This week’s RSM Classic is the last full-field PGA Tour event of 2022, but technically, the 2021-22 PGA Tour season ended after Rory McIlroy won the Tour Championship back in August. Summer feels like a long time ago for people who are already feeling winter’s early bite, but we can still look back and admire the great seasons that players like Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris enjoyed.
Aside from earning a lot of money and currently being ranked in the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Scheffler, Thomas and Zalatoris have something in common, they finished the 2021-22 PGA Tour season ranked in the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green.
Strokes Gained: Approach the Green is the best statistic out there for measuring the quality of a player’s iron game because it reveals how much of an advantage a golfer has over the field on shots more than 30 yards away from the green (which are not hit off the tee). Scheffler, Thomas and Zalatoris were marksmen last year, setting up lots of birdie chances and avoiding greenside hazards.
Below is a list of the golfers who finished the year ranked in the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, along with the irons they played.