Stats Show Minimal Impact of Grooves on 2010 PGA Tour
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 10, 2010 2:23 PM EST
in Pro Golf
Email
PrintWith all of the talk about grooves, wedges, grandfathering, and lawsuits, there has not been much conversation about the tangible impact of the new grooves regulations on the PGA Tour in 2010. The stats don't lie, though, and the PGA Tour does an excellent job of tracking every imaginable golf stat through their Shotlink system.
Waggle Room contacted the Tour for season-to-date statistics for 2009 and 2010 to make a direct comparison in six key categories:
- Scrambling
- Sand saves
- Greens in Regulation (GIR)
- GIR from inside 75 yards
- GIR from 75-100 yards
- GIR from 100-125 yards
It is in these stats that one would expect to see what impact grooves have had on Tour performance.
What is the impact then? Almost nothing.
After the jump, take a look at the stats that tell the story.
The PGA Tour supplied Waggle Room with stats for every player on Tour in these six categories. In the interest of preventing data overload, the graphics summarize the top five in each category, as well as the Tour average. Also, since Phil Mickelson has been the most heavily criticized of the six players that have put the Ping Eye 2 wedges into play this season, a comparison of his performance is also in the graphics.
The first graphic shows the three big categories: scrambling, sand saves, and greens in regulation.
Looking at these stats, the Tour average appears to have been impacted in almost no way by the grooves change. In fat, greens in regulation has been up nearly 3 percent so far as compared to last season.
As for Phil Mickelson, he has done better in every area as compared to 2009. Since Mickelson had won last year in LA, one might expect that he would have done better then as opposed to now, where he has fizzled out in two PGA Tour starts. But because of the Olympics, LA was moved up by a week. In '09 to this same date on the schedule, Mickelson had missed the cut at Scottsdale and finished T42 at Torrey Pines.
The next graphic shows Tour performance in three scoring zones.
This graphic can be a little misleading. At first glance, it seems like there are way more players that are performing perfectly in each of these distance ranges. While that's true, it is important to see the Tour average. In each of the three zones, the Tour average is higher through this point in the season as compared to the same time last year.
As for Phil Mickelson, it appears to be a mixed bag. He shows significant improvement in two areas, but a regression between 100 and 125 yards. To this point in '09, Mickelson was still one week away from going on a three week tear with two wins - one in LA and the other in Miami.
In general, it is also important to keep in mind that the schedule does not perfectly line up when comparing '09 and '10. Scottsdale was switched out with Riviera, which is certainly a tougher track. The LA event, though, saw quite a bit of rain, which softened up the course and made short game conditions a little easier.
It does seem, though, that Tour players have done a good job in adjusting to the new grooves just as USGA Senior Technical Director Dick Rugge foretold in a chat with me over the summer.
"These are the most adaptable athletes in the world," Rugge said. "Their conditions of play can change from event to event, day to day, hole to hole, and shot to shot. "
15 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
5 tournaments isn't enough for reliable stats
Comparing total stats for 2009 against 5 tournaments in 2010 doesn’t work
You’re missing it, RB. The change in grooves won’t show up on these stats because the new grooves were intended to do 2 things – (1) make the rough penal again, making it more difficult to control the ball on the green from the rough, and (2) (which is more like 1-a) make hitting fairways more important than it has been in the last few years.
Scrambing – doesn’t specify lie, but you do see a slightly higher percentage last year over this year to date.
Sand saves – grooves have very little affect in the sand on most bunker shots.
GIR is only significant to this discussion if you put it against driving accuracy numbers.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
The whole year will definitely tell the story, but this is something I’m going to follow all year.
I’ll be trying to cultivate some more stats, see if we can get GIR from the rough.
Scrambling definitely matters and sand saves do, too. Lots of players complained that they wouldn’t be able to spin the ball as well out of the sand.
GIR actually matters from the fairway because grooves can reduce the backspin that players can put on the ball.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 10, 2010 2:54 PM EST up reply actions
You don’t hit the ball with the clubface from a greenside bunker – that’s why it’s called an explosion shot. Some of these guys get extremely close to the ball and almost pitch the ball out – but the stats can’t tell you which is which.
Dig up fairways hit to compare with GIR.
With the old grooves, players were taking spin off more often than trying to spin the ball back. What they want is to get the ball to hit and stop – not spin forwards or backwards unless it’s a shot they need the ball to come back. These grooves are just going to make it easier to do that. Shots from the rough are the ones to keep an eye on.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
It'll matter more in the big events..
Majors in particular…apart from last week, the courses don’t apply.
Yea CG
I want to wait until the end of the season, get the feed back than, not only from the tour, but the players themselves…they pretty much tell it like it is…I haven’t seen any significant difference from bunkers, but than, there hasn’t been that much difference in the sand yet, well maybe when wet…STUB
Ryan, perhaps it might be more enlightening...
if you compare the stats of individual players instead of the whole field. For example, Stricker is slightly down in scrambling since last year… but we don’t know if he’s hitting more fairways or greens. And while we see Tour averages, there are some differences in which players are making up those averages; we would assume that at least some of the players who brought stats down last year aren’t playing this year.
Plus, Court has a point about driving accuracy numbers.
How about a chart showing driving accuracy, GIR, and scrambling stats for, say, the ten best players of 2009 who have played a comparable amount this year? That might tell us a bit more.
Ironically, for all the flak Phil’s been taking, your figures indicate that he HAS improved over last year.
Mike Southern
www.ruthlessgolf.com
Mike, I think the direct player comparison suggestions might be helpful. That’ll be another data pull. My only problem in doing that to this point is that a handful of events seems low to compare an individual. The Mickelson comparison doesn’t even really mean much because of how his total game looked at the start of ’09. It was a wreck. But I figured people would want to know.
I think when we get maybe 15 events into it, we can look at individual performance in a way that make a lot of sense. Gives players time to heat up (or cool off).
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 10, 2010 2:57 PM EST up reply actions
Great! I'll be anxious to see what happens!
Mike Southern
www.ruthlessgolf.com
by Ruthless Mike on Feb 10, 2010 6:19 PM EST up reply actions
Is Phil’s short game improved or is he just putting better ? Either way – he still only has 2 rounds in the 60’s in 8 rounds on 2 of his favorite courses.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Good putting does cause a ripple effect in some of the stats...
but improved stats don’t mean consistency, that’s for sure. Getting up-and-down more often is great… unless it’s for bogey and you’re number two three in the world. (“Four? Do I hear four? Four going once… four going twice…”)
Mike Southern
www.ruthlessgolf.com
by Ruthless Mike on Feb 10, 2010 6:26 PM EST up reply actions
The early stats are in: this is much ado about nothing and all of the grousing is a waste of time.
Yes, that can change and perhaps it will over time as the year plays out, but I have a feeling that a lot of the players are merely parroting what their manufacturers are telling them to say.
Given all the hoopla over grooves...
I think they’re creating enough parody on their own.
Mike Southern
www.ruthlessgolf.com
by Ruthless Mike on Feb 10, 2010 6:27 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah, I think we can safely say that the early returns say that. We’ll have to keep up with it, though, to make sure.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 10, 2010 3:17 PM EST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Have a golf story tip? Contact editor Charles Boyer and he will follow the story! Thanks!
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
