Farmers Insurance Open: The top ten performances at Torrey Pines
By Bill Felber
In 2013, Adam Scott won one major, finished top 5 in two others, and posted the fifth best stroke average on the PGA Tour. Since then he’s had as many missed cuts as top-five major finishes (three each), and in 2018 he came home 158th in stroke average.
Yet Sunday he gave Rose the winner’s best chase to the finish, eventually coming home two strokes out of the lead in solo second. Has the old Scott finally re-emerged?
If the evidence provided at Torrey Pines is any indicator, Scott’s game has evolved in the ensuing six seasons. The question now is whether that evolution continues.
The change was most noticeable on the greens where Scott, putting with the flagstick in, made up nearly 1.2 strokes on the Farmers Insurance Open field. It’s no secret that dating back before 2013, putting was Scott’s major liability. That season he spotted the field a fraction of a stroke per round, placing his improvement in San Diego at about one and one-quarter strokes.
In 2013, Scott’s approach game was solid but not spectacular. He gained an average of a bit more than a half stroke per round on his competitors via his precision with irons. At San Diego, Scott’s average gain on the field approaching the greens was nearly 2.5 strokes, an improvement of just under two full strokes per round.
Historically Scott’s driving game was about three-quarters of a stroke above average and his play around the greens fractionally above average. At Torrey Pines, the driving game was decent but below his own standards, while the chipping game slipped to the sub-par side of average.
It would be a marginal statement to say that Scott would have won if he had merely driven and chipped to his historical standards, but he would have made it breathtakingly close.