Brendan Steele got his game going last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the CIMB Classic, an official tournament on the PGA Tour. He posted a 4-under-par 74-70-72-68 — 284 to claim a tie for 25th place, earning more than $53,000 and capturing 43.5 FedExCup points.
The native Idyllwilder now has 56 points so far this season putting him, oddly enough, in 56th place on the FedExCup points list.
After a slow start, Steele put it together on Sunday, eagling the par-5 third hole on the way to hitting 85.71 percent of the fairways and 77.78 percent of the greens in regulation while needing an average of only 1.643 puts per green.
Steele takes this week off. He is expected to tee it up on Nov, 14 in the $6 million OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Because of technological advances, modern golf seems destined to out do baseball as the top statistic-producing sport. Perhaps it already has. Steele has given us a chance this week to mention one obscure golf statistic: smash factor.
Smash factor is a driving stat that is the ratio of ball speed to club-head speed. Steele leads the PGA Tour so far this season with a smash factor of 1.485 (ball speed of 172.54 mph divided by club-head speed of 116.19 mph).
This is really a club-selection stat that measures the efficiency of a particular driver for a particular golfer’s swing. John Rae, performance research manager for Cleveland Golf, has opined that smash factor together with actual ball speed, launch angle and spin numbers can determine which driver is best for a particular player.
Anyone who wants to drown themselves in smash factor information may check out a webpage kept by Dave Tutelman at www.tutelman.com/golf/ballflight/smashfactor.php.
Sports statistics fans in general who aren’t already familiar with all the stats being kept in golf these days, may take a look at Brendan Steele’s performance stats for this season at pgatour.com. Click on Players>Find A Player>Steele, Brendan>Performance Stats.
