Golf is a numbers game, from your score to par to the amount of money you take off your mate on a Sunday afternoon. Here, we break down all the critical numbers from 2023.
77,076
The official attendance of a wild LIV Adelaide (pictured above). Whether you’re a traditionalist or love the disruptive nature of party holes and live music on the golf course, you can’t argue that it was a spectacle when the Greg Norman-run LIV Golf made its way to The Grange Golf Club.
Shirtless American comedians, famous DJs and who could forget Chase Koepka’s chaotic hole-in-one. It was all great entertainment for the fans that had travelled far and wide to experience the first Australian LIV event.
53
The number of three putts Justin Thomas had on the PGA Tour this season. It was a tough season for JT on tour this year; the two-time major champion couldn’t quite find his groove – especially on the greens.
He chopped and changed putters before adopting the scientific practice of aim-point midway through the season. Regardless of what he and caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay tried on the greens, it didn’t go Thomas’ way this year. His 53 three-putts across 72 rounds left him sitting in fifth on the PGA Tour in the statistic.
455
Justin Thomas could use some putting tips from Christiaan Bezuidenhout (pictured right). The South African strung together 455 holes without succumbing to a three-putt.
RIGHT: PHOTO: Getty Images.
233
Is the incredible number of double bogies carded by the field across four rounds at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
Oak Hill was a gruelling test where missing the fairway was a proper penalty, the fairways were suffocatingly tight, and the green complexes were challenging to gauge. Eventual champion Brooks Koepka didn’t contribute to the double bogey count, not making anything worse than a bogey on his way to a third Wanamaker Trophy.
4
We have all seen some short putts lip out or miss the hole completely, but American Tom Whitney (pictured) missed one of the shortest recorded putts in professional golf at the NVS Invitational on the Korn Ferry Tour when his four-inch tap-in caught the lip and rolled adrift.
RIGHT: PHOTO: Getty Images.
He made sure to take his time over his tap-in on the following hole, even adding a fist pump for good measure.
$18,000,000
Or AU$27,955,512, was Viktor Hovland’s pay cheque after claiming the FedExCup. It was the cherry on top of a phenomenal season for the Norwegian, who had three victories, nine top-10s and made every cut in 23 event starts, including all four major championships. His total season earnings, including winner’s cheque for the BMW Championship on the DP World Tour, was US$33,512,235 … about $19,678 per hole.
1,242
It has been a difficult past few years for Tiger Woods off the course and his lack of play has seen his world ranking plummet to No.1242 at the time of writing. The 15-time major champion graced the fairways twice this year, remarkably making the cut both times he teed it up. He finished in a tie for 45th in the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club and withdrew from the Masters after making the weekend.
Tiger later went under the knife again to alleviate some stress on his severely injured right leg, and he also struggled with plantar fasciitis in his right foot. It is doubtful we will see much of Tiger in 2024 beyond the major championships, but he has been written off countless times and proven many wrong. Can he compete again? Time will tell.
241.6
Miles per hour was the ball-speed long-haired long-drive champion Kyle Berkshire soared to when breaking his own ball-speed world record of 236.2mph, which he set in December 2022.
The astronomical new number converted to kilometres per hour is 395.99. For context, a Formula One car’s fastest speed in 2023 was 358.8 kph, and China’s bullet train, the Fuxing, travels at 350kph.
88.9
If you’re going off pure numbers, American Lizette Salas is the most accurate driver of the golf ball on the planet, hitting 88.9 percent of fairways on the LPGA Tour.
The most accurate driver on the PGA Tour was Russell Henley hitting 71.74 percent of fairways, which would see him ranked 91st on the LPGA Tour.
100.3
American pro Harris English (pictured right) made the longest putt of the PGA Tour season – and the second longest in PGA Tour history – when he buried a 100.3ft monster on the 6th hole at TPC Scottsdale during the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
RIGHT: PHOTO: Getty Images.
The lengthy putt (for par) didn’t make the broadcast and didn’t help English make the weekend. He shot 45 on the back nine in round two and missed the cut by nine shots.
40,181
There are some treacherous travel schedules in the world of pro golf. This year, Justin Thomas tracked his total miles, equating to 40,181 miles (64,665 kilometres), from the start of the PGA Tour season through to the start of the FedExCup playoffs, which Thomas missed for the first time in his career.
The distance Thomas travelled is almost twice the earth’s circumference and doesn’t include the round trip from Florida to Rome for the Ryder Cup, which is another 10,300 miles, but it’s not like JT is flying cattle class; we reckon he will be okay.
14
Team Europe and Team USA couldn’t be separated at this year’s Solheim Cup in Spain, finishing up on 14 points apiece after an electric final day of singles where both sides traded toe-to-toe blows and recorded six points each. The 14-all draw was enough for Europe to retain the Solheim Cup for the third-straight contest. 2024 in Washington D.C will no doubt be an intense encounter.
7,765
The PGA Tour ventured to some hefty layouts that demand precision and, more notably, length. This year, Torrey Pines South Course was the longest and measured a whopping 7,765 yards (7,100 metres) for the Farmers Insurance Open. The King of California, Max Homa, held off a surging Keegan Bradley to claim the title in San Diego.
$1,900,000
Talor Gooch claimed his maiden LIV Golf title in Adelaide and pocketed a cool $4 million. But the Aussie tax man had other ideas, slashing Gooch’s winnings in half, taking $1.9 million for the ATO. The American wasn’t complaining when he collected the same pay cheque for winning in Singapore, with its lower tax rate, the following week.
