{"id":1254,"date":"2006-03-23T11:03:44","date_gmt":"2006-03-23T16:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/uncategorized\/masters_numbers\/"},"modified":"2006-03-23T11:03:44","modified_gmt":"2006-03-23T16:03:44","slug":"masters_numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/the_numbers_game\/masters_numbers","title":{"rendered":"Masters Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheIt’s that time of year again. The Masters is right around the corner and it is never too early to start talking about the greatest golf tournament in the world.<\/p>\n

This week in The Numbers Game<\/em>, I’m going to share a few numbers from Augusta National, The Masters, and all that it entails. See if you can guess what these numbers mean: 7,445, 73.97, 74, and 32.13. The first two are easy. The second two may test your brain a little. Read on for the answers…
\n
\n7,445<\/strong>
\nThe easiest number on the list, 7,445 represents the length, in yards, of the “new” new Augusta National. The recent 155-yard addition places Augusta second only to Whistling Straits’ 7,514 yards for longest courses to host a major championship. For the longest time, the course played at 7,015 yards. Now you can’t even see most of those tees anymore. as they have been permanently removed. In 2002 it was lenghtened to 7,300 yards. The question is, did it have the effect Hootie and the Blowfi… er, old guard at Augusta thought it would. That leads to…<\/p>\n

73.97<\/strong>
\nThe scoring average for the last 4 years since the course changes in 2002. It seems a bit high. So how does it compare to the other four-year periods leading up to it? Pretty well:<\/p>\n

Years         Average\n2002-2005     73.97\n1998-2001     73.62\n1994-1997     73.71<\/pre>\n
The lengthening really didn’t change the scoring much at all. What I’m curious to see is what this year’s changes brings to scoring. Not only has there been 155 yards added but a slew of other changes including the addition of more trees. The players haven’t been thrilled. The scoring might take their enthusiasm to an all-time low.<\/p>\n
74<\/strong>
\nSince 1990, The winner shot this score in the first round three times: José Maria Olazabal in 1994, Mark O’Meara in 1998, and Tiger Woods last year. You would think that the winner would usually get off to a good start but the average first-round score is 1.6 shots worse than any other round. Here are the numbers.<\/p>\n
Round     Average\n1         70.9\n2         67.7\n3         68.8\n4         69.3<\/pre>\n
Only three winners in the past 16 years have shot under 70 in the opening round… but only three of those 16 shot above 70 in the next round. I guess if your favorite player or fantasy player has a less than stellar opening round, they can always bounce back like most of the previous Masters winners.<\/p>\n
32.13<\/strong>
\nThe average place in putting average (PA) for the Masters winners since 1990… you knew I was going there. One thing to note is that I extrapolated the finishing position for foreign players that did not play in enough rounds to officially place in any of the statistical categories. I had to at least see if our stat categories fell in the same fashion for the Masters as they did in other research. Without further delay:<\/p>\n
Category              Average\nPutting Average       32.13\nPutts per Round       57.69\nGreens in Regulation  65.19\nDriving Distance      72.81\nDriving Average       104.75<\/pre>\n
While greens in regulation has shown a stronger correlation to winning (it’s the “40” in the 40-30-20-10 Rule<\/a>, there’s such a premium on putting at The Masters that a little switcheroo occurs. In fact, GIR is nearly eclipsed by DD. Of course if we remove Tiger’s stats from these categories, the driving distance average drops off, but even Mr. Woods couldn’t manage to push DD ahead of putting or GIR. DA once again finds itself at the bottom of the list.<\/p>\n
Thoughts<\/strong>
\nThe line of thinking to take away, to me anyway, is that putting is a crucial factor at Augusta. I can hear a few ‘Duh’ remarks, but all research before pointed towards GIR but Augusta is a bit different in that respect. The old boys at Augusta can’t make the greens any faster, so they are making it longer and tighter. Heck, if they wanted to speed the greens up there might not be any commentators left. You’d have a silent broadcast with no commercials… now there’s a thought. Too bad that wouldn’t happen to the NBC booth.<\/p>\n
My feeling is that everyone will be talking about the length and changes to Augusta like I am now. What I hope to remember and not get lost in that talk is the fact that the premium skill is not off the tee or from the fairway or from the rough. It is on the majestic greens of Augusta that the champions are decided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Masters is right around the corner. Here’s a little warmup for some numbers to watch while you watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the_numbers_game"],"yoast_head":"\nMasters Numbers (The Numbers Game) - The Sand Trap .com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesandtrap.com\/b\/the_numbers_game\/masters_numbers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Masters Numbers (The Numbers Game) - The Sand Trap .com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Masters is right around the corner. 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