The Renaissance of Jazz
Sentosa, Singapore, April 13: 2016 was a year which saw Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond lose his Asian Tour card. But in less than three years, the reigning Asian Tour Order of Merit champion has gone from being unable to secure much playing opportunities to becoming one of the best players in the world.
Last week would have been Jazz’s debut appearance at The Masters.
Due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, the event has now been pushed up to a possible November date and as we await with bated breath on how Jazz will perform at Augusta National then, we take an in-depth look into his remarkable turnaround where he is currently ranked 39th in the world.
The early years
Jazz was already an established player on the Asian Tour, having finished 31st, 32nd and 18th on the Order of Merits in 2013-2015, and barely missed out on finishing inside the all-important top-60 by finishing 63rd in 2016.
After losing his card and missing out at the Qualifying School in early 2017, Jazz promptly won the Bashundhara Bangladesh Open in early February in his first start of the year playing on limited status. His maiden victory in Dhaka was hugely important because it not only secured Jazz exempt playing rights for two years, but it would also have provided him with the validation that he had the game to win at the highest level.
Still, it is a long way to go from winning your first Asian Tour event in Dhaka, to the top echelon in global golf and competing in Majors against the best players in the world. So, which aspects of Jazz’s game elevated him from being a prolific Asian Tour player, tournament winner, to his current position on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR)?
Greens-in-Regulation (GIR)
Most importantly, Jazz’s GIR stats improved from 64.98% in 2016 to 75.26% in 2019, a gain of almost two greens per round and on par with the best players in the world.
For comparison, even though course difficulty and length should be considered a big factor, this percentage would have placed Jazz first on the PGA TOUR and sixth on the European Tour in this stat category in 2019.
Putts per Green-in-Regulation
On other Tours, many of the top-ranked players in GIR are not ranked highly in the Putts/GIR category, but Jazz’s 2019 average of 1.71 placed him second in this category on the Asian Tour.
A remarkable feat which perhaps is an indication that not only did he hit a lot of greens but he also hit it close to the pin as well.
Among the few players that ranked highly in both these categories in 2019 was Matthew Fitzpatrick on the European Tour, one of the world-class players Jazz beat to win last year’s SMBC Singapore Open. Fitzpatrick finished 12th in GIR with 73.11% and second in Putts/GIR with 1.71 on the European Tour.
Scrambling
Also, Jazz’s scrambling percentage improved greatly from 60.34% in 2016 to 69.49% in 2019. Of his 4.45 missed greens per round last year, he got up-and-down on 3.09 of them.
The high GIR percentage in combination with his scrambling skills would explain why Jazz averaged only 1.87 bogeys per round, the lowest on the Asian Tour last season.
Birdies per Round
Another stat that stood out is the number of birdies he made, with Jazz averaging 5.00 birdies per round which led the Asian Tour last year. That was 0.69 birdies per round more than Scott Hend in second place with 4.31. Leading the Tour in both birdies-per-round and bogey-avoidance is a sure recipe for success.
Scoring Average
With excellent numbers and huge improvements made in these key stat categories between 2016 and 2019, the results can clearly be seen in his scoring average. An improvement from 71.23 in 2016 to 68.28 in 2019, a gain of nearly three strokes per round, gave Jazz the scoring title as well as four tournaments won and the Asian Tour Order of Merit crown.
Driving
Jazz also increased his driving distance significantly by 12 yards since 2016 while at the same time improving his accuracy by just over 4%, making him one of the best drivers of the ball on the Asian Tour and finishing sixth in Total Driving last year.
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