Comparing Adam Scott with Bubba Watson: career stats

You couldn’t get two more different golfers, but their numbers are remarkably similar.

You couldn’t compare to more different golfers against one another. One is right-handed and plays the game with composure and a graceful, text-book golf swing; while the other is a lefty with a wild on-course temperament and a golf swing few golfers would dare emulate.

But somehow the golf careers of Bubba Watson and Adam Scott are very similar by the numbers.  After Watson’s victory at the Northern Trust Open and the Adam Scott’s at The Honda Classic over the past two weeks, we thought we’d put them side-by-side and take a look.

The most obvious (and perhaps important) statistical difference is that Watson has two majors to his name compared to Scott’s despite having teed it up in 27 fewer tournaments.  But all three came at The Masters. In fact, Watson presented Scott his green jacket in 2013 and Scott presented it back to Watson in 2014.

When it comes to the PGA Tour, they’ve both played in a similar number of events with Scott having the edge on Watson in this category, 12 to 9. With his victory at The Honda Classic last week Scott went to the top of the list of active players with the most PGA Tour wins under the age of 40. Rory McIlroy is second with 11 wins with Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson tied with nine victories.

Watson has claimed on several occasions he would retire from the game if he wins 10 times or gets to number one in the world so he can “walk away on top.”

SCOTT v WATSON in AUSTRALIA
2011 Aus PGA
Scott T4
Watson T12
2011 Aus Open
Scott T4
Watson T12
2015 Aus Masters
Scott T25
Watson 2
2015 Aus Open
Scott T14
Watson T14

Worldwide wins
Both Watson and Scott have the one WGC event victory each but it’s probably important to include Scott’s worldwide record. It’s probably not surprising that Scott has 16 more professional victories that Watson given he has played professional golf for longer (2000 v 2003) and Watson’s distaste for travel but here is something interesting from the same tournaments they’ve played in Australia.

Ok, so I’m cherry-picking now but there aren’t too many tournaments in Australia where both Bubba Watson and Adam Scott teed it up at the same time. Just the four as far as I can tell: the 2005 Australian Open (Moonah Links) and Australian Masters (Huntingdale), and the 2011 Australian Open (The Lakes) and Australian PGA Championship Coolum). And once again there are similarities.

Driving statistics
Bubba gets all the kudos for hitting the ball a long way – due to that incredible golf swing off the tee and that unmistakable pink driver, but Scott isn’t that far behind and once again their remarkably similar when you look at the numbers.

If we look at the driving stats for the 2015 PGA Tour season, Watson was ranked 2nd and finished with an average driving distance of 315.2 yards with a 56.55% accuracy. Scott was ranked 4th with an average driving distance of 311.6 yards with a better accuracy of 61.65%.

To be continued…

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