Spieth's statistics hard to figure out

His win at Harbour Town Golf Links a real head-scratcher

Many of us are familiar with the phrase “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” It is a semi-frequently used quote to doubt the validity of statistical analysis. While the term was used in the writings of American author Mark Twain, he has always attributed it to longago British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. No one is really sure who originally came up with the phrase.

Golf's modern era has been heavily driven by statistics.

In the post-World War II era, the only statistical evidence we seemed to know regarding the likes of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead was their score, how many greens they hit in regulation, and how many putts they had. In the early 1980s, the PGA Tour recognized journeyman Gary McCord for leading the tour in putting. Upon accepting his reward, McCord contended that the reason he was atop the number-of-putts category was due to the fact that he missed more greens that anyone else and spent his season chipping it close and making the par putts. Same as a two-putt par. Fewer putts.

Nowadays we have a bevy of statistics that the tour and ShotLink keep up with. There are multiple Shots Gained categories that compare each individual pro to the rest of the golfers in the field. There is a Shots Gained tee to green, Shots Gained putting, Shots Gained approaching the green, Shots Gained around the green, Shots Gained off the tee, and Shots Gained total. These stats go along with some of the more traditional golfing numbers such as driving distance, driving accuracy, greens in regulation, putts, greenside saves, and sand saves. The tour also counts birdies, eagles and overall scoring average.

Last week's RBC Heritage Tournament at the Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina was one of those classic examples of the statistics not necessarily adding up to the end results. Jordan Spieth, a threetime major champion, won for the 13th time in his relatively young career, defeating reigning Fed Ex Cup titlist Patrick Cantlay in a one-hole playoff. Spieth has struggled with his game over the past four years and has had some real issues with getting his swing under control. He has always been able to hang in there as a top-notch pro because he is oftentimes considered to be the best putter of the modern era, following in the footsteps of the likes of Bobby Locke, Billy Casper, Dave Stockton, Brad Faxon and Ben Crenshaw.

Yet regardless of winning for the second consecutive year on an Easter Sunday, Jordan Spieth's golf statistics are a total head-scratcher from my distant perspective.

I look pretty unsound in the world of golf journalism when I talk about how good a putter Jordan Spieth is or can be. At this moment in the 2021-22 PGA Tour's wraparound season, Jordan is the 179th-ranked putter on tour according to the Shots Gained folks. Yes, I know we occasionally see a putting hiccup from Spieth, such as the missed 18-incher he had Saturday afternoon on the final hole. The ball horse-shoed around the cup and didn't drop. Nonetheless, I find

it hard to believe that the 125 exempt golfers on tour alongside another 53 golfers with non-exempt status have had a better putting year than Jordan Spieth. Yikes!

Spieth has spent an extended amount of time searching for his swing. From his 2017 British

Open victory to his 2021 win at last April's Texas Open, Spieth had stayed away from victory lane. He still was regarded highly enough to play on Ryder Cup and President's Cup squads for Team USA, but something was amiss with his swing and oftentimes Jordan seemed lost on the course. He has acknowledged that he spent an inordinate amount of time working of the looseness of his swing, and perhaps that is the reason for his putting woes. Nonetheless 179th in Shots Gained putting is still pretty hard to fathom.

Some of Spieth's other statistics are as baffling as well. For instance, he is the 37th-longest driver on tour, averaging 306 yards off the tee. While he is longer than most of his tour brethren, he is equally inaccurate off the tee, ranking 126th in driving accuracy. With all that time spent in the rough, you'd think he would spend a lot of his time punching it out back to the fairway, or worse yet, dropping alongside the water hazard and taking his penalty stroke. Yet Spieth is 24th on tour in hitting greens in regulation. His Shots Gained from tee to green put him in 19th place and his added ability to scramble when he doesn't hit the green puts him in 24th place. Add it all up and you also get the most confusing stat of all. Jordan Spieth, who is in 11th place in Fed Ex Cup points, is ranked 95th on tour when it comes to scoring average.

Speaking of winning, eight of the top 10 golfers in the world golf rankings in January of 2022 have yet to win a tournament this year. Only Sam Burns in the USA and Viktor Hovland in Europe have won tourneys. Of course, with all the wins being piled up by the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Cam Smith, there haven't been as many chances for other professionals to secure those victories. Is winning about a hot week or is winning about a state of mind?

Last week, Jordan Spieth led all pros at Harbour Town in one crucial stat. He was ranked No. 1 last week in Shots Gained from tee to green. That same formula was a success in victory for Sam Burns at Sanderson Farms, Joaquin Niemann at Los Angeles,

and Sungjae Im at Las Vegas earlier this season. While it sort of makes sense that hitting fairways, hitting greens and avoiding big numbers is the way to prepare yourself to win a tournament, you still have to make your share of putts to win. Does all this mean that we need to rethink that old-time golf phrase, “Drive for show and putt for dough?” Or could it be that because everyone is gifted and talented on the American PGA Tour and the European Tour, winning comes down to putting it together for just four days? Then again, how exactly do we explain what is going on with Scottie Scheffler? Are we able to define golfing greatness with statistics?

The big positive coming out of all this is that for one week, Jordan Spieth was better than 143 other golf professionals. Perhaps this is a good omen for Jordan. After all, we're only about three weeks away from the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa. Spieth has a Masters, a U.S. Open and a British Open to his credit. For the 28-yearold from Austin, Texas, a win at Southern Hills in May would be the final piece of the quadrangle when it comes to golf's career grand slam. Or could all of this be simply a case of “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.”