|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Players • Tournaments • Stats • Live Scoring • TV Times
Video • My Game • Shop • Fantasy • TOURCast • TOUR Business • More • CBS SportsLine |
|
|
Editor's Note: With a game ruled by numbers, it's time to have a way to break down what all those numbers really mean. With that in mind, we introduce By The Numbers, a blog where you can find stats-driven stories on anything and everything from ShotLink data to the different rankings to how equipment changes factor into a player's success to, well, any and every shot taken on TOUR. Who to watch -- 2006 Deutsche Bank Championship By Mike Vitti The Deutsche Bank Championship is being held this week at TPC Boston, a 7,415-yard, par-71 layout. Olin Browne took last year's title by using accurate ball striking - finishing fourth in both proximity to the hole and greens in regulation as well as ranking 18th in driving accuracy. In fact, all three champions of this event played well from tee to green, and this year's event should not be any different. At the end of the week, the winner will probably rank high in two of the three areas that make up the TOUR's ball striking statistic - driving distance, driving accuracy and greens in regulation. Beyond the basics, look for the successful players to excel in proximity to the hole from the fairway, going for it percentage and par-4 scoring. The going for it statistic could be particularly interesting as the 18th hole at the TPC Boston is a 543-yard par 5, and the field recorded 25 eagles on this hole in last year's event - four of which were in the final round. So which players head into the event with the best combination of the previously mentioned statistics?
Tiger Woods, of course, heads the list as he ranks in the top 5 in two of the ball-striking categories and is first in going for it percentage, fairway proximity and par-4 scoring. Others who excel in those stat areas are former champions Vijay Singh and Adam Scott, rookie Charley Hoffman, Australian Robert Allenby and big-hitter Scott Gutschewski. Tiger Woods' PGA TOUR Statistics, 1996 - 2006 By Mike Vitti Sunday marked the 10-year anniversary of the day Tiger Woods turned pro. Woods has clearly been the most dominant player on the PGA TOUR over his first decade and it will be exciting to see how the next 10 years unfold. If we only had ShotLink available at the beginning of his career, it would have been a very interesting study to compare the Woods of 1996 to the Woods of 2006. However, we didn't so the best we can do is look at the basic statistics that were tracked over those 10 years to see how his game has changed. Off the Tee: Since arriving on TOUR Woods driving distance average has remained pretty constant. In 1997, his first full season on TOUR, he ranked second in driving distance at roughly 295 yards. He now ranks fourth in driving distance averaging about 303 yards off the tee, which is essentially a 3-percent increase over the last 10 years. Early in his career Woods driving accuracy was around the TOUR average, but over the last few seasons it has dropped and is now about 10 percent lower than when he started on TOUR. Approach: This is really where ShotLink data would have been interesting. Rather than only being able to look at his greens in regulation, which except for 2004 and 2005, has remained in the 70- to 75-percent range, we could have seen how his game has changed from different distances and just how accurate he was in the spectacular 2000 and 2001 seasons compared to another standout 2006 campaign. Around and on the Green: Woods has finished in the top 15 in scrambling six times in 10 years -- leading the TOUR in 2001 and 2002 as he converted almost 70 percent of his attempts. Woods has ranked in the top 10 in putting four times, but he has also finished outside the top 100 twice. Before Woods started his current four-event win streak, he was ranked 97th in scrambling and 116th in putting average. Now he is 26th and 61st, respectively, in those two categories. Check back in October when he will probably be in the top-20 in both areas.
Olin Browne's Keys To Victory At The 2005 Deutsche Bank Championship By Mike Vitti Ranking 15th in greens in regulation and fourth in driving accuracy in 2005, Browne had an excellent year in the ball striking categories -- topped by a victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship. •Finishing 18th in driving accuracy at the TPC of Boston, Browne hit 69.6 percent of the fairways and took advantage of his play from the tee ranking fourth in proximity to the hole from the fairway. •Bolstered by an 82 percent greens in regulation rate on approaches from the fairway, Browne tied for fourth in overall greens in regulation. •On approach shots over 200 yards, Browne ranked tied for 105th in 2005 with an average PTH of just over 42 feet. However in Boston, he was second in the field from this distance, averaging over 15 feet closer to the pin -- a big reason his average score on par-3s was 2.88. •Averaging 28 putts per round, Browne was tied for 17th in putts per round and finished tied for fourth in putting average with an average of 1.630 putts per round. •For the week, Browne only missed three putts between 5 and 10 feet going 15 for 18 from this distance. •Browne was fifth in average distance of putts made per round, and his average of 101feet, 7 inches was about 22 feet higher than his 2005 average. •Converting 38.9 percent of his attempts, Browne ranked fifth in birdie or better conversion rate. •Browne led the field in scoring on the back nine finishing 12 under for the week on the backside. •Averaging 3.84 on par-4s, Browne led the field in par-4 scoring and was tied for third in par-3 scoring at 2.88 -- not unexpected results considering Browne ranked tied for sixth and tied for 16th, respectively, in 2005.
