The first round of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open was played yesterday at CordeValle. Mirim Lee leads at 8-under par, yet, get this, she finished 59th in Driving Distance, 31st in Fairways Hit, and 14th in Putts.

In other words from tee to green, she seemed average at best.

So what gives?

Well, these three major stats that every tournament tracks at the top level, seem to be of little importance, at least at CordeValle.

In Driving Distance, for example, of the Top 10 long bombers in round one, only two are in the Top 35 on the leaderboard, and four are outside of the Top 100. Let’s just say that driving distance doesn’t seem to matter at CordeValle.

DRIVING DISTANCE
1 – T151 – Yu Sang Hou (a) – 276.55
2 – T67 – Lexi Thompson – 274.70
3 – T89 – Cydney Clanton – 272.25
4 -T125 – Madelene Sagstrom – 270.50
5 – T2 – Minjee Lee – 270.15
6 – T125 – Melissa Reid – 268.95
7 – T2 – Amy Yang – 268.20
8 – T106 – Angel Yin – 265.35
9 – T67 Alison Lee – 264.55
10 – T38 – Pei-Yun Chien – 264.25

In Fairways Hit, another stat that is usually key to winning, there are an amazing 30 players at T6 (we’ve simply cut the Top 10 listed). And of these 30 players, only two (Eun Hee Ji and Kelly Tan) are in the Top 10 on the leaderboard, most are middle of the road, or worse (in danger of missing the cut).

FAIRWAYS HIT
T1 – T38 – Hye-Jin Choi (a) – 14/14 100.0%
T1 – T23 – Mo Martin – 14/14 – 100.0%
T3 – T106 – Jaye Marie Green – 13/14 92.9%
T3 – T89 – Pamela Pretswell – 13/14 92.9%
T3 – T8 – Eun Hee Ji – 13/14 92.9%
T6 – T23 – Amy Anderson – 12/14 85.7%
T6 – T136 – Hannah Burke – 12/14 85.7%
T6 – T5 – Kelly Tan – 12/14 85.7%
T6 – T106 – Camilla Lennarth – 12/14 85.7%
T6 – T52 – Karrie Webb – 12/14 85.7%

And finally on the putting green… the USGA is tracking the category of ‘Putts’ as its high level stat. And here, once again the numbers are mind-boggling. According to these stats, the number one putter yesterday is 106th on the leaderboard. In fact, four of the Top 7 (T7) are outside of the Top 100. Only two are even inside the Top 25. Amazing!

PUTTS
1 – T106 – Rinko Mitsunaga (a) – 23 1.28
T2 – T11 – Pernilla Lindberg – 24 1.33
T2 – T38 – Hannah O’Sullivan (a) – 24 1.33
T4 – T38 – Pei-Yun Chien – 25 1.39
T4 – T125 – Julieta Granada – 25 1.39
T4 – T142 – Julie Yang – 25 1.39
T7 – T5 – Brittany Lang – 26 1.44
T7 – T23 – Stacy Lewis – 26 1.44
T7 – T67 – Emi Sato – 26 1.44
T7 – T38 – Maude Leblanc – 26 1.44
T7 – T142 – Sierra Brooks (a) – 26 1.44

The one important stat, seemingly? Greens in Regulation.

1 – T5 – Anna Nordqvist – 18/18 100.0%
T2 – T2 – Cristie Kerr – 17/18 94.4%
T2 – 1 – Mirim Lee – 17/18 94.4%
T2 – T23 – Angela Stanford – 17/18 94.4%