The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island reclaims its role as host venue ahead of this week’s PGA Championship.
It last played that role during the 2012 PGA where Rory McIlroy lapped the field.
The course is known for being extremely exposed to the wind but the wind forecast is currently on the mild side. That could change at the drop of a hat so keep an eye on that.
Other than being exposed to the wind, golfers talk a lot about the wall-to-wall paspalum which is a grass they don’t see very often on the yearly PGA TOUR schedule. The 2012 PGA Championship was the first major to ever be played on paspalum.
When hunting for DFS nuggets, we can use that unique turf to see if we can find some value. On top of that, we want to lean heavily on the golfers that perform well consistently on the big stage. For that we will look at the top performers in all major championships over the last few years.
Let’s jump right in...
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Paspalum Performance
This week’s course uses seashore paspalum which is not a common grass type found in the States. There are a few events south of the border that use it and a handful of European Tour events that utilize the surface.
Here are the golfers that have gained the most total strokes on courses with paspalum greens, over the last two years:
Thomas Pieters
Emiliano Grillo
Adam Long
Viktor Hovland
Thomas Detry
Joel Dahmen
Abraham Ancer
Dustin Johnson
Brendon Todd
Carlos Ortiz
Kalle Samooja
Garrick Higgo
Harris English
George Coetzee
Billy Horschel
Emiliano Grillo ($23): The Argentine has a combined six top 10s in his career across the Mayakoba Golf Classic, Corales, and Puerto Rico Open, all events that are played on paspalum. He also arrives in good form having picked off top 15s in three of his last four starts.
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Trending in Majors
Most weeks I look at stats at a per-round level but this week I’m looking at two stats that focus on quantity while not ignoring quality in the process.
First, I look at total strokes on paspalum which is going to show us repeatability in terms of performing on the unique turf.
Now I will look at what golfers have performed the best in major championships, over the last two years. Right now that is going to look at the last six majors, dating back to the 2019 PGA Championship. I make small adjustments for field strength so if you are looking at raw strokes gained, your list may differ slightly.
Here are the golfers that have gained the most strokes in majors, over that the last two years:
Xander Schauffele
Brooks Koepka
Jon Rahm
Dustin Johnson
Hideki Matsuyama
Justin Rose
Shane Lowry
Tony Finau
Louis Oosthuizen
Patrick Reed
Webb Simpson
Paul Casey
Bryson DeChambeau
Rory McIlroy
Viktor Hovland
Shane Lowry ($21): You won’t find many bargains on the list above but Lowry is certainly an exception. He’s performed well in majors and comes in near the minimum salary on Yahoo this week. The Irishman did most of his damage with his win at the 2019 Open Championship but does have five total top 30s in his last eight majors played.
Hopefully, these stats will give you some names to dive into when it comes to researching your final selections this week over at Yahoo!
