PGA – MY 2018 FRANKENGOLFER
It’s hard to believe that another year has gone by and I’m back here again with you for my seventh annual Frankengolfer article.
You may remember that I construct a yearly four-headed monster born of the previous season’s statistics with the aim of building a theoretically perfect PGA player.
We would all love to be that person. Long and accurate off the tee… An ace around the greens… A putting machine… Someone who maximizes their abilities through thick and thin…
So, who made the list this year? Let’s go:
- Driving – JUSTIN ROSE
- The Greens – HENRICK STENSON
- Short Game – WEBB SIMPSON
- Intangibles – BRYSON DECHAMBEAU
Driving –
Last year, I switched things up in this category and picked Dustin Johnson as the best driver on the tour despite the fact that with 315 yards on average off the tee, he was only accurate 56.97% of the time. (Total Driving rank was T35).
This is unusual for me because as an amateur golfer, I put more value on hitting the fairways over length, just for length’s sake. But, when I examined Johnson’s stats in 2017, I realized that more than any other player, he gained the most shots per round off the tee and from tee to green because of his ability to get so close to the hole. He then took advantage of his position, desirable for any golfer.
In 2018, Johnson still maintained his rule in these categories. Once again, he was tops in the Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee categories. Yet, another player also fared very well in this area while also being best in Total Driving (Accuracy + Distance). That player was the 38-year old British man: Justin Rose.
Last year, Rose hit the ball off the tee 303.5 yards on average with a 66.02% accuracy. He also came in fourth in the SG: Tee-to-Green statistic, was in the top twenty in SG: Off-the-tee and came in second in SG: Total behind DJ. This strength helped Rose to rank fourth in Top 10 finishes, second in Scoring Average, second in the Official World Ranking and become the 2018 FedEx Cup Champion.
Incidentally, DJ hit the ball 314.0 yards on average in 2018 and improved his accuracy to 59.46%. Still, I’ll take Rose with better accuracy while hitting it off the tee over 300 yards.
Honorable mentions in Total Driving that also did well in Strokes Gained: Tommy Fleetwood (306.9 yards; 63.65% accuracy), Gary Woodland (313.4 yards; 63.17% accuracy) and Francisco Molinari (301.0 yards; 64.33% accuracy).
The Greens –
With zero wins and only one second place finish, perhaps 2018 wasn’t the best year of Henrik Stenson’s career. Yet, the veteran Swede was boss with an iron in his hand last season.
The 42-year old ranked first in Greens in Regulation (73.51%), first in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green (.960), tenth in Going for the Green (71.63%), third in Going for the Green – Hit Green %, tenth in Proximity to the Hole, fourth in Approaches from 200-225 yards, third in Approaches from 150-175 yards, and first in Approaches from 125-150 yards.
Of course, it definitely helped that Stenson Hit the Fairways better than anyone else last season (76.87%) and had the best Driving Accuracy (75.19%), which put him in great position to do well in SG: Tee to Green (fifth place).
Another player that excelled with his irons last year was fan favorite Tiger Woods. He finished third in SG: Approach-the-Green, eleventh in SG: Around the Green, tied for fourth in Scrambling, third in Approaches from 50-75 yards, fourth in Approaches from 75-100 yards, third in Approaches from 50-125 yards, ninth in Approaches from 125-150 yards, second in Approaches from 175-200 yards, and fifth in Approaches from 75-100 yards.
Keegan Bradley also resurfaced among the top players in the SG: Approach the Green in 2018. It helped him win for the first time in six years at the BMW Championship and place in the Top 10 of the FedEx Cup playoffs. We also can’t forget about Justin Thomas who did well in this category and won three times last year along with Dustin Johnson who also finished first in Rough Proximity, second in Proximity to the Hole, and ninth in Greens in Regulation.
Short Game –
When American Webb Simpson made the painful switch in 2016 from a belly putter to a flat stick (due to an impending 2017 anchored stroke ban), it didn’t go all that well. Simpson found himself having to relearn that particular skill used since college and didn’t find real putting results until almost a year later.
Fast-forward to 2018, putting just kept improving for the thirty-three-year-old and reached a high point in May when Simpson won his second major at The Players Championship. The reason: he lapped the field with his putter.
That week, Simpson gained 2.432 strokes per roundon the rest of the field, totaling more than nine strokes gained in putting over anyone else. Simpson said at the time, “I’ve never putted this well in my life, and I think if I had stayed with the belly putter, I think I maybe averaged 35th to 60th every year in putting, so very average. This year I think I’m in the top 10. It’s funny how those things happen, but this is probably the first time I can say I’m glad they banned it, because I wouldn’t have ever probably swayed away from the belly putter.”
