Opinion & Analysis

PGA Tour Rookies 2015: Who can make the biggest splash?

Published

9 years ago

Jan 13, 2015

The 2014 class of PGA Tour rookies were underwhelming to say the least. Chesson Hadley captured Rookie of the Year honors on the circuit, a distinction he achieved via a victory and four total top-10s.

Among the winners of the award since 2010, this campaign is easily the worst of the bunch. Jordan Spieth’s 2013 and Keegan Bradley’s 2011 speak for themselves. But despite zero wins in 2010, Rickie Fowler’s season was demonstrably better than Hadley’s 2014—courtesy of three top-threes and seven top-10s. John Huh’s 2012 mirrored the one-win, four top-10 showing of last year’s winner, but his 22-of-28 in made cuts far outpaces Hadley’s 13-of-29.

The rest of the rookie bunch in 2014 proved so thoroughly mediocre that the other two finalists (Brooks Koepka and Victor Dubuisson) were part-time PGA Tour players.

The 2014-2015 PGA Tour rookie class has the chance to cleanse the sins of its predecessor though. This group of maiden voyagers contains a boatload of high-potential performers in their initial Tour season.

Among the freshman pack, seven names in particular stick out. And we have predictions for all of them in 2015.

Yes, rookie seasons are technically underway, but the sample size is still quite small.

Much remains to be seen and here are our best guesses as to the progress of this most-talented set in the upcoming year.

Nick Taylor

Let’s start off with the only Tour rookie with a win in the wraparound portion of the 2014-2015 schedule.

Yes, Taylor secured a two-shot victory at the Sanderson Farms Championship in early November—a milestone win in a young career.

The 26-year-old’s name may be unfamiliar to most golf fans, but Taylor was once the World’s No. 1-ranked amateur. That was in 2009, only five years ago.

In the coming years, Taylor would try his hand on mini tours and the PGA Tour Canada circuit. In Canada he was fine, finishing in the top 30 on the money list each year from 2011-2013. Taylor was exempt on the Web.com Tour in 2014, and placed 69th on its money list. A trip to the Web.com Tour Finals got him his PGA Tour card.

A victory and former top-dog status seem to imply a prosperous beginning in the big leagues, especially with his high status on the PGA Tour tournament priority list (which means easy access to most events) via his spot in the winners’ category… except I’m more comfortable cooling off on the Taylor hype.

Even in his early seasons on far lesser circuits than the PGA Tour, his results weren’t overwhelming, and he didn’t tear it up on the Web.com Tour last season. The win this fall was nice and a legitimate great week of golf, but probably an outlier at this point. In four other PGA Tour events during the wraparound, Taylor made three cuts but never placed in the top 50.

With all of this, I feel Taylor will just fall into his fair share of valleys in the new calendar year. Taylor may be on his way to a lot of low finishes and missed cuts, but has the silver lining of one week of fantastic golf that sets his top-10 number at two. If it wasn’t for the victory, I would expect Taylor to struggle to keep his card.

Adam Hadwin

Another Canadian here, Hadwin’s name surfaced with an eye-opening T4 at the RBC Canadian Open in 2011, submerged with decent but non-promotion worthy play on the Web.com Tour and rocketed back up with a 2014 that placed him on top of the minor league circuit.

The 27-year-old won twice and top-tenned nine times on the Tour last year, a performance set that garnered him the top spot on the Web.com Tour’s final money list (regular season plus Finals events money). He’s claimed that maturity played a large role in his renaissance season, but such an intangible is notoriously difficult to evaluate.

Hadwin’s name fits in the neutral category—where the rookie season is neither an outright dud nor a star effort. His wraparound results resemble those of Taylor (minus the victory), which isn’t promising. But he was an excellent player on the Web.com Tour last year, something that Taylor can’t claim.

Hadwin is fully exempt, and I expect him to make more cuts than missed and dabble in top-10s and top-25s. Of this group, he may be the most innocuous in 2015.

Tony Finau

Despite Taylor’s victory, Finau was the PGA Tour’s rookie story of the fall.

I mean, it’s tough to match a former 17-year-old professional whose career went south before finally finding his groove with a terrific season seven years later. And the folklore of his prodigious length off the tee is acquiring a sizable audience of its own.

Finau’s hype has been warranted in a way with his fall start in the wraparound, a five-event opening that produced two top-10s and four top-25s. Of course the praise has also been overdone to a degree—these results are a nice small sample, but they don’t tell a long-term story yet (especially when you peer into the quality of the fields).

