biased, but who can argue with this pick.  A win and a top 10 in majors thus far this year.....I look for the bantamweight to be there come Sunday!

We can only hope for similar weather to last year - firm, fast and a stiff breeze off the Dover coast.  I love it!

Tee Times and Pairings

What fabulous terrain for a golf course! Just watching the Open Championship inspires me to take a golf break and get out and play some links golf. There is no better style of golf to play.  Enjoy!

If you are interested in playing a few of the Open Championship courses check out - Golf Breaks UK

Read more about the Open Championship....

Rory McIlroy - Golf's New Golden Boy

Here are a few swings for your viewing pleasure from golf's new golden boy Rory McIlroy:

The final two swings are compliments of Brian Moore

The Best Swings in Golf

In my opinion these are the five best active swings in the game today:

Charl Schwartzel

Rory McIroy

Jason Day

Gary Woodland

Martin Kaymer

Any thoughts? Anyone out there better than these five?

I would have to say that honorable mention goes to Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen, and Jhonattan Vegas.

Rickie vs. Rory

Rory McIlroy (Getty)

 As you may have heard by now the PGA Tour players have voted Rickie Fowler the Rookie of the Year for 2010. I was shocked to see that Rory McIlroy had not received the award, but after a little extra digging I can see how a strong case can be made for Rickie! I would have a hard time placing a bet against either of these two fine young players but who had the better year?

Rickie Fowler (Getty)

Rickie Fowler had no wins on the PGA Tour this year, but he did have 7 top 10's. Rory McIlroy had one win (Quail Hollow) on the PGA Tour and 5 top 10's - two of which were third place finishes in major championships.

Fowler finished 32nd on the money listwhile McIlroy was 36th; they both played on their respective Ryder Cup teams - McIlroy on the winning side; Rickie had a 70.35 stroke average, while Rory's was 70.94; Rickie played 28 events while Rory only played 16.

In fact in their eleven head to head meetings (in official PGA Tour events) Rory bested Rickie on seven occasions!

A close call....?

On the surface I can commiserate with Lee Westwood in his rant on Twitter against the selection:

Sorry 140 letters is not going to be enough for this rant! Just seen Rickie Fowler has been given rookie of the year! Yes he's had a good year but Rory McIlroy third in two majors and an absolute demolition of the field at Quail Hollow! Oh yes and on the winning Ryder cup team! Please! Is this yet another case of protectionism by the PGA Tour or are they so desperate to win something! Wouldn't have something to do with Rory not joining the tour next year?"

However if you look at the body of work  Rickie Fowler put forth he has a strong case. You must also consider the fact that Rickie came straight to the tour from Oklahoma Statewhereas Rory turned professional in 2007 and came to the US tour after two years on the European Tour.

All that being said - isn't this a great argument to be have? Here are two of the finest young gunsthe PGA Tour has seen in a long while and we cannot decide who had the better year - fantastic! As someone once said to me, "These are high grade problems!"

The 2011 season is shaping up to be a beauty (even without Rory being an official member of the PGA Tour). Dustin, G-Mac, even Tiger! It's gonna be good....

Your thoughts?