Is Rory the worst putter ever among great players?

[Jagpilotohio]

I think his eyesight is to blame. I have seen very few world class players wear glasses..Kite and Irwin the most well known. Rors wears glasses a lot off the course and I wonder if he swaps to contacts and gets a different perspective. At the moment I am more surprised when he holes out and doesn't miss it. His misses and distance errors are way off compared to a lot of his peers. Over borrowing and decelerating all over the parish. Add the fact he is missing greens from inside 120 yards when others are stiffing it and easy to see why his world ranking is in freefall.

 

As an aside I wonder if he and Jordan have woke up, looked at their insane bank balances and actually started to feel pressure to perform to justify the multi million dollar deals? JT seems a lot hungrier and RAHM has the passion to grind it even when playing poorly.

 

I didn’t realize his eyes were bad. I am utterly shocked he hasn’t had lasik. I wonder if he isn’t a candidate?

 

I had it 22 years ago and it was life changing. 20/500 with astigmatism to 20/15 overnight. Incredible. My eyes have faded over time and I’d love to do lasik again for distance, but the doc says the trade off for me at 50 would be that I would immediately need reading glasses.

 

Even though the glasses have made my crappy putting even worse these last 2 years, I’m not sure if I want to give up my near vision to perhaps putt just a little bit better. The Jury is still out.

[Konklifer]

Is Bubba considered a great player?

[Ole3wiggle]

I think his eyesight is to blame. I have seen very few world class players wear glasses..Kite and Irwin the most well known. Rors wears glasses a lot off the course and I wonder if he swaps to contacts and gets a different perspective. At the moment I am more surprised when he holes out and doesn't miss it. His misses and distance errors are way off compared to a lot of his peers. Over borrowing and decelerating all over the parish. Add the fact he is missing greens from inside 120 yards when others are stiffing it and easy to see why his world ranking is in freefall.

 

As an aside I wonder if he and Jordan have woke up, looked at their insane bank balances and actually started to feel pressure to perform to justify the multi million dollar deals? JT seems a lot hungrier and RAHM has the passion to grind it even when playing poorly.

 

I didn’t realize his eyes were bad. I am utterly shocked he hasn’t had lasik. I wonder if he isn’t a candidate?

 

I had it 22 years ago and it was life changing. 20/500 with astigmatism to 20/15 overnight. Incredible. My eyes have faded over time and I’d love to do lasik again for distance, but the doc says the trade off for me at 50 would be that I would immediately need reading glasses.

 

Even though the glasses have made my crappy putting even worse these last 2 years, I’m not sure if I want to give up my near vision to perhaps putt just a little bit better. The Jury is still out.

 

Hes gotten lasik surgery done. He posted pictures afterward on social media. His eye sight isnt the problem, i would say its his lack of confidence on the greens and him thinking too technically about it. Lets not forget the utter destruction hes done to fields when his game is on. He can get hot with the putter, he just isnt in the right place mentally with it right now.

[redfirebird08]

Good Putters like Crenshaw, Stricker, Spieth and Jacobsson will never have putting slumps. They seem to putt good all trough their careers. Even when everything else was falling apart in Seves game, he still lead the putting statistics in the European tour.

And then there are a couple of Bad Putters, that yips all the way through their careers, with maybe a little exception in the beginning of their careers, players like Sergio, Westwood and pre-broomstick Langer. Few of the top 10 best americans seem to be bad putters for some reason.

 

But most of the top players, Tiger and Phil inlcuded. And Rory. seem to be up and down. My fellow countryman Stenson is an excellent example. And Rory was putting great a few years ago. Tiger was not deadly even in his best years, he just had that ability to sink them when it really mattered. He won most the tournaments tee to green. Rory will come back putting strongly. If he hasn't got fed up with golf. Sometimes seems so.

 

Spieth is putting horrible right now. You should go look up the strokes gained putting stats in Tiger's prime. The stat only goes back to 2004 so it doesn't even include some of his best years on Tour. You might be surprised at how consistently good he was with the flat stick. He wasn't just making them "when it really mattered."

In 2000 Tiger was numero uno in GIR and numero 36 in putting. And I remeber him well from those days. He wasn't putting better than anyone else, except when it really mattered. Regarding Spieth, he is not horrible, he is just worse than he used to be. He still sinks 20 footers as many as anyone else. Inside lets say 5 feet he has never looked inhuman. This week, he was clearly Tigerstruck, and that showed in all parts of his game.

