🐯 The Cat's Sandbox

Happy Halloween! Hopefully your lineups and bets this week are more treats than tricks. We’ve been gearing up for the holiday and bought plenty of candy to handout about a week ago. Now that I think about it, we might have to buy more because I’ve been unable to resist grabbing two (or ten) pieces every time I walk by the pantry.

Best not to think about my waistline and focus on the golf.

EnjoyRick

PS — There are over 15,500 (!!) nerdy golf people who read this newsletter. You can join them by subscribing below.

🏆 Hello Winner’s Circle!

Collin Morikawa paid immediate dividends after getting the RunGood Bump last week, winning the ZOZO Championship.

He gained 16.04 strokes to the field in the process, the sixth best mark of his career. He’s gained 15+ strokes to the field seven times in his career, with wins coming in five of them.

Since his professional debut, Morikawa has won 7x worldwide averaging 15.6 strokes gained in each win. That’s the fourth best mark in the world of golfers with at least four wins during that period.

These are resounding wins, leaving little doubt about who played the best that week. On the wrong end of this list is Sam Burns whose five wins averaging a measly 12.9 strokes gained. Very good Win Luck for Mr. Burns.

🏈 Literally A Football Field Wide

When Tiger Woods designed El Cardonal, he didn’t have the PGA TOUR in mind. This is a pure resort course built for high handicappers on their ninth piña colada.

There’s literally no rough with the expansive single-level fairways turning into sand or native areas.

There are countless landing zones that are at least 65 yards wide with some bordering on a full football field of width. If that wasn’t enough, the greens are MASSIVE, about 8,300 square feet on average — second largest to only the Plantation Course at Kapalua.

I have a feeling that this week will be a great tourism ad for the next RickMina vacation. This pool (lagoon?) below is ~ 450,000 square feet — meaning it could fit all 18 greens inside of it, THREE TIMES OVER.

🦗 The Fickle Paspalum

Paspalum is a tricky surface. Not necessarily to putt on, but to analyze from a statistical perspective. We only see it a few times a year, in areas that are close to salt water, and the PGA TOUR rarely brings ShotLink to those locations.

There are definitely guys who putt better on paspalum but it’s difficult to really prove it. Below you’ll find the best players (SG TOT) on paspalum over the last few years with the assumption that they would have had to putt well at some point to find that level of success.

🏖️Not Always a Vacation

This is a new event on the schedule but it might feel like some others. This will be pure resort golf in a tropical location. Now we can argue all day where to draw the lines on those courses but here are the best “Resort Golfers” — events played in Hawaii, Mexico, Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic since 2019.

🧑‍✈️ Mav Back In The Cockpit

You’ll notice that Maverick McNealy is one of the best Resort Golfers in this field, so it’s worth diving more into his situation. This will be his first start since the RBC Canadian Open in June.

He missed significant time with a shoulder injury that didn’t require surgery but did require extensive rehab including “physical therapy, regenerative stem-cell treatments and golf swing changes.”

McNealy tried to play through his injury in 2023 which … didn’t go well:

🚶 Bobble Your Way To A Good Cause

If you watch me long enough, you’ll see some bobbleheads.If you watch the PGA TOUR long enough, you’ll see DJ Gregory.If you read this section, you’ll see a DJ Gregory bobblehead.

For the uninformed, DJ Gregory was born with cerebral palsy and was never expected to walk. He’s proved his doctors wrong by walking over 42,000 holes on the PGA TOUR across 43-45 events per year. This effort has raised over $1,000,000 for his Walking For Kids Foundation.

Recently the National Bobblehead HOF released a DJ Gregory bobblehead (limited to 2023) and will donate $5 of every purchase to his foundation. There aren’t many better stories and causes in the game of golf than this one. If you’re so inclined, please purchase one — I’ll link below.

Purchase: https://store.bobbleheadhall.com/products/djgregory

🍃 Autumnal MVP

We are more than halfway through the TOUR’s new FedEx Cup Fall — four events in the books with three more to go. There’s been plenty of jockeying for those positions in the signature events next year, but here are the best players who have played at least three events:

🐳 Splash Around With Me

I remembered to create our Listener Contest this week (my bad!) and it’s now live. You pick one golfer from each tier, across six tiers and see who can put together the best team.

⛳ Link: https://bit.ly/45PcGyB

⚠️ Secret RRG Stuff

This time of year is lowkey one of my favorites because I get to plan the updates to the RickRunGood ecosystem for the following year and spend lots of time making them happen. I’m unwilling to comment fully, but allow me to tease a few things I’ve been working on.

• A lot more data in RickRunGood.com — historic, more tours, more tools.

• A better way for the community to chat, engage and provide information.

• One & Done solution that will be open to (gasp!) everyone.

That’s all I’d like to say for now — more details to come.