Best career with the worst putting?

[Golfnutgalen]

How has nobody mentioned Vijay Singh yet?? He won 9 tournaments in 2004 and he was 129th in strokes gained putting for the season. He also won 3 tournaments in 2008 while being 172nd. His last win came in 2008 and it was special because it was the worst SG putting performance by a winner listed in Mark Broadie's book.

[Christosterone]

3 minutes ago, Golfnutgalen said:

How has nobody mentioned Vijay Singh yet?? He won 9 tournaments in 2004 and he was 129th in strokes gained putting for the season. He also won 3 tournaments in 2008 while being 172nd. His last win came in 2008 and it was special because it was the worst SG putting performance by a winner listed in Mark Broadie's book.

man I love his reverse c...

it was stunning how good he hit it in 04...his whole game was a piece of artwork...

Except the flat stick

 

he is among my all time favorite swings...up there with jack, miller, and monty In my reverse c Hal, of fame

 

 

[grm24]

Vijay Singh

[widow-maker]

Best ball striker/worst putter title goes to Orville Moody.  I'm not sure it's even close.  

 

Every golfer mentioned in this thread thus far was a much better putter than Moody.  Hogan maybe the only guy mentioned who was a better ball striker.

Edited September 18, 2020 by widow-maker

[jvincent]

I can't believe I had get to the second page before Vijay was mentioned.

[MaineMariner]

10 minutes ago, jvincent said:

I can't believe I had get to the second page before Vijay was mentioned.

 

Heh, he was in the first post.

[jvincent]

2 minutes ago, MaineMariner said:

 

Heh, he was in the first post.

s***. D- on reading comprehension.

[JD3]

Dave pelz 

[bladehunter]

 Vijay ?

 

edit -  I see someone finally said it easy on this page.  Vijay.  Most out of balance player ever.  If he just didn’t 3 putt for 4 days he wins all the time.  

Edited September 18, 2020 by bladehunter

[Golfnutgalen]

2 hours ago, MaineMariner said:

 

Heh, he was in the first post.

Oops. My bad. Oh well, got to look up those cool Vijay stats.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Golfnutgalen

[hoselpalooza]

came across the below comment a while ago. does mac o'grady make sense in this context?

 

[Sonoronsis]

45 minutes ago, hoselpalooza said:

came across the below comment a while ago. does mac o'grady make sense in this context?

 

I guess the Mac O'Grady thought would fall in line with arguing about Moe Norman in regards to ball striking vs putting vs career. Not to be dismissive but comparing them with major winners and/or modern players where all stats are compiled is a bit apples to oranges. This is coming from a huge Moe Norman fan too (so much so I even went to see Todd Graves for lessons to learn more about his swing) so I feel bad saying anything not "awesome" about him. 

[tiderider]

55 minutes ago, hoselpalooza said:

came across the below comment a while ago. does mac o'grady make sense in this context?

 

i don't know what kind of stats there are, but i wouldn't be shocked if he was considered to be one of the greatest ball strikers ... he was scratch as a left hander and thought about applying for usga status as a left handed amateur ... don't remember much discussion about his bstriking vs putting, but he had a quirky temperament that could run hot, or at least uneven, so that is part of his 'lack of success' status ... was very athletic (triathlete at times) and could hit it a mile with very good control ... 

[Hankshank]

Langer pre-broomstick, nothing really come close.

Vijay is definitely up there too but not as severe.

One has to mention Lee too, Putted decently a few years in the beginning of his career, but then it has been like 20+ years of fantastic long play, mediocre short play and putt misses. 

[Hankshank]

One thing that surprises me is that US top players putt so well. Nearly all the poor putter names that come to my mind are europeans and some presidents cup people. While almost all of the US greats putt well. Is it something that young americans with golf talent find sexy? I was member of a Scandinavian club back in the days when i was young with a lot of talented players my age, went on to become EU tour pros and so. And what they talked about was swing and drive length. Sure they practiced putting and short game. But the feeling was it was a boring necessary must. How do US making kids love putting? Winning is everything, swing does not matter message to kids at the country clubs?

[KennyP]

Bubba is a poor putter for someone with two green jackets.

[Dave230]

38 minutes ago, KennyP said:

Bubba is a poor putter for someone with two green jackets.

