What’s Changed – Zach Johnson

This week the Tour travels to Illinois for the John Deere Classic, a birdie-fest notable for the poor field it attracts in advance of next week’s Open Championship in Scotland. After winning last season, Zach Johnson has been installed as the second favorite by bookmakers and fantasy columnists, behind 2009-2011 champion Steve Stricker and ahead of Louis Oosthuizen and Keegan Bradley. This on its own is not particularly notable; past champions who also happen to be good players are considered favorites at most events, especially when the John Deere field contains only four of my top 25 players by both Z-Score and OWGR. What is particularly strange here is that Zach Johnson has been thoroughly mediocre so far this season. After a four year streak from 2009-2012 that marked him as a consistent top 25 player in the world by Z-Score (between -0.62 and -0.35 all four seasons), he’s fallen off precipitously to -0.13 over 51 rounds. Now, golfers play more poorly than normal over half seasons due to plenty of factors ranging from random variation to injury to genuine deterioration of skill. I’m not as concerned about whether Zach Johnson will continue to play well below his career average as I am interested in just why he’s playing so poorly this year and which parts of his game are responsible for the regression.

First, I will examine what made Johnson such a prolific player in past seasons, specifically focusing on 2012. This analysis will be using the Strokes Gained method, breaking down shots into Putting, Driving, Approach shots, and Scrambling shots. For this, I’ve created Strokes Gained – Driving, Strokes Gained – Approach Shots, and Adjusted Scrambling using publically available PGA Tour stats, and will use the PGA Tour’s own Strokes Gained – Putting stat. I have already explained how my Adjusted Scrambling stat is calculated; the other two will be introduced in coming weeks. For now, it’s important to know 1. the stats are measured in strokes above and below the field and 2. I try to isolate how well a golfer is performing in one area by adjusting for distance of shot, starting position, and what happens in subsequent shots.

Zach Johnson’s 2012 was a great season. He ranked 20th in the world according to my Z-Score Method, won two tournaments, earned four other top tens, and missed only a single cut. His success was driven by great putting and approach shots – he ranked 5th and 7th in those metrics, saving a total of 1.4 strokes relative to the field. His tee shots were a weakness, but cost him less than 0.1 strokes. He made up an equal number of strokes by scrambling well above-average, which combined with his great putting kept him out of bogey trouble when he missed the green. In short, he was as efficient as all but the most elite (Tiger, Rory, Adam Scott) golfers, performing well in three areas, while minimizing his losses in the weakest part of his game.

This season everything has gone off the rails. Starting with his approach shots, Johnson has fallen from 5th to barely above-average, and that’s the only part of his game that has even been above-average. He’s never rated highly in Greens in Regulation because, as a very short driver, he faces longer approach shots. Because of that it’s hard to get a sense of a decline in this area just by looking at the normally cited stats (he’s actually improved his GIR rank from 2012). In 2012, his approach shots yielded 2.72 expected birdies (sum of the probability that a birdie putt will be holed based on its distance). This figure ranked 45th on Tour, despite Zach Johnson hitting his approach shots from much further distances than most of the elite players. This year, he’s ranked only 112th.

More damaging has been his putting. Johnson was 7th on Tour in Strokes Gained – Putting in 2012, gaining 0.6 strokes on the field per round just from putting. For whatever reason, Johnson has really struggled on the greens this year and has essentially been average, losing 0.04 strokes versus the field this year. That itself is stunning. He had scored seasons of 0.38, 0.58, 0.57, and 0.60 strokes gained/round since 2009, and suddenly looks no different than the average Tour golfer at putting. I can speculate about all sorts of reasons for this decline – less practice, less preparation, age related yips, etc. – but obviously this is a huge problem. Johnson cannot return to his old form without regaining his putting stroke. Plenty of guys (Vijay, Adam Scott, Lee Westwood) are or have been great players despite not being good putters, but they’re fantastic tee-to-green players. Johnson needs to compensate for his inability to drive the ball far.

