Bubba and BOO

[Lifter]

The best drivers on the PGA Tour are named Bubba and Boo. That. Is. Awesome!!

Richie3Jack Golf Blog: 2011 PGA Tour Adv. Total Driving Rankings 4.19.11

 

[duckjr78]

Also both from a little town north of Pensacola, FL called Milton. Maybe it's something in the water. Heath Slocum hails from there as well.

 

[Matt 4-L]

What's the adv. part of the total driving? On the pga site I only seen total driving which didn't match richies list.

 

[dbl]

Elsewhere in his blog, Richie says this:

[Here's] something I call ‘Total Advanced Driving.’ This takes into consideration the following:

- Driving Distance
- Fwy % Hit
- Proximity to the edge of fairway (on shots that miss the fairway)

There’s a formula I use to determine these rankings.

 

[mgranato]

Country strong.

 

[ekennedy]

Strong like bull...smart like tractor.

I wonder if either one of them can spell C-A-T if you spot them two letters?

 

[Jared Willerson]

Don't let Boo fool ya'. Really intelligent guy.

 

[ekennedy]

It was a joke, Jared. That being said, I've played with Boo in a Nationwide Tour event. Great guy. But at no point during the round did I think he was going to break out any Aristotle on me.

 

[johnnymarlboro]

I always kinda thought Boo probably really plays up the whole "aw shucks, I'm just a simple country boy" thing, to help deal with media, and all that type of stuff. Kinda like Larry the Cable Guy. Although I'm betting that at least Boo's accent is real.

 

[Matt 4-L]

Elsewhere in his blog, Richie says this:

Thanks dbl, I have never read richies blog, the op made it sound like out was an official pga stat, and not a bloggers opinion. Richies adv driving stat must weight accuracy higher because his brought more short hitters up higher.

 

[BrendanC]

It is a stat, not an opinion.

 

[Richie3Jack]

Thanks dbl, I have never read richies blog, the op made it sound like out was an official pga stat, and not a bloggers opinion. Richies adv driving stat must weight accuracy higher because his brought more short hitters up higher.

No, it doesn't.

Look at the top 25.

The PGA Tour average driving distance as of this week is 286.2 yards. It will get higher than that as the year goes along. But that's what it is now.

15 of the top 25 hit the ball longer than the Tour average.

Boo Weekley………296.3
Bubba Watson *………308.2
John Merrick *………293.2
Tom Gillis *………288.1
Chez Reavie *………289.4
Bo Van Pelt *………292.3
Chad Campbell *………288.4
Hunter Mahan *………287.6
Peter Tomasulo *………293.5
Ryan Moore………287.1
Louis Oosthuizen *………292.8
Dustin Johnson………307.6
Nick Watney *………295.4
jason Gore *………298.8
Bill Haas *………289.4

In 2010, 20 of the top 25 hit it longer than the Tour average.

Part of the issue is that we are early on in the season. So not only is the sample size smaller, but you get courses that have wide open fairways. So somebody like Ben Curtis is going to hit a ton of fairways and have a great 'proximity to the edge of the fairway.' As the season moves along, the shorter hitters will likely be weeded out, unless they keep up with their exceptional accuracy.





3JACK

 

[Richie3Jack]

As far as total ballstriking goes, from a statistical standpoint, here's usually the top guys:

Heath Slocum
Sergio Garica
Boo Weekley
David Toms
Joe Durant
Kenny Perry
DJ Trahan
Tim Clark
Robert Garrigus
Hunter Mahan
Charles Warren
Steve Stricker

Of course, if Tiger gets his game back, he will be there as well. Fowler was great last year, but since it was just one year, can't really tell.





3JACK

 

[Matt 4-L]

It is a stat, not an opinion.

Ummmmm, you can make numbers say anything you want, it all depends on how you weight them...It's not an official pga stat. That's why I stay away from blogs any person can say something on the internet and the next thing you know somebody is quoting them as a fact...Now I know richie has no intentions of misleading anybody and likes to play around with the stats posted on the pga tour, but it still should be labeled as richies stat.

 

[Matt 4-L]

No, it doesn't.

Look at the top 25.

The PGA Tour average driving distance as of this week is 286.2 yards. It will get higher than that as the year goes along. But that's what it is now.

15 of the top 25 hit the ball longer than the Tour average.

Boo Weekley………296.3
Bubba Watson *………308.2
John Merrick *………293.2
Tom Gillis *………288.1
Chez Reavie *………289.4
Bo Van Pelt *………292.3
Chad Campbell *………288.4
Hunter Mahan *………287.6
Peter Tomasulo *………293.5
Ryan Moore………287.1
Louis Oosthuizen *………292.8
Dustin Johnson………307.6
Nick Watney *………295.4
jason Gore *………298.8
Bill Haas *………289.4

In 2010, 20 of the top 25 hit it longer than the Tour average.

Part of the issue is that we are early on in the season. So not only is the sample size smaller, but you get courses that have wide open fairways. So somebody like Ben Curtis is going to hit a ton of fairways and have a great 'proximity to the edge of the fairway.' As the season moves along, the shorter hitters will likely be weeded out, unless they keep up with their exceptional accuracy.





3JACK

The top three accuracy guys moved into the to ten of your stat but they don't sniff the top fifty on the pga's stat.

 

[BrendanC]

The top three accuracy guys moved into the to ten of your stat but they don't sniff the top fifty on the pga's stat.

That might be because they are different stats, with different methodologies.

 

[Matt 4-L]

That might be because they are different stats, with different methodologies.

I can't argue with that.

 

[Richie3Jack]

PGA doesn't take into consideration the proximity to the edge of the fairway.

