🍾 2023: Statistical Year In Review
The Best of The Best in 2023 | Contests For 2024
Another year in the books, I cannot believe it. This past year was full of turbulence in our sport and there’s still plenty of unknown for the future. But there is something I can be certain about moving forward — (stop me if you’ve heard this before) — someone will win every event. There will be someone who beats the rest, books will payout funds, fantasy points will be earned and OAD contests will be competitive. All of that is enough for me.
Below you’ll find some fun stat nuggets looking back on 2023, a year unlike any other.
“May the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows” - Jay-Z
- Rick
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🏆 Most Valuable Golfer of The Year
Kurt “Quadzilla” Kitayama was the most profitable golfer of 2023. If you bet $100 on Kitayama in every single one of his starts, you’d have made a $23,000 profit. That was obviously buoyed by his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he closed at 250-1. Here are the most profitable golfers of the year, with at least 20 starts:
Kurt Kitayama: +$23,000
Lucas Glover: +$12,000
Wyndham Clark: +$10,600
Brian Harman: +$7,600
Keegan Bradley: +$5,900
Now for the big boys — based on average odds — here are the returns for the games best golfers.
Scottie Scheffler: +$850
Xander Schauffele: -($2,100)
Viktor Hovland: +$2,300
Collin Morikawa: -($900)
Max Homa: +$100
Tony Finau: -($1,400)
Justin Thomas: -($2,100)
Cameron Young: -($2,300)
Matt Fitzpatrick: +$900
Jordan Spieth: -($2,200)
👑 The 2023 Fantasy King
One of the most unique aspects of golf is that not every golfer plays every event — duh! So when you look back at season-long totals, it can get a bit wonky.
There were 89 different golfers who scored at least 1,400 fantasy points in 2023. Some did it in as few as 20 starts while others needed 32 cracks. The visualization helps to show the relationship between volume and efficiency:
🎯 Rounds of the Year
Below, you’ll find the best rounds of the year in terms of Strokes Gained — and they might surprise you. We all remember the opening round 62s from Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele at LACC, which gained 9.38 strokes to the field that day.
Those rounds were the ninth (!!) best rounds in my RickRunGood.com database, which covers the PGA TOUR, Korn Ferry Tour, Champions Tour, LIV Golf, DP World Tour and Asian Tour.
The single best round of the year came from Dale Whitnell who fired a 61 in round two of the Volvo Scandinavian Mixed. Not only was that round 12.29 strokes better than the field average but it was five (!!!!!) full strokes better than the next best round.
Michael Feagles opened the BMW Charity Pro-Am with a 59 (+10.11) but followed that with rounds of 71 and 73 — fading to a T15 finish.
The best weekend round came from Taylor Dickson, who carded a 62 (+10.06) on Saturday of the Magnit Championship. He flew up the leaderboard on Moving Day but fell a few shots short of Chan Kim that week.
Honorable Mention — Bryson DeChambeau’s final round 58 to win LIV Golf Greenbrier was impressive and historic but “only” gained 8.74 strokes to the field that day. The same exact number that Louis Oosthuizen gained in round three of his Alfred Dunhill Championship victory just a few weeks ago.
🏆 For Glory, For Money, For Both! 💰
There are not one, but two different One & Done leagues that I am running for 2024. I understand that can be confusing, so let me explain:
Global One & Done Hosted on RunGoodGolf.com
My personal attempt to make a worldwide, OAD leaderboard with divisions, user profiles, full stat-tracking and more. It’s $39 for the season with an emphasis on universal ranking and not prizes (though, prizes do exist).
More Info & Signup: RunGoodGolf.com
U.S. Based ‘Big Money’ One & Done Hosted on Splash Sports
This is a regulated contest, available in 41 different states. First place will be as high as $30,000 with payouts for the top 15% of the entrants. The buy-in is $150 and you can have up to five entries. This is limited to 2,200 users so please get your spots soon. This is being hosted on Splash Sports, which we used for weekly contests and NFL Survivor.
More Info & Signup: SplashSports.com
🧌 Frankenstein Golfer vs. The Cat
If you took only the best skills from each golfer and combined them into one Frankenstein Golfer — how good could he be? Or if Scottie Scheffler could putt, how good could he be? Here’s the best at each category for 2023:
OTT: Scottie Scheffler: +1.07
APP: Scottie Scheffler: +1.19
ARG: Justin Thomas: +0.49
PUTT: Denny McCarthy: +0.79
TOTAL: +3.54
That would be slightly better than Tiger Woods in 2006, when he gained 3.44 strokes to the field himself — and he won eight times in 15 events.
👂Help Me, Help You!
In 2024, you’re going to see more content from me than ever — with an emphasis on this email newsletter. If there is a question you’ve always wondered, a problem you’ve been unable to solve, or a deep-dive into any golf topic you want — let me know! Hit reply and tell me how I can help.