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John Deere Review & Scottish Open Preview | Stats, Trends & More!

Jul 11, 2023

We head across the pond for a little bit of coffee golf! We’ll start with the Scottish Open that has been played every year since 1986 and dates back as far as 1972. This was strictly a DP World Tour event until last year when it gained “co-sanctioned” status between the World Tour and the PGA TOUR.

The Renaissance Club, in North Berwick, will play host for the 5th consecutive year.

Good Luck
Rick

🏆 Last Week’s Optimal Lineup 🐮

🧹 16 Blissful Rounds

Thanks to a few eagle-eyed readers, we’ve been able to determine that Lucas Glover has been using his new broomstick putter since the Memorial — a total of 16 rounds.

During that stretch, he’s gained 0.15 strokes per round putting.

Over the last four seasons, he’s lost 0.52, 0.57, 0.21 and 0.36 strokes per round so being a small positive is actually a big positive for Glover.

🪂 Sepp Ceiling Straka

Straka has a pretty bizarre stat profile. He’s won twice over the last two seasons (54 starts) and has (2) more runner-up finishes that could have very easily been wins.

During that stretch he’s missed over half his cuts (23/54). When he plays poorly, it’s a short week but when he plays really well, he’s capable of contending.

He only gains strokes to the field in 58% of his rounds played but gains 3+ strokes to the field in 20% of his rounds played.

He basically has the same floor as Lee Hodges but the same ceiling as Matt Fitzpatrick.

❓ Trivia!

Old Tom Morris might be the most influential Scottish golfer ever, born in 1821 and winning the Open four times and contributing novel ideas like modern greenkeeping and course design.

His life and career was depicted in a 2016 film which was based on a 2007 book which was awarded “best golf book of 2007”.

Name the film.
(Answer at bottom of this post)

🎽 SWAG GIVEAWAY!

I bought a literal boxful of Open Championship swag and I’m giving it away. Just like last time, I’ll split it up in a few care packages and mail them out to readers.

If you are subscribed to this newsletter, you’re already entered! If not:

Thanks so much for the support, I love being able to giveback a little and this gear was too sweet to pass up!

🐳 The First Ever “Listener League”

“Rick, why don’t you have a listener’s league?” is probably one of the questions I am asked the most. The answer is generally … logistics.

But the answer now is — I do!

There is a private pick ‘em contest on Splash Sports that will serve as a test this week to see how much interest there might be in something like this.

Join here: https://bit.ly/RRGSplash

There are a few reasons that I chose Splash …

1) They bought both RunYourPool and OfficeFootballPool, sites that we were already comfortable using.
2) The goal is to host everything over there including OAD, March Madness Brackets, NFL Survivor, etc.
3) They handle everything and I don’t have to worry about holding money or doing anything logistic-wise.

NOTE: By the time you’re reading this, the contest might be full. I’ll try to get a second one added so keep checking back.

🗡️ A Knight’s Tale

The Renaissance Club has played host to the Scottish Open for four years in a row across both the DP World Tour and the PGA TOUR. Here are the best players at this course, minimum of eight rounds:

🌏 Play The Ball on the Ground!

I love weeks like this where we get a glimpse into how golf is played across the pond. It’s such a different game! Links style golf offers options, rewards creativity and injects weather chaos.

Here are the best players at events held in the United Kingdom and Ireland since 2008 (minimum 20 rounds).

🏰 A Few Lads To Consider

Since this is a co-sanctioned event, this field will have a heavy presence of golfers who reside on the DP World Tour. I thought it’d be worth highlighting a few names:

Thorbjorn Olesen: The best player (+1.63/round) over the last 50 rounds in DP World Tour events only. He’s cooled a bit with a missed cut at the Made in HimmerLand last week but won back in February and has gained 10+ strokes to the field 4x in his last ten starts.
Romain Langasque: Soars into this week with (4) Top 16 finishes in his last six starts, including a runner-up finish at the Italian Open and T8 at the British Masters — his most recent start. Has struggled on approach, but gains a ton of strokes off-the-tee and with the putter.

Note: RickRunGood.com covers six tours (PGA, Euro, LIV, Korn Ferry, Champions and Asian Tour) which will be critical this week to get the full picture of results.

Matthieu Pavon: Could be considered the “safest” option — he gains strokes to the field in 89.6% of his rounds and gained 2+ strokes to the field in 39.5% of his rounds. Those numbers are similar to Wyndham Clark, but Pavon lacks the ceiling beyond 2+ strokes per round.

⚠️ In Case You Missed It

⛰️ Collin Morikawa’s “slump” has hit a notable point.

🐧 I’m now on Threads without much of a plan. We’ll see how it takes off and if it ends up competing with Twitter. For now — it’s golf stats!

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Trivia Answer:
Tommy’s Honour (2016)