Since the inception of the blog, I have done some 'ballstriking statistical rankings' on the PGA Tour based off of 'total driving', GIR and Proximity to the Cup.
Since I've been doing some statistical research, I've decided to fine tune this research as well. Here's what I've decided to do thus far.
'Advanced Total Driving'
This is a formula that factors in driving distance, Fairway % and proximity to the edge of the fairway when the drive is not in the fairway. There's a formula I've concocted for this, but the main idea is that while total driving is a decent idea, it still doesn't factor in golfers who when they miss...miss badly. To me, ballstriking is partly about precision. Nobody's perfect. We understand that. But I'm trying to figure out those who have accurate misses as well. Don't worry, I weighted distance and fairways % more than proximity to the edge of the fairway.
APPROACH PROXIMITY
Recently I've discussed the Danger Zone (approaches from 175-225 yards) extensively. However, I believe that alone does not mean the golfer is a great ballstriker. For instance, in 2010 neither Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson or Paul Casey finished well in my ballstriking statistics. I think it's safe to say that people who follow the PGA Tour closely would agree that they don't think of these three golfers as great ballstrikers. But when it comes to the Danger Zone, Johnson finished 11th, Mickelson finished 17th and Casey finished 9th in proximity to the cup.
Great in the Danger Zone, but not great at pure ballstriking.
What I did for iron shots is I concocted a formula that would look at proximity to the cup from 100-250 yard approach shots. I figured that anything less than 100 yards really isn't 'ballstriking' and is more or less short game stuff.
My formula also takes into account the percentage of shots hit from certain distances. For example, if I just did proximity to the cup without factoring in the percentage of shots from certain distances, somebody like Robert Garrigus may beat out Jim Furyk because Garrigus hits it so much longer and if he's hitting a PW in the rough from 140 yards out, he's more likely to get it close than Furyk hitting a shot out of the fairway from 190 yards out. That's not to say that power isn't a part of ballstriking, but if we were to factor power too much into 'pure ballstriking', John Daly would've been the greatest ballstriker throughout the 90's.
I will be looking for ways to better tweak the formula, but here's my revised rankings for the 2010 season. My old 2010 rankings are here http://richie3jack.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=blog&action=display&thread=1493
1…..Tom Gillis
2…..Boo Weekley
3…..Jay Williamson
4…..Chad Campbell
5…..David Toms
6…..Josh Teater
7…..John Senden
8…..Aron Price
9…..Bo Van Pelt
10…..John Merrick
11…..Zach Johnson
12…..Hunter Mahan
13…..Tim Clark
14…..Charley Hoffman
15…..Joe Durant
16…..Pat Perez
17…..Brian Gay
18…..Charles Warren
19…..Kris Blanks
20…..Jason Dufner
21…..Davis Love III
22…..Brendon de Jonge
23…..Ryan Moore
24…..Heath Slocum
25…..James Nitties
26…..Ben Crane
27…..Bill Haas
28…..Rickie Fowler
29…..Brian Davis
30…..John Mallinger
31…..Nick Watney
32…..Spencer Levin
33…..Kevin Streelman
34…..D.J. Trahan
35…..Vaughn Taylor
36…..Michael Letzig
37…..K.J. Choi
38…..Kenny Perry
39…..Jerry Kelly
40…..Jeff Quinney
41…..Scott McCarron
42…..Kevin Sutherland
43…..Robert Allenby
44…..Steve Stricker
45…..Jim Furyk
46…..Alex Cejka
47…..Dean Wilson
48…..Graham DeLaet
49…..John Rollins
50…..Omar Uresti
51…..Woody Austin
52…..Rocco Mediate
53…..Briny Baird
54…..Billy Mayfair
55…..Kevin Stadler
56…..Troy Matteson
57…..Jason Bohn
58…..Matt Kuchar
59…..J.J. Henry
60…..Cameron Percy
61…..Jonathan Byrd
62…..Chris DiMarco
63…..Mathew Goggin
64…..Lucas Glover
65…..Adam Scott
66…..Will MacKenzie
67…..Martin Laird
68…..Cliff Kresge
69…..Tim Petrovic
70…..Y.E. Yang
71…..Richard S. Johnson
72…..Garrett Willis
73…..Tom Pernice, Jr.
74…..Chris Riley
75…..Chris Couch
76…..Jeff Maggert
77…..Paul Goydos
78…..Kevin Na
79…..Ryan Palmer
80…..Charlie Wi
81…..Stephen Ames
82…..Blake Adams
83…..Chris Stroud
84…..Mark Wilson
85…..Brandt Snedeker
86…..D.A. Points
87…..Justin Leonard
88…..Scott Verplank
89…..Ben Curtis
90…..Rory McIlroy
91…..Justin Rose
92…..Jarrod Lyle
93…..Retief Goosen
94…..Carl Pettersson
95…..Nicholas Thompson
96…..Mathias Gronberg
97…..Steve Elkington
98…..Brent Delahoussaye
99…..Brian Stuard
100…..Sean O'Hair
101…..Paul Stankowski
102…..Brett Wetterich
103…..Camilo Villegas
104…..Bill Lunde
105…..Andres Romero
106…..Ricky Barnes
107…..Cameron Beckman
108…..Michael Connell
109…..Marc Leishman
110…..Johnson Wagner
111…..Webb Simpson
112…..Craig Bowden
113…..Greg Chalmers
114…..Brett Quigley
115…..Garth Mulroy
116…..Vijay Singh
117…..Robert Garrigus
118…..Skip Kendall
119…..Paul Casey
120…..Rod Pampling
121…..Steve Flesch
122…..Stewart Cink
123…..Chris Tidland
124…..Phil Mickelson
125…..Alex Prugh
126…..Bob Estes
127…..Roger Tambellini
128…..Dustin Johnson
129…..Henrik Bjornstad
130…..Jason Day
131…..Matt Jones
132…..Andrew McLardy
133…..Stuart Appleby
134…..Troy Merritt
135…..Fredrik Jacobson
136…..Rory Sabbatini
137…..Matt Every
138…..Steve Wheatcroft
139…..Jeff Gove
140…..Joe Ogilvie
141…..Geoff Ogilvy
142…..J.P. Hayes
143…..Bubba Watson
144…..J.B. Holmes
145…..Luke Donald
146…..Greg Owen
147…..Lee Janzen
148…..Ted Purdy
149…..Cameron Tringale
150…..Scott Piercy
151…..John Daly
152…..Aaron Baddeley
153…..Charles Howell III
154…..Jeff Overton
155…..David Duval
156…..Roland Thatcher
157…..Steve Marino
158…..Jimmy Walker
159…..Sergio Garcia
160…..Nathan Green
161…..Jeev Milkha Singh
162…..James Driscoll
163…..Bryce Molder
164…..Chris Wilson
165…..Justin Bolli
166…..Shaun Micheel
167…..Padraig Harrington
168…..Ryuji Imada
169…..Ernie Els
170…..Tim Herron
171…..Matt Bettencourt
172…..Trevor Immelman
173…..Michael Bradley
174…..George McNeill
175…..Steve Lowery
176…..Michael Sim
177…..Rich Barcelo
178…..Brenden Pappas
179…..Martin Flores
180…..Chad Collins
181…..Angel Cabrera
182…..Ian Poulter
183…..David Lutterus
184…..Daniel Chopra
185…..Derek Lamely
186…..Mark Calcavecchia
187…..Jerod Turner
188…..Kevin Johnson
189…..Mike Weir
190…..Brad Faxon
191…..Vance Veazey
192…..Greg Kraft
3JACK
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