As part of the Disc Golf Pro Tour scoring powered by UDisc, every player on the tour has a detailed profile with all their scores, stats, and rankings. Let’s take a look at Simon Lizotte’s player profile to analyze his game at the Memorial.
Near the top of his profile, there is an overview of his stats, and at the bottom the stats are even more detailed with round by round numbers. (Note: stats rankings are only included if we have full stats data for at least 3 rounds)
Simon carded a birdie on 64% of holes, the highest of any competitor. Many of the other stats can help us understand how he made so many birdies.
The top row of stats is related to accuracy on drives and upshots and Simon excelled in these categories. ‘In Regulation’ incorporates the first throw for a par 3 hole or the first two throws for a par 4. An easy way to think about ‘in regulation’ is putting yourself in position for a birdie putt – either from inside 11ft (parked), 33ft (Circle 1 in Regulation), or inside 66ft (Circle 2 in Regulation). Lizotte placed in the top 5 for all the driving stats, putting himself in great positions for birdies. (For additional details on the stats definitions read this page )
Simon’s 92% putting accuracy was also near the top of the field and well above the average of 84%. He lost a few strokes in Circle 1 putting to just a handful of players, including Will Schusterick making putts well above his 2016 rate. One quick way to compare players across multiple stats is to sort on the UDisc Live stats page .
Sorting by Circle 2 in regulation we can see Nikko Locastro had the highest accuracy making it within the 66ft circle 2 range on 87% of holes with a shot for birdie. Though Nikko was the best in that stats, if you look to the Circle 1 putting column, his 84% accuracy shows struggled with his putter. From the stats table you can click on Nikko’s name for the details – he missed 10 putts inside the circle.
Is Lizotte a McOutlier too?Simon’s stats are very similar to the one player that finished ahead of him at the tournament – Paul McBeth . Simon and Paul’s statistics are similar – especially the top row driving stats. Paul lost a stroke or two with his slightly lower putting percentages but made up with fewer OBs (leading to fewer bogeys).
Paul finished 2nd in birdie percentage with just one fewer than Simon, perhaps due to laying up on the final hole of the tournament to ensure his victory. If we scroll down on Paul’s profile to his scorecards, we can see this was a smart play. Paul went for a birdie the first round at Fountain Hills, landed his drive OB and ended up bogeying.
Aggressive players are fun to watch and Simon fits into the same category as McBeth and Eagle McMahon , featured in a previous stat of the week article . Eagle McMahon posted the 3rd highest birdie percentage of the tournament, but also the highest OB rate of any player finishing in the top 20. After a strong start, Eagle struggled on the Vista Del Camino course in round 3 and needed a 50′ circle 2 putt to save triple bogey on hole 8.
Having Simon back on tour is a treat for the fans, and if his performance at the Memorial Championship presented by Discraft is any indication, we’re in for an exciting year. Make sure to follow and watch live next week when Simon plays in the Waco Annual Charity Open presented by Dynamic Discs.
