It is a very nice story to see Kevin Streelman win after six years and 152 prior tries. Further, he did not back into it but instead finished the event in grand style, all the while knowing exactly what he needed to do to beat the score posted before he even teed off.
As I like to do, I collected and analyzed his Shot By Shot data and was slightly taken back by the fact that he failed to reach either of my Winner's benchmarks. Something I said or wrote, Kevin? Why would you go out of your way to make me look bad? Perhaps he has not read my blog and was simply unaware of what it takes to win on the PGA Tour? If so, no wonder it took him six years.....
Could there be another reason why my work did not measure up this week? What if the course were just that much more difficult, thus pulling the "bars" down? This could be, and having played the course, I can attest to the tight, tree-lined fairways, ample water hazards and severe greens. But how to quantify the difficulty relative to the other nine courses played on Tour this year? Let me count the ways:
1. USGA Course Rating: [Forget Slope rating as it is geared to the bogey golfer.] The Copperhead's back tees rank 2nd most difficult @ 76.8 behind Torrey Pines @ 78.2. The average of all ten courses hosting events this season is 75.7 The easiest: PGA West @ 74 - no wonder Brian Gay won at -25. OK, I accept this as a fairly good measure. However, having served on a local golf course rating committee, in order to completely understand the rating process, I learned that there can be regional discrepancies in outcome.
2. Average Score for the Field: This number reflects the course's inherent difficulty as well as the playing conditions during the week of the tournament. Bingo! The Copperhead field recorded the highest average score @ 72.2. Further, the weather conditions were not bad. The Plantation course at Kapalua was 2nd @ 72.1 (High winds caused the 1st round to be cancelled and dramatically influenced play throughout.) The average for all ten courses was 70.8 and the easiest, again, PGA West @ 68.8.
OK, let's agree that the Copperhead course is and was playing hard enough to lower the proven statistical benchmarks for PGA Tour Winners - WHEW!
Oh, one more thing that Kevin Streelman did to insure his victory - not a single Driving ERROR on a course where these errors were very easy to come by. No wonder Jim Furyk calls Copperhead "...his favorite course in the Florida swing." It's driving difficulty not only levels the playing field, it tilts it in his favor.
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