This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
Welcome to the final stats preview of the 2013-14 PGA Tour season. That's right, this week's Tour Championship closes up shop on the season. In two weeks is the Ryder Cup, and the week after that will be the Frys.com Open, kicking off the 2014-2015 season. Time flies. Here's our preview for this week:
History Lesson
The defending champion is Henrik Stenson, who won by three over Steve Stricker and Jordan Spieth. Neither Stenson nor Stricker are in the field this week. In 2012, Brandt Snedeker beat Justin Rose by three, and in 2011 Bill Haas beat Hunter Mahan in a playoff. Snedeker isn't here either.
So who to pick out of that bunch? It has to be Mahan. Fifth in the standings, he won at The Barclays and controls his own destiny this week (if he wins the Tour Championship he wins the FedEx Cup). Statistically, he's third in total driving and ninth in ball striking.
Who Else?
Bill Horschel, second in the FedEx Cup standings coming to East Lake, is obviously one of the hottest golfers on the entire planet. Take his BMW Championship win, for example, where he was T2 in greens in regulation, first in strokes gained-putting and first in strokes gained-total. That is strong playing.
We also recommend someone like Bubba Watson, who is third in the FedEx Cup standings and also controls his own destiny. Yes, we recommended Bubba Watson. Bubba's had a very odd year, that included two early wins, including the Masters,
Welcome to the final stats preview of the 2013-14 PGA Tour season. That's right, this week's Tour Championship closes up shop on the season. In two weeks is the Ryder Cup, and the week after that will be the Frys.com Open, kicking off the 2014-2015 season. Time flies. Here's our preview for this week:
History Lesson
The defending champion is Henrik Stenson, who won by three over Steve Stricker and Jordan Spieth. Neither Stenson nor Stricker are in the field this week. In 2012, Brandt Snedeker beat Justin Rose by three, and in 2011 Bill Haas beat Hunter Mahan in a playoff. Snedeker isn't here either.
So who to pick out of that bunch? It has to be Mahan. Fifth in the standings, he won at The Barclays and controls his own destiny this week (if he wins the Tour Championship he wins the FedEx Cup). Statistically, he's third in total driving and ninth in ball striking.
Who Else?
Bill Horschel, second in the FedEx Cup standings coming to East Lake, is obviously one of the hottest golfers on the entire planet. Take his BMW Championship win, for example, where he was T2 in greens in regulation, first in strokes gained-putting and first in strokes gained-total. That is strong playing.
We also recommend someone like Bubba Watson, who is third in the FedEx Cup standings and also controls his own destiny. Yes, we recommended Bubba Watson. Bubba's had a very odd year, that included two early wins, including the Masters, but also has seen some extremely odd behavior. However, his play lately has greatly improved. He's finished T30-T29-2 in the first three playoff events, and the stats were impressive too: T5 in greens in regulation, first in strokes gained–tee to green and second in strokes gained-total. So we recommend taking a risk on Bubba: he just might be in the right frame of mind.
Those Who Don't, But Might
Those outside the top 5 in the FedEx Cup points standings don't control their own destiny for the title, which makes this week very much a crapshoot. Winning the Tour Championship is great, but $10 million is even better. So with that said, flier picks this week can be very interesting as golfers may be go for broke.
We recommend still going with Morgan Hoffmann, who has done the unthinkable - as
