Houston Open 2022 HP

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If golf research were sexual...you'd be rounding 2nd base after this.

Here are a few key things to know that may not have been covered on the podcast enough. Keep these in mind when narrowing down your bets and/or player pool.

Memorial Park Golf Course is one of the hardest non-major events on Tour. One key stat to consider is bogey avoidance and scoring relative to par on tough courses. 

Per DataGolf, Memorial Park Golf Course is the prototypical average PGA Tour course. If you look at their course fit tool it overlays perfectly to the average PGA Tour course.

Per DataGolf, Memorial Park is the 4th hardest course on Par 5’s. Average score to par on Par 5’s were -0.13 for both 2021 and 2022.

Per DataGolf, Memorial Park ranks as the 5th hardest course for difficulty around-the-green from the fairway. It also ranks the 5th hardest (not including Major Championships) course for difficulty around-the-green from the rough. With that said, it does appear that 2021 was much more difficult, on these stats, than it was this past year.Scheffler shot the course record here with a 62.The average GIR % over the last 2 years is 63.4%. That's the 13th lowest on the PGA TOUR since 2015, excluding Major venues.

Memorial Park has only 19 bunkers and instead the greens are surrounded by short grass and slopes.

Per DataGolf, Memorial Park ranks towards the bottom on their predictive course history model. With that said, the Top 10 SG Performance vs Expectation (min of 6 rounds) include: Adam Long, Kevin Tway, Sepp Straka, Kelly Kraft, Kramer Hickok, Sam Burns, Mackenzie Hughes, Scott Piercy, Russell Knox, and Aaron Wise. Others that have only played this four times include: Robert Streb, Joel Dahmen, Hideki Matsuyama, Chris Stroud, and Max McGreevy.   

Over the past two years, close to 2/3rds of the approach shots come from over 150 yards. It is important to target golfers who are above average on mid to long irons. 

Memorial Park contains Bermuda grass throughout. The Top 10 golfers (DK Scoring) on long courses with Bermuda grass are: Jason Day, Keith Mitchell, Justin Rose, Charley Hoffman, Luke List, Gary Woodland, Ryan Palmer, Hideki Matsuyama, Aaron Wise, and  Russ Henley. The Bottom 10 include: Kelly Kraft, Tyler Duncan, Mackenzie Hughes, Garrick Higgo, Henrik Norlander, James Hahn, Paul Haley II, Justin Lower, Russell Knox, and David Lingmerth. 

DataGolf's optimal DK lineup is Scottie Scheffler, Taylor Pendrith, Keith Mitchell, Dean Burmester, Brendan Steele, and Gary Woodland.

DB's LIV GOLF Media Experience & Rumors Heard + Torching Matt Wolff w/ HIs Best Friend, Austin Eckroat + Shart Prevention on the Course

DB & Geoff Fienberg discuss the 1st year of LIV GOLF and define success, plus DB recaps his experience in Miami as media compared to the typical PGA TOUR media experience. DB shares rumors heard about the 2023 LIV GOLF season and more.

The Austin Eckroat interview is a real treat. Austin's opened up and let his hair down a little as he threw some major shade at Matt Wolff and told us about Matt's texts after LIV events. Austin discusses the importance of shart prevention on the course and the courses he's looking to notch his 1st PGA TOUR victory on. Austin's gonna be a force...don't miss this one.

