The 2018 PGA tour wrapped up a few weeks ago with the FedEx Cup championship. Let’s take a look back at the past year and what we have learned:
- BETTER WITH AGE
The game appears to be becoming a young man’s game – more on that later – but Rose is throwing a monkey wrench in that statement with an impressive commitment to improvement. The golfers desire to keep getting better at the game, even with a load of money in the bank and a U.S. Open trophy and Olympic gold medal at home, is inspirational.
Rose climbed to the top of the FedEx Cup standings and world ranking at 38 years gold. This father of two is excelling at a game that is dominated by much younger players like Rahm, Reed and Thomas. He’s the third-oldest FedEx Cup champion. The four previous FedEx Cup champions were on average only 25 years old. He’s also the third-oldest player to reach No. 1 in the world ranking for the first time.
61 percent of his finishes were in the top, the highest percentage this season. Keep in mind that the only other tour player to finish over 50% of their starts in the top 10 was Dustin Johnson.
How did Justin Rose accomplish this? With a well-rounded game. He was the only player to finish in the top 30 in all four Strokes Gained statistics: Off-the-Tee (14th), Approach-the-Green (29), Around-the-Green (7) and Putting (17). He rose more than 100 spots in the Strokes Gained: Putting standings since last season, one of the biggest single-season gains in the history of that metric.
- BROOKS’ BIG HAUL
Yes, Justin Rose won the FedExCup. Brooks Koepka will likely win the PGA TOUR’s Player of the Year Award. Winning two majors should pretty much lock that up for him.
Interesting golf fact to impress your friends with: Wayne Levi won Player of the Year Award in 1990, even though he won no majors and someone else won two. Wayne Levi won 4 tournaments and Nick Faldo won both the Masters and British Open. It’s highly doubtful that Koepka will suffer the same fate, especially since no one else won more than three times, and with none of the three timers winning a major.
It’s been a great year or two for Koepka. He has four PGA TOUR titles. Three of them are majors.
Last year’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills was a large, modern golf course that was perfect for his game. This year at Shinnecock, showed that Koepka’s game more than just his power. His short game kicked his game up a notch down the stretch. Let’s not forget the field that he beat for the PGA Championship……. All of this while missing the Masters this year, due to wrist injury!
Don’t forget that even though the PGA Tour season may be over, yours doesn’t have to be! Fall is a great time to enjoy the cooler weather and get out on any of the 80+ Myrtle Beach golf courses for a Fall Golf Package – give us a call or book your Myrtle Beach tee time online!
We’ll continue with more things we’ve learned from 2018 with our next blog post – stay tuned!
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