The Best Putter Today -- and Ever

[The Recreational Golfer]

See the link below for an answer to this question, based on a poll of today's players. There are also some links to interesting articles about putting.

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instr...n-tour-putters

[golfro]

i wish there was more coverage on college golfers...i love hearing and reading thigns about what they have to say. Afterall, they are the future PGA Tour.

[Stretch]

Pretty impressive that Bobby Locke still makes the list even as memories of that era fade away. Gary Player says he played over 100 competitive rounds with him and only ever saw him 3 putt once. And the beating Sam Snead took from him on the greens in their exhibition series in the late 40s (they played 16 matches and Locke won 14-2) was apparently a big part of the reason Snead ended his career putting side saddle. He said he just couldn't ever really believe in his own ability again after seeing how inhumanly well Locke did it.

[jamo]

I'm a little surprised Tiger won even though he has been having such a poor yeah putting. I'm also a little surprised Stricker isn't 2nd or 3rd.

[JWL1957]

1. Bobby Locke

2. Tie ...... with Jack & Tiger .....both made putts when it counted almost always.

3. Ben Crenshaw

4. Watson in his heyday.

[Cornbread]

Haven't read the article yet. My guess would be Loren Roberts and then Crenshaw.

[RC]

Memories fade but Bobby Locke was clearly the best of his era, and Billy Casper was a superb putter in his day, then Chrenshaw was the consensus best among many. However, the impact of key putts at key points in time to win big tournaments tilts the impression of who is the best. No one would argue that Nicklaus and Tiger have made the putts at the key times to deserve special recognition, but I wonder about who really was the best, statistically, for one year, three years, 10 years and over a lifetime. That might be a surprising list. It would be hard to use just number of putts per round because a guy who misses a few more greens would likely have a lower putts per round average than a guy who hits the most greens. So really, my question is who was the best from 5 feet and under, 10 to 15 feet, and over 15 feet, etc. The answers would be interesting but likely the data is only available for the last few years.

[max power]

I'm a little surprised Tiger won even though he has been having such a poor yeah putting. I'm also a little surprised Stricker isn't 2nd or 3rd.

I guess the memory of watching Tiger sink clutch putt after clutch putt to win all those tournaments and majors from 1997-2009 is still fresh in the mind of most the pros.

[Chris223]

The real question is... prior to this year, when was the last time you saw Tiger miss a putt under 10ft. I mean for all those years, I never liked Woods, and wanted him to miss putts so other guys I wanted to see win big tournaments could win, and I just remember ALL THE TIME, "here's Tiger now on 13 with this 15 ft putt". No way he makes it right? WRONG. He just drained them ALL the time dead center. Just flat out ridiculous.

[JWL1957]

I watched both Jack and Tiger throughout thier careers. Jack was probably the very best lag putter I ever saw. I think Tiger has made more sensational putts overall.