The results are unlikely to match the story then in 2015. Finau is first on the reshuffle (a ranking list of the Web.com Tour Finals graduates that determines the order the players are selected into fields), which bodes very well for his schedule. He also possesses a lot of power, game and confidence heading into the new year, and while those all should aid his progress in 2015, his golf is still somewhat raw and he’s still quite new to fighting high-level competition (last season was his maiden one on the Web.com Tour).

Finau’s off to an excellent start and his game shouldn’t drop too much, but I don’t expect him to approach the pace he set in the fall. His game won’t generally be this sharp, and the stiffer competition will further skew the results downward. There will be some good showings though, I believe at least one top-three, and combined with his results from the fall, it should make him a nominee for Rookie of the Year. Check out Brendan Steele’s and Chris Kirk’s numbers from their rookie 2011’s and that’s where I see Finau ending up (minus any wins).

The 25-year-old success story should be just fine in 2015, but it’ll be difficult to prolong the torrid stretch he produced in the fall.

Patrick Cantlay

This is stretching the definition of rookie in a conventional sense, but the PGA Tour still recognizes Cantlay as a newborn pup.

The UCLA man is indeed in his first season by Tour standards, but is by far the trickiest to project on this occasion.

For recollection, the former World No. 1 amateur came into professional life with plenty of hype in 2012, and played pretty well in making six cuts in seven PGA Tour events on sponsors exemptions.

But the following year on the Web.com Tour, Cantlay started struggling with a hairline fracture in his vertebrae in the summer and shut down his play completely in September in order to let the injury heal (it didn’t require surgery). And more or less, he has played very little since in battling this and a potentially separate back injury.

If completely healthy and in good standing to obtain a full-time slate of PGA Tour events, Cantlay would rocket near the top of the list here. His talent is that vast.

The 22-year-old played the final wraparound event of the fall, but we don’t know for sure that his injuries have disappeared or that they won’t recur again—let alone the rust factor. He’s also a lowly 45th on the reshuffle, making playing opportunities scarcer and subsequently more pressure packed.

He’ll likely play more than in the past two years (12.5 events per annum combined on the PGA and Web.com Tours), but all of the aforementioned issues prevent me from seeing much success for him as a rookie. I see another limited schedule where he can make cuts without too much issue, but top finishes will be be rare.

Unfortunately this will probably lead to Cantlay going to the Web.com Tour Finals to regain his PGA Tour card. The future beyond 2015 is still bright though.

Carlos Ortiz

He’s a hot name whose relationship with Lorena Ochoa seems to come up in every story—no matter how much he previously expounded upon it.

Save this minor inconvenience of the media glare, the last 12 months have been a stunning bunch from the Mexican-born Ortiz. In that span, he rocketed from a no-name to a Web.com Tour blitzer, capturing three victories and earning a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour. The spotlight has been on him since.

Ortiz also nailed together a solid few results in his first events as a PGA Tour rookie: Four starts, four made cuts, two top-25s, one top-10.

But whatever his long-term future, I’m not too sanguine about his 2015.

If that sounds crazy, hear me out. Ortiz’ 2014 season, while highly impressive, is an anomaly in his so far young career. The young Mexican’s talent is no joke, but he hasn’t really had a way of putting it together in some time. His sophomore year at North Texas was a special season with three wins, a campaign he followed up with a less stellar junior year and an even drearier senior year where he wasn’t even the team’s best player!

Maybe he finally figured out how to administer his talent in 2014, you say? If so, it was sporadic. The PGA Tour fall seemed fine, and the February-May stretch with two wins and five top-10s on the Web.com Tour proved excellent. But then there was the June-September Web.com drought, where Ortiz sandwiched a win between seven missed cuts and two other non-top 25 showings.

Sporadic doesn’t work as well on the PGA Tour, especially if the moments of struggle occur early and often, which I believe they will for Ortiz in 2015. A series of harrowing results in those crucial first months of good PGA Tour fields can quickly destroy confidence. And at that point the damage to the mental game can be too strong for the talent to make much of a difference in the short term.

This I believe to be the difficult short term path for Ortiz. His schedule is set due to his fully exempt status, but his lack of consistency in using his talent will likely mean a lot more missed cuts and marginal performances than he wants. He’ll be back at Web.com Tour Finals next year, this time fighting to retain his card.

Blayne Barber

Barber has been no stranger to disqualification, but 2014 was (mostly) about his stellar golf game that netted him two victories and a top-10 showing on the Web.com Tour money list.

The Auburn grad proved his college All-American credentials with his master class in the minor leagues, and he’s started out his rookie year on the big Tour forcefully, with top-10s in his final two events of the fall.

