Which got me wondering: What are some other records for single tournaments in the ShotLink era and before? We can find yearly leaders without much trouble on the PGA Tour’s website, and those are a terrific way to look at single seasons or even careers. Those of us with access to tournament stats also can dig through player performances in specific events and even drill down to specific days. But it’s much harder—impossible for the layman, actually—to compare tournament to tournament and see who had the best week ever, at least in terms of specific skills like putting and driving. That’s what made the Na stats so fascinating; most of us would have had no idea that he just had one of the all-time putting weeks, and if we suspected it, we’d have no way to objectively quantify that instinct. But the stat gurus showed the way.

And it’s one of those gurus, the PGA Tour’s Luis Rivera, who I have to thank for all that comes next. (It’s not the first time he’s helped me, either). I came up with seven categories and asked if he could tell me the best performance in each one, within a single tournament, and before long I had my answers. You can find those stats below, along with some quick commentary for each.

1. The greatest single-tournament bomber
This honour goes to Bubba Watson at the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and Robert Garrigus at the 2010 Reno-Tahoe Open, both of whom averaged 362.1 yards off the tee. Watson finished second, two shots behind Shane Lowry, while Garrigus finished in a tie for 10th. (This stat dates back to 1980.)

2. Most strokes gained/off the tee
This is a similar look to the stat above, though a bit more comprehensive in that it doesn’t just measure length, but also the value of the drive. This honour goes to Rory McIlroy at the 2015 Wells Fargo Championship. He gained 10.683 strokes off the tee that week, the best since 2004, and it won’t surprise you to remember that he won that tournament by six strokes. (Funny enough, I also judged that Rory had the best round ever of the ShotLink era at the same course in 2010.)

Streeter Lecka

3. Best proximity-to-the-hole average
Who had the best approach game? That honour goes to Jay Williamson at the 2003 Colonial, where his average approach landed a mere 20 feet, 7 inches from the hole. Unfortunately for Williamson, who made two playoffs on the PGA Tour but never won an event, the rest of his game wasn’t quite as excellent that week, and he had to settle for a T-28 finish. (Stats here go back to 2003.)

4. Most strokes gained/approach
Again, drilling a deeper than mere distance, who gained the most strokes on the rest of the field with his approach shots in one week? That would be Woody Austin, who gained an unbelievable 3.820 strokes per round just on approach shots at the 2007 St. Jude. He won that event by five shots, and in these first four examples, you can see just how strong strokes gained is as a statistic—while mere driving distance or hole proximity couldn’t predict a tournament winner, strokes gained/off the tee and strokes gained/approach correlated to two champs in McIlroy and Austin.

5. Most strokes gained/around the green
Who exhibited the greatest touch from in close for a whole tournament? The genius in question this time is Fred Couples, at the 2004 Memorial, where he accumulated 2.805 strokes gained per round. That was good enough for a score of 14 under par, but unlike McIlroy and Austin, he didn’t win—he finished second to Ernie Els. (Like all the SG stats, this one goes back to 2004.)

Al Messerschmidt

6. Highest one-putt percentage
Time to get a little obscure! We’ve got a tie on our hands for this one, David Frost (2005 at Hilton Head) and Bob Heintz (2002 at Greensboro) who both finished an astounding 68.06 per cent of their holes with a one-putt. This stat, of course, relies a little on luck in the sense that someone who misses the green with an approach but chips to two inches will get a “one-putt,” while someone who makes the same score on the hole but hits their approach onto the green 40 feet away will not. As such, it doesn’t correlate quite as well to winning. Frost finished T-38, and Heintz was T-30. (This stat goes back to 1992.)

7. Most sand saves
Last, and possibly least, we have sand saves. Three players have managed to go 14-for-14 in this category since 1980, and they are: Jim Carter in Phoenix, 1989, Luke Donald at the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Championship, and Aaron Baddeley earlier this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. This stat, while impressive, also indicates that the players may have been in the sand a bit too often for their own good: Jim Carter did the best in ‘89 with a T-7 finish, but Donald finished T-49 in a limited field, and Baddeley was T-17 earlier this year at the API.

David Cannon

Statistics in golf get better every year, and while the average stat nerd fan can’t yet look up tournament versus tournament statistics, the comparisons are available. As we saw with Na last weekend, and with the men above in the last few decades, it separates the merely great weeks from the ones that deserve to go down in history.