Tiger Woods' Keys To Victory At the 2006 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational By Mike Vitti Tiger Woods' successful defense of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational title was his fifth win at the event. A closer look at the ShotLink data shows the similarities and differences in his performances at Firestone over the last two years. Off the Tee • Rankings in driving accuracy statistics were similar in both years with Woods finishing tied for 37th in 2005 and tied for 32nd in 2006. In both years his misses were very similar as he only missed to the left side 14.0 percent of the time in 2005 and 16.1 percent in 2006. Approach to the Green • Averaging 26 feet, 11 inches on approach in 2005, Woods ranked first in proximity to the hole last year, while this year he was fourth averaging 27 feet, 8 inches. Both years Woods finished fourth in proximity to the hole from the rough. • Woods attempted to reach Firestone Country Club's par-5 holes in two 37.5 percent of the time both years, but in 2006 he was successful in hitting the green twice as many times as he was in 2005. On and Around the Green • Both years Woods ranked outside the top 10 in putting average and putts per round, and had a three-putt avoidance rate of 1.4 percent. However, both years he did rank inside the top 10 on percentage of putts made from 15 to 20 feet. • Woods average distance of putts made per round was tied for 23rd in the field in each year. Scoring • There was a significant difference on the par-4 holes as in 2006 Woods tied for first in par-4 birdie percentage and scoring average, but in 2005 was tied for third and tied for 21st in the respective categories.
Johnson leading two major statistical categories at Firestone By Elias Sports Bureau, Inc. Zach Johnson currently leads in two important statistical categories after three rounds of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Johnson is first in Driving Accuracy with 32 of 42 drives in the fairway and he leads all golfers in Greens in Regulation with 42 out of 54. With all of that going for him this week, Johnson must be wondering why his name is not near the top of the leaderboard. You'd think it must be his putting, but Johnson has yet to three-putt. The problem is he's tied for last with only 13 one putts. In 2006, six golfers have finished atop both Driving Accuracy and Greens in Regulation during a TOUR event. Of those six golfers, four finished in the top 10 and one went on to victory. 2006 Tournament leaders in Both FIR and GIR: Scott
shoots lowest score in 13 rounds at Firestone By Elias Sports Bureau, Inc. • Adam Scott shot 63 during the opening round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. It was Scott's lowest score in 13 rounds at Firestone and his best tee-to-green. Scott hit 93 percent of his fairways in regulation and 89 percent of his greens. Scott's previous best for fairways hit at the Bridgestone Invitational was in round one in 2003 when he found the short grass off the tee 71 percent of the time. Scott's best days for finding the green at the Bridgestone prior to today's round came during last year's opening round, when he hit the putting surface 72 percent of the time. • Tiger Woods birdied the par-5 second hole in Thursday's opening round of the Bridgestone Invitational. It was the 19th birdie or better recorded by Woods on the second hole at Firestone in 25 times playing the hole. That ties him with Padraig Harrington for the most scores under-par on the second hole at Firestone. Harrington has also played the second hole 25 times. Tiger Woods' Keys To Victory At the 2005 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational By Mike Vitti • Hitting 71.4 percent of his drives over 300 yards, Woods averaged 317 yards on all drives. • At 66.7 percent, Woods finished second in the field in greens in regulation and led the field in proximity to the hole with an average distance of 26 feet, 9 inches -- almost 8 feet closer than the field average. • Eight of Woods' 24 approach shots that missed the green ended on the fringe, and he successfully converted on all eight attempts. In his six victories in 2005, Woods finished in the top-4 in Average Driving Distance for the event
Woods' win at Firestone was the only event he won last season where he did not rank at least eighth in putting average
• Last year at Firestone, Woods made six par saving putts measuring at least six feet, and the par saver on the 11th Hole in Round 3 measured 25 feet, 10 inches. • Woods only recorded one three-putt for the week.
