We Used Roundabout to Analyze How Daniel Berger Won This Week’s PGA TOUR Event at Colonial Country Club
A stacked leaderboard on Sunday led to a thrilling finish and a two man playoff with Daniel Berger eventually claiming the hardware. We analyzed his rounds with Roundabout to see how he was able to fend off Justin Rose, Jordan Speith, Collin Morikawa, and more.
Berger himself mentioned after the round that he hung in there and played some of his best golf of the last six years in the last five holes. From the scorecard above, it is clear that is the case as he closed his last round with two birdies in the last five.
Changing the Roundabout scorecard to strokes gained mode gives us a heat map of his round. Daniel was not as clean with his approach game through the first 13 holes, but when it mattered, Daniel leaned on his approach game and hit clutch shots on the last 5 holes as indicated by the green squares in the above scorecard. From the heatmap, it is clear that some clutch putts and short game really carried the day for Berger.
Three Keys
The three keys identify avoidable mistakes in a round. These include penalties, 2 chips, and 3 putts. Berger maximized his potential by eliminating big mistakes on the final day. Overall his approach game, was not sharp until he needed it the last five holes, however his short game kept him out of trouble scrambling 4 / 5 attempts with just a single blemish on the scorecard on the 9th hole. In fact, for the entire week, Berger had just 2 three putts, no penalties, and no two chips. This is easy to see in the ‘Three Keys’ plot of Roundabout’s Analysis section.
Strokes Gained Stacked
For the week, Berger found a different way to get it done each day. Looking at his Strokes Gained Stacked plot from Roundabout Analysis, we can see that each day a different area of Berger’s game shined. Round 1, he relied on a hot putter and good irons. Round 2, his iron play kept him from losing strokes to the field. Round 3, it was a combination of irons, short game and putting. Finally, in round 4, it was short game and putting that got him through.
This is a good lesson for amateurs in that even pros have trouble being consistent from day to day, but working on being well rounded allows for you to lean on different parts of your game when you are struggling in a particular area. Additionally, strokes gained analysis such as the SG Stacked plot can be used to identify inconsistent areas to focus on. For Berger, his driving was very consistent, even if he didn’t gain strokes on the field with his driver, however his iron play varied significantly from day to day putting stress on his short game and putting to carry the load on the off days.
Scoring By Par
Lastly, an area where Berger excelled was with his play on the Par 3’s. He was under par on the par 3s each day, birdying two of them on the critical Sunday. This was critical on a course that only has two par 5s, which Berger did not take advantage of all week.
Congrats to Berger on a great week of golf. A deserving champion that outlasted the field and made shots when they mattered most.
Now You Can Win with Roundabout
The Roundabout app allows you to gain similar insights into your own game in a way that has not been possible before. All of the analysis above is available for your game with a subscription to Roundabout. Download the app, start tracking shots, and subscribe today to identify your strengths and weaknesses and start improving.