Why hasn’t Gary Woodland won more events?

[reefrash1043]

I was watching his us open highlights the other day and his ballstriking is pretty incredible when he is playing well. I started thinking why he hasn’t won more events. That float load can be and gift and a curse.

[MattM97]

He's 157th off the tee, 125th in putting and 100th total in strokes gained. I think that says it all, he's not a great putter and for being a bigger hitter being that low in SG off the tee doesn't help either.

 

Now I believe he was hurt so that could play into it. 

[Medson]

I feel you can pretty much make the same statement for every Tour player. Why hasn't he won more? Winning a tournament requires tremendous skills and LUCK. 

 

I was looking at Morikawa's putting performance after the Open Championship. He had no business winning the Open with his usual putting. 

 

In 2019, Woodland is no.16 in SG: tee to green. And his putter just got hot during the U.S. Open week.  

 

[Cincy_Ken]

Winning is hard.  You can always look at someone during their career week and think they should be winning with regularity.  4 wins seems about right for his talent.  He's hardly Louis Oosthuizen who blew away an Open field and hasn't won in 11 years since despite always being in the mix.

[m d g]

He took too many strokes compared to the other guys...

[bscinstnct]

GW always struck me as a blue collar guy, get up, go work, come home and crack a beer and play with his kids.

 

Except he make like 5MM a year 🤣

[Abh159]

Like @Medson said... You could say "why hasn't ______ won more" about every single player on tour.

 

They are all phenomenal ball strikers. They wouldn't have made it this far if they weren't, but there are hundreds of other factors that have to click in order to win a PGA Tour event. 

 

The great players (Tiger, Jack, Arnie, Phil, and so on) can get away with having a bad putting week or a bad driving week and still win because they are that good. The rest of the tour players need to be firing on all cylinders that week in order to win.

[BlackDiamondPar5]

I like Gary. He's always seemed like a decent guy. Wished he'd win more but he's made some serious cash so good on him.

 

Anyway I was watching him during a practice round once. At a tee box of ~210 yard par 3  someone asked, "hey Gary you gonna use a pitching wedge?" Gary turns around with a big smile and he and his playing partners chuckle. 

[Valtiel]

Agreed with the guys above calling out the stats. Gary is a power player that needs his long and approach game to pick up his lackluster game on and around the greens. If his long game is on and his putter catches even a little bit of fire, he competes and can win. @MattM97 is right too in that as a power player, he has never had a particularly consistent tee game from a SG standpoint, and a pretty consistently weak short game seems to eat into that quickly, even with the putter working. 

I would love to see him compete and win more, definitely one of those dudes that can do things most others can't. 

[JohnnyCashForever]

The question could easily be, "How did Gary Woodland (Lucas Glover, Michael Campbell, et. al.) win a US Open?"

[dlygrisse]

6 minutes ago, JohnnyCashForever said:

The question could easily be, "How did Gary Woodland (Lucas Glover, Michael Campbell, et. al.) win a US Open?"

They are all very talented players who have some glaring weaknesses.  For one week they got hit and overcame that weakness. 

[golfortennis]

5 hours ago, Medson said:

I feel you can pretty much make the same statement for every Tour player. Why hasn't he won more? Winning a tournament requires tremendous skills and LUCK. 

 

I was looking at Morikawa's putting performance after the Open Championship. He had no business winning the Open with his usual putting. 

 

In 2019, Woodland is no.16 in SG: tee to green. And his putter just got hot during the U.S. Open week.  

 

 

Luck?  I thought luck had nothing to do with guys winning.  I thought it was all "heart" and "determination" and "certain color shirts on Sunday"......  You mean guys get lucky when a long putt drops?  To hear it here it is a skill.

 

Luck.  Jeez.  You're talking like a WRX Rookie. 

[tiderider]

5 hours ago, m d g said:

He took too many strokes compared to the other guys...

 

Mr. Occum! ... don't forget to lather ... 

[tiderider]

5 hours ago, Medson said:

I feel you can pretty much make the same statement for every Tour player. Why hasn't he won more? Winning a tournament requires tremendous skills and LUCK. 

 

I was looking at Morikawa's putting performance after the Open Championship. He had no business winning the Open with his usual putting. 

