16
Jan

A look at the American Express

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
Adam Hadwin 0.653
Brian Harman 0.645
Brendan Steele 0.513
Andrew Putnam 0.472
Lucas Glover 0.460
Sungjae Im 0.449
Jon Rahm 0.409
John Huh 0.380

Top of the heap

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

Player Rank Rating
Patrick Cantlay 1 1901.4
Jon Rahm 3 1715.8
Scottie Scheffler 4 1567.7
Xander Schauffele 5 1563.5
Will Zalatoris 8 1422.1
Taylor Montgomery 11 1256.5
Sungjae Im 13 1215.6
Tom Kim 14 1213.1

Sorry, can’t make it

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

Player Rank Rating
Rory McIlroy 2 1794.2
Dustin Johnson 6 1540.4
Cameron Smith 7 1509.9
Justin Thomas 9 1371.7

Ooh, that’s hot

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

Player Upward change
Joel Dahmen 1515.9
Ben Taylor 1204.3
Alex Smalley 1051.9
Rickie Fowler 996.4
Patrick Rodgers 994.9
Wyndham Clark 968.2
David Lipsky 954.4
Will Gordon 840.3

Brr, that’s cold

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

Player Downward change
Tom Kim -728.5
Sam Burns -633.8
Sungjae Im -629.7
Erik van Rooyen -465.4
Taylor Pendrith -439.5
Mark Hubbard -418.9
Keith Mitchell -413.9
Jhonattan Vegas -401.3

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 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
0.16 Scrambling
0.13 Driving distance
0.09 Driving accuracy
0.05 Greens in regulation

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
Tom Kim 69.60
Sungjae Im 70.09
Jon Rahm 70.11
Kevin Yu 70.14
Patrick Cantlay 70.14
Taylor Montgomery 70.15
Keith Mitchell 70.16
Will Gordon 70.18

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
Anders Albertson 72.0
Kyle Stanley 71.7
Gunner Wiebe 71.7
Ryan Brehm 71.6
Jimmy Walker 71.5
Trevor Werbylo 71.5
Richy Werenski 71.4
Garrick Higgo 71.3

Staying close to home

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

Player Residence Distance
Sahith Theegala Chino Hills CA 75
Brendan Steele Irvine CA 100
Patrick Cantlay Long Beach CA 100
Justin Suh Los Angeles CA 125
Scott Piercy Las Vegas NV 175
Nick Watney Las Vegas NV 175
Harry Hall Las Vegas NV 175
Xander Schauffele Las Vegas NV 175
Joseph Bramlett Las Vegas NV 175
Doug Ghim Las Vegas NV 175
Charley Hoffman Las Vegas NV 175
David Lipsky Las Vegas NV 175
Taylor Montgomery Las Vegas NV 175

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 0.364
I love this place 0.164
Ooh, that’s hot 0.142
Location, location, location 0.024
Patrick Cantlay
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