Driver vs Putter

[Barking_Mad]

This old chestnut just came up on Rick Shiels YouTube and 85% plumped for putting being more important than driving.

Wow.

 

[Golfnut1957]

Crackers.

I wonder what they think after pulling their third off the tee into the trees and finding themselves putting for a triple.

All my best rounds come when I'm putting well. All of my really bad rounds come when pulling my tee shot three fairways left of target.

 

[Barking_Mad]

93k votes, so not a small sample size.

Presumably this is why the driving driving range is always empty but the putting green is rammed ??

 

[IanM]

I think it depends on the golfer.

Higher handicappers lose their shots in the trees, lower handicappers make up shots on the greens!

 

[Deleted member 29109]

Someone will be along in a minute to say you only hit 14 drivers but 30odd putts. Therefore putting is more important.

 

[bobmac]

It's a bit like saying if you want to be a really good sprinter, you have to have a good left foot.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Someone will be along in a minute to say you only hit 14 drivers but 30odd putts. Therefore putting is more important.

So true. As someone who struggled with the driver when I first started I would suggest that being a demon on the green is irrelevant if you are 3 / 5 off the tee, duffing it 20yds etc.

Driver is your starting point, your foundation to a hole. Without foundations...............

 

[Boomy]

The old phrase “drive for show, putt for dough” is so wrong!

“Drive for dough?, putt for even more dough??”

My best scores have all came from games where I’ve been driving well (and putting averagely)

 

[RichA]

Any of my clubs have an equal chance of ruining my day. As a bogey golfer, it's as likely to be whichever club I'm using for my 3rd shot that makes or breaks a round.

 

[Deleted member 23270]

Depends on the course really. Wide open but with tricky greens = putter more important. Tight fairways with flat greens = driver more important.

 

[Deleted member 30522]

Putt for dough without a doubt. When I got down to my lowest index I was putting like god, slow creep up over the last half dozen years to 6.7 now, final round of the year was 15 over par containing 42 putts

 

[HeftyHacker]

When I first started properly playing last year my driving was so woeful that it was costing me at least 10 shots a round on my fairly tight tree-lined home course at the time - either with lost balls or having to play back into position from awful locations.

If I'd held a handicap I reckon it would have been in the mid to high 20s based on the fact I was rarely breaking 100.

Its now 11.4 and I reckon that's largely because of a driving lesson I had that made it one of my more reliable shots.

Less lost balls, better positions for 2nd shots.

That said my short game still needs loads of work so I may have a different opinion on how important putting is to me come next season.

 

[Deleted member 25575]

If you're spraying it everywhere off the tee and regularly taking 3 off the tee then most definitely sort that out.

However if you can drive relatively ok with a regular shape even only 200-225 and you're not putting yourself in the deep stuff several times a round then putting becomes something more to work on.

Edit to say...
If its a case of being good at one and bad at the other, chose to be a good driver. If its a case of being good at one and average at the other, chose to be a good putter

 

[CountLippe]

If you're spraying it everywhere off the tee and regularly taking 3 off the tee then most definitely sort that out.

However if you can drive relatively ok with a regular shape even only 200-225 and you're not putting yourself in the deep stuff several times a round then putting becomes something more to work on.

Edit to say...
If its a case of being good at one and bad at the other, chose to be a good driver. If its a case of being good at one and average at the other, chose to be a good putter

Defo. My worst putting will affect my score less than my worst driving.

 

[Slab]

I said this when it cropped up last time, I tend to think about it in terms of stableford points… my drive will tell me if I can score, my putt just tells me how many

 

[Backsticks]

It isnt even a debate. If you took the worlds golfers, and compared the improvement that would happen if you made them all instantly drive as well as the best driver in the game, with the improvement if you instead made them all putt like the best putter, it is no contest.

 

[Deleted member 15717]

Driver is the most important. You’ll gain more strokes with driver than you can make up with putter if you are driving it well.

I’d take smacking it 300 yards in the dead centre of every fairway over having no 3 putts ever again if there was a choice. Not even remotely close to a contest.

 

[The Fader]

If you are constantly costing yourself shots with the driver - simple solution - put it away on the course! Or don't even carry it. Plenty of other options off the tee to get it in play.

The putter really has no alternatives - so it needs to work.

One good putt can cover up a myriad of mistakes that went before.

I sit firmly in the 85% camp on this one. And after the putter the next most important club is your wedge.

 

[nickjdavis]

You cannot reliably putt (sic) the ball into the hole if you are a long way from the hole on the green.

You cannot hit the ball close to the hole with your 2nd shot if it is played from the cabbage or the trees.

Ergo you need to be good off the tee to give yourself a chance of hitting the green...then once you have started hitting the green regularly you need to improve your accuracy/skill with your irons to make your first putt shorter.

Once your first putt is shorter then you will find yourself holing more putts.

Some people might interpret that as "your putting has improved"...but it hasn't....its just improvements to the rest of the game suddenly makes the game on the green so much easier. Sure, once you've reached a certain standard then the gains to further improvments in driving will be marginal and then working on the putting stroke might help.....but for the vast majority of amateurs...yep....they would do best to improve their driving and iron play.

 

[bobmac]

If you three putt the first green for bogey, could that affect your mood on your next tee shot?
If you one putt the first green for bogey, could that affect your mood on your next tee shot?
If you one putt for birdie could that affect your mood on your next tee shot?