The Numbers Game: Post-Masters Numbers Crunch

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By Dave Koster via TheSandTrap.com

You always think about some things while watching a golf tournament. I jotted a few things down that I wanted to look at after the Masters about Tiger, Phil, Freddy and the course.

Like a lot of golf fans, I took in quite a bit of golf this weekend. What was shaping up to be a tight finish with a group of golfers, including the Big Five, within a few shots of the lead turned out to be a leisurely walk for Phil up the 18th.



This week in The Numbers Game, I'll break down a few of the stats and numbers from this year's Masters and throw out a few extra numbers for you to chew on.

Phil Wins by Default
Well, it probably isn't fair to say that he won by default. Phil won because he didn't make any mistakes on Sunday. Where others failed to manage the fairways and greens at Augusta, Phil did just that.



Here were his stats for the week (out of the 47 that made the cut):



Greens in Regulation (GIR) 4th
Driving Accuracy (DA) 36th
Driving Distance (DD) 1st
Putts (P) 16th

Phil was long off the tee and hit a lot of greens. Putting pretty well also helped. As most of us saw this weekend, the rough at Augusta isn't very penalizing, so missing a few fairways didn't hurt him. I don't really remember seeing Phil in much trouble off the tee… especially on Sunday. When he did miss, Mickelson did it in the right spots.



Tiger's Woes
Everyone knows why Tiger didn't make his charge on Sunday. There was only one reason: the flatstick.



Round Putts
Thursday 29
Friday 28
Saturday 27
Sunday 33

I couldn't find putting stats for his previous Masters rounds but I'd be willing to bet that the 33 he had on Sunday was easily his worst. Heck, it might be the worst in any professional round in a long time. The three three-putts on Sunday killed him but at least Darren Clarke out-stunk him by three jacking four times. Only Brandt Jobe, Adam Scott, and Olin Brown three-putted more times than Tiger. Ugly.



Here's one other thing to chew on about Tiger. It was the first time since 1999 he didn't have a round in the 60s at Augusta. You could feel the frustration Tiger had out there on Sunday… Shooting a 70 with 33 putts. It might be ugly, but at least Tiger can chalk it up to one problem. The bigger problem is for the rest of the Tour if he continues to hit the ball like he did on Sunday.



Freddy
Besides Tiger, he had more eyes on him on Sunday than anyone else. Another thing he had in common with Woods was his lousy putting. It seemed contagious.



Couples bettered Tiger by one putt with 34 on Sunday. It really wasn't much better the rest of the week:



Round Putts
Thursday 33
Friday 27
Saturday 31
Sunday 34

Friday was pretty good, but Freddy was the 4th worst putter of those making the cut in Augusta. Similar to Tiger, Couples had a great day striking the ball. He stayed out of trouble all day… other than the 13th, which he birdied. Couples hit 16 out of 18 greens and on those two greens he missed he was putting from the fringe. Freddy threw away very makeable putts, killing himself on the greens at Augusta National.



Going Low?
The other interesting thing I took away from the 2006 edition of The Masters was the fact that not one golfer had two rounds in the 60s. I thought it might have happened before but since 1990, only 1999 and 1994 were close with only one person shooting in the 60s twice.



For a bit of further research, here are the number of sub-70 rounds since 1990:



Year Rounds
2006 15
2005 24
2004 21
2003 13
2002 15
2001 32
2000 23
1999 20
1998 17
1997 24
1996 21
1995 37
1994 12
1993 31
1992 44
1991 42
1990 23

2006 was the second lowest year ever with only 15 rounds under 70. I'll be curious to see what happens next year. I doubt that we'll ever see the above number in the upper 20s or 30s any time soon. What I do know is that I'll be back here checking up on all of the numbers.

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[jportz]

Nobody can argue that Freddy and Tiger could of won that tournament if they would've putted better. The only thing I don't like is that too much emphasis is placed on the # of putts stat. You have to consider GIR stats as well. If I tell you I had 32 putts you might say I had a bad day but what if I hit 18 GIR as well? That would be a 68...definitely not a bad day.

 

I always keep my own stats and it's frustrating to hear others say you had a good or bad day based on the # of putts you had. If I had 28 putts but only hit 4 GIR then I had a terrible day...if I had 28 putts and hit 12 GIR then I had a good day. The two stats must be together to get the full picture.