photo courtesy of willowgolf.com.au
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.
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