Thanks to KPMG Performance Insights we have a better sense as to why some of the best golfers in the world play so well – and so consistently.
For the 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club there will be ten par 4s. That means the majority of the holes at the course will challenge the golfers for both their length and their shot-making.
Things get started easy enough at Congressional. The first hole is a decent length par 4 that boasts the widest fairway on the course. However, it gets tricky from there – and fast.
The par-4 3rd requires landing your approach in a very specific part of the green, otherwise a golfer is left with tons of trouble as they look to get up-and-down. The very next hole is the longest par 4 on the front nine.
There are risk-reward par 4s, short par 4s, par 4s with make-you-think green sites, and just as fine a collection of mid-length holes as golfers at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship could hope for.
So who are the KPMG Performance Insights saying is likely going to perform on the par 4s? It’s a name that should come as a surprise to no one.
Minjee Lee is first on the LPGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Total and Strokes Gained: Tee to Green. Lee has won twice already this season including the U.S. Women’s Open, which she won by four shots. She won the Cognizant Founders Cup just two tournaments prior.
Lee, who is also first on the LPGA Tour in Scoring Average (by nearly a full stroke), has plenty of reasons to be considered a favorite at Congressional. But those who are chasing Lee in those key statistical categories are some of the game’s best.
If you look at the rest of the golfers inside the top five of the Strokes Gained: Total list, it reads like a who’s who of women’s golf. Lexi Thompson, Jin Young Ko, Nelly Korda, and Lydia Ko all round out the top five in the category.
Our Defending Champion @NellyKorda is looking dialed in heading into the #KPMGWomensPGA! pic.twitter.com/GiRschdVah
— KPMG Women's PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 17, 2022
Thompson is also second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, while Korda is fifth in that category as she ramps up her return to competition. Korda is also first on Tour in Strokes Gained: Around the Green, while Lydia Ko is first in Strokes Gained: Putting.
To perform well on the par 4s at Congressional you need to have as complete a game as anyone, and Lee – but also Ko, Korda, and plenty others – have the numbers to prove they know how to get it done.
