How Match Play Winners Fare in Their Next Start
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 25, 2010 9:00 AM EST
in Pro Golf
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PrintGoing through a sixty-four player field and six matches in five days can really take a toll on a player. For the winners of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, that toll is often evident in their next start. This graphic shows the performance of the event winners in the next PGA Tour start.
With the exception of Tiger, whose win in his next start in '08 capped three straight wins, the closest a player has come to backing up the win in medal play is Geoff Ogilvy in 2006.
Steve Stricker is the only player to have won the Match Play - in Australia in 2001 - and then defend in Arizona. He did well for himself.
How will Ian Poulter do making his next start within state lines?
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have to disagree...
…the numbers aren’t backing you up.
5 of 11 finished in the top 10 – including two wins (from the same guy – at a tournament a few weeks after the match play – a tournament he has won 6 times)
only 1 of the 11 has missed the cut
about the only place a winner hasn’t done pretty darn well is in the second 10. One in the 20’s, one in the 30’s, and three in the 40’s.
Only Stricker has played the following week – which shows about the only consistent point about winning the Match Play – it takes a lot out of you, so playing the next week is rare. Poulter is just the second player to play the next week after the Match Play.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
I’m taking Tiger Woods out of the equation on this since he (a) owns the WGCs and (b) is clearly superhuman.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 25, 2010 10:44 AM EST reply actions
Ryan is also forgetting
Players winning back to back starts is not a common event. It’s actually happened 2 times in the last 7 tournaments is pretty good.
IF you take the Tiger factor out of this tournament and study it against 10 random tournaments, I’d make a bet players winning in their next stop is one in 10 or less.
I’ll crunch the numbers if Ryan promises to feature it. I’ll take the MP and compare it to 10 other tournaments over the last 10 years. 5 Tiger Woods tour stops and 5 tour stops where Woods doesn’t play.
Bill's got a point...
Back-to-backs aren’t very common in our sport. That’s why we make such a big deal of it. And it’s especially true if the next tourney comes the very next week. Right, Bill?
Mike Southern
www.ruthlessgolf.com
by Ruthless Mike on Feb 25, 2010 10:55 AM EST up reply actions
The Harlem Globetrotters won back-to-back
on numerous occasions.
Mike
I started watching golf in the late 1970’s. The later part of the Nicklaus era. Watson was in his prime, Gary Player won 3 in a row in 78 but then never again. Trevino was better prior to his being hit by lightning in 1975 but he was still a force on tour. There were a lot of very good second tier players. Johnny Miller, Hubert Green, Ray Floyd, Hale Irwin, just to name a few.
Only 3 players won 3 in a row in the 70’s- Miller, Green, and Player. I don’t know how many times two in a row was done but it would make for a curious study.
by Bill Jempty on Feb 25, 2010 11:17 AM EST up reply actions
Yeah, I wasn’t really worried about the wins b/c of the rarity, hence removing Tiger from the equation (since he’s the only guy that does it).
Bill, if you do a compare against random events, would be glad to feature it.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 25, 2010 11:30 AM EST up reply actions
If its all right
I’ll crunch the numbers on the weekend and post on Monday morning. I’m polishing the latest chapter of one of my online stories now.
Maybe I’ll take one of Nicklaus record in his prime too picking random tournaments. Ones that Nicklaus won frequently and others he skipped or won very infrequently. The Golden Bear unlike Tiger played a greater variety of tournaments. Oddly both of them never played in Texas much but Nicklaus recorded wins at the Byron Nelson and Colonial. Woods only won the Nelson.
yet another reason not to like Brandel Chamblee...
…I am SO tired of this guy as an analyst…and lucky for us, it connects to this post from RB.
They were talking about Ian Poulter winning the Match Play, then having 2 days of committments plus the pro-am in Phoenix. Chamblee just said that Poulter is trying to be the first player to win in Tucson then Phoenix on back to back weeks since Phil Mickelson in 1996.
TECHNICALLY mostly correct – but winning the Nortel Open in Tucson is NOT the same as winning five 18 hole matches and a 36 hole final the WGC Match Play, then playing in Phoenix four days later. (The Nortel and The Phoenix Open had another tournament in between that he didn’t play)
Now he’s surprised that a Tour player can get a bunker shot from an uphill lie to stop quickly.
The guy just wears me out.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
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