The formula I use is with the relation to adjusted stroke average. I tried probably 100 different formulas using these 3 stats and this one had the strongest correlation to adj. stroke average than any other advanced total driving I could come up with.

I think what some people don't consider is that on average...PGA Tour pros are about 30% more accurate from the fairway than they are from the rough. So disregarding fwy % hit is naive. But generally I find the players with the lowest adjusted scoring averages each year do well with distance and proximity to the edge of the fairway. Fwy % is important, but distance and proximity to the edge of the fairway are more important.

But when you have guys like Ben Curtis who are almost hitting 80% of their fairways at this point and just missing the fairway when they do find the rough, there is an advantage to that. I have another idea on how to tweak the formula a bit, but it would take a ton of work and in the end, I'm not sure it will correlate any stronger to adjusted scoring average.


Here were the 2010 Rankings

1…Joe Durant
2…Charles Warren
3…Graham DeLaet
4…Hunter Mahan
5…Tom Gillis
6…Robert Garrigus
7…Kenny Perry
8…Boo Weekley
9…Ryan Moore
10…Jay Williamson
11…Steve Elkington
12…Brett Wetterich
13…David Toms
14…John Rollins
15…Rory McIlroy
16…J.J. Henry
17…John Merrick
18…Jarrod Lyle
19…Nick Watney
20…Heath Slocum
21…D.J. Trahan
22…Will MacKenzie
23…Bo Van Pelt
24…Davis Love III
25…Zach Johnson
26…Scott McCarron
27…Omar Uresti
28…Blake Adams
29…Kevin Streelman
30…John Senden
31…Cliff Kresge
32…Charley Hoffman
33…Billy Mayfair
34…Mathias Gronberg
35…Bubba Watson
36…Jason Dufner
37…Jim Furyk
38…Chad Campbell
39…Ben Crane
40…Josh Teater
41…Bill Haas
42…Matt Kuchar
43…Robert Allenby
44…Vaughn Taylor
45…Chris Couch
46…Kevin Sutherland
47…Lucas Glover
48…Steve Stricker
49…Dustin Johnson
50…Aron Price
51…Adam Scott
52…Mathew Goggin
53…Paul Stankowski
54…Y.E. Yang
55…Rickie Fowler
56…Dean Wilson
57…Tim Clark
58…Mark Wilson
59…Jerry Kelly
60…K.J. Choi
61…Kris Blanks
62…Troy Matteson
63…Garrett Willis
64…Sean O'Hair
65…Kevin Stadler
66…Skip Kendall
67…Pat Perez
68…Stewart Cink
69…Chris DiMarco
70…Justin Leonard
71…James Nitties
72…Chris Riley
73…Stephen Ames
74…Brian Davis
75…Martin Laird
76…Retief Goosen
77…Rod Pampling
78…Matt Every
79…Garth Mulroy
80…John Mallinger
81…Brendon de Jonge
82…Chris Tidland
83…Jeff Maggert
84…Jason Day
85…Roger Tambellini
86…Scott Verplank
87…Ben Curtis
88…Cameron Percy
89…Michael Letzig
90…Sergio Garcia
91…Tom Pernice, Jr.
92…Vijay Singh
93…Craig Bowden
94…Richard S. Johnson
95…Paul Casey
96…Nicholas Thompson
97…Alex Prugh
98…Justin Rose
99…Jonathan Byrd
100…Jason Bohn
101…Andrew McLardy
102…Camilo Villegas
103…Rocco Mediate
104…Paul Goydos
105…Spencer Levin
106…D.A. Points
107…Jeff Gove
108…Greg Owen
109…John Daly
110…J.B. Holmes
111…Cameron Tringale
112…Steve Marino
113…Woody Austin
114…Brian Gay
115…Ryan Palmer
116…Chris Wilson
117…Jeff Quinney
118…Bill Lunde
119…Henrik Bjornstad
120…Angel Cabrera
121…Cameron Beckman
122…Chris Stroud
123…Alex Cejka
124…Tim Petrovic
125…Brent Delahoussaye
126…Brian Stuard
127…Rory Sabbatini
128…Steve Wheatcroft
129…Ted Purdy
130…Trevor Immelman
131…Marc Leishman
132…J.P. Hayes
133…Ian Poulter
134…Ernie Els
135…Briny Baird
136…Aaron Baddeley
137…Shaun Micheel
138…Kevin Na
139…Steve Flesch
140…Charlie Wi
141…Justin Bolli
142…Jeff Overton
143…James Driscoll
144…Matt Bettencourt
145…Stuart Appleby
146…Carl Pettersson
147…Jeev Milkha Singh
148…Steve Lowery
149…Webb Simpson
150…Michael Sim
151…Bob Estes
152…Michael Connell
153…Charles Howell III
154…Troy Merritt
155…Fredrik Jacobson
156…Roland Thatcher
157…Lee Janzen
158…Johnson Wagner
159…Andres Romero
160…Scott Piercy
161…Brandt Snedeker
162…Mark Calcavecchia
163…Matt Jones
164…Padraig Harrington
165…Geoff Ogilvy
166…David Lutterus
167…Martin Flores
168…Tim Herron
169…George McNeill
170…Joe Ogilvie
171…Derek Lamely
172…Ricky Barnes
173…Jerod Turner
174…Bryce Molder
175…Phil Mickelson
176…Michael Bradley
177…Nathan Green
178…Ryuji Imada
179…Luke Donald
180…Kevin Johnson
181…Daniel Chopra
182…Brett Quigley
183…David Duval
184…Greg Kraft
185…Greg Chalmers
186…Chad Collins
187…Brenden Pappas
188…Vance Veazey
189…Jimmy Walker
190…Rich Barcelo
191…Brad Faxon
192…Mike Weir

 

[Jared Willerson]

Good stuff, Rich.