Rory McIlroy won in dominating fashion at the Wells Fargo Championship at the Quail Hollow Club. It was the eleventh PGA TOUR victory for the 26-year-old McIlroy. He finished seven strokes ahead of his nearest competitor and beat the field by a total of 20.08 strokes. In the 2015 season that total was barely second to Jimmy Walker’s 20.13 gain when he won the Valero Texas Open. Third best in 2015 was Jordan Spieth, who gained 19.28 strokes against the field in his Masters victory.

In his third round, McIlroy beat the field by 10.2 strokes, a commanding performance that is exceeded only one time in 12,000 rounds on the PGA TOUR. After the round, Mcilroy said, “There was a couple really things that pleased me today, my iron play and then how I putted.  I rolled the ball really well which I haven’t been doing for the past couple of weeks so to see a lot of putts drop like that was really nice.” In the round, McIlroy gained 4.8 strokes with his putting (rank 1 for the day), gained 2.5 strokes with his approach shots (rank 3), gained 1.9 strokes with his driving (rank 3), and 0.9 strokes with his short game (rank 16). Referring to the third round, McIlroy said, “I got on a great run there yesterday obviously … that’s what won me the tournament.”

For the tournament McIlroy gained a remarkable 9.4 strokes with his driving, nearly half (47 percent) of his total gain against the field. That’s the third-best strokes gained driving performance in a PGA TOUR event since the ShotLink era began in 2003. He gained so much because of an amazing combination of distance and accuracy off the tee. McIlroy’s drives averaged 312 yards, nearly 22 yards longer than the field average. At the same time, McIlroy hit more fairways (and first cuts) than the field average (67 percent compared to the field average of 55 percent). Driving the green on the 345-yard par-4 hole 14 in the third round also helped!

McIlroy’s approach shots contributed 35 percent to his total gain and putting contributed another 16 percent. Here’s a round-by-round strokes gained breakdown of McIlroy’s play at the Wells Fargo Championship:

Here’s are round-by-round strokes gained breakdowns of the play of Webb Simpson, Patrick Rogers, and Phil Mickleson at the Wells Fargo Championship:

Here’s a strokes gained breakdown of the top twelve finishers at the Wells Fargo Championship:

Here’s a strokes gained breakdown of the final round for the top twelve finishers at the Wells Fargo Championship:

This post appeared originally on pgatour.com here

A very brief explanation of strokes gained: Strokes gained is a measure of the quality of a golf shot. A shot with positive strokes gained indicates a better-than-average shot for a PGA TOUR pro. For example, suppose on a difficult par-4 that the PGA TOUR average score is 4.2. An average drive for a PGA TOUR player would reduce the average strokes to hole out by one, from 4.2 to 3.2. If a player hit a long drive into the fairway where the PGA TOUR average strokes to hole out is 2.9, then the shot gained 0.3 strokes compared to the PGA TOUR average. If a player hit a short drive into the rough where the PGA TOUR average strokes to hole out is 3.4, then the shot lost 0.2 strokes compared to the PGA TOUR average. Strokes gained from all shots are accumulated and grouped into convenient categories to measure the performance of players in a round, tournament, or season. For example, the gain from all tee shots on par-4 and par-5 holes is strokes gained driving measure. The gain from all shots starting outside 100 yards from the hole, excluding tee shots on par-4 and par-5 holes, is strokes gained from approach shots.