As every golfer knows, from try-hards to make-it-look-easys such as Michael Hendry, golf is the ultimate numbers game.
So, let's get a few of the important ones out there for contemplation on the eve of the 95th edition of the New Zealand Open.
• It's been 11 years since a Kiwi golfer won their national title (Dunedin's Mahal Pearce, 2003).
• There are 28 professional and five amateur New Zealanders in this year's fields at The Hills and Millbrook.
• Standing in their way, however, are 84 Australians, 10 Japanese, four Chinese, two South Koreans and one each from Fiji, Vietnam and the United States.
• Do the maths (136 title contenders) and you can see that statistically, at least, the 33 Kiwis are really up against it.
So, where does this leave Hendry, arguably the pre-tournament favourite? Well, here's some more numbers to throw at you.
In his past eight rounds of golf at The Hills, Hendry has finished a total of 35-under-par. Let me break that down even further. Par for 144 holes at The Hills is 576 shots. Hendry has played them in a super-impressive 541.
(We interrupt this recitation of facts and figures to point out that, rather appropriately, Hendry is known as ''The Count'', because of his likeness to the character of the same name in Sesame Street.)
No wonder then that he won the last two pro tournaments played there, the 2012 and 2013 NZ PGA Championships. And no wonder he is carrying the shoulder-sapping weight of his country's expectation into this week's $900,000 event.
So, is it a case of good luck mate - and hey, no pressure?''I suppose there's a certain level of expectation you put on yourself because you know you can play pretty well around this golf course,'' he explained at yesterday's media session.
''But you've just got to treat it like it's any other golf tournament. I personally don't go into every golf tournament thinking `I'm going to win this week' simply because I have a good record or I've been playing well previously.
''It's a matter of preparing myself properly and, hopefully, that preparation will be the catalyst for a good performance.''
As a former professional cricketer, an all-rounder as it happens, it was not surprising Hendry thoughtfully and calmly played a straight bat to this line of questioning because he is well aware that in golf, in particular, form is temporary (but class is permanent) and any of his rivals can have one of those ''this is my week'' spells which make them invincible, irrespective of lead-up results.
But there is little doubt Hendry would love to win his country's open championship. He got closest when finishing 10th-equal in the 2012 NZ Open played at Clearwater, Christchurch, and if successful this week his CV will show that he holds the national Open and PGA championships simultaneously. No mean feat, that.
In an ironic sort of way though, you almost get the feeling Hendry would rather have been defending his PGA title this week, an opportunity lost through the commercial realities of trying to boost the Open's stature on a worldwide stage via a pay-for-play, pro-am format, and moving it back to Arrowtown.
''I suppose I was a little bit disappointed initially that I wasn't going to defend my [PGA] title,'' he said.
''[But], at the end of the day, it's pretty much the same tournament. We're just playing for a different trophy. It would be nice to have both titles at the same time.''
Should he achieve this goal, then Hendry would take his rightful place alongside the household names of home-grown winners, headed in more modern times by Sir Bob Charles (1954, 1966, 1970 and 1973 winner), Greg Turner (1989 and 1997) and Michael Campbell (2000) who, of course, earned even greater stature by beating Tiger Woods in the 2005 US Open.
Ah yes, America. The ultimate arena for golfing achievement - and a graveyard of failed ambitions as well - but still looming as the desired destination for Hendry in his long-term plan, once he's earned his place among the top 50 golfers in the world.
A ''three-peat'' win at The Hills this week would just add to the list of impressive numbers compiled in a career already well-played by ... ''The Count''.
