18 Million Reasons To Smile For Hovland & Team USA Picks

The Weekly Slice / By / Updated On: November 22, 2023

Welcome to The Weekly Slice.

Let’s talk golf.

Tour Roundup

The 2022-23 PGA Tour season came to its conclusion on Sunday evening with Norway’s Viktor Hovland claiming both The Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.

A final round 63 (-7) was enough to claim a 5-shot victory despite the best efforts of Xander Schauffele who shot an 8 under par 62.

With the victory, Hovland picked up his second win in consecutive weeks, as well as total prize money of $21.6 million. Not a bad eight days of work.

The PGA Tour season is now done for a few weeks until the 2023-24 schedule starts back in a few week’s time at the Fortinet Championship in Napa.

For many players though, their season will continue on the DP World Tour, with many looking for a final push in the hope of a Team Europe Ryder Cup pick.

The tour heads to the stunning Crans Montana, Switzerland this week for the Omega European Masters.

Those European players currently not qualified will be looking for a good week to gain an automatic place in Team Europe or to hopefully impress captain Luke Donald for a pick.

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PGA Tour Season Stats

With the close of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season, here’s a few of the stats that I found interesting and may help add some reality to your golf game:

Birdie Average

I’m always a little disappointed if I’m not making 2 or 3 birdies a round, however, the tour average is only 3.65 birdies a round.

These are the best of the best in the world and they’re only making 3 to 4 birdies in a round.

Even the best birdie average, John Rahm, wasn’t making more than 5 birdies a round.

Certainly helps put it into perspective.

Driving Distance

Driving distance is a big factor in doing well on the PGA Tour.

The average on tour for the season was 299.9 yards.

Yet, 9 out of 10 of the top players in the FedEx Cup standings were longer than this, some dramatically so.

Of course, there’s exceptions like Brian Harman winning The Open Championship.

But for most, if you’re long off the tee, it’s a massive advantage.

Scrambling

Okay, so driving distance is great, but it’s not the only way to score well on a golf course.

Brian Harman led the tour in scrambling, saving a par or better 67.74% of the time.

His ability to scramble well got him a place in the US Ryder Cup team, a major title and a space at the Tour Championship.

Approaches from inside 100 yards

Inside 100 yards should be easy for the best in the world, right?

Well, not quite.

The tour average from inside 100 yards is 17′ 4″. That’s three average-height humans lying down!

Simply speaking, lower your expectations.

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USA Ryder Cup Team

Zach Johnson finalised his Ryder Cup team this week with the final six picks and let’s just say, I was a little surprised with one of the choices.

The six picks:

  • Sam Burns
  • Rickie Fowler
  • Brooks Koepka
  • Collin Morikawa
  • Jordan Spieth
  • Justin Thomas

For me, Brooks, Burns and Rickie were obvious choices.

Whatever your views on LIV Golf, you’ve got to have this season’s PGA Champ in your team.

Fowler has had a resurgent season and Burns has been consistently good, with a win at the matchplay.

Morikawa and Speith were a little less certain, but Speith is a Ryder Cup veteran and Morikawa has had a strong end to the season.

Then you’ve got Justin Thomas. Coming off one of the worst years of his golfing career.

71st in the FedEx rankings and just three top tens.

If you’re Russell Henley or Tony Finau, you’ve got to feel pretty hard done by not getting a pick. But especially if you’re Keegan Bradley, with two victories and top 10 in the FedEx Cup standings.

My thoughts are captain Johnson is edging towards experience and chemistry rather than current form. The Ryder Cup is a golf event like no other, after all.

Either way you look at it, it’s a very strong USA team. Three of the four major champions and the world number one golfer.

Something Funny

Here’s 2 minutes of Viktor Hovland doing Viktor Hovland things, enjoy:

Something Extra

Also, here’s a few of our recent articles for you to get stuck into.

Ed Welton

Founder, Editor

Ed is the founder and editor at EEE Golf. He’s been playing golf for over 20 years, competing in many top amateur events. He’s played courses all over the world and played with some of the best players in the game. His aim is to help educate people about the game of golf and give insights into the sport he loves most.

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