Jack vs. Tiger By Mike Vitti With Tiger Woods recording his 12th major victory there is the renewed debate of who is the best ever, Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods. I am not here to choose sides, but rather to fuel the debate by providing a bit of objective data. The tables below show both Woods' and Nicklaus' tournament finishes through what is approximately their first 10 seasons as professional golfers. Over their first 10 seasons, both players finished either first or second 71 times and finished in the top 5 in approximately 55 percent of their starts. However, Woods won 13 more events than Nicklaus while competing in 28 fewer events. The numbers at their first 40 majors are also similar. Woods holds the edge in victories and cuts made, while Nicklaus had four more top-5 finishes through his first 40 majors as a professional. One very impressive statistic for both players is the number of rounds in the 60s. Nicklaus posted 46 rounds in the 60s, about 30 percent of his rounds, while Woods posted an amazing 62 rounds in the 60s at the majors - 39 percent of the major rounds he has played.
Captain Lehman's picks By Mike Vitti Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman made his Captain's Picks today -- Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank -- and I have to say, based on the composition of the 10 players who were already on the team, he made the right choices. Additionally, I was very pleased to hear that he gave serious consideration to Steve Stricker who, although outside of the top 20 in the standings, would have also made an excellent addition to this year's squad. My view has nothing to do with the prior international team experience of the two players selected, but rather with information provided by ShotLink. From Lehman's responses to the questions posed during his press conference Monday, it appears that he considered other factors beyond prior experience in making his final selections for this year's team. Before he revealed his two picks, Lehman described how he was looking for straight hitters, scramblers and putters to complement the awesome firepower and scoring potential of the 10 players who had already qualified. Why would Lehman say this? We'll take a look at the 2006 rankings in driving accuracy, scrambling and a few putting statistics of the 10 automatic qualifiers.
This year's team is loaded with long hitters, but six of the players are 84th or higher in driving accuracy, while only two players rank in the top 25. The rankings for scrambling are similar to those in driving accuracy with only one player in the top 10 and five of the players ranking 111th or higher. Putting is a bit more detailed and therefore not as straightforward to analyze as the first two stats. Putting average is the stat most people relate to putting, but I think that particular stat is too dependent on approach shot performance to provide a clear picture of putting performance. So in looking for insight on what Lehman might have been analyzing, I found three other putting statistics -- one-putt percentage, three-putt avoidance and putts made over 10 feet per round -- where some additional support would be of great benefit at this year's matches. Don't think Lehman may have taken these factors into consideration? Well, look at the comparable statistics for the two Captain's Picks and one of the players who was on the short list:
It looks like Lehman was pretty accurate in selecting players who fit the profiles that he was seeking to round out this year's squad. Now, I am not saying that Lehman is to golf what the Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane is to baseball. However, it does appear that the captain made his final selections based on a combination of experience and the available statistics to assemble a team that will give the United States a solid chance of winning the 2006 Ryder Cup. By Elias Sports Bureau, Inc. Tiger Woods is now 12 for 12 in majors when leading or tied for the lead heading into the final round of play. One reason for his success can be found on the front nine, where Tiger seems to always distance himself from his closest competition. Counting Sunday's sterling 4-under-par 32 on the front nine, Woods has played the first nine holes at or below par in 11 of his 12 major victories. The cumulative scoring by Woods on the front-9 in these 12 tournaments is 13-under par. • Meanwhile, counting Sunday's action, players either tied with Woods or in second place heading into the final round in those same majors have played the front nine in par or below in only six of the 12 events. The cumulative scoring for these players on the first nine holes is 4-over par. • Adam Scott recorded seven birdies during the final round of the 2006 PGA Championship. The seven birdies in a round at a major is a career-high for Scott. Scott's previous best was six birdies, recorded in both rounds one and four of last month's British Open at Royal Liverpool. • For the tournament, Scott recorded 22 holes under par, a career-best for the 23 majors Scott has competed in. His total for this past week at Medinah eclipsed his previous best of 21 holes under par, also at this year's British Open. By Elias Sports Bureau, Inc. • In what should be a fabulous final round Sunday at Medinah at the PGA Championship, three former winners