PGA Tour Statistics
I was perusing the 2006 PGA Tour statistics and while the numbers weren’t a complete suprise, there were a few things that made me chuckle. For example, the names Watson, Holmes, Garrigus, Wetterich, Daly, Hietala, Ridings, Frazier, and Hoffman don’t conjur up much of a top-10 image except that all of the aforementioned finished in the top 10 in driving distance. Yes, Woods is in that list as well, but the talent disparity between Woods and the rest is as wide as the Grand Canyon.
Also, of that list, only Woods and Wetterich finished in the top-25 on the money list. That’s not to say that the rest of the guys didn’t make money, but being able to drive it 300-plus yards does not guarantee a paycheck. Ryan Hietala finished 244th on the money list with $87, 772. Damn good money for your average Joe, but bottom-of-the-barrel stuff on the PGA tour.
Another misleading stat is average putts per round. Remember the cliche, drive for show, putt for dough? Here’s the scoop on that: Tiger Woods finished 137th with an average of 29.38 putts per round. The top-5 were Baddeley, Gay, Chopra, Stricker, and Azinger. And where did they finish on the money list? Yeah, I thought so.
However, the stat the most mirrors the money list is scoring average. And as anyone will tell you, Woods knows how to score from almost anywhere. The technology with the wedges nowadays is such that you can spin the ball from all kinds of gnarly lies, deep rough, and places where 20 years ago, you’d be dead. That’s not to say Woods isn’t talented because he’s the most talented to play the game in many years and in fact if you gave all the players clubs and balls from 20 years ago, Tiger would still be the best player. But it ultimately is about getting the ball into the hole no matter where your drive ends up. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are examples of being able to that year in and year out.