Hard Fairway Specialists

The Fantasy Golfanac looks at the performance of each golfer on a course-by-course basis. This is crucial when it comes to finding value in daily fantasy golf formats or any weekly fantasy golf format that requires gamers to find value plays.

In this section, we look at performance when golfers tee it up on a course where fairways are difficult to hit. We have defined difficulty-to-hit fairways as any course where the field averages 56 percent or less in terms of fairways hit.

* Minimum 30 rounds to qualify. Stats are time-weighted and adjusted to the strength of competition.

Top 25 Performers on Hard Fairway Courses (since 2014)

Rory McIlroy (3.325 strokes gained:total)
Dustin Johnson (3.209 strokes gained:total)
Justin Rose (3.088 strokes gained:total)
Jason Day (2.919 strokes gained:total)
Jon Rahm (2.871 strokes gained:total)
Matt Kuchar (2.602 strokes gained:total)
Paul Casey (2.542 strokes gained:total)
Justin Thomas (2.51 strokes gained:total)
Adam Scott (2.494 strokes gained:total)
Tiger Woods (2.483 strokes gained:total)
Rickie Fowler (2.461 strokes gained:total)
Hideki Matsuyama (2.398 strokes gained:total)
Bubba Watson (2.278 strokes gained:total)
Webb Simpson (2.172 strokes gained:total)
Jordan Spieth (2.165 strokes gained:total)
Sergio Garcia (2.16 strokes gained:total)
Tommy Fleetwood (2.144 strokes gained:total)
Phil Mickelson (2.126 strokes gained:total)
Henrik Stenson (2.12 strokes gained:total)
Patrick Cantlay (2.119 strokes gained:total)
Alex Noren (2.096 strokes gained:total)
Brooks Koepka (2.039 strokes gained:total)
Gary Woodland (1.989 strokes gained:total)
Rafa Cabrera Bello (1.975 strokes gained:total)
Zach Johnson (1.959 strokes gained:total)

Top 25 Hard Fairway Specialists
(Hard Fairways vs. Expected Strokes Gained)

Max Homa (0.789 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.02 sg:total)
Danny Willett (1.261 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.539 sg:total)
Alex Noren (2.096 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.43 sg:total)
Carlos Ortiz (1.218 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.602 sg:total)
Alex Prugh (0.823 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.314 sg:total)
Corey Conners (1.36 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.86 sg:total)
Ollie Schniederjans (1.385 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.898 sg:total)
Chesson Hadley (1.374 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.9 sg:total)
Bubba Watson (2.278 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.842 sg:total)
Tim Herron (0.01 sg:hard fairways vs. -0.411 sg:total)
Michael Kim (0.645 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.251 sg:total)
Robert Garrigus (0.911 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.524 sg:total)
Rory McIlroy (3.325 sg:hard fairways vs. 2.943 sg:total)
Talor Gooch (1.397 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.023 sg:total)
Matt Kuchar (2.602 sg:hard fairways vs. 2.234 sg:total)
Patton Kizzire (1.199 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.832 sg:total)
Adam Schenk (1.26 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.892 sg:total)
Charley Hoffman (1.908 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.553 sg:total)
James Hahn (1.318 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.001 sg:total)
Tom Hoge (0.845 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.534 sg:total)
Branden Grace (1.819 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.511 sg:total)
Adam Scott (2.494 sg:hard fairways vs. 2.188 sg:total)
Sangmoon Bae (0.47 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.178 sg:total)
Jon Rahm (2.871 sg:hard fairways vs. 2.594 sg:total)
Vaughn Taylor (1.373 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.097 sg:total)

Top 25 Hard Fairway Anti-Specialists
(Hard Fairway vs. Expected Strokes Gained)

Davis Love III (-1.019 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.012 sg:total)
Kiradech Aphibarnrat (0.216 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.236 sg:total)
Jonathan Byrd (-0.406 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.521 sg:total)
Andrew Landry (-0.074 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.725 sg:total)
Martin Piller (-0.789 sg:hard fairways vs. -0.053 sg:total)
D.A. Points (-0.951 sg:hard fairways vs. -0.254 sg:total)
Denny McCarthy (0.468 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.112 sg:total)
Jim Herman (-0.127 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.513 sg:total)
Keith Mitchell (0.652 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.239 sg:total)
Brice Garnett (0.009 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.585 sg:total)
Tyler Duncan (-0.157 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.396 sg:total)
Bryson DeChambeau (1.398 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.842 sg:total)
Bronson Burgoon (0.351 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.785 sg:total)
Scott Langley (0.08 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.514 sg:total)
Blayne Barber (0.17 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.602 sg:total)
Russell Henley (0.973 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.403 sg:total)
Roberto Diaz (-0.292 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.124 sg:total)
Kelly Kraft (0.066 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.464 sg:total)
Roger Sloan (-0.28 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.119 sg:total)
Anirban Lahiri (0.478 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.874 sg:total)
David Lingmerth (0.584 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.96 sg:total)
Tommy Fleetwood (2.144 sg:hard fairways vs. 2.506 sg:total)
Sam Burns (0.558 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.92 sg:total)
Sam Ryder (0.715 sg:hard fairways vs. 1.074 sg:total)
J.J. Spaun (0.644 sg:hard fairways vs. 0.991 sg:total)

Last Updated: May 20th, 2019

This article has 14 comments

  1. Hey! Question. I am curious as to why extremely accurate guys like Knox, Molinari, GMac are not good on tough to hit fairway courses. You would think that they would do especially well there given their accuracy off the tee. Thoughts? Thanks!

    Reply

    • The thing about Hard Fairways is that EVERYONE in the field is going to miss more fairways. That includes the accurate guys like Knox, Moli, Gmac. If everyone is missing more fairways, then the advantage goes back to bombers as they are 50 yards further up in the rough, coming in with less club.

      Their are always exceptions on particular courses based on length of rough and what not but that would be my best explanation. This is actually a very common question (and a good one).

      Reply

  8. Hey Josh – can you please update this report?

    All the “Anti-Specialist” H2H Fairway players missed the cut in last year’s field FYI.

    Thanks as always.

    Reply

  9. Hey Josh – thanks again for all the info. can you please refresh this report for this week?

    There were no ANTI H2H fwys in the top 20 last year…

    Thank you,
    Matt

    Reply

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