Now that Martha Burk has become such a non-issue that
the whole 11-months charade leading up to the Burk-Hootie Johnson Masters
throwdown seems like a comical dream, Casual Friday has kind of been
in a funk.
C'mon, let's face it. That whole issue was great debate fodder.
But now what is there? Who is the best left-hander on the PGA Tour?
Is technology ruining the game? Yawners.
There is also the whole Annika Sorenstam and her foray onto the PGA
Tour next month at the Bank of America Colonial, which is starting
to generate a heightened buzz now that the Tour is on the first leg
of the Texas swing. Seriously, has anyone given much thought to how
she might do if she were on the Tour on a regular basis?
Years ago, the PGA Tour created a stat called All Around, which is
the sum of a player's ranking in eight statistical categories such
as driving distance and accuracy and birdies per round. There are certain
flaws to the stat as not every player plays the same courses or number
of rounds. Then again, baseball stats are equally as skewed because
of the designated hitter and park dimensions.
Since 1998, Tiger Woods, without question the game's most dominant
player, has led the Tour just twice (1999, 2000) and also finished
14th (1998) and 11th (2001). This year, Woods currently ranks 10th
- his driving accuracy and sand save percentages (ranked 137th and
106th, respectively, on Tour) being his downfalls.
But there is some validity to the stat. Davis Love III, Ernie Els
and Mike Weir currently ranked one, two and three in the stat this
season and have combined for half of the Tour's 16 wins this season.
In fact, nine of this week's 10 leaders have won no fewer than three
events in their respective PGA Tour careers. Chad Campbell ranks fourth
on the list and is a non-winner.
In short, it makes for some great 19th hole fodder -- especially
when attempting to factor Sorenstam into the mix.
The LPGA Tour tracks seven of the eight statistical categories used
for the PGA Tour's All Around category, so Casual Friday whipped out
the ol' calculator and started figuring.
If Sorenstam's 2003 LPGA stats were simply moved into the PGA Tour's
statistical categories, then this is how she would fare in seven of
the categories: eagles (1 per 126 holes, tied for 48th with Andy Miller,
trails Campbell); birdies (4.785 per round, third, trails Els), scoring
(69.14, fourth, trails Weir); driving distance (280.40, 116th, trails
Carl Pettersson); sand saves (33.3 percent, 173, tied with Joe Durant,
trails Marco Dawson); greens in regulation (79.8 percent, first, ahead
of Jim Furyk); and driving accuracy (73.5 percent, 21st, trails Nick
Price).
Here is where the extrapolating gets a bit dicey. The LPGA Tour does
not compute the last category, putts per greens in regulation. Sorenstam
averages 30.43 putt per round, which is just slightly higher than her
nearest PGA Tour peer, Tom Lehman (30.31). Lehman ranks 152nd in putts
per greens in regulation, so Casual Friday, for the sake of completing
this argument, gave Sorenstam a ranking of 153.
Overall, Sorenstam has a 519 total, which would tie her with Stewart
Cink for 37th on the All Around list. Immediately in front of her would
be Durant, Mike Heinen, Brendan Pappas and Tim Petrovic (all tied for
32nd) and Aaron Baddeley (36th). Behind her are Bob Tway (37), Rocco
Mediate (39) and Fred Funk (40).
But stats can be manipulated in any number of ways to make an argument.
What ultimately will determine if Sorenstam can make the grade on the
PGA Tour is how she performs the week of the Colonial.
DOUBLE CLICK
www.usopen.com
Uh, like you have something better to do with your time in preparation
for the year's second major? The U.S. Golf Association's U.S. Open
Web site needs to be bookmarked now and viewed often in the coming
weeks as it will be continuously populated right up until the final
putt is dropped.