1. Strokes gained OTT leaders from last 24 rounds: 1. Scheffler 2. Mitchell 3. Pendrith 4. Montgomery 5. Steele 6. Champ 7. Finau 8. Woodland 9. Thompson 10. Clark2. Rounds gained % putting leaders on bermuda grass: 1. Straka 2. Taylor 3. Long 4. Hadley 5. Ryder 6. Burns 7. McCarthy 8. ZJ 9. Redman 10. English3. Strokes gained T2G leaders in the last 3 calendar months: 1. Scheffler 2. Day 3. Hodges 4. Griffin 5. Thompson 6. NeSmith 7. Si Woo 8. Straka 9. Burmester 10. Henley4. On courses >7400 yards, average to difficult scoring & bermuda greens, your top 10 in total strokes gained: 1. Woodland 2. Rose 3. Matsuyama 4. Day 5. Mitchell 6. Hoffman 7. List 8. English 9. Palmer 10. Henley5. Top 10 JUST strokes gained ball striking on courses >7400 yards, average to difficult scoring, & difficult to hit fairways: 1. Woodland 2. Matsuyama 3. Steele 4. Rose 5. Cink 6. Molinari 7. Streelman 8. Hoffman 9. Grillo 10. Palmer6. Top 10 in birdies or better gained the last 50 rounds: 1. Finau 2. Scheffler 3. Griffin 4. Grillo 5. Burns 6. Montgomery 7. Mullinax 8. McNealy 9. Jaeger 10. Rose7. Top 10 GIR's gained at MP: 1. Wise 2. Laird 3. Burns 4. Frittelli 5. Palmer 6. Whaley 7. Long 8. McNealy 9. Straka 10. Hoffman8. Top 10 in GIR's gained the last 12 rounds: 1. NeSmith 2. Day 3. Wu 4. Scheffler 5. Lipsky 6. Laird 7. Burmester 8. Noren 9. Steele 10. Higgo9. The two highest approach shot distribution buckets this week are 200+ & 175-200, your top 10 in proximity: 1. Duncan 2. Champ 3. Wise 4. Steele 5. Riley 6. Streelman 7. Tarren 8. Lee 9. Thompson 10. NeSmith10. Top 10 projected points per salary dollar (good values): 1. Schefler 2. Burmester 3. Steele 4. Mitchell 5. Woodland 6. Bramlett 7. Pendrith 8. Hodges 9. Wise 10. Finau

Another small dollar victory last week, and that makes 3 in a row where we've won incremental amounts, so let's get the big dollars this week!Burns - Average fairways hit here the last 2 years has been 7. Burns is 108th in the field in Driving Accuracy over the last 50 roundsDay - He's hot. He's clickin on all cylinders right now. He's got an early tee time and the softest conditions of the tournament. 1 under should happen.Henley over Champ in BoB is gonna hit 7 times out of 10 right now given Henley's massive advantage in form and course performance at Memorial.Wise over Svensson is also a no brainer given how Svensson has somewhat fallen to benign form levels and Wise has stayed hot.Si Woo over Malnati scares me a touch as he's so volatile, but both men have only missed the cut here in the past. Si Woo's just a far better player with such a higher birdie floor given his aggressive nature. Peter wins this only if he makes 150' of putts and takes advantage of his earlier tee time.

Korn Ferry Tour Graduates (now PGA TOUR Rookies) You NEED TO KNOW!

Name : Paul Haley II

Order of Merit or Finals Ranking : 3rd order of merit 

From : Dallas, Texas

Plays out of : Dallas, Texas

College : Georgia Tech 

KFT Season: 1 win / 10 top 25 / 6 top 10 / 2 runner up

Driving Distance & Rank : 296.9 (128th)

Driving Accuracy % & Rank : 71.30% (7th)

GIR% & Rank : 71.51% (30th) 

Putting Average Rank : 24th 

Scrambling Rank : 17th

Birdie or Better % & Rank : 24.79% (23rd)

OTHER Pertinent Info : Paul's a 34 year old journeyman with 5 cuts in 23 PGA TOUR events over the course of his 11 year pro career with a previous trip to the PGA TOUR already back in the day. He started out this season well with a T12 at The Fortinet. His best finish other than that was the Wyndham back in 2013 with a T29. He's a 2x KFT winner over his career and nearly finished #1 on the overall order of merit last season. He's an accurate plodder type. He doesn't hit the ball far at all, but he hits plenty of fairways and his short game is tight.