Barber heads into 2015 eighth on the reshuffle list—not exactly Finau territory but in fine position to set up a healthy, full schedule if his results don’t tank in the opening months of the new year.

As for his taking advantage of this potentially packed slate, I’m pretty optimistic. He’s not a prodigal talent, but he’s also assimilated rapidly in Year One on the NGA and Web.com Tours. The hallmark of his game is his tee-to-green accuracy, a tribute that stands to prohibit the major valleys in play that a less refined rookie might find. And he’s accountable and mature, if that counts for anything.

He should make a substantial amount of his cuts and add a few more top-10s and a half-dozen or so top-25s before the year is out. I expect him to be a Rookie of the Year candidate, with his odds of actually winning not that high.

Justin Thomas

And finally, we have my pick for PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

Surprising if you look at his physical characteristics: a non-descript PGA Tour profile photo and an average 5-foot, 10-inch 145-pound frame. Not surprising if you’ve actually followed his career.

The 21-year-old was one of the top amateurs in the country before college, and exceeded expectations at the University of Alabama. Thomas dominated his freshman season, winning four times and capturing honors as National Player of the Year (Nicklaus award). His sophomore campaign was a regression, but still sensational. And his year on the Web.com Tour was predictably brilliant, with a win, seven top-10s and a fifth-place finish on the regular season money list.

He’s the most talented American prospect since Jordan Spieth, and if Thomas were to look to Spieth’s rookie campaign (one-win, nine top-10s and 13 top-25s) as a template for his own maiden PGA Tour season, it wouldn’t be too aspirational.

Thomas’ game isn’t without its flaws—while he hits it long despite his physical build, he is quite inaccurate off the tee—but it is quite polished through years of competing and thriving against top competition.

And saying athletes are hard working at their sporting craft is clichéd, but the anecdote at the end here is ridiculous.

There’s the talent, the work ethic, the previous stellar results on all levels, I just don’t see a way that Thomas doesn’t come out firing as a rookie. I don’t anticipate his maiden season being as good as Spieth’s—maybe something a notch less—but it wouldn’t be shocking if he matched the Texan. And Thomas could easily win his first PGA Tour tournament.

At the very least, he will be the victor in the Rookie of the Year race.

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Opinion & Analysis

The Wedge Guy: What really makes a wedge work? Part 1

Published

1 day ago

Apr 18, 2024

Terry Koehler

Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.

Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.

But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.

To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.

Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.

If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.

In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.

Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.

While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.

So, what about grooves and face texture?

Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.

Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.

But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?

The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.

So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.

And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.

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Golf's Perfect Imperfections

Golf’s Perfect Imperfections: Amazing Session with Performance Coach Savannah Meyer-Clement

Published

1 day ago

Apr 18, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

In this week’s episode, we spent some time with performance coach Savannah Meyer-Clement who provides many useful insights that you’ll be able to implement on the golf course.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 RBC Heritage betting preview: Patrick Cantlay ready to get back inside winner’s circle

Published

4 days ago

Apr 15, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

Just a two-hour drive from Augusta National, the PGA TOUR heads to Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Hilton Head Island is a golfer’s paradise and Harbour Town is one of the most beautiful and scenic courses on the PGA TOUR.

Harbour Town Golf Links is a par-71 that measures 7,121 yards and features Bermuda grass greens. A Pete Dye design, the course is heavily tree lined and features small greens and many dog legs, protecting it from “bomb-and-gauge” type golfers.

The field is loaded this week with 69 golfers with no cut. Last year was quite possibly the best field in RBC Heritage history and the event this week is yet another designated event, meaning there is a $20 million prize pool.

Most of the big names on the PGA Tour will be in attendance this week with the exceptions of Hideki Matsuyama and Viktor Hovland. Additionally, Webb Simpson, Shane Lowry, Gary Woodland and Kevin Kisner have been granted sponsors exemptions.

Past Winners at Harbour Town

2023: Matt Fitzpatrick (-17)
2022: Jordan Spieth (-13)
2021: Stewart Cink (-19)
2020: Webb Simpson (-22)
2019: CT Pan (-12)
2018: Sotoshi Kodaira (-12)
2017: Wesley Bryan (-13)
2016: Branden Grace (-9)
2015: Jim Furyk (-18)

In this article and going forward, I’ll be using the Rabbit Hole by Betsperts Golf data engine to develop my custom model. If you want to build your own model or check out all of the detailed stats, you can sign up using promo code: MATTVIN for 25% off any subscription package (yearly is best value).

