Kapalua: These 10 have the hybrid game to win there
By Bill Felber
10. Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama finished the 2020-21 season ranked a respectable 49th off the tee and top 20 in productivity approaching greens. Max out those numbers at the right moment and you can win a green jacket, as Matsuyama did in April.
Nothing much changed during the tag end of 2021. At the Fortinet, he tied for sixth on the strength of an average of 1.13 Strokes Gained Approaching the Green.
For the season to date, he is top 30 in that category. He finished the 2021-22 season in 17th place.
Matsuyama’s tee game isn’t that good, but it’s good enough for the wide expanses of the Kapalua Plantation course. To date he ranks 73rd for the season in Strokes Gained Off The Tee at +.203; he was 50th at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season at +0.24.
9. Xander Schauffele
At +0.65 Strokes Gained last season, Schauffele has one of the five best approach games in the Sentry TOC field.
He’s only played one event at which data was measured since the Tour Championship, that being October’s CJ Cup in Las Vegas. There, his approach game averaged a pickup of nearly three-quarters of a stroke per round, but spasmodic driving and putting consigned him to a tie for 18th place.
Schauffele’s tee game is not normally a strength; he averaged just a fraction better than a quarter stroke pickup on the field due to his driving.
Still, we’re talking about a fellow who won an Olympic gold medal just a few months ago.