Johnson’s has struggled scrambling this year, but not to the point where it’s costing him more than a few hundredths of a stroke/round, and his driving hasn’t noticeably changed. But it’s apparent that all the decline we’re seeing from Zach this year is due to his inability to generate good looks for birdie and to putt at an elite level. I’d certainly bet on him regaining his form – he’s still only 37 and has extensive history of high level play – but I think it’s crazy to consider him a better player at this point than Keegan Bradley or Louis Oosthuizen.

Greenbrier Classic – Final Round

If we ever needed a lesson that golf is inherently random and statistics can only do so much to predict what will happen, Sunday’s final round at the Greenbrier certainly provided it. Johnson Wagner entered the final round leading Jimmy Walker by two strokes, with Jonas Blixt sitting three back. By the time Wagner was teeing off on #10 to start the back nine, Walker had not managed to close the gap at all, while Blixt had birdied #9 and #10 to get within a single stroke. From there, Blixt used several fantastic approach shots to set-up birdies, while Wagner made three crucial bogeys to fall out of the lead – handing Blixt his second PGA victory in less than a year. My analysis of the back nine will attempt to quantify strokes gained and lost on the field by each shot Wagner and Blixt made on the back nine, similar to my look at the Travelers.

What was remarkable random about the back-nine was what shots Blixt hit to set-up birdies. Blixt is fairly categorized a player very reliant on his putting for success (he was 2nd in 2012 and 47th this season). He does not hit his approach shots well, sitting nearly at the bottom in GIR, even when we account for his below average performance on tee shots. However on Sunday, Blixt’s two best shots were his approaches on #12 and #16 that set-up birdies – both worth around 3/4ths of a stroke. On the flipside, his normally sterling putting failed him on #11, #13, and #17 setting up two bogeys and depriving him of what would’ve been a decisive birdie.

On the par 5 #12, Blixt sat 108 yards from the hole after his lay-up. From there the average player hits to around 20 feet. Instead, Blixt hit a beauty to five feet, setting up a birdie that tied him with Wagner at -13. Later at the par 4 #16, Blixt was 173 yards in the fairway, a location from which the average pro hits to around 30 feet. Blixt hit an iron to nine feet, producing a make-able birdie putt that he drained to draw ahead of Wagner at -13. His approach here was his 2nd best of the day, behind the approach on #12, and his subsequent putt was his 3rd best shot.

However, along with those great approaches came three awfully poor putts which resulted in a par and two bogeys. On the long par 4 #11, Blixt missed the green, but chipped to 6 feet. PGA players make 2/3rds of those putts; Blixt not only missed but ran it three feet past, leaving a miss-able putt for bogey that he made. He hit another equally poor putt on the long par 4 #13. After laying-up, Blixt hit to 7 feet, but blew his par putt four feet past the hole. He would make the four footer for bogey. Again on the par 5 #17, Blixt was standing over a 7 footer that would’ve put him three clear of Wagner. Seven footers are 55% putts normally, so Blixt’s miss cost him over half of stroke, but at least he didn’t blow it several feet past the hole.

In total, Blixt’s back nine shots were worth: -0.44 strokes (tee shots), +1.85 strokes (approach shots), +0.48 strokes (short game), and -0.35 strokes (putts).

Johnson Wagner’s back nine was, succinctly, a disaster. He began it with a two stroke lead over Blixt that was quickly shortened to one stroke after Blixt’s birdie ahead of him on #10. At this point, no one else was any better than -11, while Wagner sat at -14. From there, Wagner bogeyed three of the next five holes and watched Blixt draw two strokes ahead of him for the win. For a guy who has been a steadily good putter (29th, 39th, and 41st in Strokes Gained in 2011-13), the flat stick failed him on Sunday. Two of his three worst shots were missed par putts inside 10 feet (on #11 and #13).

It was #15 that really sunk him though. He started #15 even with Blixt at -12. As we saw earlier, Blixt would go onto birdie #16, but Wagner would not have been in terrible position if he had parred #15 and moved on, as 16-18 aren’t difficult holes. His tee shot on the par 3 #15 was poor, ending up in the rough 14 yards from the pin. From there, PGA players bogey about half the time. Wagner blew his next shot 33 feet past the pin, leaving him a nearly guaranteed bogey. Within 15 minutes between Wagner’s bogey on #15 and Blixt’s birdie on #16, the  tournament was all but over.

