Friday, April 26, 2013

Drive for Show Putt for Dough


photo courtesy of willowgolf.com.au

Josh Inglis
Saturday April 27th 2013

I love golf.  I have loved golf since I was a pre-pubescent Cleveland Indians fan.  From my Nana's living room or patio I could watch players attempt the 186 yard 12th hole par three on the Georgetown golf course.  Then after twilight, I could  go and try my own luck with the hole or just walk the course and find balls.  I never had the money to be part of the clubhouse elite, but I would use my paper route money as a kid to go shoot a round or three throughout the summer months. 

I guess it was around the time I was a teenager I found out just how God Damn difficult and frustrating the game of golf can be.  Even today, I still have no problems putting the ball 50 plus times a round.  That's a smooth 2.8 putts per hole. Fairways no problem.  You can upgrade your driver to hit the ball more accurately off the tee, but you can't buy a putter to help you drop those stupid 4 to 6 footers.


Here's an example, I was golfing with some good friends whose handicaps are around 13 to 18.  I was also golfing with my buddy Jake who went to school on a golf scholarship.  Off the tee he was long but inconsistent so I just assumed our scores would be a little similar as I was hitting the fairway.  Never really paying much attention to his strokes around, and on the green.  Back at the clubhouse I was embarrassed to see that he had beaten me by something like 17 strokes.  I asked how he had managed that? He replied "Drive for show putt for dough."


You need to putt well to win.  This isn't breaking news.  But I was curious to see just how well the top golfers, on tour, are at putting.  I wasn't expecting to see the top 10 players all inside the top 25 in putting but I also wasn't expecting to see how inconsistent other areas of their games were.  


Below you will find stats I found at pgatour.com.  Also, I have added Body Mass Index (BMI) just for my own amusement.  I know there are many problems with BMI but with only height and weight at my disposal I didn't really have the ability to give these guys a full body analysis (probably could have worded that last sentence better).  I only did the top ten players because, truthfully, I don't want to do more.  It's early in the season but Snedeker has already played 31 rounds of golf.  I wont play 31 rounds in the next 5 years. I think that's enough of a population to analyze.


DD= driving distance

DA% = driving accuracy
GIR% = greens in regulation percentage
SGP = strokes gained - putting
BMI = body mass index

the numbers are the rankings vs all the other players on tour


'Strokes Gained-Putting measures a players performance relative to his fellow competitors in a given tournament. This analysis offers the most accurate portrayal of a player's overall putting performance'


http://www.pgatour.com/stats/academicdata/shotlink.html



Tiger Woods 6'1" 185 ilbs  BMI= 24.1  

 DD = 30th  DA% = 152nd  GIR% = 59th  SGP = 1st
FedEx Cup rank = 1 st

Brandt Snedeker  6'1" 185 ilbs   BMI= 24.1 

DD = 143rd  DA% = 11th  GIR% = 9th  SGP  = 25th 
FedEx Cup rank = 2nd 

Matt Kuchar 6'5" 195 ilbs  BMI= 23.1

DD = 129th   DA% = 137th  GIR% = 104th  SGP  = 36th
FedEx Cup rank = 3rd 

Kevin Streelman 5'10" 175ilbs  BMI = 25.1

 DD =  79th   DA% = 20th   GIR% =  40th  SGP = 43rd
Fed Ex Cup rank = 4th

Adam Scott  6'0" 180 ilbs  BMI= 24.1

DD = 8th   DA% = 153rd  GIR% =  70th  SGP = 77th
FedEx Cup rank = 5th

Graeme McDowell 5'11'' 168 ilbs   BMI= 23.4

DD = 152nd   DA% = 8th  GIR% = 161st  SGP  =9th
FedEx Cup rank = 6th

Phil Mickelson  6'3'' 200ilbs  BMI=  25

DD = 62nd  DA% = 160th  GIR% =  20th SGP  = 46th
FedEx Cup rank = 7th

Dustin Johnson  6'4" 190 ilbs  BMI = 23.1  

DD = 5th   DA% = 182nd  GIR% = 43rd  SGP  = 33rd
FedEx Cup rank 8th

Steve Stricker 6' 0" 190ilbs    BMI = 25.8

DD =  151st   DA% = 17th  GIR% = 2nd  SGP  =  12th
FedEx Cup rank 9th 

Russell Henley  6'0" 180 ilbs   BMI = 24.1

DD =  62nd   DA% = 39th  GIR% =  69th  SGP  = 18th
FedEx Cup rank 10th

Ok, lets see what we can get from this information



  • BMI ranges from 23.1 to 25.8 (Stricker pushing the scales) proving you should be in somewhat good shape to compete in a professional sport.  I know earth shattering stuff.
  • DD- Driving distance ranges from 5th overall (Johnson) to 152nd overall (McDowell) giving a 147 position ranking difference within the best golfers.  I guess driving distance doesn't make a whole lot of difference in the long run.
  • DA% - Driving accuracy percentage has a low of 11th (Snedeker) and a high of 182nd (Johnson).  That's 171 position difference in rankings.  Woods is the number one golfer in the world and he hits the fairways at a 55.71% clip. Also, Johnson is the fifth longest player, on average, off the tee at 302.8 but only hits 49.51% of his fairways.  Driving accuracy, arguably, might be the least important of these stats in order to be successful.
  • GIR% - Greens in regulation percentage goes as low as 2nd overall  (Stricker) to a high of 161 overall (McDowell)  158 position differences.  Seems as "important" as driving distance.
  • SGP - Strokes gained - putting. Currently the best player on tour leads everyone in this category ranking 1st overall.  The worst in this group is Adam Scott at 77th overall. Giving a difference of 76 ranks.  Also if we take Scott out of the ranks, the next person with the worst SGP is Mickelson at at 46th overall creating a difference of only 45 ranks.  
Basically all the information above tells us what we already knew.  You need to putt well in order to get the CREAM. However I was very surprised to see how poorly some golfers were in other important categories like hitting a ball far onto the fairway from the tee.  

Nobody gets excited when you make 5 footers. Nike isn't going to make a commercial featuring people making gimmes. I would still rather crush a ball from the blocks for 300 plus yards than be consistent at short putts.  I guess there in lies the reason I have never been or maybe will never be, a good golfer. But man......nothing beats golf.


0 comments:

Post a Comment