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Billy Horschel reacts after sinking a birdieRon Chenoy

The advice has been passed along for decades on the PGA Tour, and Matt Kuchar believes it has merit. He just doesn't like it.

Call it the 80-20 equation.

"I remember coming out and guys telling me you're going to make 80 per cent of your money in 20 per cent of your starts," Kuchar said. "The idea was basically you're going to get hot a couple of times, and that's what you wait for. And it makes sense. You're going to get hot and then peter off a little bit."

Scott Stallings would be an extreme example. He won the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines last year, and that was his only finish in the top 30. One week turned out to be 79 per cent of his season earnings.

A more typical example: FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel.

Horschel had a hot streak in the spring of 2013 when he was runner-up in Houston, tied for third in San Antonio and won in New Orleans in a span of four starts. He didn't really heat up again for another 18 months. Horschel had only two top 10s on the PGA Tour and missed seven cuts until he stepped into a phone booth and emerged as guy who couldn't be beat. He threw away a chance to win in Boston, and then won the next two FedEx Cup playoff events.

His tally for the year was $4.8-million to finish at No. 7 on the money list, and that doesn't include the $10-million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup. A closer look at Horschel's season last year makes him a candidate for the 80-20 club.

He made roughly 80 per cent of his season earnings in 19 per cent of his starts.

So maybe there is some truth to it.

"You get hot, you make your money in five or six tournaments. You make 80 per cent in 20 per cent of your starts," J.B. Holmes said. "I've been hearing that for years."

Holmes won 82 per cent of his money in 25 per cent of his starts, including a victory in the Wells Fargo Championship.

Kuchar used to be one of those guys. He also won roughly 82 per cent of his money from 25 per cent of his tournaments in 2009. Those days are gone. Kuchar has turned into one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour. In the last five years, he has missed only eight cuts in 121 tournaments. He has 48 top 10s during that stretch, a rate of 40 per cent.

Just like anyone else, Kuchar had a hot streak last year. In four straight weeks, he lost a chance to win the Texas Open with a 75 in the final round, he lost in a playoff in Houston when Matt Jones chipped in from 100 feet. He was in the mix at the Masters early on Sunday and tied for fifth. And then he won Hilton Head. After that, he was back to the consistent brand of golf. He never finished out of the top 20 in more than two straight starts.

Kuchar won 81 per cent of his money in 42 per cent of his tournaments. He likes that ratio much better.

"The streaky way is stressful," Kuchar said. "The golf I play ... you could watch me play a round of golf and it's pretty stress free. I don't do any crazy things. I don't make a ton of birdies, but I don't make a lot of bogeys, either. It's been a lot nicer the last five or six years."

Would he trade it for a $10-million bonus and one more victory?

"I don't think I'd trade with Billy Horschel," he said.

He loved the consistent play of Steve Stricker until his 2014 season was disrupted by injuries and the death of his brother. He loves the way Jim Furyk played last year. Furyk didn't win, but he gave himself plenty of chances. Winning is hard. Furyk earned 81 per cent of his money in 38 per cent of his starts.

Rory McIlroy, the best benchmark in golf right now, won 81 per cent of his tour-leading $8.2-million in 41 per cent of his starts.

Kuchar is all about opportunities, though he's willing to make an exception. Bubba Watson went through a 22-month drought without winning from the 2012 Masters until Riviera last year, and then he added another green jacket.

"I'd trade with Bubba," Kuchar said. "It would be streaky, but you'd throw a Masters in there."

Geoff Ogilvy is another guy who has heard all about the 80-20 equation, and he believes it to be accurate in most cases.

It's probably true for 80 per cent of the players," Ogilvy said, adding to the math. "Guys like Tiger and Jack, and Jim and Kuchar, they make money in all their tournaments. So there's probably 80 per cent of the players who make 80 per cent of their money in 20 tournaments." Winning is still the ultimate. Ask any of the 34 players at Kapalua to start the year. Even so, most players would take a steady diet of contention and take their chances.

"I would rather contend every week and win a lot, too. Can you have that one?" Ogilvy asked.

Tiger Woods managed that for the better part of 15 years. He's a different animal.

"The most fun is contention," Ogilvy said. "It's not fun propping up fields. I don't do this to finish 40th and have no excitement. The happiest I am on the course is in contention. I'd rather be that guy."

PGA'S NO FUN POLICE

The PGA Tour already has banned the caddie races on the infamous par-3 16th hole at the Phoenix Open. Next on the taboo list: tossing items to fans in the grandstands at golf's rowdiest hole.

A notice was posted in the locker room Tuesday at Waialae that said, "At this year's Waste Management Phoenix open, for fan safety reasons, players and caddies are prohibited from throwing, kicking or otherwise propelling items into the crowd on the 16th hole."

Someone wrote on the top of the notice, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

Um, no.

Players won't be able to claim ignorance. Andy Pazder, the tour's chief of operations, said the notice would be posted at the TPC Scottsdale, in the tent on the tee boxes before a player starts his round and even on the electronic scoreboard on the 16 hole.

How it gets enforced is another matter. Pazder made a small clarification by using the word "indiscriminately" throwing objects. In recent years, Rickie Fowler has tossed hats into the grandstand and Bubba Watson is becoming famous for the swag he throws into the bleachers. What first got the tour's attention was Padraig Harrington kicking a football into the stands. That's now forbidden.

Pazder said a direct handoff is fine.

"If a player is going by handing them out or flipping them to someone in the first row, that's fine," he said. "But not going by throwing things like a Frisbee."

At issue was safety, much like how the NFL bans players from heaving a football into the stands after a touchdown.

"A fan in public seating in a mad scramble to get a hat is going to hurt himself, or land on top of another person," he said. "I would say to the players, 'Think about the liability."' Pazder said he has talked to Watson, among other players, and didn't receive too much pushback. But as the handwritten addition to the notice indicated, he's aware the tour will get criticized as the "No Fun Police."

As if the Phoenix Open isn't rowdy enough, Tiger Woods is playing the tournament Jan. 29-Feb. 1 for the first time since 2001.

STADLER GOES LEFTY

Kevin Stadler has been using a long putter for the last 16 years, and that will have to change next year with the new rule that outlaws an anchored stroke used for the long putters.

He already has figured out. Stadler is going lefty.

"Just going backward with a little short one," Stadler said.

He has been using a conventional left-handed putter, though not in competition, because it feels the most comfortable to him. For a right-handed player, going to the other side is similar to a cross-handed grip.

"I don't even know how to grip a putter conventionally," Stadler said. "I've putted my whole life as a kid cross-handed, and when I was a really little kid, I played left-handed for a little bit. It feels comfortable. That's probably what I'm going to do."

FOUR-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP

The Philadelphia Cricket Club will host the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2020, the first time the club has hosted a USGA championship since Alex Smith won the U.S. Open in 1910.

The club has three courses. St. Martins hosted the U.S. Open in 1907 and 1910, though it now is a nine-hole course. The Wissahickon Course, designed by A.W. Tillinghast and opened in 1922, will have stroke-play qualifying and the match play portion of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. It was restored last year by Keith Foster. The other is the Militia Hill Course, which opened in 2002 and will be used only for stroke-play qualifying.

The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball makes its debut this year at Olympic Club in San Francisco. The next two events are scheduled for Winged Foot (2016) and Pinehurst (2017).

FINAL WORD

"Every 20 years or so years there's a dominant player in the world. But the 15-year span he put together is probably the best 15 years you'll ever see in your life." – Jason Day on Tiger Woods.

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