A good shout, he looks one of the least convincing putters on Tour of a top/former top player, always looks like he's easing the ball up and it's going to die on him. Probably partly explains why he has a terrible record at the Open when you have to hit a putt firmly on a links green.

[GolfTurkey]

Definitely Vijay but to throw another name out there: Colin Montgomerie. 

[hoselpalooza]

8 hours ago, Sonoronsis said:

I guess the Mac O'Grady thought would fall in line with arguing about Moe Norman in regards to ball striking vs putting vs career. Not to be dismissive but comparing them with major winners and/or modern players where all stats are compiled is a bit apples to oranges. This is coming from a huge Moe Norman fan too (so much so I even went to see Todd Graves for lessons to learn more about his swing) so I feel bad saying anything not "awesome" about him. 

 

i don't think you're being dismissive at all. o'grady was a bit before my time and i'm not familiar with his career. but i know a bit about moe so your analogy makes sense to me. thanks!

 

i will now see myself out... ?

 

[J Bez]

15 hours ago, m d g said:

I would say either me or Club Pro Guy...but I didn't have a golf career so it must be CPG.

 

But seriously, Snead is a good pick...

Dont know how you could call him an "underachiever" with the streak - an in case you did not hear - he went double bogey free and hit 5/9 greens in yesterdays TNML.....

[Ironman_32]

Wasn't Larry Nelson known as a bad putter but won 3 majors (could be making that up).

 

Not all time great careers but:

John Senden apparently had a bad short game for how good his swing was. 

Joe Durant for how many greats he hit?

 

[mn723]

In the early/mid 1990's Tom Lehman was an elite ball striker and hit a ton of greens, but he couldn't putt.  He was at the top of the leader board near the end of a few US Opens and Masters, but his putter let him down.  He only won 1 major, but could have been a few more if he was even an average tour putter.

[ThinkingPlus]

Jason Dufner has had some severe putting woes given how good a ball striker he is.  His stroke has been so bad at times that just watching him putt can give you the yips.  Not quite the same career accomplishments as some mentioned here, but still a player that would have won quite a few more events with just average putting.

[Dr. Block]

11 hours ago, hoselpalooza said:

came across the below comment a while ago. does mac o'grady make sense in this context?

 

I think so.  Mac O'Grady was - even by tour standards (and those are some pretty high standards) - an otherworldly ball striker. From what I've read his mental game held him back as much as his putting though.  He thought he should shoot 60 every time he put a tee in the ground, so he didn't have the mentality to grind out a score and deal with adversity. 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Dr. Block

[mark174ace]

I do not know about best career, but Nick Price would have had an all time great career if his putting was better. His ball striking was so good he could win tournaments just sticking flags and making 5 footers for birdie.

 

In spite of his putting he won 3 majors (2 PGA's, 1 Open Championship), 2 Canadian Opens, a World Series of Golf, and a Players Championship along with other wins. The dude was Ballstriker Skywalker and people tend to forget about him. Loved his swing and he is a first class dude.

[Golf10]

11 hours ago, mn723 said:

In the early/mid 1990's Tom Lehman was an elite ball striker and hit a ton of greens, but he couldn't putt.  He was at the top of the leader board near the end of a few US Opens and Masters, but his putter let him down.  He only won 1 major, but could have been a few more if he was even an average tour putter.

 

Tom Lehman should have won the 96 US Open for sure.  Just didn't putt well enough 

[iBanesto]

Bernhard Langer.

[nsxguy]

On 9/17/2020 at 9:32 PM, bladehunter said:

 Vijay ?

 

edit -  I see someone finally said it easy on this page.  Vijay.  Most out of balance player ever.  If he just didn’t 3 putt for 4 days he wins all the time.  

 

On 9/17/2020 at 8:51 PM, MaineMariner said:

 

Heh, he was in the first post.

 

[Golfingfanatic]

I guess with some of the older guys like Hogan and Snead it is difficult to  judge how bad their putting really was. We don't have any significant data and I am sure that a bit of folklore has been sprinkled in over the years. But still, these two seem the most obvious from that era.

 

[KennyP]

18 hours ago, ThinkingPlus said:

Jason Dufner has had some severe putting woes given how good a ball striker he is.  His stroke has been so bad at times that just watching him putt can give you the yips.  Not quite the same career accomplishments as some mentioned here, but still a player that would have won quite a few more events with just average putting.

 

Lucas Glover is another one who falls into this category; top 20 ball striker, bottom 20 putter.