06
Jun

Perspectives on the RBC Canadian 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
Brandt Snedeker 0.850
Danny Lee 0.818
Mackenzie Hughes 0.758
Shane Lowry 0.686
Jhonattan Vegas 0.626
Harold Varner 0.609
Ricky Barnes 0.566
Charley Hoffman 0.513

Top of the heap

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

Player Rank Rating
Justin Thomas 2 1472.6
Cameron Smith 4 1383.3
Rory McIlroy 5 1379.2
Scottie Scheffler 7 1369.9
Sam Burns 11 1140.0
Shane Lowry 14 1119.1
Matthew Fitzpatrick 16 1094.8
Corey Conners 17 1064.4

Sorry, can’t make it

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

Player Rank Rating
Jon Rahm 1 1557.1
Patrick Cantlay 3 1447.0
Xander Schauffele 6 1372.9
Will Zalatoris 8 1248.0

Ooh, that’s hot

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

Player Upward change
Rory McIlroy 1567.7
Sam Burns 1307.6
Harold Varner 1024.9
Tony Finau 792.2
Stephan Jaeger 658.8
Chris Kirk 543.2
Christopher Gotterup 528.6
Matthew Fitzpatrick 520.5

Brr, that’s cold

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

Player Downward change
Adam Hadwin -459.9
Charley Hoffman -415.3
Doug Ghim -355.9
Harry Higgs -320.8
JJ Spaun -303.0
Robert Streb -291.9
Carlos Ortiz -276.3
Matthias Schwab -262.8

Certain skills required

Among a set of 10 PGA Tour and DP World Tour statistics that reflect physical characteristics of the St. George’s Golf and Country Club course, this table shows the four that have the highest unique correlation with player performance. (The only prior Canadian Open on the course was in 2010.) In mathematical terms, the number shown is the partial correlation coefficient.

Stat value Statistic
0.17 Scrambling
0.15 Putts per GIR
0.11 Driving distance
0.09 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
Justin Thomas 72.29
Rory McIlroy 72.36
Taylor Pendrith 72.42
Rasmus Hojgaard 72.43
Sam Burns 72.44
Scottie Scheffler 72.45
Luke List 72.47
Trey Mullinax 72.51

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
Wesley Bryan 73.8
Joshua Creel 73.7
Ted Potter 73.6
David Hearn 73.6
Max McGreevy 73.6
Kelly Kraft 73.6
Fabian Gomez 73.6
Dawie van der Walt 73.5

Staying close to home

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

Player Residence Distance
Michael Gligic Kitchener ON 50
Corey Conners Listowel ON 75
Ryan Armour Silver Lake OH 200
Justin Lower Uniontown OH 225
Bo Hoag Columbus Oh 325
Brandon Wu Scarsdale NY 350
Nick Hardy Northbrook IL 450
Alex Smalley Greensboro NC 525
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