In “Hot & Cold,” we’ll be focusing each week on what specific areas of the game players excelled and disappointed in throughout the previous tournament. We saw Paul Casey hold off the challengers to claim back-to-back titles at the Valspar Championship. Here’s a look at where some of the most notable players gained and lost strokes over the four days of action.

Hot

While Paul Casey gained strokes in all of the significant strokes gained categories last week, it’s not surprising that the area the Englishman did the most damage with was his long game. Casey gained 11.3 strokes over the field for strokes gained tee to green, which is 1.5 strokes better than Ryan Armour who finished second in this department. It is the third highest total of Casey’s career on the PGA Tour.

The only surprise may be that Casey put on this clinic one week after he had lost four strokes to the field in the same area at the Players. Golf, eh? Check out what clubs Casey used to claim victory at the Valspar here.

Henrik Stenson quietly finished T24 at last week’s Valspar and had it not been for another disappointing week on and around the greens; it’s likely the Swede would have featured much more prominently. Despite his frustrations with his short game, Stenson will be buoyed by his excellent ball striking right now. The 42-year-old gained 7.3 strokes over the field for his approach play at Innisbrook, which is the highest total of his 2019 thus far, and his eight highest total in this area post-2011. What’s frustrating for the former Open Champion is that on the seven occasions he performed even better with his irons, he also failed to win.

Kevin Kisner’s T24 at last week’s Valspar Championship means he has now recorded six successive top-30 finishes, although he has also failed to crack the top-20 each time. The American has now gained strokes over the field with his approach play in his last three events, and the signs are that his ball striking is getting sharper and sharper. Last week, Kisner gained 5.7 strokes over the field with his irons, which not only represents his best performance in this area for his year so far, but his best performance with his irons since 2017.

Cold

It was a miserable two days for Patrick Reed at Innisbrook, and while his loss of 7.3 strokes to the field for his play tee to green for two days of play is telling (worst two day total of his career), the struggles are seeping into his trusty short game too. Known for his scrambling ability, Reed lost 4.3 strokes to the field around the greens at the Valspar. It represents the first time in six events that Reed has lost strokes in this area, and it is his second-worst total in this department of his career.

Webb Simpson’s putting woes appeared to be a thing of the past since the beginning of 2018, but the American’s solid form on the greens at Innisbrook deserted him. Simpson had gained strokes over the field with the flat-stick in nine of his past 12 events, but at the Valspar, Simpson lost three strokes to the field in this department which is his worst performance on the greens at a tournament since 2017.

Another man who suffered horribly on the greens at the Valspar is Harold Varner III. It perhaps shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since Varner III had lost strokes to the field on the greens in his last five successive events. But it was how damaging his performance was with the flat-stick last week which is significant. Varner III lost almost six strokes to the field on the greens, which is the second-worst total in this area of his career.