of the PGA stand in the top ten on the leader board. This is the second consecutive year where three former winners of the PGA stood in the top ten of the leader board heading into the final round of play. Last year Davis Love III, Steve Elkington and Vijay Singh were all in position for another PGA Championship. Prior to last year, you have to go back to 1987 to find that many former champions in the top ten heading into the final round. That year, Raymond Floyd, Lanny Wadkins and Larry Nelson all stood in the top ten while chasing Mark McCumber and D.A. Weibring. Nelson ended up defeating Wadkins in a playoff for his second PGA Championship The most former winners in the top ten heading into the final round of a PGA Championship is five, and occurred in 1976 at Congressional. That year Jack Nicklaus, Don January, Dave Stockton, Gary Player and Raymond Floyd all stood in the top ten chasing Charles Coody. Stockton ended beating both Floyd and January by a stroke for the victory while Coody struggled in that final round shooting 77. • Tiger Woods has recorded only two bogeys through the first 54 holes of the 2006 PGA Championship. For Woods, this ties a career low in holes-over-par through the first 54 holes of a major. At the 2000 British Open at St. Andrews, Woods also recorded only two holes over-par through 54 holes. Woods ended up winning that event by eight strokes. This is the fewest number of holes over-par through 54-holes at the PGA Championship since 1999, when Sergio Garcia also recorded only two holes over-par after 3 rounds of play. By Elias Sports Bureau, Inc. The cutline at the 2006 PGA Championship stands at even par. That ties the lowest cutline ever recorded at the PGA Championship. In 1995 at Riviera, the cut-line also stood at even par. • The 2006 PGA Championship and last month's British Open at Royal Liverpool both had cutlines at, or below, par. This is the first recorded time that two major championships in the same season had cut-lines at, or below, par. • In fact, it's just the fifth recorded time that any major championship had cutline at, or below, par. The others were the 1995 PGA Championship (even par) and along with this year's British Open, the 1991 and 1992 British Opens (both at 1-under par). • Much was made in the lead up to the 2006 PGA Championship of how Phil Mickelson would hit his driver. After 36 holes, though, it's the par-3 holes that have given Lefty the most trouble. Through the first two rounds at Medinah, Mickelson is playing the par-3 holes to a cumulative score of 4-over par. In only one other major, way back at the 1993 Masters, has Mickelson played the par-3 holes to a higher cumulative score through the first 36 holes. That year Mickelson played the par 3's to a score of 5-over par after two days of action. By Elias Sports Bureau, Inc. • Billy Andrade shot a 5-under-par 67 and stands in third place after the opening round of the 2006 PGA Championship. Could this be the year Andrade captures a major title? Just making the cut has been a challenge for him in the majors. Andrade has played in 41 previous major championships as a professional and missed the cut in 22 of them. That rate of 54 percent of cuts missed is the second highest for players that have participated in at least 40 majors. Only Mark Brooks at 57 percent is higher (33 missed cuts in 58 majors). • The 6-under-par shot by Davis Love III on the front nine during the opening round of the 2006 PGA Championship ties the lowest score-to-par shot by a player on the front-9 in the opening round of a major championship over the past 10 seasons. The only other occurrence came at the 2005 British Open, where Steve Webster also carded an opening front nine 6-under-par. Webster, though, went on to shoot a 41 on the back nine for a round of 71. • Billy Mayfair is off to a solid start on the challenging 7,561-yard layout at this year's PGA Championship, even though he is not known as one of the PGA TOUR's long hitters off the tee. In fact, since the start of the 1996 season, Mayfair has played in 46 official PGA TOUR stroke-play events held on courses 7,300 yards-or-more without a victory, more than any other golfer. PGA's featured pairing -- Tiger vs. Phil By Mike Vitti Tomorrow's featured pairing at the PGA Championship has all three of the 2006 major championship winners playing together in the first two rounds. Since the pairings were announced I have received requests (mostly from the editors) to try and identify when Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have been paired together during the ShotLink era. Well digging through the data, I have found five rounds where Woods and Mickelson have been in the same grouping at an event. Three of the four were in final rounds at the 2002 TOUR Championship, the 2003 Buick Invitational, and the 2005 Ford Championship at Doral. The other two were the first round of the 2002 TOUR Championship and this year in the third round again at Doral. The table below breaks down how they performed over those five rounds, and while it is a very small data set, the results are still interesting. Woods has the overall edge in scoring playing the 90 holes at an aggregate of 13 under versus 4 under for Mickelson. Playing the 27.8 percent of the holes below par, Woods has made 10 more birdies than Mickelson and has recorded the only eagle. Mickelson