Luke Donald's Impressive Putting Stat

Easy game! 

I am not sure I am 90.2% at 3 feet and in. Man.

While still REALLY* impressive, it becomes a bit less so when you realize how statistics work:

* PGA Tour average is still about 50/50 from 7'10". http://thesandtrap.com/t/51757/pga-tour-putts-gained-make-percentage-stats

Another way to look at it, drop all the tap in's and stuff 3 feet and in and he only makes 77.2% from 4-10 ft (I say "only" but that is still darn good)

8-10 ft: 51.5%

4-7 ft: 86.6%

He made more 10 footers than 8 footers?

He is a top notch putter.  It is surprising when he misses inside 10.

http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/?484

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerseyThursday 

Luke Donald led the tour in the best stat on tour in my opinion – Strokes Gained-Putting with +.844. That means he gained an average of .844 strokes on the most “average” putter for every round he played and has led the tour in this category the last three years.
http://www.andrewricegolf.com/tag/shotbyshot/

Why is that the best stat on the PGA Tour?

wow...how can almost all those guys be Titleist guys?  thats a weird coincidence...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mchepp 

Carl Petterson is #3 and he uses the long putter, we should ban the long putter!! :)

I agree.

But no worries, we are. :)

I like the strokes gained while putting stat, i know people have been harping on it being the key stat to being the best player. That was because Luke was the best player when the stat came out. 

But still, only 0.844 strokes gained.. Look at Bubba Watson, in 2011 he gained 1.1 strokes on the field just from driving alone

Tiger woods from 2003 - 2010 gained 3.2 strokes on the field, 2.08 of that came from long game. The reason is, we seen Tiger make all those putts, or make a life saving chip shot. But the true genius behind tiger woods, was the sergon like precision he took to the golf course, fairway after fairway, and green after green. Look at all those insane shots he hit from what seemed to be impossible locations. The high slice over the water onto the green at Arnie's Tournament. How many strokes did he save on that shot alone. 

Look at Bubba Watson,

110th in Scrambling

157th in Putts strokes gained

2nd in greens in regulation

9th in scoring

Tells you were a lot of ground can be made up, if you can hit Green's doesn't matter were you hit the ball off the tee or how crappy your short game is. You can make up a ton of ground.

If Phil spent more time on his long game, maybe he would have won more championships.  

From Rory and Jack,

"Guys say you have to have a short game to win tournaments and it is not the case. Not at all," Rory McIlroy said last spring. His comments sparked a controversy, but Jack Nicklaus rose to his defense. "I agree with Rory," Nicklaus said. "I never practiced my short game because I felt like if I can hit 15 greens a round and hit a couple of par-fives in two and if I can make all my putts inside 10 feet, who cares where I chip it?"

Don't get me wrong, Luke is an amazing putter, but he didn't make the world stage until he got that driving accuracy down, if you look from 2010 to 2011, he was the leading in putting strokes gained, but he improved his driving percentage from being ranked 120th to being ranked 57th. Went from 152nd in GIR's to 47th in GIR. It takes a complete game to win, but how can you even gain strokes on the field in putting if your not hitting greens to capitalize on that putting. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mvmac 

   

?

 

 

lol...i know...i guess i was just thinking that he could use a regular length putter for a belly putter...my bad.