On The Range Blog - March 28

• By On The Range Team
• Mar 28, 2012 9:00 PM ET

On The Range Talent
Host: Gary Williams (Golf Channel)
Analyst: Bill Harmon (Instructor & Caddie for Bill & Jay Haas)
Analyst: Tripp Isenhour (Golf Channel Analyst)

This Week’s Events
Shell Houston Open
Redstone GC Tournament Course - Humble, TX
Defending Champion: Phil Mickelson

Kraft Nabisco Championship
Mission Hills Country Club - Rancho Mirage, CA
Defending Champion: Yani Tseng

Featured Players
Yani Tseng
-#1 in Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings
-2010 Kraft Nabisco Champion
-5-time LPGA Major Champion
-15 career LPGA Tour wins
-Caddie: Jason Hamilton
-Swing Coach: Gary Gilchrist

Ernie Els
-Needs Shell Houston Open win for Masters invitation
-3-time Major Champion
-18 career PGA TOUR wins
-T4 last week in Arnold Palmer Invitational
-Caddie: Dan Quinn
-Swing Coach: Claude Harmon III

Course Survey
Redstone GC Tournament Course (Par 72 – 7,457 yards)

-Distance prevails over accuracy: 4 of the past 5 winners have finished Top 10 in Driving Distance for the week. 4 of the past 5 winners have also finished Top 2 in Par 5 Scoring. None of the past 5 winners have ranked in the Top 35 in Driving Accuracy. In fact, Mickelson ranked T71 last year and Kim ranked 80th, which was dead last in the field.

-Hit the green, make the putt: The past 4 winners have all finished Top 10 for the week in Putting Average. Plus, with Redstone having a high proximity to the hole, it’s no surprise 2010 winner Anthony Kim and 2009 winner Paul Casey both led the field in Putts Made Over 25 Feet.

-Don’t miss the green in the rough: Redstone GC has ranked the toughest course in Scrambling from the Rough on the PGA TOUR the past 3 seasons. Last year, players that missed the green in the rough got up-and-down only 38.95%. Scrambling is not so tough everywhere else however. Sand Save Percentage ranked 29th (49.95%) and Scrambling from the Fringe was fourth easiest on TOUR with a rank of 43rd (93.08%).

Top 5: Players on the LPGA Tour
The first Major of the golf season is this week on the LPGA Tour, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. All the top players on Tour will be teeing it up this week, but just who are the top players? Here are the results of our On The Range Poll and our analyst rankings for Top 5 Players on the LPGA Tour (Share your thoughts or Top 5 in the comments section): 

Bill Harmon
1. Yani Tseng
2. Lexi Thompson
3. Suzann Pettersen
4. Jiyai Shin
5. Cristie Kerr

Viewer Poll Results
1. Yani Tseng
2. Suzann Pettersen
3. Ai Miyazato
4. Na Yeon Choi
5. Jiyai Shin