Genworth Stats Pack - Preview Report

Joost Luiten has competed in this event 8 times before (with a best of 2nd in 2007 on this course) and he arrives in great form off the back of a win, a 2nd and a 4th place finish from his last seven starts. Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, the 27 year old golfer from The Netherlands is looking very strong from tee to green, ranking 32nd for Driving Accuracy and 10th for Greens in Regulation, plus his short game also seems to be nice and sharp of late (he ranked 2nd for Scrambling two weeks ago in Wales). Overall, the two time European Tour winner ranks 5th for Stroke Average over the period, taking plenty of home support with him this week.

Simon Dyson has competed in this event 11 times before, winning no less than three times (twice on this course). He arrives with finishes of 5th / 12th / 9th / 28th / 18th / 22nd from his last six starts, which is much improved since an uncharacteristic dip in form earlier this year. Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, the 35 year old English golfer is looking very strong from tee to green (the same as Luiten), ranking 20th for Driving Accuracy and 11th for Greens in Regulation, all leading to consistency across the different hole types (Par 3’s / Par 4’s / Par 5’s) and an overall Stroke Average ranking of 9th. Simon will no doubt start as one of the favourites in his quest for a 4th KLM Open title.

Ross Fisher has competed in this event 7 times before (winning in 2007 on this course) and he arrives off the back of a 5th place finish in Switzerland (note that he is yet to miss a cut from nine European Tour starts this season). Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, the 32 year old English golfer ranks 5th for Greens in Regulation, 1st for Par 4 Scoring and 2nd for overall Stroke Average (very impressive figures considering he is also hitting 22.2% of the Par 5 greens in sub-regulation), although we should highlight that his schedule of events has been slightly easier than some of the other leading players. With a good putting week, the four time European Tour winner may be right up there come Sunday afternoon.

Miguel Angel Jiménez has competed in this event 11 times before (winning back in 1994), but this will be his first visit to Kennemer G&CC in all that time. He arrives off the back of a 5th place finish in Switzerland as well as some excellent results in the biggest of the summer events. Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, the 49 year old Spanish maestro has played a very tough schedule, so his Greens in Regulation stats are slightly distorted (even so, we can see that he has put together some very impressive short game and putting figures over the period). With 19 European Tour victories under his belt, would you bet against him?

Nicolas Colsaerts has competed in this event 10 times before, with a best of 8th in 2010 / 2012. Having played the most difficult schedule of events, the 30 year old golfer from Belgium has a distorted set of Genworth Statistics so we will not pass too much comment. The one thing that must be mentioned though is his ranking of 1st out of all the players for the Par 5’s in 2 statistic, whereby the two-time European Tour winner is hitting an incredible 35.7% of the Par 5 greens in sub-regulation (two shots). If you want to see some big hitting excitement, then look no further than Nicolas Colsaerts.

Brooks Koepka competes in this event for the first time and he arrives off the back of a 7th place finish in Switzerland. Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, the 23 year old golfer from the USA is averaging 50% for Driving Accuracy alongside a huge 320 yards for Driving Distance. To explain, when analysing driving stats, the longer the hitter, the less important Driving Accuracy actually becomes - but only as long as the player is staying out of the trouble and still hitting a good number of Greens in Regulation (remember it is much easier to hit a wedge from the rough than a 7 iron). For those that don’t know, Brooks won three European Challenge Tour events earlier this year which provided him with automatic promotion to the European Tour.

Paul Casey has competed in this event once before (last year finishing 46th at Hilversum) and he arrives in confident mood with finishes of Win / 24th / 27th / 33rd / 15th from his last five starts. Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, the 36 year old English golfer ranks down in 141st for Driving Accuracy but up in 14th for Greens in Regulation, plus he is recording comparatively few drop shots (this is an excellent example where Driving Accuracy is less important for a longer player if he is still hitting greens and scoring). It all leads to an overall Stroke Average ranking of 7th. A good putting week and Paul will be tough to beat.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello has competed in this event 4 times before (with a best of 34th last year) and he arrives in steady form with finishes of 15th / 35th / 29th / 21st from his last four starts. Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, the 29 year old Spanish golfer is averaging nearly 70% for Greens in Regulation across all holes and he is scoring well on the Par 4’s and Par 5’s, but there is perhaps a little room for improvement on the Par 3’s. Over the period of analysis he has played 124 of them, hitting 73/124 of the greens (58.9%) and scrambling for Pars 24/51 times (47.1%) when missing the greens, accumulating 15 birdies / 81 pars / 25 bogeys / 3 others in all. A slightly more conservative middle of the green approach strategy may help his scoring in this area.

Tommy Fleetwood has competed in this event once before (last year finishing 17th at Hilversum) and he arrives in superb form off the back of a win in Scotland three weeks ago and a top ten finish last week in Switzerland. Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, the 22 year old English talent is looking very strong from tee to green, ranking 48th for Driving Accuracy, 50th for Driving Distance and 21st for Greens in Regulation, plus he is hitting 27.5% of the Par 5 greens in sub-regulation two shots as well (ranking 3rd in that category). Note that his rankings in the putting categories are lower as a simple knock-on effect of strong long game stats. He does not appear to be putting badly.

Shane Lowry has competed in this event 4 times before (with a best of 15th in in 2009) and he arrives off the back of a 10th place finish at Gleneagles. Looking at his Genworth Statistics since the middle of June, we should highlight that the 26 year old Irish golfer has played a very difficult schedule of recent events, so he is actually performing better than the numbers may suggest. The long game is comparatively very good and the putting is excellent. Don’t be surprised to see Shane up there vying for the title this week.