00:00And Rory hit the second least amount of fairways in the entire field of players that made the cut.
00:06But interesting enough, he still gained four strokes off of the tee and was seventh in that category.
00:14So when I start to think about how or why, is it a little bit of luck that went his
00:20way this week off the tee to still miss fairways and still be in a position that he's gaining off
00:27the tee?
00:28So how is he doing it?
00:29Well, I think he was doing it with length, right?
00:32When you're far enough up there and you avoid trees and you catch some breaks like you do on 18,
00:37that's where you catch a little bit of slack a little bit when it comes to the statistics.
00:42But the other thing that Rory McIlroy did an incredible job of was his around the green.
00:48He led the field in the round the green stats.
00:51And heading into the week, we talked an awful lot about around the green, who can chip and putt it
00:56around this place.
00:57I thought he did an incredible job on Thursday making timely putts.
01:03And really Thursday, Friday, I thought his putting was a big reason why he had a six-shot lead.
01:08The chipping was fantastic all week.
01:11Maybe catching some breaks here and there with the driver.
01:14Iron game had its moments.
01:15It was good enough when it needed to be.
01:18Was it the best iron performance of his career?
01:22No.
01:22But it was plenty good enough when it had to be.
01:25Well, I think that's, if you're looking at, again, the strokes gain stats, it's, by virtue of Rory's length, even
01:34when he's off the fairway, right?
01:35He's still going to have better strokes gain off the tee stats than others because your proximity to hole plays
01:41a huge role in what your expected score is from that place, right?
01:44So that's to start.
01:46But it just, I mean, to me, this story is in the iron play.
01:49Like, the first round, he's fifth stroke scan approach.
01:52Then he's 10th in the second round.
01:54And then he's the second worst player in the field in the third round.
01:56And in the fourth round, he manages to get it back to 15th in the field.
01:59And I mean, I agree with what you're saying about around the green putting.
02:04And really, he had below average putting rounds both on Saturday and Sunday.
02:10But it was just, and I think it played out even in, it was a story of almost two nines
02:15today for him on Sunday where he just, that left pull miss with his irons and some of his short
02:21irons and wedges was still present.
02:23But then, for me, it's like, it's that shot at 12 where he cannot, he's just pulled a less club.
02:30He hit nine iron today.
02:31He hit pitching-wise yesterday to a shorter and easier pin.
02:34And that's got to be going through your head a little bit.
02:36You're trying to figure out the win.
02:37You're spending time there with Harry Diamond trying to get it right.
02:39And you stand up there and you hit that nine iron exactly the way you want it to and make
02:43a birdie.
02:44That's like the big turning point for me with, you know, the approach play.
02:47Statistically, it was Rory McIlroy's second best iron shot of the week.
02:51The first best was the iron shot he hit at 16 early in the week when he got it rolling
02:56on that Friday round where he hit in there tight.
03:00But also, interesting enough, outside of the drive, remember when he drove the green on the third hole earlier in
03:06the week?
03:07That was technically his highest strokes gain off the tee value of the entire week.
03:12But guess what his second best was?
03:14It was the drive today on 13.
03:16We talked about how important those two shots were of getting control of this golf tournament.
03:21The iron shot at 12, the drive at 13.
03:23I think it's statistically, when you look at the values, that is the amount that he was able to pick
03:30up on those shots.
03:32You know, Gabe.
Comments