This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
The final event of the 2015 portion of the 2015-16 PGA Tour season is the RSM Classic, formerly known as the McGladrey Classic (same sponsor, new company name). This event, by host Davis Love III, has expanded to two courses, so the field is enormous at 156 players. That'll make your fantasy picks all the more interesting. It'll also make looking at prior history a bit difficult, as the new course is the recently updated Plantation Course and doesn't have a history playing host to a PGA Tour event.
One player who has played the Plantation Course: Lucas Glover, who said he's played it 100 times.
The Headliners
As always, the Sea Island contingent leads a fairly strong field. The headliners include:
Matt Kuchar - SIT. Last week's event in Mayakoba didn't have ShotLink, but these stats in his T68 finish in Mexico are glaring: T45 in driving accuracy and 73rd in greens in regulation. Coming off a season in which he was a shocking 85th in greens in regulation, Kuchar is not recommended until both his performance and his statistics improve.
Zach Johnson - SIT. Johnson is the local boy and a favorite to play well this week, but we don't like him either. Why? He's been off since the Presidents Cup. Let's go back in history. First event of the 2014-15 season: this one, missed cut. First event of 2013-14 season? Las Vegas, and finished T16 here. In 2012, when it came at the end of the
The final event of the 2015 portion of the 2015-16 PGA Tour season is the RSM Classic, formerly known as the McGladrey Classic (same sponsor, new company name). This event, by host Davis Love III, has expanded to two courses, so the field is enormous at 156 players. That'll make your fantasy picks all the more interesting. It'll also make looking at prior history a bit difficult, as the new course is the recently updated Plantation Course and doesn't have a history playing host to a PGA Tour event.
One player who has played the Plantation Course: Lucas Glover, who said he's played it 100 times.
The Headliners
As always, the Sea Island contingent leads a fairly strong field. The headliners include:
Matt Kuchar - SIT. Last week's event in Mayakoba didn't have ShotLink, but these stats in his T68 finish in Mexico are glaring: T45 in driving accuracy and 73rd in greens in regulation. Coming off a season in which he was a shocking 85th in greens in regulation, Kuchar is not recommended until both his performance and his statistics improve.
Zach Johnson - SIT. Johnson is the local boy and a favorite to play well this week, but we don't like him either. Why? He's been off since the Presidents Cup. Let's go back in history. First event of the 2014-15 season: this one, missed cut. First event of 2013-14 season? Las Vegas, and finished T16 here. In 2012, when it came at the end of the year, T49 after a month off. So because of the rest, I don't like Zach this week. Last year he didn't even break 70, going 71-73 before bowing out.
Justin Thomas - START. Thomas, meanwhile, has the greatest feeling in golf: Freedom. His win at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia featured him hitting 76 percent of his fairways, and he now has job security, a trip down Magnolia Lane and a chance to freewheel it in the final PGA Tour event of 2015. He doesn't have a good history here, going MC-71, but then again, this is a new Justin Thomas, right? We like the vibes from the man who ranks 24th in greens in regulation and 26th in ball-striking this season. That's preciseness on courses that demand it.
Graeme McDowell - START. McDowell has the second greatest feeling in golf: Relief. His win at the OHL Classic on Monday a) renewed his PGA Tour status, b) got him into nearly all the majors and World Golf Championship event for next year and c) helped him on his path to play more in Europe in 2016 to make the European Ryder Cup team. There was no strokes gained-putting stat last week, but as pointed out on the Golf Channel broadcast by Curt Byrum, he probably would have ranked extremely high in the category. For the week, he ranked T30 in greens in regulation and fourth in putts per GIR. In a week where his driver went awry (including some out of bounds), his putter saved him.
Stats for History
The last three of the RSM Classic: Tommy Gainey, Chris Kirk, Robert Streb. What do they have in common? Well, Gainey is the outlier, not really specializing in anything en route to his victory in this event in 2012, but Kirk and Streb were both strong putters in their victory year, ranking 22nd and 24th respectively in strokes gained-putting.
This season's strokes gained-putting leaders in the field this week (Disclaimer: ShotLink, and thus this stat, were only available at three events: the Frys.com Open, Las Vegas and the Sanderson Farms Championship):
Peter Malnati - START. We covered Malnati's putting performance two weeks ago at the Sanderson Farms Championship, which puts him second in the strokes gained-putting standings at an average of 1.931 strokes gained per round. Last week, he backed up that winning performance with an impressive T10 in Mexico. Start him again this week.
Morgan Hoffmann - YOUR CALL. Hoffmann's 1.920 strokes gained on the greens come in just eight rounds, so keep that mind. He has a T11 in Vegas and T47 in Malaysia. I'm recommending you make your own call because of what we saw Sunday in Vegas, a final-round 71 that sent him going the wrong way in the field and continuing a troubling trend of having problems in crunch time.
Brandt Snedeker - START. It's still not a big sample size for Snedeker, who tied for 17th at the Frys.com Open and then missed the cut in Vegas. But he lives in the area and has putted well through his first two events, gaining 1.353 strokes per rounds on the greens. He's a nice sleeper pick this week.
Brian Stuard - SUPER SLEEPER. Here's a name you won't know but, in this funky season of anything happening, you should. Stuard is an absolute journeyman, playing 114 events over five seasons with two seconds, the last coming in the 2013-14 season. He did putt well that season, though, finishing 39th in strokes gained-putting. This season he's gaining 1.291 strokes on the greens. It's only from one event, his only start which was a T39 at Sanderson Farms. As I said, this is a total flier. But hey, it's the last event of 2015, so why not?