For the back-nine, Wagner finished -0.23 strokes (tee shots), -0.17 strokes (approach shots), -0.71 strokes (short game), and -1.29 strokes (putts), a thoroughly miserable performance for a guy who is a PGA Tour player because of his ability to putt.

 

What’s Changed? – Billy Horschel

One of the most significant stories on the PGA Tour this year has been the emergence of Billy Horschel as one of the best golfers week in and week out.. After racking up only three top-tens in his first two largely mediocre seasons on Tour, Horschel’s earned a top-ten in seven of seventeen starts this year, missing only a single cut along the way, and earning his first Tour victory in New Orleans. His arrival to the general golf public came at the US Open where he was in the final group Saturday and finished T4.

The incredible thing about Horschel’s emergence has been how poor he played in his first two years on Tour. He entered the Tour in 2010 through Qualifying School after a brilliant collegiate career at Florida, but made only four starts due to an injury. He re-earned his card in Qualifying School again, but had a poor year (+0.14 by my Z-Score Method & only 140th on the Money List). His conditional status in 2012 only allowed him to finish 147th on the Money List (-0.12 by Z-Score for PGA and Web.com rounds), but he managed to again qualify for the Tour in Q-School. So through two full seasons, he had shown himself to be roughly PGA average. In 2013, though, he’s played to -0.50 – the 18th best performance in the world.

While it’s not completely unheard of for a player to improve as much as Horschel did, it is very rare. Horschel’s improvement from 2012 to 2013 was -0.39 standard deviations. That is the 19th largest improvement from one year to the next in the last five seasons, from a sample of over 800 pairs of seasons (I restricted my examination to golfers with 50+ rounds in each season). Many of the improvements ahead of him are from golfers with established high levels of performance regaining form, such as Jim Furyk in 2012, Adam Scott in 2010, Sergio Garcia in 2011, and Angel Cabrera  this season. Whether due to nagging injury, personal trouble, lack of focus/preparation, etc. those guys fell from performing at a high level, but were able to regain their form the next season. Other golfers went from being extremely bad (below Web.com/European Tour average), to just mediocre. Much rarer  are the genuine breakthroughs where a golfer goes from being quite average to very good. Among those ahead of Horschel, only Webb Simpson in 2011 improved from average or better to playing elite level golf.

So how is Billy getting it done? What has he improved on since last season that has allowed him to earn the top 10s and maiden victory? To examine this I’m going to use what I’ll refer to as Component Stats. These are stats measuring how well a player scrambles, drives the ball, hits approach shots, and putts. To measure performance, I’ve created three of my own stats plus I’ll be using the publicly available Strokes Gained – Putting. For the other three, I’ve already introduced Adjusted Scrambling and I’ll be introducing my Approach and Driving stats in the next few weeks. For now, just remember that the stats are measured in strokes above and below the field and try to isolate how well a golfer is performing in one area by adjusting for distance of shot, starting position, and what happens in subsequent shots.

By this method, in 2012, Horschel was only substantially better than PGA Tour average at driving – where he gained nearly half a stroke on the field. He was average at scrambling, slightly below average at putting, and slightly above average at hitting approach shots. In short, he was much like dozens of other Tour golfers who survive because they’re very good at one skill and good enough at everything else. What separates the elite from those golfers is the elite only have one weak spot in their game. Of the best 25 golfers by Z-Score in 2012, only Robert Garrigus ranked below average in more than one of the four statistical components. Only three of the top 50 (Ben Curtis and Lee Westwood also) ranked below average in more than one category. As long as Horschel could only rely on his driving, he was not going to be able to distinguish himself.

I have no particular insight into what Horschel changed in his preparation in 2013; people have credited maturity gained from working with a sports pyschologist. What I do know is that Horschel has delivered far better performances putting and hitting approach shots this season. His Strokes Gained Putting has improved from -0.09 to +0.50 strokes this season – one of the largest improvements year-to-year – and improved by almost a half a stroke on approach shots; a total improvement of a full stroke. Horschel’s driving has remained well above average, and though his scrambling has regressed by 0.20 strokes (he’s only successfully scrambling 59% of the time despite putting lights out overall and hitting from closer lies), that hasn’t hurt him much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, Horschel’s improvement has been worth 2/3rds of a stroke. A to-be-posted regression analysis shows that golfers a stroke better than PGA Tour average earn ~$65,000/tournament more than average golfers or about $1.5 million over a typical season, just to provide a financial benchmark to evaluate his improvement.

