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2022 Honda Classic Key Stats and Betting Card

By Matt Hupfer

South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen watches his drive from the 17th tee during his first round on day one of The 149th British Open Golf Championship at Royal St George's, Sandwich in south-east England on July 15, 2021. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen watches his drive from the 17th tee during his first round on day one of The 149th British Open Golf Championship at Royal St George's, Sandwich in south-east England on July 15, 2021. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Honda Classic, PGA, PGA National, Louis Oosthuizen
ST SIMONS ISLAND, GEORGIA – NOVEMBER 18: Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa plays shot on from 2nd tee during the first round of The RSM Classic on the Seaside Course at Sea Island Resort on November 18, 2021 in St Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /

The Field

The top 11 players in the OWGR played Riviera last week and none of them are teeing it up this week. 13th ranked Louis Oosthuizen is the highest ranked player in the field this week. Last year The Honda Classic was sandwiched between The Players and a WGC, and this year it falls between the Genesis Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Despite the Honda Classic’s scheduling misfortune, the field could be much worse. The hottest player on the planet, Joaquin Niemann, is playing after blitzing Riviera last week for his second career win. Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed are both in the field after missing the cut last week. Daniel Berger and Billy Horschel are playing after taking the Genesis off. Defending champion Matt Jones is also in the field.

Jones is joined by past winners Camilo Villegas (2010), Rory Sabbatini (2011), Michael Thompson (2013), Padraig Harrington (2015), Rickie Fowler (2017), Keith Mitchell (2019), and Sungjae Im (2020).

Trending. DFS Picks For The 2022 Honda Classic. light

Key Stats at the Honda Classic

Accuracy is of the utmost importance this week at the Honda Classic, especially on approach, because the slightest mishit can bring big numbers into play. Strokes Gained: Tee To Green is probably the stat most indicative of success this week. Strokes Gained: Off The Tee isn’t that important and some players’ TTG stats could be inflated by their OTT. Instead of using TTG as a key stat, I’m going to focus on ball striking to emphasize the importance of approach.

Ball striking is a calculation of a player’s total driving (distance and accuracy) and greens in regulation. Only one player hit more than 75% of greens last year and only one was north of 70% in 2020. If every player in the field is going to miss at least 20% of greens, Strokes Gained: Around The Green is a stat to hone in on. As difficult as this course will play, you want to back a guy who is going to minimize bogeys.  The following is a list of the top 10 players in the field in these stats this year, as well as Matt Jones and Sungjae Im’s results for the tournament in the year that they won.

Try to find a guy who is in the top 25 in the field in at least three of these stats. There’s some correlation between ball striking and approach so players that are high in one stat may be high in the other. I’m ok with that because approach is the most important stat this week.

Approach will never not be a key stat. If you’re not hitting greens and sticking it close, you’re not going to be in contention. Strokes Gained: Putting is also important this week, as always, but I still can’t take a player based on their putting stats alone. Niemann was on top of the leaderboard through three rounds last week and led the field in putting, this despite losing strokes putting for the season going into the Genesis.

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