GC of Houston Key Fantasy Stats

Shell Houston Open

March 30th – April 2nd, 2017

Golf Club of Houston (Tournament Course)

Humble, TX

Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,441

Purse: $7 million

with $1,224,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Jim Herman

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most important stats for the Golf Club of Houston, based on data from last years Shell Houston Open, and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2017. What we do is take their rank for each stat and then add up the four catagories.
The scoring average of the field at G.C. of Houston in 2016 was 71.89, so with par being 72 that means the average score was just about par last year, making G.C. of Houston the T-22nd hardest course to score on in 2016. It’s also important to see how the weather played a factor, last year’s overcast with some showers but the wind blew 10 and 20 mph. This year no rain the first three days but they are calling for 80% thunderstorms on Sunday.  But the big factor for the players, it will be very windy over the weekend with speeds between 10 and 16 mph.

In looking at the stats for Golf Club of Houston from last year, one thing is obvious, the course is for bombers. Those that hit it longer has a big advantage since accuracy doesn’t really come into play. So for our first stat we pick Strokes Gained from tee-to-Green because this is a good barometer if a player is considered a “bomber”. Last year in his Shell Houston Open win, Jim Herman, who isn’t really considered a long driver, more in the middle of the road 8th in SG Tee-to-Green. Our second stat is Proximity to the hole, because the greens are easy (28th hardest last year) to hit, but it’s important to getting it close to the pin from the fairway. Last year GC of Houston ranked 7th hardest course to get it close to the hole at 38 feet, 8 inches. Last years winner Jim Herman mastered this stat, not only was he T-10th in greens in regulation, he was 2nd in proximity to hole Next is scrambling, if you miss the green you have to get it up and down. One of the things that the folks that run this event do is get conditions on the course to match those at Augusta National, site of next week’s Masters. One of the biggest elements of this is giving those that miss the greens the same challenges that Augusta National has, so scrambling is very important in the Shell Houston Open. It ranked 24th on Tour, but Herman was T-4th showing the importance of getting it up and down from off the green. Last is par breakers, because you have to make a lot of birdies and eagles to do well. Last year Herman ranked T-3rd in this stat because he made lot’s of birdies so you can see the importance of this and all of our stats for this week.

*Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green: The per round average of the number of Strokes the player was better or worse than the field average on the same course & event minus the Players Strokes Gained putting value.

*Proximity to Hole: Average length that a player hits from the pin with shots from the fairway.

*Scrambling: So which course is tough to get it up and down on holes players miss the greens. Since all of the area’s around the greens are mowed short, making it a lot like Augusta National it should be easier for players to getting it up and down.

*ParBreakers: The course allows a lot of birdies and eagles to be made, so parbreakers is important for the players.

Below is the average positions of the 121 players of the field of 144 that have stats from 2017:

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.

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