Although long putts on the final holes occasionally win tournaments, it’s usually consistently good putting at closer range that makes the difference. That got me to wondering how well APBA putters perform from 7 to 9 feet compared to the real pros. What I found surprised me.
I decided to look at the 2021 PGA season rankings for Putting Within 10 Feet. The top 21 putters are listed below. Adjacent to their Actual % of Putts Made is the percentage of Play Result Numbers (PRN’s) that are IN from 7 to 9 feet on that player’s 2021 season card. To be generous, I included PRN’s (21 – 22) that are only IN, if putting for Par or higher or Bogey or higher.
As you can see, the top pros make about 90% of their putts within 10 feet. But the same APBA golfers only make about two-thirds of their putts from 7 to 9 feet. Note that Matsuyama, who finished 183rd in putting from inside 10 feet, still made more than 85% of his putts and has about the same percentage of PRN’s (66.67%) that are good from 7 to 9 feet.
Meanwhile, All-Time Greats Arnold Palmer (61.11%) and Tiger Woods (63.89%) actually have lower percentages than this on their cards. Jack Nicklaus does better at 69.44%, but even that doesn’t surpass the best putters from the 2021 card set. Whatever sets these greats apart from the rest, it isn’t their putting ability from 7 to 9 feet.
To be fair, this hasn’t exactly been an “apples to apples” comparison, since the real golfers’ percentages include putts from closer than 7 feet. So, I decided to look at how the top PGA golfers did from 9 feet, 8 feet, and 7 feet–ignoring any putts closer than that.
Here are the percentages of putts made for the top 21 PGA golfers in each of those three categories for 2021:
What we see now is much more in line with the APBA percentages for the same distance. Overall, the top 2021 pros made an average of 65.82% of their putts from 7 to 9 feet. This compares favorably with the APBA golfers who sink about 66.67% – 69.44% from that same range.
The biggest surprise is how much the percentage of putts made falls for the best pros between 7 and 8 feet–almost 11%. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be looking for evidence of this the next time I watch a tournament.
Really interesting article, Scott , (like a lot of your others)
You are my best man (right now ) !! Bravo !!!
And a lot of “Thanks”
Gilles