Number Crunching 2012: Bob Estes
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Bob Estes
Ranking/movement: +313 (No. 405 to No. 92)
Why the rise? Renewed health (post wrist injury), new instructor (the late Jim Flick), new swing (shaft no longer laid off), new grip (stronger, interlocking) and new irons (three-quarters of an inch longer, with lighter shafts).
Estes, 46, a four-time PGA Tour winner, damaged ligaments in his right wrist when he hit a hidden rock in May 2010 at the Valero Texas Open. He played through the injury while loading up on ibuprofen, and his condition worsened until he finally got an MRI in December. Because of rehab, he didn’t start 2011 until mid-April and played only 12 events all year.
“I learned a lesson a lot of guys out here could learn from: If you think you have some sort of injury that’s keeping you from playing your best, you’d better get it checked out in a hurry to make sure you don’t lose your status out ...
Number Crunching 2012: Will Claxton
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Will Claxton
Ranking/movement: +437 (No. 520 to No. 83)
Why the rise? Claxton credits his mental approach. He didn’t make any major swing or equipment changes in 2012. Instead, Claxton said, he simply has kept his focus after bad holes, bad rounds and bad tournaments. It may be a tad cliché, but that patient outlook has paid dividends – in earnings and a climb up the rankings.
The former Auburn player finished his rookie PGA Tour season at No. 89 in the FedEx Cup regular-season standings and No. 117 on the money list ($780,969). He made 21 of 28 cuts and notched seven top 25s, including a pair of top 10s, after spending 2011 splitting time between the Nationwide and NGA tours.
Claxton, who had made only one PGA Tour start before this season, excelled tee-to-green (No. 11 in greens in regulation, No. 19 in total driving and No. 34 in driving accuracy) in his first look at most Tour ...
Number Crunching 2012: Lloyd Saltman
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Lloyd Saltman
Ranking/movement: - 319 (No. 215 to No. 534)
Why the fall? Money and competition.
Everything about Saltman’s season points to success except one vital stat: his position on the European Tour and European Challenge Tour money lists.
The Scotsman lost his European Tour card last year after finishing 133rd on the money list. As a result Saltman, 27, spent the year playing events on both European tours. He placed 181st on the European Tour from nine starts, and 55th on the less-lucrative junior circuit from 19 events.
“People tell you it’s hard to play both tours, but as a player you feel your game is good enough to play on the main tour,” Saltman said. “Aside from missing my first two cuts on the main tour, I made the next seven but just didn’t make the most of them.”
The two-time Walker Cup player improved in every statistical category this year. He took a half-shot off his ...
Number Crunching 2012: Jodi Ewart
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Jodi Ewart
Ranking/movement: +147 (No. 217 to No. 70)
Why the rise? Putting.
Jodi Ewart is one of the few female professionals who brandishes a belly putter. In the first year using the club, Ewart credits it with increased consistency and confidence on the putting green.
Putting might be the biggest factor in Ewart’s increased success in 2012, but if anchoring a putter becomes illegal as proposed in 2016, it doesn’t mean Ewart’s ranking will plummet. Ewart, in fact, isn’t worried about an anchoring ban.
“I’ve used the short putter my whole life, and I know it’s not going to be a huge (adjustment) to go back to it,” she said. “I’d definitely have to work a lot harder on my putting if that was the case.”
As a rookie in 2011, Ewart split her time between the LPGA and Symetra tours. In 2012, she played 21 events on the LPGA, including her first ...
Number Crunching 2012: Thorbjorn Olesen
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
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Thorbjorn Olesen
Ranking/movement: +547 (No. 603 to No. 56)
Why the rise? An improved putting setup and better game management.
It’s never easy to follow up an outstanding rookie debut with an even better season, but Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen has done it, rising a 2012-best 547 spots and into the top 60 of the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.
Many thought Olesen should have been the European Tour’s 2011 Rookie of the Year. He narrowly missed out on that honor, which instead went to England’s Tom Lewis. However, while Lewis has endured a mediocre 2012 season, Olesen has improved.
The Dane celebrated his first tour victory at the Sicilian Open in early April. He posted five more top-10 finishes, including a T-9 at the Open Championship and a runner-up at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The biggest reason for Oleson’s rise? He was exactly one putt better per round
in 2012, averaging 29.39 putts per round compared with 30.39 in 2011 ...
