Sentry Tournament of Champions: Inside the numbers as stars fall short
By Bill Felber
As with McIlroy, fans of Jason Day tuned into see whether the Tournament Of Champions would be the event marking his return to the hard core front ranks of tour stars. That return did not happen.
He drove the ball well enough, a turnaround from 2018, when Day’s Strokes Gained Off The Tee averaged an indifferent +0.18. At Kapalua, he jacked that to +1.86 for the tournament, or +0.46 per round. That represented 2.25 standard deviations better than his 2018 mean.
He also handled himself well around and on the greens. Day has historically been a good if not great putter, and he surpassed himself at Kapalua, averaging a half stroke gain on the field per round. Again, that represented more than two standard deviations better than his 2018 season average.
Around the greens, Day averaged +0.33 Strokes Gained per round. While that sounds good, it was slightly under his 2018 seasonal average of +0.48.
For some time, Day’s essential problem has been his iron play. During the 2018 season, he cost himself an average of 0.14 strokes per round, and at Kapalua that figure approached one-half stroke per round.
In sum, Day helped himself in three key areas. But one represented only a modest improvement, and his other gains were partially offset by poor iron play. The result is likely to be a finish in the lower regions of the top half of the 32-player field. Day finished 13th.