 

Putts per round? Misleading as hell considering the number of greens he was hitting. In 2004 when he was struggling with ballstriking (48th in GIR), he led the Tour in strokes gained putting. His putting average per hole in 2000 was 2nd on Tour despite leading in GIR. That's insane. Brad Faxon was 138th in GIR and 1st in putting average.

 

https://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.104.2000.html

 

You think Tiger won a U.S. Open by 15 shots, an Open Championship by 8 shots, a WGC-Firestone by 11 shots, and 9 times on Tour overall just by making "the putts that matter"? Really?

[dlygrisse]

Is Bubba considered a great player?

 

For the sake of argument I would say yes.

 

And I would take his putting over Rory’s most any day. Maybe he isn’t always the best on short ones but he has tremendous touch.

[redfirebird08]

I think his eyesight is to blame. I have seen very few world class players wear glasses..Kite and Irwin the most well known. Rors wears glasses a lot off the course and I wonder if he swaps to contacts and gets a different perspective. At the moment I am more surprised when he holes out and doesn't miss it. His misses and distance errors are way off compared to a lot of his peers. Over borrowing and decelerating all over the parish. Add the fact he is missing greens from inside 120 yards when others are stiffing it and easy to see why his world ranking is in freefall.

 

As an aside I wonder if he and Jordan have woke up, looked at their insane bank balances and actually started to feel pressure to perform to justify the multi million dollar deals? JT seems a lot hungrier and RAHM has the passion to grind it even when playing poorly.

 

Hmmm...that's interesting about his eyesight. Probably plays a factor for sure. Didn't Tiger wear glasses as a kid and eventually got the eye surgery? Maybe Rory should do that.

[larrybud]

He is averaging 28.73 putts per round. In GIR his putting average is 1.779. His overall putting average is 1.596. On the European Tour he is ranked second in scoring average: 69.68.

 

Yes, he has always been a bit erratic with the putter, but it's not like he is THAT bad.

 

Those numbers don't mean anything. Strokes gained putting is what matters. Rory isn't even on the list for 2018 (doesn't look like there's min # of rounds required). Last year he was 140th

 

https://www.pgatour....stat.02564.html

 

Someone mentioned DJ. Dj is *13th* SGP.

 

What to know what happened to Jordan from 16-18? In 2016 he was 2nd, at a whopping 0.758 SGP. 2017 he was +0.320 SGP last year, -0.320 SGP this year. Tough to make up .64 strokes/round and 1.07 strokes/round in a 4 round tournament and still get top 10s.

 

c'mon people, putts/round is irrelevant.

[redfirebird08]

He is averaging 28.73 putts per round. In GIR his putting average is 1.779. His overall putting average is 1.596. On the European Tour he is ranked second in scoring average: 69.68.

 

Yes, he has always been a bit erratic with the putter, but it's not like he is THAT bad.

 

Those numbers don't mean anything. Strokes gained putting is what matters. Rory isn't even on the list for 2018 (doesn't look like there's min # of rounds required). Last year he was 140th

 

https://www.pgatour....stat.02564.html

 

Someone mentioned DJ. Dj is *13th* SGP.

 

What to know what happened to Jordan from 17-18? He was +0.320 SGP last year, -0.320 SGP this year. Tough to make up .64 strokes/round in a 4 round tournament and still get top 10s.

 

c'mon people, putts/round is irrelevant.

 

Rory hasn't played enough rounds so far to qualify for strokes gained putting this season on PGA Tour. He is averaging 0.334 in strokes gained putting for his rounds so far, which would be around 57th on the PGA Tour if he played enough rounds.

 

Tiger has also not played enough rounds this season to qualify for the stats, but he is averaging 0.682 in strokes gained putting which would be around 13th on Tour if he had enough rounds.

[airjammer]

I think his eyesight is to blame. I have seen very few world class players wear glasses..Kite and Irwin the most well known. Rors wears glasses a lot off the course and I wonder if he swaps to contacts and gets a different perspective. At the moment I am more surprised when he holes out and doesn't miss it. His misses and distance errors are way off compared to a lot of his peers. Over borrowing and decelerating all over the parish. Add the fact he is missing greens from inside 120 yards when others are stiffing it and easy to see why his world ranking is in freefall.

 

As an aside I wonder if he and Jordan have woke up, looked at their insane bank balances and actually started to feel pressure to perform to justify the multi million dollar deals? JT seems a lot hungrier and RAHM has the passion to grind it even when playing poorly.

