Angela Stanford’s victory Sunday in the Evian Masters was the least dominant performance by the winner of any women’s major in more than two years.
Not since Brittany Lang defeated Anna Nordqvist in a playoff for the 2016 Women’s U.S. Open has a victor compiled a Z Score lower than the -1.73 by which Stanford won the Evian. Her victory, by one stroke, came on a final round 68, but was not locked up until three players missed putts on the final hole, any of which would have tied her.
For purposes of comparison, Nordqvist won the 2017 Evian with a -2.31 Z Score, more than a half standard deviation more dominant than Stanford.
Stanford shot rounds of 72-64-68-68 for a total of 272. The average for all players completing four rounds was 283.25; the standard deviation of their spread was 6.5 strokes.
The victory, Stanford’s first major win, improved her career Z Score in majors to +31.27. She turned professional in 2000.
The Evian concludes play in the five women’s majors. The best performance in any of them was Georgia Hall’s -2.67 achieved in her victory at the Women’s British Open. Factoring the combined performance in all majors, the best average showing was -1.07 by Ariya Jutanugarn. She posted Z Scores of -1.71 in the ANA Inspiration, -2.56 in the U.S. Open, +0.25 in the Women’s PGA, -1.31 in the Women’s British Open and -0.04 in the Evian. That edged out So Yeon Ryu, whose major tournament performances this season resulted in an average Z Score of -1.06.
Here are the top 10 most dominant players with their scores in the 2018 Evian Masters
- Angela Stanford 272 -1.73
T-2 Austin Ernst 273 -1.58
T-2 Mo Martin 273 -1.58
T-2 Sei Young Kim 273 -1.58
T-2 Amy Olson 273 -1.58
T-6 Jeongjung6 Lee 274 -1.42
T-6 Ryann O’Toole 274 -1.42
T-8 Jessica Korda 275 -1.27
T-8 Inbee Park 275 -1.27
- 5 tied at 276 -1.12
