Key Stats: John Deere Classic (2024)

Key Stats based on the data modeling from John Deere Classic results going back to 2007.

Scoring Average

Scoring Average is still serving as the baseline statistic for best performers.

Top 10 in the Field

1. Davis Thompson

2. Aaron Rai

3. Keith Mitchell

4. Maverick McNealy

5. Doug Ghim

6. Mark Hubbard

7. Ben Griffin

8. Andrew Novak

9. Ben Silverman

10. Patrick Cantlay

Strokes Gained: Tee to Green

This week’s key stats seems to be getting back to the bare bones. Tee to Green stats tend to show the fields most well-rounded players. Here’s the best in the field:

Top 10 in the Field

1. Keith Mitchell

2. Aaron Rai

3. Davis Thompson

4. Doug Ghim

5. Kevin Yu

6. Andrew Novak

7. Daniel Berger

8. Maverick McNealy

9. Chan Kim

10. Jhonattan Vegas

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee

The model places off the tee ability as paramount to success this week. Here’s the field’s best drivers:

Top 10 in the Field

1. Kevin Dougherty

2. Keith Mitchell

3. Kevin Yu

4. Rico Hoey

5. Alejandro Tosti

6. Jhonattan Vegas

7. Patrick Fishburn

8. Jimmy Stanger

9. Jordan Spieth

10. Maverick McNealy

Scrambling

Covering all our bases this week by highlighting the driving, tee to green and now the field’s top scramblers:

Top 10 in the Field

1. Denny McCarthy

2. Maverick McNealy

3. Taylor Montgomery

4. Ben Silverman

5. Ben Griffin

6. Nate Lashley

7. Andrew Putnam

8. Aaron Rai

9. Greyson Sigg

10. Patrick Fishburn

Greens in Regulation

Finally, getting the ball on the putting surface with a chance to score rates high once again in terms of model importance. Here are the guys that should get looks:

Top 10 in the Field

1. Aaron Rai

2. Jhonattan Vegas

3. Patton Kizzire

4. Kevin Yu

5. Lanto Griffin

6. Keith Mitchell

7. Joel Dahmen

8. David Skinns

9. Ryo Hisatsune

10. Daniel Berger

Frequent Flyers

Frequent Flyer Runner Ups

This week is a little bit easier on the typing fingers as only two players finished behind the frequent flyers with a top-10 appearance in three out of the five key stat categories. Both follow a similar mold, solid tee to green, not the best scramblers.

Jhonattan Vegas

Vegas has been in okay form of late. A mixed bag in his last five, with two top-25 finishes and two missed cuts, the other being a T27 finish. The strength in his game all season long is his tee to green ability. Of late the driving ability has been his biggest asset. But his approach game has not been as dialed in as usual. That coupled with his poor short game form leads me to believe Vegas cannot be considered a true contender.

Scoring Average: 25th | SG: Tee to Green: 10th | SG: Off the Tee: 6th | Scrambling: 95th | Greens in Regulation: 2nd

Current Form Rating: 36th

Kevin Yu

Yu is a little bit more interesting because both his off the tee and approach game have been in positive form. But he only has one top-25 finish in his last five tournaments, albeit a T4 finish at the Myrtle Beach Classic. Like Vegas, Yu does not have the short game or putting ability to go along with the tee to green strengths. I would say slightly better pick than Vegas but not a true contender.

Scoring Average: 22nd | SG: Tee to Green: 5th | SG: Off the Tee: 3rd | Scrambling: 60th | Greens in Regulation: 4th

Current Form Rating: 19th

Frequent Flyer Winners: Aaron Rai, Keith Mitchell, and Maverick McNealy

The frequent flyer winners are all very familiar to my lineups of late. Some I will gladly hop back on the train, but there is definitely one that has my fade alarm going.

Aaron Rai

Rai is shaping up to be a very popular pick this week. He couldn’t quite pull off a win last week, but he definitely played himself into the spotlight this week. No missed cuts and three top-25 finishes in his last five tournaments including the T2 performance as mentioned before. As the key stat rankings show he might be the most well balanced player in the field. The one weakness is his putter, but that has not been a problem in terms of performance lately.

Scoring Average: 2nd | SG: Tee to Green: 2nd | SG: Off the Tee: 13th | Scrambling: 8th | Greens in Regulation: 1st

Current Form Rating: 1st

Keith Mitchell

Keith Mitchell popping up as a frequent flyer winner has me absolutely rattled. I don’t want to go down this road again. But I definitely don’t want to be the guy that didn’t play Keith Mitchell the guy everyone knew would catch fire except for me. The issue lies in his short game ability. Last week I said that I felt like it was better than the stats displayed. That might be true for his ability around the green, but certainly not with his putter which has not been good enough. However, the model doesn’t have putting up as high in importance this week. Mixed bag in his latest tournaments, with two top-25 performances and two missed cuts. Safe to say, I am all over the place with Mitchell and probably will avoid him in the main lineup.

Scoring Average: 3rd | SG: Tee to Green: 1st | SG: Off the Tee: 2nd | Scrambling: 44th | Greens in Regulation: 6th

Current Form Rating: 12th

Maverick McNealy

For some reason, I do not have the Keith Mitchell doubts when it comes to McNealy. I really trust him to recover from a just okay week. Shake off the tournament rust and get back into form Maverick, prove all the fervent Maverick McNealy haters wrong. Three top-25 finishes in his last five tournaments. He has a pretty well-balanced game with no glaring holes. But, his approach game is mediocre and might hold him back from being a top dog.

Scoring Average: 4th | SG: Tee to Green: 8th | SG: Off the Tee: 10th | Scrambling: 2nd | Greens in Regulation: 60th

Current Form Rating: 3rd