The post Na’s putter, Couples’ wedge, Rory’s driver: The best single-tournament PGA Tour performances appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 2017 Open Championship is one we’ll never forget for many reasons, but the image that will undoubtedly stand the test of time is that of Jordan Spieth hitting a 3-iron from the range, next to a Titleist truck, over a huge mound, without really knowing the yardage, all after a 20-minute delay. It led to an incredible bogey save that sparked Spieth’s remarkable final five-hole stretch, ending with him lifting the claret jug.

Earlier this week, Spieth signed and sent the famous 3-iron back to Royal Birkdale, where it will be on display for years to come. In light of this news, we thought of some other indelible golf mementos that also deserve their place in history.

The 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup Shirt

Two words: Fire Flames.

All of the clubs Jean van de Velde used on the 18th hole in the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie

David Cannon

The driver, the 2-iron, the wedge, the putter, hell throw the shoes and socks in there, too.

Tiger Woods’ mock turtleneck

Icon Sports Wire

Among Tiger’s many accolades, perhaps the most impressive is that he won at Augusta while wearing a t-shirt. Truly remarkable.

Rory’s alarm clock from the 2012 Ryder Cup

Hero Images

Were iPhones not a thing five years ago? They literally change the time to whichever time zone you’re in.

Roberto De Vicenzo’s 1968 Masters scorecard

Bettmann

Yes, the Rules of Golf lacked common sense in 1968, and still do now. Shocking stuff.

Ian Woosnam’s 15th club from the 2001 British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYV-csdgRv0

Not many know who caddie Miles Byrne is… but we do know he had one job.

Robert Allenby’s bar tab from Hawaii

Does this guy know how to party or what?

Dustin Johnson’s socks from his 2017 Masters fall

Image by cesarr t.

We are, of course, assuming that the staircase was one of those slippery hardwood ones.

The fire hydrant Tiger Woods’ crashed into

Caja Digital

Sorry, we had to.

Anthony Kim’s ‘AK’ belt

Sam Greenwood

Swagger on a billion.

Woody Austin’s Presidents Cup goggles

Scott Halleran

One of like three things the Presidents Cup is known for. Not sure what that says about the event.

Jordan Spieth’s divot from the 12th hole at the 2016 Masters

David Cannon

Can you frame grass? If so, probably going to need a large frame for this sod.

Martin Kaymer’s scarf thing

Hitting the slopes or playing in the WGC-Accenture Match Play? Hard to tell.

The post 13 other great golf mementos that deserve their place in history appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
On a weekend where match-play competition dominated the golf scene, the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open produced its own one-on-one showdown. Scott McCarron and Kevin Sutherland separated themselves from the rest of the PGA Tour Champions field on Sunday at En-Joie Country Club in Endicott, N.Y., sharing the lead for most of the back nine until McCarron finished birdie-birdie-birdie to close with a bogey-free 64 and win his third senior title of 2017.

Friends since their high school days in Northern California, the duo started the day at 12 under par, McCarron having shot an 11-under 61 on Saturday to jump into contention after an opening 71. Each played the opening nine holes Sunday in four under par, Sutherland holing out from 170 yards on the ninth hole for an eagle.

In search of his first PGA Tour Champions title, Sutherland took the lead with a birdie on the 12th hole, but McCarron made a birdie of his own on the 13th. Both birdied the 16th hole, putting them five strokes clear of third-place finishers John Daly, Woody Austin and Joey Sindelar.

McCarron then showed the closing skills that helped him claim his first career major, the Constellation Senior Players Championship, earlier this summer. It began when he rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th after Sutherland just missed his from 25 feet.

On the par-4 18th hole, McCarron pushed his tee shot into the right rough, but got a drop from an obstruction. After hitting his approach above a canopy of trees to 10 feet, he rolled in another birdie putt that proved decisive when Sutherland made an eight-foot birdie.

“To go low like I did that last couple days,” McCarron, 53, said afterward, “I’ve never played that kind of golf for two days.”

Sutherland, meanwhile, shot a bogey-free 65 and finished at 19 under for the tournament, a score that would have won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open every year since its inception in 2007 except one.

This year’s finish It adds to Sutherland’s enigmatic history at En-Joie. In 2014, Sutherland shot a PGA Tour Champions-record 59 during the second round at the course, only to finish T-7 in the tournament after shooting a closing 74.

For McCarron, it was fifth of his senior career after winning just three times during his PGA Tour career. He also had a notable runner-up finish to Sutherland when the two played in the championship match of the 2002 WGC-Match Play at La Costa, Sutherland winning 1 up.

This time, he pulled out the “match play” win.

“It was like we were back in high school together,” McCarron said. “It was so much fun.”

The post Dick’s Sporting Goods Open champ Scott McCarron is becoming a senior force after winning third title of 2017 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.