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Is Collin Morikawa proof that putting is overrated?

The Milk Man

The Milk Man

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In his first 23 events on tour Morikawa has 2 wins (Reno-Tahoe and Workday), 2 runner ups (3M and Charles Schwab), and made the cut in 22 of 23 events. All this success has come while being one of the best ball strikers (if not the best) and one of the worst putters on tour. In looking at his strokes gained numbers. He is 23rd - SG off the tee, 1st - SG approach, 8th - SG tee to green, 13th - SG total, 122nd - SG around the green, and 150th - SG putting. In looking at his putting a little deeper. He is 160th in total putting, 77th in putting average, 104th, in 1 putt %, 155th in 3 putt avoidance, 168th from putting inside 3 feet, and his best ranking from inside 8' is 131st. The only range he seems to excel at is 9' and 10' where he is top 50 in both, but once outside of 10 feet drops back into the 100's.

Mark Broadie's work on strokes gained started to shine the light that putting was overrated. My contention has always been that players who win multiple times on tour. Are supreme ball strikers whose ballstiking puts them in contention more than other players. Then the weeks the putter gets hot, they win. Collin would seem to bear this out as his two best strokes gained weeks in 2020 were Schwab and Workday. Where he gained .832 in the Schwab (finshed 2nd) and Workday 1.182 (won). Is Collin help to prove Broadie correct that ballstriking tumps putting?
 
Being a great putter will turn bad hole play into a great result. Bad stroke play to get the green puts more pressure on the putting skills. Bad driving off the tee puts pressure on the hole stroke play to get to the green.

A great putter with bad iron/wedge play one putts for bogey.
A great iron/wedge player can 2 putt for par.

At hte pro level, the difference between those two scenarios is minor. For the average player, the difference between those is major.
 
I've never played a round with a pga tour player, but I have played with some elite players and lower tour players. they make EVERYTHING they look at it. incredible putting. those high numbers for strokes gained aren't great, but relative to the best of the best in the world it's not like we're talking about massive separation. I'm with you that ball striking is key to winning, but I don't think putting is overrated at all.
 
I think that it is. I believe the stats when you look at the top 10 putters show that most of them aren't on the leaderboard week in week out. I know from playing with my buddy who is about a +4 and a really good ball striker that he will usually go out and shoot a few under par. When his putter gets on fire is when he can shoot low 60's which is fun to watch.
 
Its hard to say after those bombs dropped yesterday that were necessary to win or in JT's case, continue.
 
Personally I think all these stats are overrated. I kind of like to look at results. :confused2:
 
Putting is everything. Do they still miss some short putts, yes but the better putter you are the more you will win. Look at Tiger and how good of a putter he was when he was on his win streaks.
 
JB said:
Its hard to say after those bombs dropped yesterday that were necessary to win or in JT's case, continue.
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True but would the bombs not been necessary if the approach shots were better? :unsure:
 
Tough to call it overrated. Guess I would phrase it as Ball striking is more important than putting. However to actually win, you need to at least putt halfway decent no matter how well you are hitting it. As is shown, his actual wins have been when he putted well.
 
I kind of agree that ball striking is more important than putting...I mean look how many times DJ has won haha

Seriously though a hot putter can over come poor ball striking sometimes but I think in general I'd take a 2 putt par with the occasional birdie all day every day versus relying on my putter to save par every time.
 
I think if you are absolutely exceptional at certain point of the game you can get by being so so in other parts of the game.

How great he is tee to green means that he doesn't have to make a lot of putts to be contention. The weeks he does make a few, he will be top 5 or win. But he makes so few mistakes in his full swing that very similar to someone like patrick Cantlay he is going to make money pretty much every time he tees it up.
 
Tevenor said:
True but would the bombs not been necessary if the approach shots were better? :unsure:
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Of course not, but in this instance they were as these two shotmakers were further than expected.:ROFLMAO:
 
The only reason I said overrated was because for the longest time it was all about drive for show, putt for dough. It's still very important to be a good putter but I think as OP said, it's the guys who are great ball strikers who are consistently competing at the top of the leaderboard. Every now and then you have a performance like Na where he putted lights out but that is more rare.
 
Snickerdog said:
Putting is everything. Do they still miss some short putts, yes but the better putter you are the more you will win. Look at Tiger and how good of a putter he was when he was on his win streaks.
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It’s funny you mention Tiger. I think we all remember the clutch putts, which stick in our head forever, but if you look at his strokes gained during that time, putting was a small part of his dominance. He was killing the field in SG off the green.
 
On the Tour, I believe the difference between the elite putters and middle of the road (where Morikawa ranks in stats) is very small. And for players like Morikawa who are on the elite side for ball strikers (26th in GIR?), they will have more long putts. He made clutch putts to win. His putting is solid. My take on Collin is that he brings a complete game and stays mentally strong start to finish.
 
JMB3 said:
It’s funny you mention Tiger. I think we all remember the clutch putts, which stick in our head forever, but if you look at his strokes gained during that time, putting was a small part of his dominance. He was killing the field in SG off the green.
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Ya like this, he was solid with this part of his game also.

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He dropped bombs, but boy he's missed / nearly missed some shorties. Even Mickelson was like DAMN! :D
 
I think in the professional ranks, the long ball rules. This strokes gained/loss thing is proof of this. That said, making putts is also important, and needed to win tournaments. Missing too many putts, regardless of their long game, will lose a golfer a lot of money, if not a tournament.

Didn't a missed putt cost a golfer a win on a playoff hole yesterday?

I also think it's a little different for us amateur golfers. Most amateurs I see, myself included, lose strokes in their long game, and need a decent short game (putting) to make up some of those lost strokes. No stats to back this up. Just my opinion.

I know whenever I score extremely well, I've made a lot of putts. Even a few chips for par, or better. This probably makes me an "outlier" on the statistics list. If so, there's a lot of us out there.
 
I wouldn't say that putting is overrated, but I think ball striking is maybe a bit underrated. A good ball striker with control should be able to leave shorts putts, whereas an average ball striker will be further from the pin but if they are an excellent putter you can end up with the same result.
 
Overrated provided you can do everything else spectacular.

in my world - no way. If I could chip and putt I would be on top of the world.
 
Stan Utley says the best thing you can do to help your putting is to hit the ball closer to the hole.
 
Yup, getting close with approaches is how good golf is done, and Collin is a monster iron player.

He's making his share of good putts as well though, it's not like he's bad at it, putting stats are kind of iffy.
 
I dont think so. CoMo has other aspects of his game that make up for his putting. Like I often say, talk to me when he wins a major. CoMo may be able to win a weekly, nothing, meaningless PGA Tour event every now and then but his game is never going to win him a major. Just ask DJ about putting in the majors.
 
Keegan Bradley would disagree with you. Keegan was number 2 tee to green last week. Gaining 15 strokes. But giving those and then some up to the field on the green finishing 15 shots back.
 
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