Year in review: Top 10 statistics of 2008

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Robert Allenby's last win came in 2001, but he has an incredible number of top-10s since that victory.

Nov. 12, 2008
By Dave Lancer, PGA TOUR staff

Dave Lancer is the PGA TOUR's Director of Information. Here is his list of the 10 oddest and most interesting statistics from the 2008 TOUR season.

1. Who gets the most roll off the tee on TOUR? That would be Bart Bryant who averages 279.5 yards per tee shot with an average carry of 247.9. That works out to an average of 31.6 yards of roll per tee shot.

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2. Of the 36 different winners on TOUR this year, 15 of them had their best putting week when they won. Eleven had their best greens in regulation performance of the season while only six had their top driving distance week.

3. You might have known that the New York Giants were going to upset the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl if you had followed our notes the week of the FBR Open. When the PGA TOUR event played the day of the Super Bowl goes to a playoff, the NFC representative has a 6-1 record in the Super Bowl. J.B. Holmes topped Phil Mickelson with a birdie on the first hole of sudden death in this year's FBR Open and a few hours later the Giants topped the Patriots.

4. TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas yielded a TOUR-high 95 eagles this season during the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. What makes that number even more remarkable is that 14 of them came on par 4s.

5. Who has the most top-10 finishes since his last victory? The answer is Robert Allenby who has 45 top-10s since last winning at the 2001 Marconi Pennsylvania Classic. He has four runner-up finishes since that victory, including two this year.

6. It isn't how far you hit it, it's how many strokes it takes you to get around. Bubba Watson averages 315.1 yards off the tee, the best on TOUR, while Corey Pavin averages the least on TOUR -- 261.4. Despite giving up 53.7 yards per tee shot, Pavin has the lower scoring average, 70.33 to Watson's 70.79.

7. How do you explain this? Bob Tway finished first on TOUR in putting, third in birdie average, fourth in the all-around category and 32nd in scoring -- yet he still finished 132nd on the money list.

8. Since joining the PGA TOUR in 1968, Hale Irwin has walked more than 25,000 miles at PGA TOUR and Champions Tour events. That's enough to circle the globe at the equator -- a distance of 24,901 miles.

9. The state of Texas has produced some of golf's greatest players --- Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Lloyd Mangrum, Jimmy Demaret, Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite, among them -- but none have been able to win all four Texas TOUR events in their careers. In fact, no player has been able to do it, although nine players have managed to win three, including Hogan and Crenshaw.

10. Ben Curtis had the longest streak without a three-putt on TOUR this season at 374 holes. That's more than 20 consecutive rounds. Impressive as it is, it's far short of Raymond Floyd's 1992 mark of 511 consecutive holes -- more than 28 consecutive rounds.