The question now is whether Horschel can maintain his performance going forward. My research has shown it’s correct to regress samples of around half a season by adding 25 rounds worth of average performance. That would expect Horschel to perform at around -0.36, equal to something like the 35th best player in the world. My weighted and regressed two year Z-Score method predicts something similar. However, if Horschel has made genuine changes to his preparation and mental approach to the game, we may not be seeing a golfer playing above his head, but rather one pushing his ceiling higher.

The Best Golfer to Never Play in a Major

Here in the middle of a stretch of four major championships in five months, it’s common to hear commentators or pundits ask who the best player to have never won a major is. We like to check guys off this list as they win, and 2013 has been a banner year as Adam Scott and Justin Rose have already eliminated themselves from the discussion with their wins at The Masters and US Open. However, this is not that interesting of a topic to talk about, largely because the answer rarely changes. The elimination of Scott and Rose this year is extremely uncommon; while many of the recent winners have been very good players, only Rory McIlroy in 2011 can really have been considered to have checked a name off the “best golfer to have never won a major” list.

More interesting, however, is who is the best golfer who has never played in a major. Obviously with the qualification criteria into the Majors universally accepting all golfers in the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, along with other criteria like accepting winners of PGA Tour events, participants in the previous year’s Tour Championship, and the top 20/50/70 on the FedEx Cup and/or Race to Dubai rankings, it is very likely that most notable and highly ranked golfers will earn a place in a major championship field. In addition, several of the events give automatic entries to winners of significant amateur events – how Matteo Manassero, Rory McIlroy, and others played their first majors. However, inevitably some talented golfers will fall through the cracks, possibly because they’ve recently earned a place on the PGA or European Tour or because they haven’t managed to earn their way in through US Open or British Open qualification.

The criterion I will use is my own Z-Score Rankings, weighted for recent performance and regressed based on how many rounds a golfer has completed in the last two years.

Until the most recent US Open, the answer to the question was most likely Billy Horschel. Horschel had put together a pair of rather mediocre seasons since earning his PGA Tour card in 2011, ranking around Tour average. However, his first five months of 2013 were superlative, including his maiden PGA Tour victory. With Horschel now eliminated from the list, let’s examine some of the candidates for the title.

First up is Canada’s Graham DeLaet. DeLaet earned his Tour card in 2010 and put together an above-average season by Z-Score, earning his 2011 Tour card with a 100th place finish on the money list. After being injured for almost all of 2011, DeLaet entered 2012 on a medical exemption and secured his 2013 card with another above-average performance. In 2013 he’s really taken off, though, culminating in a career-best 3rd at the recent Travelers Championship. His 2013 ranks 26th in the world and his weighted regressed Z-Score is -0.31 (35th in the world).

The only other reasonable candidate is Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat. Aphibarnrat earned his first European Tour victory at this spring’s Malaysian Open and has put together a very strong resume of rounds on the European Tour over the past three seasons. His weighted, regressed Z-Score is -0.22 (71st in the world), dragged down slightly because of the small number (57) of rounds I have recorded since 2011. In any case, Aphibarnrat has earned his way into The Open Championship at Muirfield next month.

DeLaet, however, still finds himself on the outside looking in. It is likely that he’ll be exempted into the PGA Championship due to his position in the OWGR top 100, as it’s extremely unlikely (impossible really) that he’ll fall out of the top 100.

Once those two are eliminated, next up is American Richard H. Lee, a back-to-back survivor of PGA Tour Qualifying School. Lee has played reasonably well in his first two seasons on Tour, sitting just inside the top 100 on my Z-Score Rankings. Lee is not qualified for either of this year’s Majors and, sitting 166th in the OWGR, looks unlikely to earn his way in. It is possible he’ll finish in the top 70 of the special August 2012-August 2013 money list that earns qualification to the PGA Championship. Most likely, Richard H. Lee will enter 2014 as the world’s best player to have never played in a Major Championship.