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Is it really drive for show putt for dough

Chef23

Chef23

2023 Srixon Experience
Albatross 2024 Club
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I saw this article https://www.golfdigest.com/story/10...=email&utm_source=091020&utm_campaign=hitlist about stats from the tour. The tour leader in strokes gained putting was Denny McCarthy who has won it multiple times and only had 4 top ten finishes. The leader in strokes gained off the tee was Bryson who obviously finished much higher.

I think driving is more important. If you don’t hit it in play and a good distance off the tee you can’t score.

Discuss.
 
being awful at one negates being good at the other? :ROFLMAO:
 
Both are important as is every other skill in the game.

I'd concede that driving may be more important because of the studies that have been done, but I can't believe that at the amateur level it's an overwhelming difference.
 
Personally, I think putting is the more important piece for me. There's nothing that makes me madder than great drive, GIR, followed by a 3-putt.
 
I believe for normal players that are not playing long courses like the pros, putting is more important. I have seen more people that score well that are short off the tee and wizards with the flat stick than people scoring well that are awful putters.

for playing pros, hitting the ball far is critical to scoring.
 
No. Recent statistical analysis shows over and over again that putting is less important than driving. Differences in scoring can be attributed approximately 25% to driving, 40% to approach play (shots into the green outside 100 yards), 20% short game (shots inside 100 yards), and 15% putting. Typically on tour you have to be hot with the putter to win (there are exceptions), but the top of the world rankings are dominated by guys who are great drivers or iron players (often both). The elite players gain strokes with their ball-striking week in and week out and once in a while will make a bunch of putts and win.
 
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There is no amount of putting prowess that can compensate for consistent proximity to the hole tee-to-green.
 
i don't have any deep dive to prove this, but i don't think you find many guys winning on tour with low strokes gained off the tee or approach, but high strokes gained putting. on the flip side, i don't think it's uncommon for a guy to win with high strokes gained off the tee and/or approach, but middling or even low-ish strokes gained putting.
 
I have such mixed feelings on this. I'm a big believer in distance/proximity deciding scoring. Closer=better. So I would lean towards driving being more important. The thing is, last year when my tee game was my weakest link, I could still go low. The rare days I putt poorly though, my scores are generally garbage in comparison. I'm pretty sure I shot a -7 differential hitting like 3 fairways last year. I can't think of a single round with more than one 3 putt that's within 5 strokes of that. This year my driving is a strength though, and my ability to go low, and the ability to do it consistently, has improved along with it.

I say what I've always said. It's neither for me. I live and die by my irons. They can render either one of the others nearly irrelevant when they're on.
 
OldandStiff said:
I have such mixed feelings on this. I'm a big believer in distance/proximity deciding scoring. Closer=better. So I would lean towards driving being more important. The thing is, last year when my tee game was my weakest link, I could still go low. The rare days I putt poorly though, my scores are generally garbage in comparison. I'm pretty sure I shot a -7 differential hitting like 3 fairways last year. I can't think of a single round with more than one 3 putt that's within 5 strokes of that. This year my driving is a strength though, and my ability to go low, and the ability to do it consistently, has improved along with it.

I say what I've always said. It's neither for me. I live and die by my irons. They can render either one of the others nearly irrelevant when they're on.
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I like this answer. I've said it before, I live and die by my short irons and wedges. Everything flows from approach game being on.
 
Chef23 said:
Nothing makes me madder than a drive blown out of bounds. Impossible to get a GIR that way.
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True, but a drive OB is not uncommon for me. A GIR is rare enough that the 3-putt bums me out. The drive OB is another resigned shrug :LOL:
 
I think the the "drive for show" part is for the fans. Always has been. Fans love to see the long drives.

Pga players have known for a long time, driving the ball long, and accurate helped their pocket book more the any other part of their game. .

I built a home for a pga player back in the 1990s, and I remember him saying driving was a very important part of the pro's game. This as I was looking at his garage full of drivers.

He also said that if the pro doesn't putt well, the best driving in the tournament won't win too many times in those tournaments.


With that, the "putt for dough" part is probably more for the players, than the fans.
 
It's harder to hit it OB from the green. Usually.
 
Among a bunch of good putters, the guy with the best ball striking will win.

Among a bunch of good ball strikers, the best putter will win.

Terrible putters never win, no matter how good they strike the ball.

Terrible ball strikers never win, no matter how good they putt.
 
