December 29, 2012 – Now that the 2012 season has finished, its time for a touch of analysis. The easy thing is to do is to make a list of Spanish victories, but MyGolfWay.com wants to go further, with an analysis of the European Tour official statistics provided by Genworth Financial, an assessment of the golf performance of Spanish players, and a declaration of the year’s most all-round Spanish golfer.

Sergio García (TaylorMade-adidas Golf) is the Spanish player who has won more tournaments in 2012, one on the PGA Tour and one on the Asian Tour. Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Titleist) is the best Spanish player ranked in the Order of Merit of the Race to Dubai, coming 17th. However, the golfer who has played the most regular golf on the European Tour according to the statistics, and who should be congratulated for having stood his ground better in all different aspects of the game, is Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño (Cleveland).

Indeed, we have had sensational performances from the Spanish Armada in the 2012 season. Sergio García took the Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour and the Iskanda Johor Open of Malaysia on the Asian Tour, after an extraordinary intervention in the Ryder Cup. Rafael Cabrera-Bello stood with the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and Miguel Ángel Jiménez (Ping) achieved the senior record at the USB Hong Kong Open. Meanwhile Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño also had his moment of glory in the BMW Italian Open.

Looking closely at the statistics

Focusing on the European Tour, this is the first year that MyGolfWay.com has put together a ranking of the most complete Spanish golfer of the season in this Tour, an honour that went to the Madrid golfer Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño thanks to his 474 points, the result of the sum of his places in each of the statistical categories of the Genworth Financial.

The main reasons that have led him to be at the top of our ranking are that he was the 2nd best player in Europe in Sand Saves, and the 9th in One Putts. Apart from these strong points, he never came lower than 87th, so that within his notable regularity you could say that Driving Accuracy and Scrambles (the frequency of the player scoring par or better on holes where the player missed the Green in Regulation) would be aspects he could improve.

The second most complete Spanish player on the European Tour 2012 is Pablo Larrazábal (Callaway). Don’t forget that he was 2nd in two tournaments, the KLM Open and the Reale Seguros Spanish Open. His regularity has been hindered by his Putt per Round, but that has not stopped him beating Alejandro Cañizares and Miguel Ángel Jiménez by a few points in the MyGolfWat.com list.

The best stroke average is held by Sergio García who, in the 13 tournaments he played at the European Tour, scored a 70.92 (he did even better on the PGA Tour with 69.928). The young Adrián Otaegui (Titleist) came 2nd in European Drive Accuracy (80.2%) and, despite injuries, Álvaro Quirós (Callaway) took 3rd place in Driving Distance with 312.5y. Miguel Ángel Jiménez showed great approach when he came 12th in Scrambles (61.3), while we find Rafael Cabrera-Bello in 15th place in Greens in Regulation (75.6) and Alejandro Cañizares (Ping) 15th in Putts per Round (29.1).

Others who deserve special mention are Jordi García, the Spanish player who qualified 5th all-around in the global statistics, in his best season on the European Tour, and Agustín Domingo, for his 9th place in Driving Distance with 303.3y.

Por REDACCIÓN