Golf Rankings for Northern Trust Open

by Chris Garosi FFToolbox.com
 

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This week's tournmanent is the Northern Trust Open played on idyllic Riviera Country Club. And it's played on just one course. Riviera is a par-71 course which plays at 7,349 yards and has been the host to a PGA Tour event since 1929.It routinely ranks as one of the tougher courses on Tour each year even though at first blush it doesn't look like it's terribly long. The greens are poa annua again this week as they were last week.

Ball Striking (BS) is a stat that is just a combination of a bunch of other stats. It combines Total Driving (which is the total ranking in Driving Distance and Driving Accuracy) and adds to that ranking the golfer's rank in GIR. The players need to have length, but also need to keep it on the course (accuracy) and get to the green in time (to score)… Especially on par 5s, so we'll look at Par 5 scoring Average (P5SA) as well as most of the top 20 players over the last three years have done most of their damage on par 5s.

Finally, we'll also add in Scrambling for those players who aren't quite accurate enough to do well in the GIR part of the Ball Striking category. If you don't hit the Green in Regulation, but you can scramble it's the same difference.

We're still looking at last season's stats to start, but we are using the current season's stats to look at players who have improved over last year and could be hidden gems.

And of course, we examine Strokes Gained: Putting and Strokes Gained: Tee to Green each week.

As always, check back on the weather Wednesday to see the final forecast. This weekend it looks like weather won't be an issue , but with some rain on Wednesday afternoon and evening, those players with early Thursday tee times may have a bit of a disadvantage until the course dries out.