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PGA TOUR: Cameron Champ leads Fall Swing’s most dominant players

By Bill Felber

ST SIMONS ISLAND, GEORGIA - NOVEMBER 18: Cameron Champ of the United States smiles on the first green during the final round of the RSM Classic at the Sea Island Golf Club Seaside Course on November 18, 2018 in St. Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
ST SIMONS ISLAND, GEORGIA - NOVEMBER 18: Cameron Champ of the United States smiles on the first green during the final round of the RSM Classic at the Sea Island Golf Club Seaside Course on November 18, 2018 in St. Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Charles Howell III RSM Classic win
Charles Howell III of the United States shakes hands with Patrick Rodgers of the United States after making his putt on the 18th hole in the second playoff of the final round to win the RSM Classic at the Sea Island Golf Club Seaside Course on November 18, 2018 in St. Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Finding a better method – the Margin of Dominance

Howell recently won the RSM Classic at Sea Island, Ga., beating Patrick Rodgers in a playoff. His three other fall tour showings included a tie for fifth at the CIMB and a tie for 19th at the CJ Cup. But he also missed the cut at the Mayakoba. The FedEx Cup system gave him 500 points amounting to a 61-position boost for his victory at Sea Island while treating his failure at Mayakoba as if he had not entered.

Schauffele stands second largely because of his victory at the HSBC, a WGC event that carries with it bonus FedEx points. He’s only made two other fall starts, and those – 25th at the CIMB and a tie for 72nd at the CJ Cup — qualified as so-so.

We can come to a clearer understanding of who has played well on the fall tour by use of the Margin of Dominance system of assessment, which I touched on in my last post. The “Margin of Dominance” is based on the average standard deviation of a player’s relative to all other competitors who completed four rounds of play. Standard deviation is a superior tool to FedEx points because it not only considers who won but by how much.

Players who miss a cut, thus failing to complete four rounds, are assigned a score equivalent to three strokes higher than the worst four-round score posted in that event, and their standard deviation of performance is calculated accordingly, thus penalizing poor play.

In deference to their relative importance, some events are weighted, although the fall tour schedule contains only one weighted event the HSBC, which is weighted at 1.50.

With a minimum of participation in four of the six fall tour events that generate FedEx Cup points – a standard met or exceeded by 112 players — here’s a look at the 10 best as determined by Margin of Dominance. Headings include the player’s Margin of Dominance rank based, his current and 2017-18 FedEx Cup ranks, as well as the weighted average standard deviation of his Margin of Dominance for fall events.

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