🏌🏻 Fact Check: Player Of The Year

Good morning. Hope the winter storm isn’t a dampener to your weekend plans (if you’re in the East). While the storm is likely to drop snow, rain and sleet… The Sentry continues to give us a lot of talking points.

Find out how things panned out on Day 2. Meanwhile, there has been a lot of debate over the fairness of the Player of the Year awards - we crunch the numbers for you.

That, and the golfers who could be your best bets in 2024.

Make yourself comfortable and let's explore everything golf in the weekend edition of Golf Reporter.

⛳ This day in history: On this date, in 1960, Paul Azinger was born in Massachusetts. He won 12 times on the PGA Tour, including one major, the 1993 PGA Championship. He spent almost 300 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between 1988 and 1994.

ALBATROS
Scheffler, Hatton and Todd Dominate

World No 1 Scottie Scheffler has taken the lead after the second round of The Sentry and Day 1 leader Sahith Theegala drops to T9. Tyrrell Hatton sits T2 after a crazy day, scoring 11-under 62.

Here's everything that you need to know from Day 2.

Scottie Scheffler Takes Lead

Scheffler shot 9-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Tyrrell Hatton, Sungjae Im and Brendon Todd. He has registered a 36-hole total of 16-under 130, which marks the first time that Scheffler has posted 16-under par or better through two rounds.

Hatton's Mad Putting Round

Hatton equaled his career low round on Tour with a second-round 11-under 62. He made three birdies and an eagle on his last four holes.

Historically Low-Scoring

The field of 59 recorded the lowest scoring average in 101 rounds since Kapalua became an annual stop in 1999. The scoring average of 67.4 in the second round on the par 73 layout broke the previous record of 67.7 in the third round last year.

Leaderboard After Round 2

1. Scottie Scheffler: -16
T2. Tyrrell Hatton: -15
T2. Brendon Todd: -15
T2. Sungjae Im: -15
T5. Chris Kirk: -14
T5. Viktor Hovland: -14
T5. Collin Morikawa: -14
T5. Byeong Hun An: -14
T9. Matt Fitzpatrick: -13
T9. Akshay Bhatia: -13
T9. Sahith Theegala: -13
T9. Jordan Spieth: -13
T9. Brian Harman: -13
T9. Sepp Straka: -13

Watch Highlights of Round 2

TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Player Of The Year Awards Botched? Fact Check

Scottie Scheffler was voted the PGA Tour Player of the Year 2023 over John Rahm while Eric Cole won the Rookie of the Year award ahead of Ludvig Aberg. Did they deserve to win or was the voting process botched? 

Let us take a look at what the numbers say.

Scheffler vs Rahm

Rahm won four titles compared to Scheffler's two last season and it might seem that the Spaniard should easily have been the winner. But, there's more to it.

Scheffler led the tour in strokes gained/overall (2.34) and SG/tee-to-green (2.62). The latter mark was the second-best figure in the PGA Tour’s strokes-gained era, bested only by Tiger Woods in 2006 (2.98).

Rahm was fifth on tour in strokes gained/overall, sixth in SG/tee-to-green and third in scoring average.

Scheffler was more consistent than Rahm. He had 14 top-fives, including a runner-up at the PGA Championship and third-place finish at the US Open to go with those two wins.

Rahm had a poor time during the latter half of the season. He registered only three top-10s in his final ten starts.

Cole vs Aberg

Ludvig Aberg won one title and finished runners-up once. Cole finished runners-up twice and failed to win any title.

Aberg finished inside the top ten in 36 percent of his starts and 73 percent of the time he was in the top 25. Comparatively, Cole was in the top ten 19 percent of the time, and 38 percent of his starts ended with top 25 finishes.

In this case, the numbers clearly seem to suggest that Aberg is slightly ahead and should have been the winner.

BIRDIE
10 Golfers To Bet On In 2024

Here are ten golfers who will likely make you money this season.

Ludvig Aberg: In the first three months since turning pro, Aberg has secured victories on both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, and he was part of a successful Ryder Cup team. He is exceptional with the driver, ranking second in strokes gained/off the tee last season. And he definitely knows how to carve out wins.

Vincent Norrman: Norrman captured two wins in 2023—one at the Barbasol Championship and another at the Irish Open. He’s a menace off the tee, gaining 0.54 strokes per round in that department. He should be a contender in weaker fields.

Justin Thomas: Thomas showed some much-needed consistency in the latter half of last season. He notably gained 9.29 strokes while putting during the stretch from the Wyndham Championship to the Hero World Challenge.

Eric Cole: The Rookie of the Year 2023 had seven top-six finishes this past season. He gained 1.13 strokes per round over 128 rounds, the sixth most of any golfer last season with at least 100 rounds.

Tom Kim: Kim is only getting better with time. He’s quietly putting up elite stat profiles on a consistent basis. Wins are around the corner and your patience will be rewarded.

Check out the complete list.