Chef23 said:
I saw this article https://www.golfdigest.com/story/10...=email&utm_source=091020&utm_campaign=hitlist about stats from the tour. The tour leader in strokes gained putting was Denny McCarthy who has won it multiple times and only had 4 top ten finishes. The leader in strokes gained off the tee was Bryson who obviously finished much higher.

I think driving is more important. If you don’t hit it in play and a good distance off the tee you can’t score.

Discuss.
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Completely agree. No amount of good putting can save drives out of bounds, in hazards, etc.

You HAVE to be in play off the tee before putting begins to matter.
 
Et Tu Brute? said:
Among a bunch of good putters, the guy with the best ball striking will win.

Among a bunch of good ball strikers, the best putter will win.

Terrible putters never win, no matter how good they strike the ball.

Terrible ball strikers never win, no matter how good they putt.
Click to expand...
Agree on all except the third point. Isn’t Morikowa like 170th or something in putting? But he’s a guy that can get on a run and knock 4-5 shots a round in there under 4-5 feet. If he makes those and just two putts the rest he’s gonna put up a good score. Then again, I think when you’re saying terrible, you really mean terrible, not just below average on tour.
 
pollock21 said:
Agree on all except the third point. Isn’t Morikowa like 170th or something in putting? But he’s a guy that can get on a run and knock 4-5 shots a round in there under 4-5 feet. If he makes those and just two putts the rest he’s gonna put up a good score. Then again, I think when you’re saying terrible, you really mean terrible, not just below average on tour.
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Yep. You can be a bad putter and have a week where you're making everything and gaining a ton of strokes on the field. It is far less common to see a bad ball striker have a week where they gain a ton of strokes ball striking.

I also think it applies to the amateur level. You would have to be a truly terrible putter to always lose strokes putting. And I'm not talking 38-39 putts per round bad, but like 50+ putts per round bad. Even your typical 30 handicap struggling to break 110 could putt better than me in any given round. There's basically no chance they'd have a better ball-striking round.

Also, I think most golfers think putting costs them more strokes than it actually does. Usually it goes something like "I 3-putted four times today. That's four strokes down the drain!" However, often these three putts come from putting across the entire green which is usually 60+ feet. The average tour pro is three putting almost 30% of the time from outside 60 feet - you're going to do it a lot more often.
 
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For me right now, inconsistency off the tees is costing me WAY more strokes than my putting game (I'm averaging 31 putts per round over my last 20 rounds).

It's a different game for pros, who hit what they're aiming at a lot more often than most amateurs do, and also putt on much more difficult greens than most amateurs do.
 
For me, driving is 100000% more important than putting. I lose way way more shots off the tee than I do around the greens, is almost impossible to make par when you're playing 3 off the tee or hacking out of the trees. More fairways mean more GIR for me, and the more GIRs I have, the lower I score.
 
Irons are the most important for me going low as I really need to be inside of 15 feet to have any decent chance of making a putt. I've always been straight and had relatively small misses with my irons which means even on a bad day I'm hitting 10 or 11 GIR. I don't putt well for my index but have made some progress this year with the flatstick. I hit 16 GIR my last round but most of my irons were outside of that 25 foot range so I wound up with 4 birdies and two bogies. I didn't make a putt over 10 feet which is normal and two of my birdies were inside of 3 feet.
 
There was a thread here not long ago where someone asked if you could hit every fairway or never 3 putt again, which would you choose? As I recall, the majority chose no more 3 putts. Accurate driving saves me the most strokes.
 
Funny how these and certain other similar topics seem to always reemerge. And nothing wrong with that as opinions and people change, but this time around didnt we very recently (almost too recently) have this exact discussion? Or has time flown by that fast and it was a while ago?

Anyway, its all equally important. Every part of the game where we can cost ourselves a stroke and that mean tee till holed. There is no such thing as anything being more important. A stroke is a stroke no matter where from and it all adds up to total score.
cant get off the tee...score is in trouble
Cant hit an iron....score is in trouble
cant pitch or chip....score is in trouble
cant putt.....score is ion trouble

Nothing makes up for anything else. Once we spend a stroke its gone and there is no such thing as making up for it. It still exists in the tally. Put a ball in the woods and then making a 20' putt still does not eliminate the ball you lost ion the woods. The idea that anything is ever more important is imo flawed. Just grab any two players who are equal ability at everything else except for any one single area of play (regardless which area it is) and the player who is better at that part is going to more often score a little better.
 
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