The 2018 Ryder Cup has 17 of the world's top 20 golfers in the field. We wanted to find out which of those players at Le Golf National have a statistical advantage that might give their side an edge.
To do that, we turned to the strokes-gained statistic. It was developed by Columbia business professor Mark Broadie and has revolutionized golf metrics. Here's an excellent description of how strokes-gained works, in case you are not familiar with it.
We compiled six strokes-gained measures from this PGA Tour season: off the tee, approach, around the green, putting, tee to green and total strokes gained, and ranked each player against the 24 golfers in the Ryder Cup. Then, we totaled all of their rankings across the six categories. So, if one player ranked first in three categories and second in three, their total would be nine (1+1+1+2+2+2). Then we ranked the players by those totals. The lower the total, the higher the ranking.
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One caveat: These numbers are only from PGA Tour events, and thus are not a complete representation of a player's skill this year. Still, it's good way to measure who's most on-form headed into this year's event.
Here are the top nine players in this year's Ryder Cup, according to our ranking:
9: Tony Finau — U.S.
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — 0.547 (10)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.463 (11)
Strokes gained around the green (rank) — 0.231 (11)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — 0.16 (14)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.24 (11)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 1.4 (8)
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8: Francesco Molinari — Europe
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — 0.727 (5)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.713 (5)
Strokes gained around the green (rank) — 0.245 (10)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — -.44 (24)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.684 (2)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 1.244 (13)
7: Tommy Fleetwood — Europe
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — 0.552 (9)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.381 (15)
Strokes gained around the green (rank) — 0.31 (7)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — 0.25 (11)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.243 (10)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 1.493 (7)
6: Bryson DeChambeau — U.S.
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — .591 (8)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.627 (6)
Strokes gained around the green (rank) — 0.146 (18)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — 0.3 (9)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.365 (6)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 1.664 (4)
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5: Rory McIlroy — Europe
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — 0.712 (6)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.304 (18)
Strokes gained around the green (rank) — 0.338 (5)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — .167 (13)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.354 (7)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 1.521 (6)
4: Tiger Woods — U.S.
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — 0.012 (22)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.987 (1)
Strokes gained around the green (rank) — .368 (4)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — 0.23 (12)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.366 (5)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 1.597 (5)
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3. Justin Thomas — U.S.
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — 0.407 (12)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.917 (2)
Strokes gained around the green (rank) — .289 (8)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — 0.316 (8)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.613 (3)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 1.929 (3)
2: Justin Rose — Europe
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — 0.594 (7)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.36 (16)
Strokes gained around the green (rank): 0.434 (3)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — .577 (4)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.388 (4)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 1.964 (2)
1: Dustin Johnson — U.S.
Strokes gained off tee (rank) — 1.002 (1)
Strokes gained approach (rank) — 0.831 (4)
Strokes gained around the green (rank) — .148 (16)
Strokes gained putting (rank) — .371 (5)
Strokes gained tee to green (rank) — 1.981 (1)
Strokes gained total (rank) — 2.352 (1)
