Capelle On Golf

2008 Masters Coverage - thru 4/15

You would think that the coverage of a premiere event like the Masters would include the stats we fanatics covet. Right? When the Chargers were in the playoffs, for example, I could know in seconds if LaDainian Tomlinson had gained 32 yards on 6 carries through the first minute of the second quarter. I could cite similar examples for other major league sports.

Golf should offer detailed coverage like this for its premiere events. I proceeded to PGA Tour.com, knowing that history was not on my side. I found a link to Masters Coverage and got that sick feeling that I’ve grown accustomed to in seasons past. The PGA Tour, with its computers and their army of workers, has ceded control of the stats to the Masters.

I clicked on this link:

http://www.majorschampionships.com/masters/2008/scoring/

Great. A leaderboard. So far so good.

I clicked on Heath Slocum’s name and discovered his card. Now I’ve got the how many part of the equation. But what about the how? Where are the super critical GIR stats that will tell me if he’s hitting the ball great to be -3 through eight holes, or if he’s lucked his way into six one-putts? Not there.

Needless to say, there was no information on fairways hit, putting, driving distance, or sand saves (which the tour should change to the more inclusive scrambling). No, there was nothing except a scoring recap of birdies, pars, bogey, etc. – nothing to that would indicate how Slocum had arrived at his score.

The lack of a statistical recap is nothing short of preposterous! It is high time that the PGA Tour and the majors combine forces so we can get as good, if not better, coverage at the majors on line as we do at the run of the mill tour events.