1,835
Jason Day went five years or 1,835 days between PGA Tour wins. He broke the drought when he fired a final round nine-under-par 62 at the AT&T Byron Nelson in Texas. Day had been trending towards a significant result, slowly building in form all season and finally getting the monkey off his back in May.
RIGHT: PHOTO: Getty Images.
2
Lilia Vu was the standout player and the story of the year. Coming into the 2023 season with no LPGA Tour wins next to her name, she now has three – and a Solheim Cup appearance. But the most impressive number is the two majors she managed to reel off – saluting at the Chevron Championship in a play-off over Angel Yin and then running away with the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath by six shots.
20
Ruoning Yin was still not old enough to legally have a drink in the USA when she triumphed at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. The then 20-year-old narrowly held out Japanese star Yuka Saso at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course to claim her maiden major championship.
155
It became glaringly apparent throughout 2023 that World No.1 Scottie Scheffler had some issues on the greens. He looked uncomfortable over short ones, consulted his caddie for far too long when reading greens, and occasionally wouldn’t touch the hole from three feet.
RIGHT: PHOTO: Getty Images.
A combination of these and some severe scar tissue saw the premier player on the planet fall to 155th on the strokes gained putting stats, losing nearly half a shot to the field (0.301) every time he teed it up. It is scary to think what Scheffler’s 2024 could look like if he finds a hint of magic with the flat stick.
2027
There was an ambush in Rome when the highly favoured Americans arrived to stake their claim at their first Ryder Cup victory behind enemy lines in 30 years. But the Europeans looked dominant from the outset, meaning the Americans must now wait until 2027 to break the hoodoo.
3
There have been three standout male golfers over the past 12 months in terms of consistency, getting the job done and relishing big moments. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm have been a class above the rest.
All three men have spent time at World No.1 this year; Scheffler plucked the top spot out of Rory’s grasp in February and wore the crown for a grand total of one week; he and Rahm then played hot potato with the top spot until May 21st when the Texan leapfrogged his Spanish counterpart for one last time and has held the mantle since.
280,000,000
It’s no secret golfers cover plenty of ground while strolling the fairways. Australian golfers as a collective covered an estimated 280 million kilometres during the last 12 months. The distance adds up to more than 7,000 laps of the earth’s equator and 55 million more kilometres than the distance between the Earth and Mars (225 million).
5
There has been slightly more to-and-fro with the World No.1 spot on the women’s side, with five different players spending time atop the pile. Lydia Ko started 2023 on top before Nelly Korda spent the best part of a month there until Jin Young Ko joined the party, spending seven weeks at No.1 to take her total weeks at World No.1 to 163. Korda had another brief stint there before Lilia Vu entered the equation, and Ruoning Yin also spent a fortnight on top before Vu reclaimed the crown in late September.
9 & 7
PGA Champion Brooks Koepka joined forces with the World No.1 Scottie Scheffler to take on Scandinavian duo Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg in the Saturday morning foursomes at the Ryder Cup.
The young Euros gave the American superstars a good old-fashioned towelling up 9&7. Scheffler was so embarrassed by the beating he was reduced to tears.
The foursomes’ win was the largest margin of victory in Ryder Cup history, surpassing Hale Irwin and Tom Kite’s 7 & 6 drubbing of European pair Ken Brown and Des Smyth in 1979.
600
Thomas Bjorn made his 600th start on the DP World Tour, formerly the European Tour, when he teed it up at the Alfred Dunhill Links in Scotland in October.
It is a remarkable display of longevity by the Dane, whose career began on the European Tour in 1996. The 52-year-old has amassed 15 wins on the European circuit. He fell agonisingly short of an Open Championship victory in 2003 (behind Ben Curtis) at Royal St. Georges and was also the winning Ryder Cup captain at Le National in France in 2018.
1,603
The accessibility of golf in Australia is fantastic, and it is only getting better. The overall number of places to play in Australia as of 2023 is 1,603. This figure comprises 1,406 golf courses, 184 driving ranges, 115 mini golf courses and an ever-evolving number of indoor facilities such as simulators and entertainment venues, meaning you don’t have to venture too far to get your golfing fix.
313.4
At 43, Adam Scott is still more than capable of keeping up with the heavy hitters of the PGA Tour, averaging 313.4 yards off the tee this season, leaving him ranked 12th in driving distance.
One thing the former World No.1 will have to look to do next season is keep those big drives in the cut stuff. Scott hit a little over half (53.45 percent) of fairways in 2023. Leaving him sitting in the 152nd spot in driving accuracy.
1.75M
All golfers love the feeling of cleaning their clubs and loading them into a travel bag the night before a much-anticipated golf trip. An estimated 1.75 million overnight trips are made per annum to play golf. 1.6 million are overnight domestic trips, and more than 150,000 overseas visitors come to experience the world-class golf Australia offers.
302
That’s the number of yards covered by the tee shot leading to the longest hole-in-one of the year played by one of the players of the year. Viktor Hovland made the ace on the par-4 5th hole at Marco Simone G&CC in Rome, during practice for the Ryder Cup. Hovland used a three wood to achieve the rare feat.
RIGHT: PHOTO: Getty Images.
261
Was the lowest 72-hole score – 19-under – on the DP World Tour in 2023. Ludvig Aberg fired the number to win the European Masters in Switzerland and it guaranteed his captain’s pick selection to the European Ryder Cup team.
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