At 7,574 Yards, Congressional is one of the longest courses on Tour. It wasn’t meant to be a bomber’s paradise, but driving long has its advantages around this track. Just look at the last four winners at Congressional – Justin Rose, Bill Haas, Tiger Woods and Anthony Kim. None of them hit it as short Hurley does. Our winner this week simply had other plans on how to win it.
Here are some of Hurley’s statistical highlights from this year as compared to this week.
| Statistic | This Week | 2016 |
|---|---|---|
| Driving Distance | 284.4 | 273.5 |
| Driving Accuracy | 64% | 67% |
| Greens in Regulation | 75% | 63% |
| Putts per GIR | 1.667 | 1.719 |
| SG: Tee to Green | 4.719 | 0.074 |
| SG: Approach the Green | 2.558 | 0.366 |
- He was longer off the tee this week than he usually has been this year.
- He is ranked in the Top-25 this year in GIR.
It might be surprising for most to learn that there is something that Hurley is the best at on tour this year – ‘Proximity to Hole’. His average distance this year is 32’ 2’’. That goes to show how many shots he gained on the field with his approach shots.
But numbers aside, Hurley’s triumph has much more to do with his background. On one hand you have the story of Hurley’s father and everything that’s happened in that regard over the past year. On the other hand, you have his military service and the fact that this week was all about the military.
There are some things that are simply meant to be.
And this was perhaps one of those things.
