Some Cool Stats From The 2018 Masters

I enjoy sports stats. Especially golf stats. For instance, the Rickie Fowler 274 (-14) at the Masters would’ve won all but six Green Jackets.

GolfDigest.com’s E.Michael Johnson posts the good ones to chat about at the water cooler.

LONG HOLES BRING BIG REWARD FOR REED

Patrick Reed’s winning 15-under-par 273 total was built almost entirely on his play on the par 5s. After playing them in 13 under for the first three days, Reed managed four pars on the three-shotters on Sunday to put him at 13 under for the week. That just narrowly missed setting the tournament mark of 15 under on the par 5s, held by Greg Norman in 1995, Tiger Woods in 2010, Ernie Els in 2013 and Phil Mickelson in 2015. Ironically, perhaps Reed was better off not matching the mark as none of those four won in that year.

A little sympathy for Rickie Fowler. The man in orange finished at 14-under-par 274 yet had to settle for second place behind Patrick Reed. To put Fowler’s fine play into perspective, his score would have been good enough to win all but six of the previous 81 Masters. The only winning scores lower than Fowler’s were Jack Nicklaus (271 in 1965); Raymond Floyd (271 in 1976); Tiger Woods (270 in 1997); Woods again (272 in 2001); Phil Mickelson (272 in 2010) and Jordan Spieth (270 in 2015).

THE BEST FIVE-YEAR START TO A MASTERS CAREER ISN’T SPIETH’S

Jordan Spieth’s record at the Masters is impressive. A win, pair of T-2s and a T-11 and a third-place showing this year. The only player with a better record in first five pro starts at Augusta National is Jack Nicklaus: three wins, a T-2 and T-15 from 1962-66. Here are the records of Spieth compared to nine of the game’s greats in their first five starts at the Masters.

Spieth has the best average finish, but Jack had the most wins (3)

Jordan Spieth: Avg 3.8  T-2, 1, T-2, T-11, 3

Byron Nelson: Avg 7.0  9, 13, 1, 5, 7

Sam Snead: Avg 10.72   18, T-31, 2, T-7, T-6

Ben Hogan: Avg 10.0 T-25, 9, T-10, 4, 2

Arnold Palmer: Avg 8.4  T-10, 21, T-7, 1, 3

Jack Nicklaus: Avg 4.0 T-15, 1, T-2, 1, 1

Gary Player: Avg 17.8  T-24, MC, T-8, T-6, 1

Tom Watson: Avg 9.2  T-8, T-33, 1, T-2, T-2

Phil Mickelson: Avg 21.2  T-34, T-7, 3, MC, T-12

Tiger Woods: Avg 6.6  1, T-8, T-18, 5, 1