has recorded fewer holes over par and has not made worse than a bogey on any hole, whereas Woods has recorded three double bogies during the four rounds. So where is Woods gaining the advantage? Off the tee he has averaged about 9 yards more off the tee than Mickelson, but on the par-4s the distance of their approaches have been almost identical. Both players have hit about the same number of greens in regulation over the 90 holes (65 for Woods vs. 67 for Mickelson), but the big difference is in proximity to the hole where Woods is only averaging about 5 feet closer to the hole on his approach shots than Mickelson. Around the greens the totals are very similar with Mickelson edging Woods by converting two additional scrambling attempts. The real difference has probably been on the greens. Although neither has recorded a three-putt, Woods has converted 37.3 percent of his birdie opportunities for a putting average of 1.687 versus 21.5 percent and 1.846 in the same areas for Mickelson. Overall the biggest difference between the two players may be as simple as the number of putts made. Woods has required seven less putts than Mickelson over the course of the five rounds and with only nine shots separating the two players this is a significant difference.
Who to watch -- 2006 PGA Championship By Mike Vitti Heading into the final major of the season, there are a couple different subplots that accompany the 2006 PGA Championship. Can Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods or Geoff Ogilvy claim a second major in 2006? Who will secure a place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team? Who will position themselves well for the two Captain's Picks? Can Tom Lehman make his own team? The answers to these questions will be provided by the stern test that is Medinah Country Club but, heading into the event, who might have an edge? Looking at the layout of Medinah it is obvious that excellent ball-striking skills will be needed to succeed on this course. At 7,561 yards, length is obviously a factor, but it may be tamed either off the tee or on approach. Scrambling and putting is always a factor, but ultimately it comes down to who is playing well and who is scoring. Taking all of this into account, I used the following ShotLink statistics to attempt to identify who might have the right combination to challenge for the 2006 Wanamaker Trophy.
• Adjusted Scoring Average In addition to these statistics I also used the newly developed Heat Index as a weighting factor to adjust the order of the players. I am sure that you can guess who sits at the top of the list of players that could have the best chance to win at Medinah, but all of the players ranked in the top eight in the world are on this list and any one of them could walk away with this title. Outside of the top 10, I think Steve Stricker (seventh in scoring, fifth in scrambling), John Senden (fourth in ball striking, 25th in scoring average, 47th in percentage of drives over 300 yards), or Carl Pettersson (25th in putts per round, 26th in scrambling) could do well. Medinah also appears to be the type of course that Kenny Perry, the TOUR leader in ball striking, should excel on as he has both the length and accuracy required to be successful.
ShotLink Staff: We Salute You Thanks to the ShotLink volunteers at Castle Pines Golf Club, we know that there have been 13 drives of at least 400 yards so far at The INTERNATIONAL, Tom Lehman is leading the event in proximity to the hole with an average of 21 feet, 6 inches; and David Toms sank putts of a combined total of 170 feet, 11 inches in the first round. To learn more about how these stats are gathered, check out this article by PGATOUR.com staffer Lauren Deason. Read It Here Drives flying far at The INTERNATIONAL By Mike Vitti The thin air at Castle Pines Golf Club is allowing players to reach distances from the tee that they are not used to reaching at the other TOUR stops that are much closer to sea level. In the first round, the field driving distance average was 310.6 yards -- that is 21.8 yards higher than the 2006 PGA TOUR average of 288.8 yards. However, as average driving distance only looks at two holes, a better statistic to look at this week is percentage of drives that travel at least 300 yards. In the first round at The INTERNATIONAL, 48.5 percent of the drives attempted covered distances of at least 300 yards, but for the season that average was only 20.1 percent. Big hitters Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes are the leaders in percentage of 300 yard drives, but they only gain a marginal increase in drives over 300 yards -- about one or two per round. Other players, such as first-round leader Mathias Gronberg, are seeing a greater number of their tee shots travel over 300 yards. Gronberg saw nine of his 14 drives in the first round travel in excess of 300 yards which gave him an average of about 64 percent. That's about five drives more than his season average of around 29 percent. Even with this significant increase, Gronberg did not experience the greatest difference in drives over 300 yards. That distinction went to Kevin Sutherland. This season Sutherland has averaged about three drives of 300 yards or more per round; however in the first round of the INTERNATIONAL, 11 of his 14 drives covered a distance of at least 300 yards.
