Rory McIlroy followed up his Open victory with a win at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. McIlroy led the field in strokes gained driving, gaining a whopping 2.2 strokes per round with his driver. After the final round, McIlroy said, “Whenever I drive the ball well, I always put myself in positions where I can attack flags and try and make birdies.”
How did McIlroy gain so much with driver? Here are a few examples of his second round drives that found the fairway or first cut: 313 yards (hole 1), 312 yards (hole 2), 346 yards (hole 3), 369 yards (hole 8), 310 yards (hole 10), 307 yards (hole 11), 309 yards (hole 13), 329 yards (hole 14), 322 yards (hole 17), and 339 yards (hole 18). Each of these drives gained more than 0.2 strokes against the field. For the tournament, McIlroy led in driving distance with a 318 yard average compared to a 289 yard average for the field. McIlroy’s drives found the fairway or first cut 71 percent of the time compared to the field average of 62 percent. Longer and straighter drives led to his number one rank in strokes gained driving for the week.
McIlroy gained 4.1 strokes per round in his victory. Driving (defined as tee shots on par-4 and par-5 holes, whether or not the player uses the driver) contributed 2.2 strokes per round, or 53 percent of his total gain on the field. Putting was the next largest factor contributing to his victory: McIlroy gained another 1.4 strokes per round on the field with his putting. The next table gives a strokes gained summary of McIlroy’s play during his win and during the season. McIlroy’s comment, “I’ve been driving the ball great all year. I really have.” is backed up by the numbers: He is ranked one in strokes gained driving for the season.
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | |||||
| Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt | |
| Rory McIlroy during win | 4.1 (1) | 2.2 (1) | 0.8 (17) | -0.3 (46) | 1.4 (7) |
| Rory McIlroy during season | 2.6 (2) | 1.5 (1) | 0.6 (18) | 0.2 (64) | 0.4 (32) |
| Difference | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | -0.4 | 1.0 |
Here’s a strokes gained breakdown of the top eleven finishers at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational:
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | |||||
| Golfer | Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt |
| Rory McIlroy | 4.1 (1) | 2.2 (1) | 0.8 (17) | -0.3 (46) | 1.4 (7) |
| Sergio Garcia | 3.6 (2) | 0.8 (6) | 1.5 (6) | 0.3 (26) | 1.1 (9) |
| Marc Leishman | 3.4 (3) | 0.4 (27) | 1.9 (1) | 0.0 (42) | 1.2 (8) |
| Charl Schwartzel | 2.6 (T4) | 0.0 (38) | 1.7 (2) | 0.8 (8) | 0.1 (33) |
| Keegan Bradley | 2.6 (T4) | 0.1 (36) | 0.5 (25) | 0.3 (24) | 1.7 (3) |
| Justin Rose | 2.6 (T4) | 0.7 (7) | 1.5 (5) | 0.3 (23) | 0.1 (34) |
| Patrick Reed | 2.6 (T4) | -0.1 (44) | 0.9 (14) | 0.8 (7) | 1.0 (13) |
| Graeme McDowell | 2.1 (T8) | -0.4 (54) | 0.4 (28) | 0.6 (14) | 1.6 (4) |
| Ryan Moore | 2.1 (T8) | 0.5 (17) | 1.1 (10) | 0.6 (12) | -0.1 (39) |
| Rickie Fowler | 2.1 (T8) | 0.5 (16) | 0.9 (12) | -0.6 (61) | 1.4 (6) |
| Adam Scott | 2.1 (T8) | 1.0 (5) | -1.2 (65) | 1.3 (1) | 1.1 (11) |
| Top 11 average | 2.7 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.9 |
| Fraction of total | 100% | 19% | 34% | 13% | 34% |
Compared to other winners on the season, McIlroy’s driving was the most dominant. Here are the top ten winners this season, ranked by strokes gained driving during their victory:
| Winners ranked by strokes gained driving per round | |||
| Winner | Tournament | Rank | SG Drive |
| Rory McIlroy | WGC-Bridgestone | 1 | 2.2 |
| Bubba Watson | Northern Trust Open | 2 | 1.7 |
| Angel Cabrera | The Greenbrier Classic | 3 | 1.4 |
| J.B. Holmes | Wells Fargo Championship | 4 | 1.3 |
| Matt Jones | Shell Houston Open | 5 | 1.2 |
| Jimmy Walker | Sony Open in Hawaii | 6 | 1.1 |
| Kevin Streelman | Travelers Championship | 7 | 1.0 |
| Steven Bowditch | Valero Texas Open | 8 | 0.8 |
| Brendon Todd | HP Byron Nelson | 9 | 0.8 |
| Brian Harman | John Deere Classic | 10 | 0.7 |
Here are the top ten players ranked by strokes gained driving for the season:
| Strokes gained driving per round | ||
| Golfer | Rank | SGD |
| Rory McIlroy | 1 | 1.48 |
| Bubba Watson | 2 | 1.10 |
| Louis Oosthuizen | 3 | 0.92 |
| Ryan Palmer | 4 | 0.77 |
| Dustin Johnson | 5 | 0.75 |
| Adam Scott | 6 | 0.75 |
| Hunter Mahan | 7 | 0.73 |
| Boo Weekley | 8 | 0.72 |
| Jamie Donaldson | 9 | 0.67 |
| J.B. Holmes | 10 | 0.64 |
This post appeared originally on pgatour.com here