The Newport Cup was a fun experience. This golfer came away with some good memories and a few numbers to talk about.
A bit shorter version of The Numbers Game this week as we had an eventful weekend in Pinehurst. Everyone had a great time, especially the blue team… of which I was a proud member. I thought I’d talk about a few numbers associated with the tournament and add to some of the other reports my fellow staff members have given you already.
We’ve come up with the formulas and figured out how to rate the players in Power, Accuracy, Short game and Putting. All that’s left to do is tabulate the data and see where it takes us. Will it be better than what the PGATour.com put out there? That is for you to decide.
The past couple weeks of The Numbers Game has focused on how to rate tour players in four main categories: Power, Accuracy, Short Game and Putting. Last week some formulas were developed that, in my opinion, were well suited to tell us who are the top in these categories.
Well, I’ve run the numbers and made all the calculations. I’ve also thrown in a total to find out who is are the most skilled players. Are there any surprises? Read on and find out.
Power, Accuracy, Short Game and Putting skills can be measured. While it may not be an exact science, formulas can be developed to track these and rank players. Can we trust them though?
The PGA Tour gave it a first pass, and now I’m going to give it my best shot. Last week we looked at the PGA Tour’s “Skill Ratings” for the members of the Presidents Cup team, and suffice to say I had some issues with how the numbers shook out. This week I’ll put in my two cents on how to rate thes four skills: Accuracy, Power, Short Game, and Putting.
Nothing is going to be perfect. All I’m hoping is that these might evolve over time to become reliable or at the least, believable. Oh, and also you should be able to understand exactly what they mean. Nothing vague. This should be a step up from last week.
How can you rate skills? PGATour.com tried recently but it doesn’t make sense. Power, Accuracy, Short Game and Putting can and should be measured differently.
I’m still a little disturbed. This has nothing to do with last week, but something our editor passed to me recently. Thanks Erik, I appreciate it.
It has to do with a little graph at the PGA Tour’s Presidents Cup player information website. Hopefully you will see what is wrong with it. If not, well, even if you can read my take and agree or disagree.
Twenty two percent of the best courses in the country are in the two most populated states. This doesn’t seem fair, but if you count only public courses, thing look better and even a couple surprises appear.
Lists. We love to look at them. People talk about them, but simply being on a list doesn’t verify anything as truth or fact. After all, it’s just a list.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop me from getting worked up when I see one.
Golf Digest’s list of top 100 courses has been published for a number of years now and it has always irritated me. Why? Because according to them, the top two states with the best golf courses are New York and California. Grrr…
The Presidents Cup is around the corner and judging by the experience of the US golfers and lack thereof on the International team, the US team should come away with a victory. The problem is that advantages never seem to mean anything in Ryder or Presidents Cups.
The Presidents Cup: “The Tournament That Isn’t the Ryder Cup.” I think if you looked up the definition in the dictionary, that would be it. The Presidents Cup can’t and probably won’t ever shake that stigma. Even if it does plays second fiddle, the Presidents Cup offers some great golf after most of the season has passed. In The Numbers Game this week I’ll offer some thoughts on the players and what to expect in the biggest match play tournament… not named the Ryder Cup.
The VT380 is the latest in the line of fairway metal woods from Orlimar. This version falls short of recapturing the market previous models once held.
Orlimar at one point was one of the big players in the fairway metal wood market. At courses around the world you could find their clubs in the bags of players of all handicap- and skill levels. Just like everyone else, I hit a few different Orlimar clubs when they were hot.
Since the Tri-metal line was introduced in the late 90s, Orlimar has not enjoyed much success. The struggling company has introduced the VT830 to help recapture that success and hopefully get themselves back into the game.
The same rules apply to this amateur golfer that does the players on tour: Greens and Putting.
Comparing the professional golfer to the amateur golfer is not an easy thing. Not only do we (amateurs) for the most part play on shorter and easier courses, we do not have the stress of competing in front of thousands of people in person and millions more on TV. Also, amateurs do not have to make a living and survive by hitting that damn white ball into what seems to be a shrinking hole.
So what does this have to do with numbers? Well, I thought it would be interesting to see if my stats correlated in the same way the pros did. The results were interesting.
A players are looking to breakout and have a strong finish to the 2005 year. Here are a couple may surprise you.
Now that the majors are done with a lot of the focus now is on the second-tier players to finish strong, secure cards, and possibly make a name for themselves. For these reasons, most of these tournaments in the next couple months will be quite important for guys you probably have not have heard of. This week, I want to look a bit closer at a couple players that I believe are on their way up and going to have some success.