This week’s collection of Fortinet Threat Score holes went a long way in determining the winner of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Check out all the Fortinet Threat Score every week in our course stats section.
Thomas Pieters, who picked up his sixth career DP World Tour Title, played the three toughest holes on the course this week in even par. But this was even more significant when put in the context of how the field played those holes: his performance on holes 3, 6 and 15 gained a total of 2.9 strokes on his competition.
Let’s break down the three toughest holes this week at Yas Links and why they stymied an elite DP World Tour field at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship:
Hole 3
Difficulty Rank: 1st
Playing three-tenths of a stroke over par, the third hole at Yas Links was the most difficult on the course this week. The top five finishers in the tournament were a testament to its difficulty, playing it in a combined 6-over. That includes Viktor Hovland, who made triple-bogey at the third hole on Sunday.
The field averaged just 263 yards off the tee on this hole, the third-lowest average driving distance among par 4s and 5s at Yas Links. And while more than two-thirds of the field hit the green in regulation, that didn’t tell the entire story: with an average proximity to the hole of more than 46 feet, players weren’t guaranteed par even after hitting the green in two. In fact, the field averaged 2.05 putts-per-G.I.R. for the tournament, the highest rate of any hole on the course.
Hole 6
Difficulty Rank: 2nd
The 6th, a 468-yard par 4, was the second-toughest hole on the course this week. The 6th was especially trying if players were errant with their drives: this hole carried a missed fairway penalty of 0.45 strokes, the most significant on the golf course all week long. Less than 49 percent of the field wound up in the fairway off the tee for the tournament.
Hitting the green in two proved tough, too: at 62.3%, this hole yielded the fourth-lowest green in regulation rate on the course this week. The value of finding the green in two was enormous – 0.28 strokes, to be exact – the second-highest value of any hole all week long. This hole also kept players from getting their approaches tight, with an average proximity to the hole of 39 feet, 9 inches. Tournament winner Thomas Pieters played this hole in 1-under for the week.
Hole 15
Difficulty Rank: 3rd
The 15th hole was the toughest on the back nine at Yas Links this week, and ranked third-toughest overall on the course. The enormous putting surface on this par 4 led to wild differences in where players hit their approach shots, and generated the toughest average proximity to the hole on the course all week (just over 49 feet).
Even with the vast putting surface, players found the green in regulation just 61 percent of the time, the second-lowest rate of any hole on the golf course. The average 1.96 putts per green in regulation ranked third-toughest, as well.
For the week, four players led the way in combined scoring on the Fortinet Threat Score holes: Scott Jamieson, Daan Huizing, Shane Lowry and Ricardo Gouveia played holes 3, 6 and 15 in a combined 2-under, gaining a total of 4.9 strokes over the field.
