The 2018 Race to Dubai season was a hugely successful one with Francesco Molinari taking home the spoils ahead of his good friend Tommy Fleetwood.
Eight Rolex Series Events brought eight different winners, including Ryder Cup stars Alex Noren, Thorbjørn Olesen and Justin Rose, as well as returns to the winners’ circle for Lee Westwood and Danny Willett.
But which performance throughout the whole of the 2018 season stood out the most?
Tom Lewis, Haotong Li, Olesen, Chris Paisley, Andrea Pavan, Shubhankar Sharma, Brandon Stone and Jon Rahm all won with scores of 20 under par or better in 2018, but statistically they were not the best efforts of the season.
Thanks to research from 15th Club, we can reveal that, based on strokes gained vs the field calculations, Andrew Johnston and Matt Wallace both put in the joint-best performance of the 2018 season on the European Tour.
The duo both shot eleven under par at the Hero Indian Open across four rounds, a total of 277 strokes.
Wallace was the steadier of the two, firing rounds of 69, 70, 70 and 68, whereas Beef carded 66 twice, in his second and final rounds, in addition to a 71 and a 73.
Wallace was the eventual winner after the first play-off hole, picking up his first trophy of the trio he went on to win last season.
Although 11 under par may not seem the lowest of winning scores, the English duo did in fact pick up a staggering 21.38 strokes vs the field at DLF G&CC.
"I played great," Wallace said after the event. "Ever since being three over through eight at the start of the week I've played some of the best golf of my life and to do it in that style at the end there capped it off.”
There were plenty of performances that narrowly missed out, so here’s a look at the top ten scores in the 2018 season vs the field average.
21.38Matt Wallace, Hero Indian Open
21.38Andrew Johnston, Hero Indian Open
19.36Gaganjeet Bhullar, Fiji International Open presented by Fiji Airways
19.10Chris Paisley, BMW SA Open hosted by the City of Ekurhuleni
19.03Xander Schauffele, WGC – HSBC Champions
19.03 Tony Finau, WGC – HSBC Champions
18.38Sihwan Kim, Hero Indian Open
18.36Anthony Quayle, Fiji International Open presented by Fiji Airways
17.96Matthew Fitzpatrick, Omega European Masters
17.96Lucas Bjerregaard, Omega European Masters
