The Top Putters on the PGA Tour and the Putters that got them there!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Great Putters are born!
I have always believed that if you practice, hard you can become a good putter, but great putters are born. I personally don’t think the equipment they use would make them any better or worse on a day-to-day basis. You just have to see how often these great putters change their equipment to see it is more a feel and visual thing. On any given day, a putter can look and feel great, and the next day feels like a lead pipe in your hands.
I had the good fortune to play a lot of golf with the late great Bobby Locke, who, to this day, is still regarded as one of the best putters ever. He used a hickory shaft blade putter for most of his career and never changed. The same can be said for fellow countryman Gary Player. He still uses the putter that won him all his majors! So what can you learn from this article? Find a putter that you really like, stick with it, and practice your putting stroke diligently to become a good putter!
David Dusek of Golfweek presents the top putters on the PGA Tour, and their strokes gained stats that allow us to see just how good these players really are with the flat stick in their hand.
“The wand chooses the wizard. It’s not always clear why.”
During a chat with Harry Potter, Mr. Ollivander, the owner of a magic wand shop, said, “The wand chooses the wizard. It’s not always clear why.”
The same holds true of putters. Several guidelines can help players find a putter that suits their stroke, but there is a healthy amount of art to blend in with the science. For example, face-balanced putters tend to benefit golfers who have a straight putting stroke; players who have an arched putting stroke tend to favor toe-down putters. Likewise, the ideal length and lie angle should position the hands directly beneath the shoulders.
The best putters on the PGA Tour use a wide variety of blades and mallets. Some feature a classic look. Others are colorful space-age designs. The one thing they have in common: They all have been custom-fit to match the player’s stroke.
Below is a list of the golfers who are the current top 10 players in strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour, along with their putter.
1. Jason Day
Jason Day is the top-ranked putter on the PGA Tour this season. (PGA Tour/Chris Condon)
Strokes gained: +1.106 His putter: TaylorMade Spider Limited Red
Jason Day’s putter / Courtesy of TaylorMade
2. Steve Stricker
Strokes gained: +.930 His putter: Odyssey White Hot #2.
You don’t have to Hole Everything to be a great putter!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
As a former South African Tour player (who was not a great putter), I understand how important it is to putt well.
And I was certainly hard on myself when I did not hole a putt. In those days, we didn’t possess the information that is available for today’s tour players. When Matthew Guyatt started to look at the top putters putting stats on tour, he realized that they also did not hole every putt. That took the mental pressure off his game, and his hopes for the future are a lot brighter! Thanks to Matt for this article via the Australian PGA!
A week or so ago I came home from another trip to Japan and was a little disappointed.
I had played really well and shot four sub par rounds for the week finishing at 10-under par.
Why would I be disappointed with that I hear you ask?
Well I didn’t putt well and once again felt as though that part of my game let the rest of my game down again!
That Monday I sat down at my computer and decided to do some research. I looked up the PGA Tour putting stats for this year to date.
What I found will change me forever, I hope. The numbers were amazing.
I looked at putts from three feet to 10 feet and then in some larger brackets beyond that out to 25 feet.
I looked at the best, the number one ranked player and his percentage of putts holed from all of those distances and then also looked at the 10th player and also the last placed player from every distance.
What I found in a nutshell without really boring you completely to tears was that from inside five feet the number one putter is exceptional and is nearly at 100% although 10th place only makes around 88% from five feet whilst last place makes only 61% from five feet.
The numbers continue to considerably slide the further you get from the hole which is understandable but what shocked me were the numbers.
From 10 feet, the best is at a very respectable 73%, but 10th place drops to 57% whilst the last place is only making 17% from that range.
I guess what I am getting at here is that for a very, very long time I have been expecting to make more putts than the best putters in the world.
Unrealistic expectations and that have over a number of years built the pressure on the greens and caused me to spiral downwards mentally to the point of suffering the yips and incredible mental instability in the greens.
The best in the world is making 13% from 20 feet. Why and how did I get away with believing I should be making them all. And criticizing myself each time I missed.
Who are the best putters who ever lived – #1 is no Surprise!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
It comes as no surprise that Tiger Woods is the best putter EVER!
What does come as a surprise to me is that Bobby Locke, long thought of as the best putter in the world in the ’40s, the ’50s, and even into the ’60s, is so far behind Tiger Jack. (Do you think Golf Digest has a bias towards Americans?)
The one common denominator with all of these players is that they did not become great putters by chance. All of them put long, backbreaking hours on the putting green to get to where they are today in the standings. Putting does not require strength or flexibility, so go to the putting green tomorrow and start yourself on the road to becoming an excellent putter!
Thanks so much to Golf Digest for putting this fascinating set of statistics together!
We Spoke to more than 100 players on the PGA, LPGA and Champions Tours to name the best putters among them and the best overall since 1950 (five for each). They came back with a question of their own. Do you mean who putts the best day in and day out? and Is it the most clutch putter? and The one who never three-putts? The answer is all of the above. The player who cleans up five-footers on Sunday has to get a nod, as should the most consistent putter over the full season. Here’s who the players chose.