Key Stats For Harbour Town

Let’s take a look at key metrics for Harbour Town Golf Links to determine which golfers boast top marks in each category over their past 24 rounds.

Strokes Gained: Approach

Strokes Gained: Approach is exceedingly important this week. The greens at Harbour Town are about half the size of PGA TOUR average and feature the second-smallest greens on the tour. Typical of a Pete Dye design, golfers will pay the price for missed greens.

Total SG: Approach Over Past 24 Rounds

Scottie Scheffler (+1.27)
Tom Hoge (+1.27)
Corey Conners (+1.16)
Austin Eckroat (+0.95)
Cameron Young (+0.93)

Good Drive %

The fairways at Harbour Town are tree lined and feature many dog legs. Bombers tend to struggle at the course because it forces layups and doesn’t allow long drivers to overpower it. Accuracy is far more important than power.

Good Drive % Over Past 24 Rounds

Brice Garnett (88.8%)
Shane Lowry (+87.2%)
Akshay Bhatia (+86.0%)
Si Woo Kim (+85.8%)
Sepp Straka (+85.1%)

Strokes Gained: Total at Pete Dye Designs

Pete Dye specialists tend to play very well at Harbour Town. Si Woo Kim, Matt Kuchar, Jim Furyk and Webb Simpson are all Pete Dye specialists who have had great success here. It is likely we see some more specialists near the top of the leaderboard this week.

SG: TOT Pete Dye per round over past 36 rounds:

Xander Schauffele (+2.27)
Scottie Scheffler (+2.24)
Ludvig Aberg (+2.11)
Brian Harman (+1.89)
Sungjae Im (+1.58)

4. Strokes Gained: Short Game (Bermuda)

Strokes Gained: Short Game factors in both around the green and putting. With many green-side bunkers and tricky green complexes, both statistics will be important. Past winners — such as Jim Furyk, Wes Bryan and Webb Simpson — highlight how crucial the short game skill set is around Harbour Town.

SG: SG Over Past 24 Rounds

Jordan Spieth (+1.11)
Taylor Moore (+1.02)
Wyndham Clark (+0.98)
Mackenzie Hughes (+0.86)
Andrew Putnam (+0.83)

5. Greens in Regulation %

The recipe for success at Harbour Town Golf Links is hitting fairways and greens. Missing either will prove to be consequential — golfers must be in total control of the ball to win.

Greens in Regulation % over past 24 rounds:

Brice Garnett (+75.0%)
Scottie Scheffler (+69.9%)
Corey Conners (+69.0%)
Shane Lowry (+68.3%)
Patrick Rodgers (+67.6%)

6. Course History

Harbour Town is a course where players who have strong past results at the course always tend to pop up.

Course History over past 24 rounds:

Patrick Cantlay (+2.34)
Cam Davis (+2.05)
J.T. Poston (+1.69)
Justin Rose (+1.68)
Tommy Fleetwood (+1.59)

The RBC Heritage Model Rankings

Below, I’ve compiled overall model rankings using a combination of the five key statistical categories previously discussed — SG: Approach (24%), Good Drives (20%), SG: SG (14%), SG: Pete Dye (14%), GIR (14%), and Course History (14%)

Shane Lowry
Russell Henley
Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
Corey Conners
Wyndham Clark
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Matt Fitzpatrick
Cameron Young
Ludvig Aberg

2024 RBC Heritage Picks

Patrick Cantlay +2000 (FanDuel)

With the exception of Scottie Scheffler, the PGA Tour has yet to have any of their star players show peak form during the 2024 season. Last week, Patrick Cantlay, who I believe is a top-5 players on the PGA Tour, took one step closer to regaining the form that’s helped him win eight events on Tour since 2017.

Cantlay limped into the Masters in poor form, but figured it out at Augusta National, finishing in a tie for 20th and ranking 17th for the week in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking. The former FedEx Cup champion will now head to one of his favorite golf courses in Harbour Town, where he’s had immaculate results over the years. In his six trips to the course, he’s only finished worse than 7th one time. The other finishes include three third places (2017, 2019, 2023) and one runner-up finish (2022). In his past 36 rounds at Harbour Town, Cantlay ranks 1st in Strokes Gained: Total per round at the course by a wide margin (+2.36).

Cantlay is winless since the 2022 BMW Championship, which is far too long for a player of his caliber. With signs pointing to the 32-year-old returning to form, a “signature event” at Harbour Town is just what he needs to get back on the winning track.

