01
May

Perspectives on the Wells Fargo Championship

Thomas Hawley 0 comment

I love this place!

Entrants ranked on history in the event. The value reflects the player’s success and number of years competed within the last eight years, weighted in favor of more recent seasons. A value of 1.000 would mean the player appeared every year and won every time. A value of about .715 puts the player in the top 1 percent of all players who have played the event at least once in the last eight seasons, a value of .335 puts a player in the top 10 percent.

Player History
Rory McIlroy 0.830
Patrick Reed 0.793
Keith Mitchell 0.627
Joel Dahmen 0.625
Pat Perez 0.589
Brian Harman 0.585
Paul Casey 0.560
Luke List 0.503

Top of the heap

The top eight players (per the Hawley Ratings) among this event’s entries.

Player Rank Rating
Rory McIlroy 8 1208.1
Corey Conners 15 1029.5
Paul Casey 16 1026.7
Matthew Fitzpatrick 18 950.5
Cameron Young 20 942.9
Russell Henley 21 937.5
Tyrrell Hatton 22 931.0
Seamus Power 31 814.1

Sorry, can’t make it

The top four players (per the Hawley Ratings) who are not playing this event.

Player Rank Rating
Jon Rahm 1 1542.7
Patrick Cantlay 2 1398.4
Justin Thomas 3 1358.1
Scottie Scheffler 4 1314.5

Ooh, that’s hot

Players are ranked by performance in their last four appearances in comparison with their current Hawley Rating.

Player Upward change
Matthew NeSmith 1708.6
Brendan Steele 1396.6
Matt Kuchar 1368.2
Anirban Lahiri 1339.8
Corey Conners 1305.6
Troy Merritt 921.5
David Lipsky 804.3
Matthew Fitzpatrick 683.2

Brr, that’s cold

Players are ranked by performance in their last four appearances in comparison with their current Hawley Rating.

Player Downward change
Keegan Bradley -742.7
Matthew Wolff -531.4
Charley Hoffman -469.8
Webb Simpson -419.8
Abraham Ancer -404.3
Pat Perez -363.9
Russell Knox -358.6
Lanto Griffin -333.9

Certain skills required

Among a set of 10 PGA Tour and DP World Tour statistics that reflect physical characteristics of the course, this table shows the four that have the highest unique correlation with player performance. Events on this course (TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm) within the last eight years are considered, and the minimum is 80 player appearances. In mathematical terms, the number shown is the partial correlation coefficient.

Stat value Statistic
0.40 Driving accuracy
0.31 Shots gained in approach
0.13 Shots gained off the tee
0.07 Shots gained putting

Location, location, location

Event entrants ranked by predicted score per 18 holes based solely on “course fit” — i.e. based on the player’s current percentile standing in each of the four statistics shown above.

Course fit Player
Chez Reavie 69.18
Corey Conners 69.26
Abraham Ancer 69.30
Ryan Armour 69.42
Brian Stuard 69.51
Russell Henley 69.54
Hayden Buckley 69.64
Russell Knox 69.81

Anyplace but here

Event entrants ranked by worst predicted score per 18 holes based solely on “course fit” — i.e. the player’s current percentile standing in each of the four statistics shown above.

Course fit Player
Martin Trainer 73.3
Kevin Chappell 73.1
Peter Uihlein 72.9
Seung-yul Noh 72.8
Jim Knous 72.8
Brandon Hagy 72.7
Jonas Blixt 72.6
Jared Wolfe 72.5

Staying close to home

Exempt entrants ranked by miles between their listed residence as of January 2022 and the event venue.

Player Residence Distance
Marc Leishman Virginia Beach VA 175
Brandon Wu Scarsdale NY 225
Ryan Blaum Raleigh NC 225
Cameron Percy Raleigh NC 225
Chesson Hadley Raleigh NC 225
Ben Kohles Cary NC 250
Alex Smalley Greensboro NC 250
Justin Lower Uniontown OH 250

Mathematically speaking

The following table shows the correlations between player ranking in the above tables and their actual finish positions. In other words, to what extent does the ordering of players in the table correspond to the order of finish.

Statistic Correlation to results
Top of the heap 0.272
Ooh, that’s hot 0.169
I love this place 0.166
Location, location, location 0.118
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