Capelle On Golf

I’m a stat nut, though I try to contain myself in these posts, knowing that to some readers, snail races are of greater interest.

Still, the regular season (minus the useless Fall Series) is rapidly coming to a close and all eyes are on the FedExCup, though other meaningful titles are on the line. Like Greens in Regulation (GIR), golf’s batting average.

Tiger Woods is in thirteenth position with an average of 68.33% - a comparatively low number for him given that he’s topped .700 in eight of his first 12 seasons. To date he’s hit 615 of 900 greens, which is 15 below 70.0%. He is scheduled to play 216 more holes. So, if he hits 167 of those greens (a 77.3% clip), his average would end up at 70.1%! Baseball players would cut off a finger to cross the line from .298 to .300. I wonder if Woods even knows or cares about his GIR average.

Reaching .700 would move Woods into the top 3 based on current averages. To win the GIR title, he’s got to overtake John Senden at 70.83%. If Senden, who is playing at the Deutsche Bank, continues at his average, Tiger would have to hit 81.5% of those 216 greens (176) to overtake him. That’s an average of 14.7 per round. If he manages that, he’d likely sweep the remaining three events.

That’s not very likely, but I’ll be watching the stats anyway just to see if Woods can mount a GIR charge. Now that you know will you be watching as well?