Tommy Fleetwood +3000 (FanDuel)

I truly believe Tommy Fleetwood will figure out a way to win on American soil in 2024. It’s certainly been a bugaboo for him throughout his career, but he is simply too talented to go another season without winning a PGA Tour event.

At last week’s Masters Tournament, Fleetwood made a Sunday charge and ended up finishing T3 in the event, which was his best ever finish at The Masters. For the week, the Englishman ranked 8th in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach, 10th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking and 16th in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Harbour Town is a perfect layout for Fleetwood, and he’s had relative success at this Pete Dye design in the past. In his four trips to the course, he’s finished inside of the top 25 three times, with his best finish, T10, coming in 2022. The course is pretty short and can’t be overpowered, which gives an advantage to more accurate players such as Fleetwood. Tommy ranks 8th in the field in Good Drive % and should be able to plot his way along this golf course.

The win is coming for Tommy lad. I believe there’s a chance this treasure of a golf course may be the perfect one for him to finally break through on Tour.

Cameron Young +3300 (FanDuel)

Cameron Young had a solid Masters Tournament last week, which is exactly what I’m looking for in players who I anticipate playing well this week at the RBC Heritage. He finished in a tie for 9th, but never felt the pressure of contending in the event. For the week, Young ranked 6th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and 6th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking.

Despite being one of the longest players off the tee on the PGA Tour, Young has actually played some really good golf on shorter tracks. He finished T3 at Harbour Town in 2023 and ranks 20th in the field in Good Drive% and 16th in Greens in Regulation in his past 24 rounds. He also has strong finishes at other shorter courses that can take driver out of a players hand such as Copperhead and PGA National.

Young is simply one of the best players on the PGA Tour in 2024, and I strongly believe has what it takes to win a PGA Tour event in the very near future.

Corey Conners +5500 (FanDuel)

Corey Conners has had a disappointing year thus far on the PGA Tour, but absolutely loves Harbour Town.

At last week’s Masters Tournament, the Canadian finished T30 but ranked 20th in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach. In his past 24 rounds, Conners ranks 3rd in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach, 3rd in Greens in Regulation % and 24th in Good Drive %.

In Conners’ last four trips to Harbour Town, his worst finish was T31, last season. He finished T4 in 2021, T12 in 2022 and ranks 8th in Strokes Gained: Total at the course over his past 36 rounds.

Conners hasn’t been contending, but his recent finishes have been encouraging as he has finished in the top-25 in each of his past three starts prior to The Masters, including an impressive T13 at The PLAYERS. His recent improvement in ball striking as well as his suitability for Harbour Town makes Conners a high upside bet this week.

Shane Lowry (+7500) (FanDuel)

When these odds were posted after Lowry was announced in the field, I have to admit I was pretty stunned. Despite not offering much win equity on the PGA Tour over the last handful of years, Shane Lowry is still a top caliber player who has the ability to rise to the top of a signature event.

Lowry struggled to score at The Masters last week, but he actually hit the ball really well. The Irishman ranked 1st for Strokes Gained: Approach on the week and 7th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking. As usual, it was the putter that let him down, as he ranked 60th in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Harbour Town is most definitely one of Lowry’s favorite courses on the PGA Tour. In his six starts there, he’s finished in the top 10 three times, including third twice. Lowry is sensational at Pete Dye designs and ranks 7th in Strokes Gained: Total in his past 36 rounds on Dye tracks.

Lowry is perfect for Harbour Town. In his past 24 rounds, he ranks 5th in Strokes Gained: Approach, 2nd in Good Drive% and 5th in Green in Regulation %. If he figures it out on the greens, Shane could have his first win in America since 2015.

Lucas Glover +12000 (FanDuel)

This is one of my weekly “bet the number” plays as I strongly believe the odds are just too long for a player of Glover’s caliber. The odds have been too long on Glover for a few weeks now, but this is the first event that I can get behind the veteran being able to actually contend at.

Glover is quietly playing good golf and returning to the form he had after the understandable regression after his two massive victories at the end of 2023. He finished T20 at The Masters, which was his best ever finish at Augusta National. For the week, Lucas ranked 18th for Strokes Gained: Approach and 20th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking.

Over his past 24 rounds, Glover ranks 9th in Strokes Gained: Approach and 13th in Good Drive %. Harbour Town is a short course that the 44-year-old will be able to keep up with the top players on Tour off the tee. He’s played the course more than 20 times, with mixed results. His best finishes at Harbour Town include a T7 in 2008, but recently has a finish of T21 in 2020.

Glover has proven he can contend with the stars of the Tour on any given week, and this number is flat out disrespectful.

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