Key Stats: The US Open (2024)
Key Stats based on the data modeling from The US Open results going back to 2007.
One thing important to mention is I do not have a lot of the current stats for players in the LIV Tour as well as more unknown US Open qualifiers which makes the gaps in the models a little bit bigger this week.
Scoring Average
Scoring Average is back on top for most important stat for the model. Here’s the baseline for top performers:
Top 10 in the Field
Scottie Scheffler
Xander Schauffele
Rory McIlroy
Billy Horschel
Alex Noren
Collin Morikawa
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Ludvig Åberg
Aaron Rai
Davis Thompson
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee
Driving distance and accuracy has come to the forefront for this week’s model. Here is the field’s best drivers:
Top 10 in the Field
Scottie Scheffler
Rory McIlroy
Xander Schauffele
Rico Hoey
Viktor Hovland
Jordan Spieth
Min Woo Lee
Collin Morikawa
Wyndham Clark
Ludvig Åberg
Strokes Gained: Putting
From the driver, to the flat stick. The first shot and the last shot of each hole is topping the charts for performance statistics.
Top 10 in the Field
Denny McCarthy
Billy Horschel
Taylor Pendrith
Peter Malnati
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Jason Day
Beau Hossler
Mackenzie Hughes
Thomas Detry
Harris English
Strokes Gained: Approach
The model is covering all of it’s tracks with the approach game falling right behind driving and putting in terms of importance. Here are the best approach guys on Tour in the field:
Top 10 in the Field
Scottie Scheffler
Corey Conners
Tom Hoge
Tony Finau
Justin Thomas
Xander Schauffele
Aaron Rai
Si Woo Kim
Lucas Glover
Greyson Sigg
Scrambling
Finally, scrambling percentage makes a return to the Key Stats page. Intuitively, it does feel like a lot of the top Scramblers have performed well in US Open’s in the past. Here are the guys most likely to save their rounds this week:
Top 10 in the Field
Xander Schauffele
Alex Noren
Scottie Scheffler
Denny McCarthy
Hideki Matsuyama
Ludvig Åberg
Greyson Sigg
Tommy Fleetwood
Mackenzie Hughes
Billy Horschel
Frequent Flyers
Frequent Flyer Runner-Ups
Two players (Ludvig Aberg and Billy Horschel) ranked in the Top-10 for three of the five key stat categories. Here’s a quick breakdown on each of their chances for a solid major performance.
Ludvig Aberg
Aberg will be making his US Open debut this week and should be playing with some confidence. I feel like he is fully recovered from his wrist injury and ready to go. He ranks 8th in Scoring Average, 10th in SG: Off the Tee, and 6th in Scrambling. For our other key stats, Aberg ranks 34th in SG: Putting and 13th in SG: Approach. In his last five tournaments, he has four top-15 finishes including a tied-5th finish last week at the Memorial. So, Aberg has the game and the form to be a real competitor this week.
Billy Horschel
Horschel should be a really appealing value pick this week, getting pushed down the salary charts because of the top LIV golfers crowding the field. For this field, he ranks 4th in Scoring Average, 2nd in SG: Putting, and 10th in Scrambling. For our other key stats, Horschel is 27th in SG: Off the Tee, and 55th in SG: Approach. In his last five tournaments, he has three top-25 finishes. Not quite the resume of Aberg, lacking the powerhouse type driving and approach game. But, with his putting stroke and scrambling ability, he could hang around the top of the leaderboard this week.
Current Form Wild Cards
Bryson Dechambeau
Bryson’s performance in the last two major’s has to be brought up. With driving ability coming to the forefront of key stats it would be wrong to leave him out of this discussion. If he has the driver game going like at the Masters and PGA Championship, Dechambeau will hop right back to the top of the leaderboards.
Sepp Straka
The reason I want to mention Straka is his exceptional approach game in the last five tournaments. That style of play seems to be the key ingredient for the top players in the world. Now Straka is nowhere near that level of player, but I think his approach game could keep him in the mix this week.
Frequent Flyer Winners: Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler
No surprises at all when it comes to the key stats frequent flyers this week. Scottie remains the best player in the world and the stats portray his dominance. He is 1st in Scoring Average, SG: Off the Tee, SG: Approach, and 3rd in Scrambling amongst the field. For SG: Putting, Scottie ranks 41st. The putter has been good enough for him to be in the top-10 of all of his past five tournaments, including three wins. Scheffler has been on a mission all season long, and I do not see why it would stop this week. He has to be the top pick for the lineup once again.
Xander Schauffele
Coming in right next to Scheffler, both alphabetically and statistically, is Xander Schauffele. With a week of tough tournament play in his pocket after the major breakthrough, I would guess Xander will be sharp this week. He ranks 2nd in Scoring Average, 3rd in SG: Off the Tee, 6th in SG: Approach, and 1st in Scrambling. For SG: Putting, Xander is just outside the top-10 list ranking 11th. He might have the most well-rounded game on Tour leading him to five top-25 finishes in his last five including the major win. I am honestly considering pairing these two frequent flyers together and trying to find four value players to surround them with because they are just that good.
