Great Putter or Great Driver?

[lionking]

great putter obv, but only if i can also be a good driver. if the choice is between great putter and bad driver or great driver and bad putter, then i'd change to the latter.

[mellojoe]

Simply because I can't hit the thing to save my life, I wish I was a good Driver.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Ill take being able to complete rounds with under 30 putts than hitting 300 yd drives any day of the week.

[Yukari]

Look at Tiger.

Enough said.

[Dave H]

I chose driver, but that's all relative to where I'm at right now. Currently, my poor driving is hurting my skills more than my putting. My average was just under 2 putts per hole (I can live with that for now) until an ugly day of putting yesterday which has been uncharacteristic of this season putt me just over 2 putts per hole. I feel as though my driving has put me in much worse scoring positions. When I hit a drive on the fairway (rare!) it doesn't seem so hard to get on the green in regulation. I feel confident that most of the time I can get in the hole with 2 putts. So, until my driving gets better, I want to be a good driver

[Awsi Dooger]

Not even close. I've had discussions in Las Vegas sportsbooks with guys who bet a ton on golf. They would love to bet on this all day long. It's a complete misconception, as demonstrated in this thread. The average player benefits more dramatically by a great drive. It sets up the hole. In fact, I just heard David Leadbetter say in a Golf Channel spot, "Driving sets up a great round."

One way I could put it is the percentages of making a par, or a good score based on your level, after the drive. If you placed several balls in play at various points and estimated real world percentages of making a par from each point, obviously the best drives would be the favorite. And coming from behind is always overrated by sports fans. I learned quickly in Las Vegas that the sharp guys were always taking advantage of the lead, whether that meant taking points (already in the lead) or playing the team ahead at halftime. Meanwhile, the sucker public always wanted to make fanciful projections of big rallies. The reason big comebacks are so famous is they are rare, swimming upstream. Similarly, if you want to pick putt instead of drive in this instance, you are choosing to come from behind, placing too much value in it. It's flawed handicapping.