Matthieu Pavon takes 2024 Farmers Insurance Open
Pretty cool storyline here. DP World Tour player for the last 7 years, has caught fire over the past few months. Won his first event at the Spanish Open in October 2023. His 15th place finish in the Race to Dubai earned him PGA Tour status for 2024.
In an effort to better understand what makes a PGA Tour player earn a victory, I want to do a deeper dive into what are some of the most important statistics for the winner each week. Strokes gained will obviously play a part in this, but I want to look at bogey, and bogey+ percentage.
Let's take a look at Matthieu Pavon's Strokes Gained stats for the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open.
Stat | Rank |
SG off the tee |
36 |
SG around the green |
47 |
SG approach to green |
3 |
SG putting |
5 |
Total |
1 |
Great approach shots, and great putting did the trick at Torrey. Nothing more important than his approach into the 18th hole from 155 out of the rough to 9 ft. Then knocking in the 9 footer.
I don't have the stats on strokes gained from 155 in the rough, but my guess is that he gained well over 1 shot on the 2nd half of the 18th hole alone to pull out the victory!
Possibly a more telling stat to me is his birdie and bogey average. 21 birdies over the 4 rounds, vs. 8 bogeys. Normally I would say this amount of bogey's looks relatively high for a PGA Tour winner. Averaging 2 bogeys per round seems high for a victory. But probably not looking at the difficulty of the golf course. 8 bogeys was T10 least during the week.
No double bogeys tells us that when he got in trouble he was able to scramble and salvage. I find this super important in keeping a clear mind on the golf course.
UPDATE: My Sahith Theegala top 20 bet didn't turn out this week. But it was worth a flyer at +800 after round 1. T64 for Sahith and finished at Even par for the tournament.