27
Mar

A look at the Valero Texas Open

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
Matt Kuchar 0.750
Si Woo Kim 0.590
Corey Conners 0.578
Lucas Glover 0.570
Martin Laird 0.566
Aaron Baddeley 0.563
Chris Kirk 0.561
Charley Hoffman 0.548

Top of the heap

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

Player Rank Rating
Tyrrell Hatton 12 1400.8
Taylor Montgomery 22 1180.2
Keith Mitchell 28 1058.8
Hideki Matsuyama 31 1033.7
Corey Conners 34 983.2
Rickie Fowler 37 974.1
Ben Griffin 42 899.9
Si Woo Kim 45 898.3

Sorry, can’t make it

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

Player Rank Rating
Scottie Scheffler 1 2130.5
Patrick Cantlay 2 2125.7
Rory McIlroy 3 1962.7
Jon Rahm 4 1925.4

Ooh, that’s hot

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

Player Upward change
Tyrrell Hatton 2642.4
Rickie Fowler 1754.4
David Lingmerth 985.3
Ryan Fox 734.1
Keith Mitchell 615.8
Matt Wallace 477.1
Eric Cole 411.3
Davis Riley 359.4

Brr, that’s cold

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

Player Downward change
Taylor Montgomery -876.0
Alex Noren -748.7
Andrew Putnam -633.1
Taylor Pendrith -604.2
Corey Conners -592.2
Beau Hossler -562.4
JJ Spaun -544.8
Hayden Buckley -509.2

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 the TPC San Antonio 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
0.13 Putts per GIR
0.13 Shots gained in approach
0.05 Driving accuracy
0.04 Shots gained off the tee

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
Taylor Montgomery 71.73
Davis Riley 72.08
Hideki Matsuyama 72.08
Ryan Moore 72.09
Byeong Hun An 72.17
Mark Hubbard 72.17
Ben Griffin 72.18
Satoshi Kodaira 72.19

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
Kyle Stanley 73.7
JB Holmes 73.7
Trevor Werbylo 73.5
Andrew Landry 73.3
Jimmy Walker 73.3
Augusto Nunez 73.2
Trevor Cone 73.2
Brent Grant 73.2

Staying close to home

Exempt entrants ranked by miles between their listed residence as of January 2023 and San Antonio TX, the event host city.

Player Residence Distance
Andrew Landry Austin TX 50
Dylan Frittelli Austin TX 50
Mark Hubbard The Woodlands TX 175
Brian Stuard Fort Worth TX 175
Michael Kim Houston TX 175
MJ Daffue Kingwood TX 200
Max McGreevy Dallas TX 225
Paul Haley Dallas TX 225
Si Woo Kim Dallas TX 225
Kelly Kraft Dallas TX 225
Zecheng Dou Dallas TX 225
Beau Hossler Dallas TX 225
Harry Higgs Dallas TX 225
Ryan Palmer Colleyville TX 225
Austin Smotherman Dallas TX 225
Kramer Hickok Dallas TX 225

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 0.371
I love this place 0.171
Ooh, that’s hot 0.131
Location, location, location 0.112
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