 

Obviously I don’t know either one if them personally but from outward appearances I think the pressure Jordan puts on himself will never be equalled by any endorsement deals. Jordan also makes me believe that he wants to be the best ever. I believe Rory did too at one point but I think his bank account contributed to him realizing that the amount of work required to be the best ever isn’t worth it.

[MMB1500]

He is averaging 28.73 putts per round. In GIR his putting average is 1.779. His overall putting average is 1.596. On the European Tour he is ranked second in scoring average: 69.68.

 

Yes, he has always been a bit erratic with the putter, but it's not like he is THAT bad.

 

Those numbers don't mean anything. Strokes gained putting is what matters. Rory isn't even on the list for 2018 (doesn't look like there's min # of rounds required). Last year he was 140th

 

https://www.pgatour....stat.02564.html

 

Someone mentioned DJ. Dj is *13th* SGP.

 

What to know what happened to Jordan from 16-18? In 2016 he was 2nd, at a whopping 0.758 SGP. 2017 he was +0.320 SGP last year, -0.320 SGP this year. Tough to make up .64 strokes/round and 1.07 strokes/round in a 4 round tournament and still get top 10s.

 

c'mon people, putts/round is irrelevant.

 

You make a good point. DJ's putting is a hugely underrated part of his game. Naturally everyone talks about his driving, but he's no slouch on the greens either.

[gvogel]

I think that a Rory should quit with the heavy weights. If he needs exercise when he isn't playing, he should be riding a road bike. As a matter of fact, I think that I read that Tiger is now riding a road bike.

 

Rory looks stiff and unnatural when he hits his irons and when he putts. Laying off the weights would help. He had mojo swing speed before the weights.

 

He should also go back to the spinnier TP5. He needs a softer ball with control. If it balloons a bit in the wind, he has the goods to deal with that.

[WidespreadPanic]

Dustin Johnson is pretty bad, too. Horrible technique.

 

You accelerate *to* the ball, not through it. He does everything wrong.

I am so sick of hearing this. This take is played out. Wrong too.

[Golfnutgalen]

He is averaging 28.73 putts per round. In GIR his putting average is 1.779. His overall putting average is 1.596. On the European Tour he is ranked second in scoring average: 69.68.

 

Yes, he has always been a bit erratic with the putter, but it's not like he is THAT bad.

 

Those numbers don't mean anything. Strokes gained putting is what matters. Rory isn't even on the list for 2018 (doesn't look like there's min # of rounds required). Last year he was 140th

 

https://www.pgatour....stat.02564.html

 

Someone mentioned DJ. Dj is *13th* SGP.

 

What to know what happened to Jordan from 16-18? In 2016 he was 2nd, at a whopping 0.758 SGP. 2017 he was +0.320 SGP last year, -0.320 SGP this year. Tough to make up .64 strokes/round and 1.07 strokes/round in a 4 round tournament and still get top 10s.

 

c'mon people, putts/round is irrelevant.

 

You make a good point. DJ's putting is a hugely underrated part of his game. Naturally everyone talks about his driving, but he's no slouch on the greens either.

 

DJ's putting is hit or miss, he used to rank middle or bottom (a couple times) of the pack, but he has improved tremendously in recent years. Still, his best ranking ever for a full season was 36th in 2016. In 2016 Ernie Els ranked 23rd. Yeah, the same year he 6-putted at the Masters. Thankfully for him the majors don't participate in the "strokes gained" stats.

[WidespreadPanic]

DJ averages 1.6 putts per hole. That's #1 on tour. Gains just under a full stroke on the field each round. The narrative of him being a bad putter is just lazy.

[legitimategolf]

Couple observations. One is that when Rory stands over a putt, it's a very athletic stance, not that different from a driver stance.

 

The other observation is that he is still fantastic with the driver. Would hate to imagine what happens to his game if the driver ever goes south.

[littleinjunp]

Dustin Johnson is pretty bad, too. Horrible technique.

 

You accelerate *to* the ball, not through it. He does everything wrong.

I am so sick of hearing this. This take is played out. Wrong too.

 

Facts can't be 'played out.'

 

DJ averages 1.6 putts per hole. That's #1 on tour. Gains just under a full stroke on the field each round. The narrative of him being a bad putter is just lazy.

 

he's also tops in proximity to the hole. You'd expect him to be near the top in that stat.