Indeed, Simpson finished the year fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting, sixth in Total Putting, and fourth in Three-Putt Avoidance. Other players like Aussie Greg Chalmers and Americans Daniel Summerhays and Peter Malnati may have finished better than Simpson in those stats, but because Simpson was able to overcome what was once a liability and turn it into an asset under pressure at a major championship, it impressed me enough to pick him as the third portion of my Frankengolfer.
Intangibles –
I toyed with choosing Dustin Johnson for his unbelievable play this year as the final portion of my four-headed monster. Justin Thomas also turned my head. He continues to maximize every single asset he brings to the table. Tiger Woods’ impressive comeback season gave me pause as well as Brooks Koepka for defending his US Open champion status and third major win.
But, I settled with the twenty-five-year-old Bryson DeChambeau. Maybe I appreciate his youth and enthusiasm. Perhaps I like the unique scientific ideas he comes up with and his never-ending ambition to keep getting better. Or likely, I respect how the former physics major and self-proclaimed “artist” brought all of those things together during 2018, his breakthrough season.
When DeChambeau was melting down at the British Open practice range in July, he may not have realized that he would go on a tear the second half of the season. Amidst the inner turmoil, he would tack on his second and third wins at the Northern Trust and Dell Technologies Open and play on the Ryder Cup team for the U.S. Certainly, those wins and experience helped solidify all the hard work and confidence he had in himself, the latter of which he has never wavered from. In April he said, “My game is good enough to be where the elites are in the game.” And, it is in this statement that encompasses the idea of what golf intangibles are all about.
For any golfer to succeed, even those with enormous talent, they need to believe in themselves. Maybe Tiger Woods privately doubted his abilities at home from time to time, but he never once showed ambiguity on the golf course. When he came to play, he expected to win. DeChambeau has that same quality and it will take him far in this sport. He can only improve and I look forward to seeing what he will do in 2019, especially at the majors where he has high expectations.
BONUS: Potential Breakthrough Stars of 2019
- Don’t know the name Cameron Champ? You will. The twenty-three-year-old rookie turned pro after winning the Web.com’s 2018 Utah Championship and earned his tour card for the new season. He won his first PGA event at only his second tournament (Sanderson Farms Championship) with a -21. But what’s really fascinating about him is how long this 6’0, 175 young man can hit the ball off the tee — an average of 323.7 yards, according to his current PGA profile. When he played at the 2017 US Open as an amateur, he averaged 350 yards and was two shots off the lead entering the third round.
- It’s probably too early to bring up Sam Burns, the twenty-two-year-old rookie. But, the way in which he has excelled as a young amateur makes me think he’ll be breaking through the PGA Tour in record time. He earned three individual Louisiana state championships, was named first-team All-American at LSU and was the top player in college golf during the 2016-17 season when he won the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year award. He also T7 at the 2018 Honda Classic and outplayed his playing partner in the final round. That was Tiger Woods…
- I like the story of twenty-seven-year old American Julian Suri’s rise on the golf circuit. He played golf at Duke where he was an All-American, won three events and broke a single season scoring record with a stress fracture in his wrist. After he turned pro in 2013, he won on the Challenge Tour and on the European Tour (the first golfer to do so in the same season) and rose more than 1,000 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking. Last season, he played a split schedule on the PGA Tour and in ten events, made nine cuts, T8 at the Houston Open, T28 at The Open and T19 at the PGA Championship. He also became the Jacksonville Jaguars official golf ambassador, the first partnership of its kind between a golfer and NFL team. He’s currently ranked 87th in the world, but all signs point to Suri improving that ranking in 2019.
- Denny McCarthy certainly has the golf pedigree to help him become a star. The twenty-five-year old UVA alum played on the 2010 Junior Ryder Cup with Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Ollie Schneiderjans, was the ACC’s Freshman of the Year in 2011-12, was on the US team that won the 2014 World Amateur Team Championships along with Beau Hossler and Bryson DeChambeau and became the only American to shoot in the sixties all four days of that competition. He also won the Maryland Open three times as an amateur (2010, 2013, 2015) and turned pro in 2015. On the Web.com Tour in 2016, he won the Championship by four strokes, earned a coveted No. 1 spot on The Finals 25 and acquired fully-exempt PGA status for the 2018-19 as well as a spot in The Players Championship. Now let’s see what he can do with this newest opportunity…
One More Thing…
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