Not every Sunday is the same pressure. The Pressure Index splices each player’s final rounds by where he started them — in contention (leading or within one), chasing (two to four back), or with nothing to lose (five or more back) — over the last five seasons. Leading and chasing are different skills; this page grades them separately.
Three kinds of Sunday. An in-contention Sunday starts with the lead or within one shot of it — the final groups, something to protect. A chasing Sunday starts two to four back — close enough to win (about 94% of winners start within four), far enough to go hunting. Anything five or more back is nothing to lose: a player starting five back wins about 1% of the time, with ten players ahead of him on average — that is go-low-or-go-home golf. Its column carries the same colour scale as the other two — read it as his baseline Sunday golf, not his pressure test. Only completed four-round events count, and strokes gained is measured against that day’s field.
R4 Scoring AVG is the headline number the table is ranked by: his average strokes gained per final round across every Sunday in the window — all three kinds of Sunday pooled, weighted by how often he actually started in each spot. No invented weights and no formulas: it rests on his full Sunday sample (the count beside it), not a handful of pressured rounds. The pressure story lives in the three columns beside it and in the tags: a player’s overall Sunday average can look fine while his tags tell a rougher pressure story (or the reverse).
Dog — his in-contention Sundays average positive strokes gained: he gains ground with the lead in sight. Pup 🐩 — his in-contention Sundays average negative, or his chasing Sundays average a full stroke or worse under pressure when he has no front record to judge. Chaser 🐕🏃 — his chasing Sundays average a full stroke gained or better: dangerous coming from behind. Flat ➖ — no movement either way: he plays to his baseline when it matters, or the sample is not there to call it.
Tags can stack. A player earns his front verdict (Dog or Pup) and can add Chaser on top — a Pup who can chase is a different Sunday bet from a Pup who can’t. Dog and Pup never stack: a proven front player who can’t chase is still a Dog. The lines are honest ones — an in-contention average inside a quarter stroke either way is Flat, not a label, and no verdict is given on fewer than two in-contention Sundays or three chasing Sundays. In-contention Sundays are rare: most players only collect a handful in five seasons, so judge the sample sizes beside every average for yourself. Some give-back is normal, too: leaders tee off last, in the day’s worst weather, on the toughest pins.
The window is five seasons. One season is far too thin — most players would not reach even three in-contention Sundays in a year. A full career mixes who a player was at 22 into who he is now.