Holiday Wish List for the Top Stars on the PGA Tour

With Christmas upon us, it's time to see what the PGA Tour's best penciled in on their holiday wish lists. 

We'll limit this to what these star golfers hoped to find gift-wrapped with respect to on-course performance. Thus, no Rogaine for Tiger Woods...or Jordan Spieth for that matter.

For Jason Day, Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Woods and more, it's between them and the man in the red suit to determine where on the coal-to-presents continuum they fell this year. And we'll have to wait a few weeks to a few months to figure out whether Santa delivered, depending on when these top golfers are teeing it up regularly.

Here's what the tour's top stars were hoping for from St. Nick.  

Jason Day

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

Holiday wish: A little more accuracy off the tee—or more of the same

First, it should be noted that Jason Day was fifth on tour in strokes gained from tee to green and seventh in greens in regulation. Still, he was 162nd in driving accuracy, hitting just 55.94 percent of fairways. As he averaged 313.7 yards off the tee, the lack of accuracy didn't hurt his ability to hack it out and find the green with short irons and wedges.

It's a dangerous game though, relying on favorable lies in the rough and one's strength to hack the ball out. One of the most well-rounded golfers in the game from a statistical standpoint, Day would certainly like to find a few more fairways in 2016 or have the same good fortune that allowed him to turn 55 percent of fairways hit into 70 percent of greens found in regulation. 

Jordan Spieth

Rob Griffith/Associated Press

Holiday wish: More club-head speed

Looking at the Big Three of Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, there's one clear distinction: Day and McIlroy are both longer off the tee and swing the club with more speed. McIlroy gets his driver moving in excess of 121 mph and Day averaged 120.16 on measured drives last season—12th on tour—while Spieth averaged just 112.79 mph, 97th on tour. 

Club-head speed, which is highly correlated with success on tour, doesn't only provide for booming driving distance. It also allows for better long-iron play, producing higher-flying iron shots that are easier to attack flags with. Club-head speed is also a critical component in play from the rough.

Spieth is heavily reliant on putting and scrambling ability. And while he's exceptional in both areas, such a style of play is difficult to sustain over the long run.

Spieth would be delighted to find fives miles per hour of club-head speed under his tree. 

Rory McIlroy

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

Holiday wish: Better putting  

One of the sweetest swingers and purest flushers of the golf ball on tour, Rory McIlroy putted atrociously in 2015.

The Ulsterman gained 1.85 strokes on the field with his play from tee to green, but he lost .70 strokes with his putting. In 2014, he picked up .273 strokes—41st on tour—so the decline was significant. Further, neither his sand save percentage nor his scrambling percentage was particularly good.  

And while much of the poor putting can be chalked up to limited practice time and the layoff due to his ankle injury, he'll certainly be hoping for better work with the flatstick in 2016 as he continues his pursuit of the career grand slam and battles Jordan Spieth and Jason Day. 

Tiger Woods

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

Holiday wish: Back—and other—health

More than anyone else on this list, Tiger Woods is hoping for both good health—in the sense of his recovery from back surgery—and the assurance of further good health. The latter would enable him to dedicate himself entirely to returning to form, rather than worrying about and guarding against injury. 

Woods has now had three back surgeries in the last 20 months. He hasn't played competitively since the Wyndham Championship in August. He missed the cut in three of the four major championships and is coming off one of the worst seasons of his professional career.

Simply, though, he can't get better at golf until he can get better physically. This stop-start business won't do, and a sustained period of good health is vital if Woods is going to have any chance of breaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors. 

With respect to his golf game, Woods would assuredly like an improved short game and help with his driving issues, but all that is premised on his body allowing him to get back inside the ropes.  

Rickie Fowler

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

Holiday wish: More precise approach play

Rickie Fowler was 87th on tour in driving accuracy in 2015 and 39th in distance. He was 106th in greens in regulation. When a golfer hits 62 percent of fairways and 65 percent of greens with distance that implies he should be finding the green from the rough with regularity, it speaks to a deficiency in iron play.

Over 140 attempts last year, Fowler was 147th on tour in approaches from 175-200 yards, a critical range. The Oklahoma State alum will want to do better from that distance in particular. 

Phil Mickelson

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Holiday wish: Driving accuracy, tighter iron play

At 45 years old, Phil Mickelson is giving it all he's got with the driver, swinging out of his custom-made exotic leather shoes on every tee ball in a bid to keep up with the young guns on tour. 

While Mickelson's driving distance was up from 2014, his accuracy declined by three percentage points. 

Also troubling, Mickelson fell from 79th in greens in regulation to 177th. 

Again, Mickelson was swinging the club more than three mph faster in 2015 than 2014, and it seems in going at it a little harder, he's sacrificed accuracy off the tee and into greens. 

He'd like to find the happy medium this holiday season. 

Dustin Johnson

Uncredited/Associated Press

Holiday wish: Putting/short game

Dustin Johnson has no trouble hitting the golf ball with power. Johnson led the tour in driving average in 2015 at 317.7 yards per poke. While he doesn't find the fairway with any great frequency and his GIR numbers aren't overwhelming, DJ was ninth on tour in strokes gained from tee to green. 

Thus, that portion of his game is fine. 

He reaped the whirlwind for his 72nd-hole three-putt, which cost him the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. Like many big bombers, Johnson struggles with his putting and touch around the green. DJ was 70th on tour in strokes gained by putting.

He was 178th on tour in sand saves, 119th in scrambling and 167th in scrambling from greater than 10 yards. 

It's pretty clear what DJ is hoping for help with this Christmas. 

All stats via PGATour.com