Liberty National Key Fantasy Stats

The Northern Trust

August 8th – 11th, 2019

Liberty National Golf Club

Jersey City, N.J.

Par: 71 / Yardage: 7,353

Purse: $9.25 million

with $1,665,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Bryson DeChambeau

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

For the third time, Liberty National is hosting the Northern Trust. It previously held the 2009 and 2013 event, plus it was the home of the Presidents Cup in 2017. Located on the western shores of New York Harbor, just 1,000 yards from the Statue of Liberty, Liberty National, opened in 2006. Built at a cost of $250 million, it sits on a formerly contaminated site on the Jersey City waterfront with spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. The course and high-end golf club which has an initiation fee of $450,000 to join, were developed by former Reebok CEO Paul Fireman and his son Dan. Three million cubic yards of earth were brought in during course construction because there could be no digging on the site and everything had to be built up. The resulting course is still relatively flat, with many holes having the feel of a Florida layout, with water hazards, and others of a links course, with fescue grasses. Its course rating of 77.7 and slope of 155 are among the highest in the New York metropolitan area.
The first year the course was used in 2009 for the Northern Trust, it was panned by the players. The worst came from Tiger Woods, who was runner-up. The owners of the course took in the criticism and after consulting players and architects and the next year went through a major renovation making extensive changes to 15 of the 18 holes. Greens were rebuilt and the high rough was shaved back and when the tour returned in 2013 many of the players liked the changes. When the Presidents Cup was played in 2017 the course received great reviews as the players said the course was more playable and fairer as a test. Because of it’s location to New York City which means lot’s of hospitality money, it was important for the PGA Tour that the players liked Liberty National.

So who does the course favor? Over the course of the two championships held, you had a sprinkling of both long and short hitters do well. If a long hitter can have his greatest week of ball control, he has a big advantage but as Gary Woodland, who finished runner-up in 2013 said it’s best to throttle back and not hit drivers on half the holes. One thing that will catch fantasy players eyes is that Tiger Woods was runner-up in both 2009 and 2013. One thing that does stick out, when Heath Slocum won in 2009 he was T-6th in greens hit and when Adam Scott won in 2013 he was T-4th in greens hit so that is a hint of what it will take to win this week. Another key for the past winners, both played the par 5s in 8 under, so we can see two ways that players can do well on the course.

One thing that the location of the course helps it is the lack of protection from wind. It’s wide open and there is no protection from the elements, so the wind does play a factor. In looking at the weather forecast for the week will be hot right around 90 each day with winds blowing around 10 mph. So the course will play fast and firm.

So with very little history to work with, we will pick three Strokes Gained category and Par Breakers to reflect the best part of a players game and to help you make a better pick.

*Strokes Gained Off-the-Tee: Able to translate in shots gained off of those that hit it far and straight off the tee

*Strokes Gained approach-the-Green: Perfect stat to see who picks up the most strokes by hitting the green and getting it close

*Strokes Gained Putting: So who saves the most strokes on the greens

*Par Breakers: A look at the percentage of eagles and birdies are made by the players

Of the 122 players in the field, 118 have stats on the PGA Tour for 2019.

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