Number Crunching 2012: Pat Perez
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Pat Perez
Ranking/movement: +52 (No. 92 to No. 40)
Why the rise? More consistency, a return to left-hand-low putting, improved attitude and stronger focus.
The games of many touring professionals have suffered when they’ve gone through divorce. But Perez elevated the consistency of his performance during what he called a “friendly” and “mutual” divorce that was finalized in summer. He finished in the top 30 in more than half of his PGA Tour starts (12 of 23).
“I was more focused,” said Perez, 36, winner of the 2009 Bob Hope Classic. “I didn’t get as down when things went wrong. I tried to change my mentality a little bit this year with all the crap that’s gone on and try to find positives in other things. When I’m out here, I don’t think about (the divorce) or anything. I have this great gift of forgetting things.”
Perez moved up in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, which ...
Number Crunching 2012: Robert Allenby
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Robert Allenby
Ranking/movement: -315 (No. 51 to No. 366)
Why the fall? Lack of confidence.
Robert Allenby always has struggled to win on the PGA Tour, his last victory coming at the Marconi Pennsylvania Classic in 2001.
However,the Australian has been a consistent earner and regularly among the top 70 on the PGA Tour money list since 2000, but this year was disappointing.
Allenby finished 111th on the 2012 PGA Tour money list, the first time since 1999 that the Aussie didn’t earn more than $1 million.
Allenby is honest about his fall, saying it was a personal issue, but would not elaborate.
“I’ve just lost a lot of confidence, and that’s what it comes down to,” Allenby said. “The swing is still the same; nothing has really changed. It’s just the thought process is different, and that’s what I’m struggling with and trying to get back at the moment.”
After a T-7 at ...
Number Crunching 2012: Esther Choe
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Esther Choe
Ranking/movement: Unranked to No. 136
Why the rise? A simpler approach. Choe went in for her first lesson with instructor Matt Mitchell after LPGA Q-School last winter and was told she had a terrible attitude. Her answers to many of Mitchell’s questions involved the words “used to.” The former top-ranked junior had struggled as a pro, finishing as low as 120th on the Symetra Tour money list in 2009.
In addition to the attitude adjustment, Mitchell told her the club was too shut going back. Choe, 23, said her mind was so cluttered from so many coaches with different swing thoughts and theories that she worried Mitchell’s instruction was too simple.
Instead, it worked. Choe signed up for a few early Symetra Tour events last spring to get warmed up for her first season on the Ladies European Tour and wound up winning the first two events and finishing runner-up in the third. That torrid start helped ...
Number Crunching 2012: Zack Miller
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Zack Miller
Ranking/movement: -488 (No. 503 to No. 991)
Why the fall? Miller’s confidence hit rock bottom at the Mayakoba Classic in February, where he shot 81-92. It was no fluke either. He shot 75 or higher in 13 of his 32 PGA Tour rounds this season, making four of 12 cuts and two of 14 on the Web.com Tour.
Miller attributed his troubles to his tee shots. He ranked 191st in total driving on the PGA Tour. He said his inability to find fairways put pressure on the rest of his game, especially his putting. He ranked No. 187 in strokes gained putting.
Yet shooting 92 may have been the best thing to happen to him. That’s when he conceded he couldn’t fix his swing on his own and that it wasn’t reliable enough to compete on Tour. He began working with instructor Alex Murray, whose students include Rod Pampling and Gavin Coles. Murray showed ...
Number Crunching 2012: Branden Grace
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Branden Grace
Ranking/movement: +292 (No. 360 to No. 68)
Why the rise? Maturity, putting and a new caddie.
Grace had his PGA European Tour card in 2010 and lost it. It was a harsh reality and a wake-up call for Grace.
Grace, 24, played well on the Challenge Tour in 2011, but needed Q-School to regain his European Tour card for 2012.
“I’ve actually been playing really well the last couple years,” Grace said. “I just never had a way to finish it. I’ve always had two good rounds and one bad or two good and two bad and just never really making a move.”
Grace made some changes at Q-School. He reverted to an old putting stroke and added Zach Rasego, the caddie who was on Louis Oosthuizen’s bag when the South African won the Open Championship in 2010.
Something clicked. With renewed confidence, Grace found the winning touch – four times. He won twice in January, at ...
Number Crunching 2012: Tiffany Joh
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Tiffany Joh
Ranking/movement: -164 (No. 61 to No. 225)
Why the fall? Her play on the greens.
