Angela Cabrera captured the Greenbrier Class yesterday–his third victory on TOUR and his first non-major win. In his win, Cabrera gained 4.0 strokes per round on the field, with a gain of 1.7 strokes from his approach shots, 1.6 strokes from his putting and 1.4 strokes from his driving.
Two of the best shots of the tournament occurred in the final round. Runner-up finisher George McNeill aced the 219-yard par-3 eighth hole. With a stroke average of 3, this shot gained two strokes on the field. Hole thirteen was the toughest hole of the tournament, with a scoring average of 4.2. In the fourth round, Cabrera’s hole out for eagle from 176 yards gained two strokes on the field (his 308-yard drive gained the other 0.2 strokes on the field).
Cabrera credited his driving for his victory saying, “It was good all week long. It made the course play a little shorter.” Here are some highlights of Cabrera’s driving which gained 1.4 strokes per round on the field. In the third round on par-4 sixth hole, Cabrera hit his drive 372 yards into the fairway, leaving just 83 yards to the pin. In the fourth round, he hit the fairway with drives of 343 yards on hole six, 327 yards on hole eleven, 329 yards on hole sixteen and 335 yards on hole seventeen. For the tournament, Cabrera’s tee shots on par-4 and par-5 holes averaged eight yards longer than the field. He hit 82 percent of fairways compared to 67 percent for the field. The field hit 1.4 percent of their drives into a penalty situation. None of Cabrera’s drives were followed by a penalty shot.
Cabrera had two good tournaments leading up to the Greenbrier. Two weeks ago at the Travelers Championship he gained 2.1 strokes gained per round in his T11 finish. Last week at the Quicken Loans National he gained 0.9 strokes gained per round in his T24 finish. For the season, Cabrera ranks 70 with his 0.4 strokes gained per round on the field.
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | |||||
| Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt | |
| Angel Cabrera during win | 4.0 (1) | 1.4 (2) | 1.7 (3) | -0.7 (71) | 1.6 (6) |
| Angel Cabrera during season | 0.4 (70) | 0.6 (16) | 0.2 (84) | -0.5 (198) | 0.2 (59) |
| Difference | 3.6 | 0.8 | 1.5 | -0.1 | 1.4 |
Sixty-four-year-old Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson finished in a tie for 35th place. For the tournament, Watson gained one stroke per round on the field. He lost 1.1 strokes per round with his shots outside of 100 yards (driving and approach shots). He gained 2.1 strokes per round with his shots inside of 100 yards (short game and putting).
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | |||||
| Golfer | Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt |
| Tom Watson | 1.0 (35) | -0.5 (65) | -0.6 (69) | 1.0 (2) | 1.1 (14) |
Here’s a strokes gained breakdown of the top ten finishers at the Greenbrier Classic:
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | |||||
| Golfer | Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt |
| Angel Cabrera | 4.0 (1) | 1.4 (2) | 1.7 (3) | -0.7 (71) | 1.6 (6) |
| George McNeill | 3.5 (2) | 0.6 (25) | 2.0 (2) | -0.1 (55) | 1.0 (16) |
| Webb Simpson | 2.5 (3) | 0.1 (44) | 0.9 (13) | 0.5 (23) | 0.9 (18) |
| Billy Hurley III | 2.2 (T4) | 0.3 (36) | 0.6 (23) | 0.8 (11) | 0.6 (28) |
| Brendon Todd | 2.2 (T4) | 0.1 (41) | 0.1 (46) | 0.8 (10) | 1.3 (10) |
| Keegan Bradley | 2.2 (T4) | 0.8 (15) | 0.5 (27) | 0.5 (24) | 0.4 (35) |
| Chris Stroud | 2.2 (T4) | -0.4 (63) | 1.1 (9) | 0.5 (22) | 1.0 (15) |
| Cameron Tringale | 2.2 (T4) | 0.6 (26) | -0.1 (53) | 0.8 (9) | 0.9 (19) |
| Bud Cauley | 2.2 (T4) | 0.9 (13) | 0.0 (49) | 0.7 (14) | 0.7 (25) |
| Will Wilcox | 2.2 (T4) | 1.1 (6) | 0.1 (45) | 0.7 (17) | 0.4 (36) |
| Top 10 average | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.9 |
| Fraction of total | 100% | 21% | 27% | 18% | 34% |
This post appeared originally on pgatour.com here