If there is such a thing as a Masters hangover, imagine our surprise when we awoke this morning to find out the PGA Tour season is half over. With the wrap-around season taking six events from the end of the Tour year and moving them to the beginning, the RBC Heritage will be the 23rd of 45 official events on the PGA Tour. With Bubba Watson’s Masters victory marking the end of the first half of the 2013-14 season, let’s look at some of the season’s statistical highlights
Where are the Euros?
Americans have won 18 of the first 22 events of the season and Australians have won the other four. It’s the first time that no European player has won on the PGA Tour by the Masters since 2004, when it took until May for Sergio Garcia to win at the Byron Nelson Championship. In fact, among European players who were in the top 60 in the final regular season FedEx Cup standings in 2013, only Garcia has a better ranking in 2013-14. Garcia is one of three Euros with four top-10s on the PGA Tour in 2013-14. Among the notable European players without a top-10 on Tour this year are Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.
First victory by a European player on the PGA Tour: 2004-2013
| Year | Player | Tournament | No. of events |
| 2013 | Martin Laird | Valero Texas Open | 15 |
| 2012 | Rory McIlroy | Honda Classic | 10 |
| 2011 | Luke Donald | WGC Match Play | 8 |
| 2010 | Ian Poulter | WGC Match Play | 7 |
| 2009 | Paul Casey | Shell Houston Open | 15 |
| 2008 | Daniel Chopra | Mercedes Benz Champ. | 1 |
| 2007 | Henrik Stenson | WGC Match Play | 8 |
| 2006 | Luke Donald | Honda Classic | 11 |
| 2005 | Padraig Harrington | Honda Classic | 11 |
| 2004 | Sergio Garcia | Byron Nelson Champ. | 20 |
FedEx Cup comparison for Europeans from 2013 to 2014
| Player | 2013 final reg. season rank | 2014 current rank |
| Justin Rose | 7 | 67 |
| Henrik Stenson | 9 | 79 |
| Graeme McDowell | 28 | 39 |
| Jonas Blixt | 29 | 42 |
| Lee Westwood | 35 | 78 |
| Martin Laird | 44 | 130 |
| Rory McIlroy | 49 | 38 |
| David Lynn | 54 | 166 |
| Luke Donald | 55 | 71 |
| Sergio Garcia | 59 | 33 |
Most top 10s on Tour by Europeans in 2013-14
| Player | Top-10 finishes |
| Graeme McDowell | 4 |
| Sergio Garcia | 4 |
| Rory McIlroy | 4 |
| Luke Donald | 2 |
| Jamie Donaldson | 2 |
| Russell Knox | 2 |
| Robert Karlsson | 2 |
| Justin Rose | 2 |
Bubba’s bruising start
Bubba Watson is off to the best start of his career. With two wins and two seconds, Watson has earned more than $4.5 million this season, which is more than 38 percent of his potential earnings. If he can maintain that pace through the second half of the year he will join Tiger Woods (five times) and Rory McIlroy (2012) as the only players to collect more than 37 percent of their potential earnings after making 10 or more starts in a season since 2005. (By way of explanation, if a player won every time he played, he would collect 100 percent of his potential earnings.)
Percentage of potential earnings won on PGA Tour in 2013-14
| Pct. money won | Player | Earnings | Potential earnings | Starts |
| 38.17% | Bubba Watson | $4,533,006 | $11,876,000 | 9 |
| 36.98 | Jason Day | 2,010,360 | 5,436,000 | 4 |
| 31.08 | Dustin Johnson | 3,346,150 | 10,766,000 | 8 |
| 24.52 | Jimmy Walker | 4,225,071 | 17,228,000 | 14 |
| 20.73 | Patrick Reed | 3,023,091 | 14,586,000 | 12 |
| 17.46 | Jordan Spieth | 2,621,223 | 14,586,000 | 12 |
Weekend warriors
With Harris English missing the cut at the Masters, Chris Kirk has now made the most starts this season without a missed cut. Kirk’s T-20 at the Masters marked the 13th time in 2013 that’s he qualified for the weekend. He is tied for the Tour lead in most cuts made this season.
