Rose wins Colonial by 3 strokes over Koepka

Click here to read the full article…

We are less than three weeks away from the PGA TOUR’s official return at the Charles Schwab Challenge. More than 90 days will have passed between the cancellation of THE PLAYERS and the TOUR’s resumption of play. When THE PLAYERS was canceled back in March, a cloud of uncertainty was hanging over golf and the world around it. Nobody knew when we would see the world’s best tee it up again, but both players and fans were certainly hoping it would be safe to do so sooner than later. We now have a clear schedule for the remainder of the year, with competition resuming 13 weeks after the THE PLAYERS was canceled. Let’s explore what impact this break might have on player performance. Needless to say, 13-week breaks are not common among PGA TOUR players. Overall, only around 2.7% of starts are made by players coming off a 13-week break. A lot can happen in that time. Back in 2000, Tiger went on a run of five wins, including three majors, in a 13-week stretch. Below is a chart showing the percentage of players in a given event, by weeks off entering the tournament. Fifty-two percent of a field played the week prior. As we might expect, there’s a clear relationship between performance and the number of weeks a player has been off. We can analyze how well players perform by comparing our estimate of their ability (how we would expect them to perform) to how they actually performed. Generally, players taking small breaks of two weeks or less are marginally better than expected, while longer breaks result in an average drop in performance of between 0.1 and 0.2 strokes per round. For context, a drop of 0.2 strokes per round is about the gap between 100th- and 135th-ranked players in the world. It’s a significant change, but not enormous. Additionally, the drop in performance after a 10-20 week gap is quite consistent across different levels of players. Top-50 players in the world are affected by a similar amount to those outside the top 50. The below bar chart shows how players performed against their expected performance after layoffs of varying lengths. Given how uncommon breaks of this length are, we can’t draw too many conclusions on who we might expect to perform well in the early weeks back. However, there are a few players who over the past five years have had multiple 10+ week gaps and performed better than expected on their return. Ryan Moore (+0.9 strokes per round) and Phil Mickelson (+0.6) top that list. The below table shows the players who have performed the best after long layoffs. Intuitively we might think that after an extended period without playing on tour that touch on the greens might be a little off, and putting would be the area to suffer. In reality, it appears to be the opposite. Taking a player’s performance in their ‘return’ event compared with their season average that year, putting is actually the only area that remains quite consistent, with the other areas all dropping by a similar amount.

Click here to read the full article…

Four familiar names to the PGA TOUR came out of Monday Qualifying for the Valspar Championship including one former winner and a couple of veterans with some near misses. Sangmoon Bae, Brian Davis and Roberto Diaz shared honors with 6-under 66s while David Hearn came out of a 3-for-1 playoff over Steve Marino and Piri Borja. Here’s a closer look at the players who advanced out of Monday’s qualifier at Southern Hills Plantation Club. SANGMOON BAE (66) Age: 32 Hometown: Daegu, South Korea Alma mater: Sungkyunkwan University PGA TOUR starts: 136 Cuts made: 75 Best PGA TOUR finish: WIN – 2013 AT&T Byron Nelson, 2015 Safeway Open Notes: Two-time winner on the PGA TOUR who left after Presidents Cup appearance in 2015 to perform mandatory military duty … Three from 10 this season in made cuts with T35 at Farmers Insurance Open the best result … Has 13 International victories to his name across the Asian, Japan, One Asia and Korean Tours … Currently ranked 327th in the world. BRIAN DAVIS (66) Age: 44 Hometown: London, England PGA TOUR starts: 362 Cuts made: 217 Best PGA TOUR finish: 2nd – 2007 FedEx St. Jude Classic; 2008 Barracuda Championship; 2009 AT&T Byron Nelson; 2010 RBC Heritage; 2010 Charles Schwab Challenge Notes: 5-time runner up on the PGA TOUR this veteran hasn’t had a top-10 since 2015 … Two-time European Tour winner … Three starts this season with two missed cuts and a T42 at the Puerto Rico Open. ROBERTO DIAZ (66) Age: 32 Hometown: Veracruz, Mexico Alma mater: University of South Carolina Aiken PGA TOUR starts: 39 Cuts made: 15 Best PGA TOUR finish: T10, 2019 Puerto Rico Open Notes: Nine starts this season with two top 25s, one a recent top-10 in Puerto Rico, to sit 165th in the FedExCup… Finished T2 with Abraham Ancer for Mexico at last year’s ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf… Currently ranked 560th in the world. DAVID HEARN (67) Age: 39 Hometown: Brampton, Ontario, Canada Alma mater: University of Wyoming PGA TOUR starts: 258 Cuts made: 158 Best PGA TOUR finish: P2, 2013 John Deere Classic; 2015 Military Tribute at the Greenbrier. Notes: Canadian veteran has two runner-up finishes on TOUR, both playoff losses … Four made cuts from eight starts this season with a best finish of T15 at The RSM Classic to sit 164th in the FedExCup … Currently 486th in the world rankings LAST WEEK’S QUALIFIERS (Honda Classic) MDF. Drew Nesbitt, 71-71-77 MC. Erik Compton, 73-74 MC. David Pastore, 75-69 MC. Blayne Barber, 73-78 THIS SEASON’S QUALIFIERS Qualifiers: 43 Made cut: 15 Top-25: 3 Top-10s: 2 (Aaron Baddeley, T4 at Safeway Open; Corey Conners, T3 at Sony Open) Best finish: Corey Conners, T3 at Sony Open in Hawaii Most times qualified: Corey Conners (2), Aaron Baddeley (2), David Pastore (2)

Click here to read the full article…