Glen Abbey Key Fantasy Stats

RBC Canadian Open

July 26th – 29th, 2018

Glen Abbey G.C.

Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,253

Purse: $6.2 million

with $1,116,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Jhonattan Vegas

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most vital stats from Glen Abbey, based on data from last year’s RBC Canadian Open and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2018.
Even though this event tries to move around to different courses in Canada, Glen Abbey has been used 10 times since 1998, and with the course possibly being torn apart for houses, there is a good chance this could be the last Canadian Open to be played on it. Right now Hamilton Golf and Country Club has been named the host of the 2019 championship.

The course is Jack Nicklaus first effort by himself. It’s very well loved by PGA Tour players who find the course challenging off the tee, but easy to score. Last year the course played to a 70.37 average, almost three-quarters of a shot under par. It ranked 42nd hardest on tour. One thing that sticks out is that players have to drive it straight and the course can’t be overpowered. It has a very unusual finish as three of the final 6 holes are par 5, so scoring tends to come late. Even though four of the last six holes are the easiest on the course, the par 4, 14th was the hardest hole on the course and the 58th hardest hole on tour at 4.233 while the par 4, 17th hole which is usually really tough was under par for the first time in years at 3.942 showing that the finish isn’t a complete layup.

One thing that the players will have to worry about is the weather. In looking at the forecast for Glen Abbey every day will have a chance of rain except for Sunday which will be nice. Temperatures start off warm, it will be 80 on Thursday but as the tournament goes on more pleasant temperatures are in store as of Sunday it will only be 75 with low humidity and low winds. So the scores will probably be low.

The question is if every phase of the game will be examined at Glen Abbey? Not really, yes it’s tough off the tee but then pretty easy with greens that are true and not that tough. It’s a course that anybody that plays it will have a chance to win.

So in looking at our four categories, our first is Fairway Accuracy. It’s what makes this course tough and last year Glen Abbey ranked 13th hardest on tour, so you have to be straight to play well. Next up is Greens in Regulation, Glen Abbey ranked 27th, and you better be good with your irons to the greens. Our third stat is Strokes Gained-Putting, we chose that because Glen Abbey was relaxed in all putting stats including putting average were it ranked T-47th. So look for the good putter to do well. Last is birdie average, lot’s of birdies are made with the average being 4.31 per player which ranked 47th on tour in 2017.

Jhonattan Vegas seems to own the course He has won the last two years and in that time is 33 under par. So how did he do the last two years he won the event? In fairway accuracy, Vegas was wild compared to the others in the field, ranking T-55th in 2016 and T-53rd previous year. He did so much better in Greens hit, ranking T-3rd in 2016 and T-7th last year. In strokes gained-putting, he was 29th in 2016 and 11th last year while in birdie average he was 1st in 2016 and last year.

So I know the field isn’t the best, but this tournament has a lot of history and is played on a great course, so we will have a great finish.

*Fairway Accuracy: The percentage of time a tee shot comes to rest in the fairway

*Greens in Regulation: The percent of time a player was able to hit the green in regulation

*Strokes Gained-Putting: The number of putts a player takes from a specific distance is measured against a statistical baseline to determine the player’s strokes gained or lost on a hole.

*Birdie Average: Average number of birdies made during a round.

Here are the 125 of the 156 players from this year’s field with stats from 2018:

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