A year ago, Joh’s saving grace was her putting. She led the LPGA with a putting average of 26.75. The biggest difference in 2012? That average rose to 30.83, and she fell to No. 112 on tour. Joh calls last year’s putting phenomenal and this year’s lackluster, at best.
“Last year, I came in and I was basically playing on a conditional card at the beginning of the year,” she said. “I felt like I had nothing to lose, and it helped my play.”
With higher expectations after a year during which Joh made 12 cuts in 14 LPGA events and had three top-25 finishes, Joh struggled.
“I played a little bit more defensive this year,” she said. “I played a lot to make cuts.”
In 21 LPGA starts in 2012, Joh accomplished that only 11 times.
As for ...
Number Crunching 2012: Amanda Blumenherst
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
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Amanda Blumenherst
Ranking/movement: -105 (No. 88 to No. 193)
Why the fall? The golf swing.
Blumenherst quickly acknowledges that her swing hasn’t been where she wants it to be since her senior year at Duke, where she was a four-time All-American. It has been a while since Blumenherst consistently could stand over the ball, feel comfortable and have confidence she wasn’t going to hit an errant shot.
Blumenherst, who won LPGA Q-School in 2009, spent this season fighting a low hook – or a high push when she tried to compensate for her normal left miss. As a result, she frequently hit 3-woods and irons off the tee. That took a toll on her driving statistics. She finished 133rd in driving accuracy (59 percent) and 63rd in distance (250 yards).
“It’s really hard to play golf when you have 3-iron, 3-iron into a par 4,” Blumenherst said.
In 24 starts this season, Blumenherst missed the cut 11 times, including five consecutive missed cuts beginning in ...
Number Crunching 2012: D.A. Points
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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D.A. Points
Ranking/movement: -133 (No. 91 to No. 224)
Why the fall? Poor putting.
How close was Points to validating his first career PGA Tour victory at the 2011 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am?
“I hit it as well as I’ve ever hit it in my career at Charlotte this year and didn’t make (any putts),” said Points, who lost to Rickie Fowler in a playoff at the Wells Fargo Championship.
Indeed, the stats back up Points’ claim that his putter wasn’t as sharp this season. He slipped from 48th to 130th in strokes gained putting. Points said he struggled with speed. Midway through the season, Points switched to a slightly heavier SeeMore putter to “get a little more mass behind the ball” on slower greens. He also fiddled with a belly putter but used it only during the Rockford Pro-Am on the Monday after the John Deere Classic.
A promising season faded after the runner-up ...
Number Crunching 2012: Kyle Stanley
Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Kyle Stanley
Ranking/movement: -78 (No. 52 to No. 130)
Why the fall? After losing a playoff in San Diego and winning at Phoenix in consecutive weeks in January-February, Stanley did not place in the top 15 in 23 starts the rest of the year. He missed nine cuts in that stretch, including four in a row in May.
“When you’re missing cuts, the game becomes not a whole lot of fun and you start feeling burned out,” he said.
Stanley, who turned 25 in November, is one of the game’s best ballstrikers, ranking 16th and 26th, respectively, his first two PGA Tour seasons. Butthis year, his second on Tour, putting (189th) and chipping (173rd in scrambling) held him back and will be the focus of his offseason. He tried a belly putter for a few weeks in the fall before switching back – for good, he says.
He’s young and didn’t handle the trappings of success as well ...
Number Crunching '12: A week is all Kyle Stanley needed
Editor's note: Who climbed and who dropped in 2012? Through Dec. 31, Golfweek.com takes a look at players who made significant moves up or down in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index this year.
Check out the entire series here.
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Kyle Stanley finally was alone after blowing a seven-shot lead during the Farmers Insurance Open final round. He was sitting against a wall in his room at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa. His head was in his hands, and he was crying. The only sound besides the sobbing came from his cellphone. It kept buzzing because of incoming calls and texts.
He finally checked the phone and saw a consoling note from a man whom he had never met – Mark Few, the Gonzaga basketballcoach, who had taken the initiative to get the golfer’s number from a third party. A diehard Gonzaga fan since grade school in Washington state, the surprised Stanley stopped with the tears. Light penetrated his darkness.
“It put a smile on my face,” said Stanley, whose mood brightened further when trading texts with the coach that night at dinner.
That was the first important step in his journey from losing that large lead to ...
