Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo mentioned several times how, at only 6,973 yards, Harbour Town Golf Links is short by today's standards. It would be all but extinct if it were not for its exceptionally narrow, pine tree-lined fairways and tiny, well protected greens. It has been 15 years since I played it and I believe I recognized many of the featured trees - but they are taller, more robust and even more in play. It is one of the few top golf courses that I have played in which hitting the fairway in no way guaranties an unimpeded shot at the green.
If there were a course designed for Jim Furyk, this is it. Furyk is a consistently straight - not long - driver, an accurate iron player, has a great short game and is a competitive - if not streaky - putter. Jim was all of that this week, but on the good side of the putting streak - a bounce back of sorts from Augusta. He averaged only 11 GIR's, well below the ShotByShot Winner's Profile of 13+, but this is due to the extremely small targets. How small? Jim's average putting distance when on the GIR was 17 feet. This is 3 feet less than our Winner's Profile, and a significant difference cumulatively over his total 44 GIR's.
Jim secured his victory on and around the greens. Around them, he averaged 4.6 feet from the hole with 32 Chip/Pitch shots. I was surprised to note that this is not as close on average as our Winner Profile, but this was due to a couple of difficult shots that could not be hit close. What is important is that he had 32 chances (almost twice the average for a Winner @ 17 shots) and Saved 27 (84% vs. 71% for other Winners).
Another skill that Jim Furyk showed was his distance control on the greens. A few years ago I did a putting distance control study for which I collected the following data from ShotLink on theTop 5 PGA Tour players for all putts starting at 15 feet or greater:
Average Lag Distance: Total feet of all finishing distances divided by # of attempts.
Average Lag %: Total of finish distances divided by total of all start distances.
% Distance Errors: Lag putts that did not finish with 10% of the start distance or 3 feet.
2006 Top-5 Jim Furyk, Harbour Town
Avg. Lag Distance: 2.3 feet 1.4 feet
Average Lag %: 7% 6.6% (smaller greens = shorter start distances)
% Distance Errors: 9% 3%
I recommend that amateurs strive to lag putts within a 10% zone (50 feet to 5, etc.) mainly because the math is considerably easier. The last thing we need when faced with a difficult lag opportunity is to be distracted by an even more difficult math problem. You might try recording your finish distances for a few rounds to see how you match up.
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