Who to watch at The INTERNATIONAL With its unique Modified Stableford Scoring system, The INTERNATIONAL rewards risk taking and players that can go low at a tournament. That description alone should bring Phil Mickelson to the top of the list of players in the field who should be considered favorites heading into the event, and the ShotLink data backs up his case as the favorite as well. Looking at the statistics this week, I identified four that are currently tracked and will definitely help in ranking the favorites this week. The four selected were par breaker percentage, birdie or better conversion percentage, holes per eagle, and bounce back percentage. All for statistics relate directly to scoring, but there is a problem with these stats. All of these statistics, except for bounce back percentage, only help to identify the players that make a high number of birdies per round, but they do not identify the players that might lose points based on the number of over par scores recorded. To remedy this issue, I calculated an additional statistic - the Under Par Over Par Ratio. The under par over par ratio or UPOPR (has more of a Sabermetric ring that way) is simply the total number of under par scores recorded by a player divided by the total number of over par scores. So a player with a high UPOPR makes more birdies than bogeys while lower ratios mean the reverse. At the top of this list with an UPOPR of 1.89 was Tiger Woods. Woods was followed by Jim Furyk (1.77), Steve Stricker (1.70), and Phil Mickelson (1.70).
After going through the exercise of creating the stat, Mickelson still remains the favorite as he ranked in the top of most scoring categories on TOUR and he has the highest UPOPR score of anyone in the field. Following Mickelson on the who to watch for list is David Toms (5th in par breaker percentage), defending champion Retief Goosen (7th in bounce back percentage), Camilo Villegas (10th in par breaker percentage), Daniel Chopra (3rd in birdie or better conversion percentage), and Jonathan Byrd (T-6th in par breaker percentage)
What if the Modified Stableford System was the normal way to score an event? By Mike Vitti This week the PGA TOUR is at Castle Pines Golf Club to compete in perhaps the most unique event on the regular season schedule - The INTERNATIONAL. At this event, the goal is to score as high as possible, not the high scores that most amateurs are used to seeing. The INTERNATIONAL uses a modified Stableford scoring system to score its event. Simply put players get points for birdies and eagles and lose points for bogies and the dreaded "others". Scores are awarded based on the following scale: Score Points Double eagle 8 Eagle 5 Birdie 2 Par 0 Bogey -1 Others -3 Now have you ever wondered what it would be like if this system was used at all of the events? Would the winners of each event remain the same? What would have been the highest score posted by a winner? What would have been the lowest? Well being a curious individual I have wondered this as well, and what I found was quite interesting. Using the modified Stableford scoring system in place at the INTERNATIONAL, the highest score at an event this season would have been posted by Phil Mickelson at the BellSouth Classic. Under the Stableford system Mickelson would have racked up 64 total points. Mickelson's total would have been seven points higher than the second highest total posted by Chad Campbell the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. However, Campbell's total would have been earned during five rounds of play versus only four for Mickelson. Mickelson's total at the BellSouth would also have been over 10 times higher than the winner's total of six points at the U.S. Open -- obviously the lowest scoring event in this system. In fact, Mickelson's total in Atlanta would have been over twice the combined total of 29 points earned by the 11 players that would have managed to post positive point totals at the U.S. Open. Using the modified Stableford system on TOUR, the results of 10 events contested this season would have been different - including two of the three completed majors. All four events this year that were decided by a playoff - the Mercedes Championships, the Buick Invitational, the Wachovia Championship, and the Bank of America Colonial - would have been affected if the points system was used to identify the winner. The Honda Classic, won this season by Luke Donald, would have required extra holes to identify the winner, but Donald would have not been involved. Geoff Ogilvy and David Toms would have been the two competitors in that particular playoff scenario. The biggest impact may have been at the majors where Steve Sticker would be the U.S. Open champion, winning by two points over a group of players that included actual champion Geoff Ogilvy. The Masters would also have been affected with Phil Mickelson finishing second to two-time Masters' champion Jose Maria Olazabal.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||