Ernie Els reigned supreme on The 2003 European Tour International Schedule, winning four times on the way to amassing €2,975,374 as he topped the Volvo Order of Merit for the first time, a truly outstanding season highlighted by a glance through the Reuters Performance Data.
Els won the Heineken Classic, the Johnnie Walker Classic, The Barclays Scottish Open and the Omega European Masters in addition to finishing runner-up three times on The 2003 European Tour International Schedule, an exceptional season of consistency underlined by the fact that he won three categories in the Reuters Performance Data.
The
Stroke Average
category is arguably the most prestigious of them all and Els topped the list with an average of 68.95 from 60 rounds. In so doing he became the first player since the Reuters Performance Data was first recorded in 1998 to average less than 69 strokes.
He was also the first player to win both the Greens in Regulation and Putts per Greens in Regulation Categories together in one season, highlighting both the accuracy of his approach play and his phenomenal putting throughout the season.
Taking the
Greens in Regulation
Category, his average of 80.2%, the first time anyone has averaged over 80%, equates to 14.4 greens hit in regulation each round, beating the previous record of 14.3 set by Colin Montgomerie in 1999. With an average of 1.699
Putts per GIR
or 24.5 putts per round for greens hit, it indicates Els was averaging an impressive 4.3 birdies per round for the greens he hit in regulation, phenomenal scoring that manifested itself in four victories.
For a fourth successive season an Australian proved the most accurate off the tee, Jarrod Moseley coming out on top in the
Driving Accuracy
Category averaging 10.9 fairways per round or 78.1%, following in the footsteps of Richard Green, winner in 2000, and Peter O’’Malley, winner the last two years.
In terms of
Driving Distance
South African Titch Moore established himself as the longest hitter with an average drive of 316.7 yards to beat Italy’’s Emanuele Canonica, winner in four of the last five years, who averaged 316.5 yards. Perhaps the most telling statistic however is the increased distance the players now hit the ball. The 300 yard average barrier was broken in 2001 and last year the longest drive was 304.9 yards with the top four players averaging over 300 yards. This year the top 16 all passed the 300 yard mark and the top four over 310 yards with Ernie Els, fourth with 310.0 yards making the distance count.
Padraig Harrington once again showed why he is one of the best players in the world by leading the
Putts per Round
Category with an average of 28.2 while Korean Charlie Wi and Frenchman Sebastian Delagrange demonstrated their recovery skills by winning the
Sand Saves
category, saving par 73.3% of the times they found sand.