[tatertot]

Dustin Johnson is pretty bad, too. Horrible technique.

 

You accelerate *to* the ball, not through it. He does everything wrong.

I am so sick of hearing this. This take is played out. Wrong too.

 

I've actually never heard it ... Still think it's wrong, and have no idea how you would think it makes sense.

[littleinjunp]

Dustin Johnson is pretty bad, too. Horrible technique.

 

You accelerate *to* the ball, not through it. He does everything wrong.

I am so sick of hearing this. This take is played out. Wrong too.

 

I've actually never heard it ... Still think it's wrong, and have no idea how you would think it makes sense.

 

 

looks like the GOAT is on my side

[Golfnutgalen]

Dustin Johnson is pretty bad, too. Horrible technique.

 

You accelerate *to* the ball, not through it. He does everything wrong.

I am so sick of hearing this. This take is played out. Wrong too.

 

I've actually never heard it ... Still think it's wrong, and have no idea how you would think it makes sense.

 

 

looks like the GOAT is on my side

 

Correct as far as I know though the wording is a bit different. They've done studies which show the best putters actually decelerate through the ball which is the opposite of conventional wisdom. In other words the putter is accelerating in the downswing and slows down right as (or ideally right before) it strikes the ball.

[Frankensteins Monster]

Do we include Hogan among this group? He hated putting so much he wanted to change the rules to make it a half stroke instead of a full stroke.

 

I’m with hogan. I despise putting. I would enjoy the game more I think if I just picked it up once I hit the green. Always the worst part of my game. My whole life, even when I was a +2 club pro years ago, I never putted very well.

 

I Still average 13 greens per round in regulation and I am happy just to break par now and then. Pathetic. And it isn’t for lack of practice or drills. Some people just don’t see the lines as well as others.

 

It Just got worse when I started wearing glasses for distance 2 years ago. Absolute Misery.

 

Sometimes putt seems like it should be so easy compared to other facets of the game. Easy it is not.

 

Agreed. But it actually IS easy for a small percentage of people. I have a good friend that just started the game 7 years ago. Very busy ER doc. Maybe plays once a week. He’s a 6 handicap now.

 

The BEST natural putter, chipper, and pitcher I’ve ever seen....and I taught for 6 years. Drains 15+ footers multiple times a round. Gets up and down from EVERYWHERE. He’s incredible. I call him the Wizard. I actually made him a custom ball mark for Christmas and on the front it says “See the Line” and on the back it says “Fear the Wizard”.

 

Some people just have the gift. I wish I did. I’m very jealous.

 

Ted Potter?

[redfirebird08]

Dustin Johnson is pretty bad, too. Horrible technique.

 

You accelerate *to* the ball, not through it. He does everything wrong.

I am so sick of hearing this. This take is played out. Wrong too.

 

I've actually never heard it ... Still think it's wrong, and have no idea how you would think it makes sense.

 

 

looks like the GOAT is on my side

 

"I'm afraid I'm correct on this one." HAHA

[WidespreadPanic]

Dustin Johnson is pretty bad, too. Horrible technique.

 

You accelerate *to* the ball, not through it. He does everything wrong.

I am so sick of hearing this. This take is played out. Wrong too.

 

Facts can't be 'played out.'

 

DJ averages 1.6 putts per hole. That's #1 on tour. Gains just under a full stroke on the field each round. The narrative of him being a bad putter is just lazy.

 

he's also tops in proximity to the hole. You'd expect him to be near the top in that stat.

Pretty sure #154 is not tops. Check some facts before spewing any more garbage dude.

[twjames]

Not sure about that. The guy has 3 majors and a fedex cup.

[Llortamaisey]

Bob Menery would say Rory is the worst putter.

[WidespreadPanic]

Not sure about that. The guy has 3 majors and a fedex cup.

4 majors

[toddnt]

Calling Dave Stockton!

[mosesgolf]

You HAVE to be a good putter to win 4 majors.

[MMB1500]

Calling Dave Stockton!

 

He already went they route. Said Dave couldn't help him. He needs someone though. Phil Kenyon is very well respected but whatever he's doing with Rory isn't working.

[hurricanes7]

imagine where rory would be without the great driving.

[larrybud]

 

You make a good point. DJ's putting is a hugely underrated part of his game. Naturally everyone talks about his driving, but he's no slouch on the greens either.

 

Yeah, the guy misses one putt (and not an easy one) in the US Open and people think he's Ian Woosnam or something.