How PGA Tour Data Impacts Money
It pays to be a good approach player on the PGA Tour.
Every Monday, I write a newsletter breaking down the business in golf. Welcome to the 132 new Perfect Putt members who have joined us since last Monday. Join 4,166 intelligent and curious golfers by subscribing below.
Hey Golfers —
The PGA Tour season has ended with Rory McIlroy winning the Tour Championship and the $18 million first-place prize. Of note — $17 million in cash and $1 million placed into a tax-deferred retirement account.
Here are the Top Ten money list leaders; keep in mind that this does not include bonuses:
Scottie Scheffler — $14,046,910
Cameron Smith — $10,107,897
Will Zalatoris — $9,405,082
Patrick Cantlay — $9,369,566
Rory McIlroy — $8,654,566
Xander Schauffele — $7,427,299
Sam Burns — $7,073,986
Matt Fitzpatrick — $7,012,672
Justin Thomas — $6,829,576
Cameron Young — $6,520,598
247 players cashed checks on the PGA Tour this year. Ranging from thousands of dollars to millions of dollars.
Scottie Scheffler — $14,046,910
Matt Every — $7,695
What were the average PGA Tour earnings this year?
$1,621,221.
The median value is typically a better baseline than an average. The median PGA Tour earnings this year?
$1,026,158.
With this data — it is important to provide context. Here is a breakdown of the last five years — average and median PGA Tour yearly earnings (excluding 2020 due to COVID-19).
Here are the increases from the 2017 season.
Average PGA Tour earnings — 27%
Median PGA Tour earnings — 30%
But what is the relationship between performance data and the money PGA Tour players make?
I teamed up with my friend Will Crowley to look at Strokes Gained data and the correlation to money made on the PGA Tour. To eliminate the effect the number of tournaments played might have on earnings, we will use money per event to measure earnings in our analysis.
A quick refresher on Strokes Gained data — six categories roughly mirror the game's different aspects.
Total
Tee to Green
Off the Tee
Approach the Green
Around the Green
Putting
We started with the 125 top players based on money earned per event and were able to combine all Strokes Gained data for 90 total players throughout the regular season. Check out the raw data here.
If we take out the Strokes Gained Total statistic — Strokes Gained Approach has the highest correlation to money-made-per-event (.52), with Strokes Gained Off the Tee (.37) coming in second. The chart below shows the correlation coefficient scores of the various Strokes Gained metrics and money earned per event.
In simpler terms — these are the most important Strokes Gained categories in order (we did not analyze Tee to Green).
Total
Approach
Off the Tee
Putting
Around the Green
Let’s provide more context to back this up.
We looked at Strokes Gained Approach, and Strokes Gained Around the Green for the last five years. We took each category's median yearly earnings of the top ten players.
The differences are enormous — Strokes Gained Approach is definitively more important than Strokes Gained Around the Green in terms of annual money won.
So, where do the top 30 players land in the Strokes Gained categories?
We analyzed three variables:
Money won per event
Strokes Gained Approach
Strokes Gained Off the Tee
The larger the bubble — the more money won.
You will notice a cluster of nine players that fall in a similar position. These players are .5 strokes better in Approach and marginally better Off the Tee than the Tour Average.
Cameron Smith is a significant outlier — he ranks 134th on the PGA Tour Off the Tee. But he ranks 3rd on Approach the Green.
While this analysis is based on a relatively small sample size and by no means a perfect methodology — the chart does validate that hitting it far and hitting it close is a reliable path to collecting cash in the 2022 PGA Tour season.
Thanks to Will Crowley for suggesting this topic and pulling the data together.
Have yourself a great Monday. I will be coming to you next Tuesday due to the Labor Day Holiday.
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