Most cuts made without a miss in 2013-14
| Player | Cuts made | Best finish |
| Chris Kirk | 13 | Won McGladrey Classic |
| Bill Haas | 12 | T-6 Humana, T-6 WGC-Cadillac |
| Hunter Mahan | 9 | T-4 Waste Management Phoenix Open |
| Jim Furyk | 7 | T-5 WGC Match Play |
Most cuts made in 2013-14
| Player | Cuts made | Starts |
| Chris Kirk | 13 | 13 |
| Jimmy Walker | 13 | 14 |
| Harris English | 13 | 14 |
| Cameron Tringale | 13 | 16 |
The stars aren’t shining
Although every one of the top 10 players on the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of 2013 are still in the top 15 after the Masters, only two of them have won since the calendar turned. Zach Johnson, who won the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, is the only player from the group to win on the PGA Tour this season (and he’s actually fallen in the ranking from ninth to his current position of 12th). Sergio Garcia won the Commercialbank Qatar Masters on the European Tour. Tiger Woods had back surgery and Phil Mickelson has also battled injuries, but most of the others have contended this season. Could that mean there are more victories on the horizon for a group that includes three of 2013’s major champions? Here’s what they’ve done on Tour since January.
How the top 10 players on the year-end world ranking have fared in 2014
| 2013 rank | Player | Current rank | 2014 Tour starts | Cuts | Best | PGA Tour notable |
| 1 | Tiger Woods | 1 | 3 | 3 | T-25 WGC Cadillac | Back surgery has put the rest of 2014 in limbo |
| 2 | Adam Scott | 2 | 6 | 6 | 3 Arnold Palmer | 145th on proximity to hole on approaches, 45th last year |
| 3 | Henrik Stenson | 3 | 6 | 5 | T-5 Arnold Palmer | He’s 185th in strokes gained/putting out of 206 players ranked |
| 4 | Justin Rose | 11 | 6 | 5 | T-8 Valspar | Fairways hit (59.87) and GIR (65.15) percentages are career worsts |
| 5 | Phil Mickelson | 8 | 8 | 5 | T-12 Houston | Last time he was this far into a season without a top 10 was 1992 and 6 of those starts were as an amateur |
| 6 | Rory McIlroy | 10 | 5 | 5 | T-2 Honda | 3 top-10s and no finish worse than T-25 in 2014 |
| 7 | Matt Kuchar | 6 | 9 | 8 | 2 Houston | 3 straight top-10s, but Sunday scoring avg. in last 5 starts is 73.8 |
| 8 | Steve Stricker | 15 | 4 | 4 | T-24 Houston | Has earned between 48 and 56K in each of his 4 starts |
| 9 | Zach Johnson | 12 | 9 | 8 | 1-Hyundai | Missed cut at the Masters was his first of the year |
| 10 | Sergio Garcia | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 Houston | He hadn’t been outside the top 20 all year until his MC at Augusta |
Trending in the right direction
Six players (Jimmy Walker, Kevin Stadler, Chesson Hadley, Matt Every, Steven Bowditch and Matt Jones) won for the first time this season, but several other winless players are knocking on the door. Here’s a top-10 list of non-winners who have made more the cut more than 60 percent of the time in 10 or more starts this season and merit consideration at the RBC Heritage or at other future PGA Tour events.
| Player | Starts | Cuts | Top 10s | Playing Heritage? |
| Brian Harman | 14 | 10 | 3 | Yes |
| Ryo Ishikawa | 14 | 9 | 3 | Yes |
| Russell Knox | 13 | 11 | 2 | Yes |
| Graham Delaet | 11 | 9 | 5 | No |
| Daniel Summerhays | 16 | 11 | 2 | No |
| Chris Stroud | 11 | 8 | 3 | Yes |
| Brian Stuard | 14 | 10 | 3 | Yes |
| Cameron Tringale | 16 | 13 | 1 | Yes |
| Jason Kokrak | 13 | 9 | 2 | Yes |
| Brendon Todd | 14 | 12 | 2 | Yes |