 

In 2019, Woodland is no.16 in SG: tee to green. And his putter just got hot during the U.S. Open week.  

 

colin's always gonna struggle at putting, but when he's marginally better - just marginally - his sg off the tee and into the greens (the big one) really take off, and he wins ... i would think most have to have a week of better than "marginally" to win a tournament with their avg ball striking ... but i did not sleep at a holiday inn ... 

[Valtiel]

9 minutes ago, tiderider said:

colin's always gonna struggle at putting, but when he's marginally better - just marginally - his sg off the tee and into the greens (the big one) really take off, and he wins ... i would think most have to have a week of better than "marginally" to win a tournament with their avg ball striking ... but i did not sleep at a holiday inn ... 

Agreed, that is the razor's edge (not Occam 😅) that so many of these guys live on out there. Morikawa is so accurate on approach and solid enough off the tee that all it takes is a little putter magic to win, not too dissimilar to Woodland. If Collin ever takes a step forward with his putting while maintaining his other strengths, look out. 

[llewol007]

Has to be a total package. Ball striking is great and all but if you can piece it together with 4 solid consistent rounds of driving and GIR plus your putts, you might make the weekend but not be in contention by Sunday. 

[Socrates]

Most every Tour player is crazy talented.  The reason some win more and some don't is usually found in that space between their ears.

[MUNIGRIT]

Doesn't consistently shoot low enough scores would be my guess.

[Fairway14]

Chipping, pitching, putting.

[MattyO1984]

Seems like a heck of a good guy but he put simply, he is just not that good.

 

I don’t mean that in a disparaging way whatsoever, he is still better than all but everyone else that picks up a club including many of his peers but not the elite of the elite which means that he has four wins. That one of those is a major is great but that win is an outlier. Take that away and he has three wins under his belt. If wins another couple of tour events and finishes his career with 5 plus the major, that is a solid career particularly in this day and age but nothing in comparison to the likes of Koepka, DJ, Rory, Spieth, etc.

[Ferguson]

Lost some weight and tried to redefine himself/game after the 2019 United States Open victory at Pebble Beach Golf Links.   

A.K.A.  TKOD  -  The Kiss Of Death.

 

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, Gary.

[iBanesto]

Unfortunately, he has taken more strokes than the winner of the tournament.

[freeze16172002]

When you're a big hitter it comes down to wedge, around the greens, putting and he is no good at any of them

[BC33]

Paul Azinger would say the pressure gets to him on Sunday's.

[miamistomp]

 It all came together for the US Open

   But he is not really much better than average PGA tour player

    Plus he is getting older and has had bad hip injury I doubt he will regularly contend again

[Hawkeye77]

How did Jack Fleck never complete a career grand slam?

[miamistomp]

 Jack Fleck was way cooler than  Woodland. He won all 3 of his tourneys in playoffs

 

 He had a tough childhood but a long productive life

 

 

[Rosco1216]

He float loads the shaft and gets very narrow in transition which is not conducive to consistency, especially with shorter clubs. Long hitter, good ball striker, mediocre wedge player. 

[BraxtonFullerton]

14 hours ago, Valtiel said:

Agreed, that is the razor's edge (not Occam 😅) that so many of these guys live on out there. Morikawa is so accurate on approach and solid enough off the tee that all it takes is a little putter magic to win, not too dissimilar to Woodland. If Collin ever takes a step forward with his putting while maintaining his other strengths, look out. 

 

This is always what gets lost in retrospect with Tiger. He was a huge power hitter when he was young, then the field started catching up, but by then his ball-striking was THE best in the game.

 

And his putting has always been top of the class.

[Chopper1986]

20 hours ago, Cincy_Ken said:

Winning is hard.  You can always look at someone during their career week and think they should be winning with regularity.  4 wins seems about right for his talent.  He's hardly Louis Oosthuizen who blew away an Open field and hasn't won in 11 years since despite always being in the mix.

 

I had to look this up as did not believe how this be true, but low and behold, like a man with orthopaedic shoes I stand corrected. Crazy to think with his swing and (now) strong putting game he only has 1 win on the PGA tour.