Masters Putting Stats

[ADB]

After hearing Westwood bemoan the fact that he couldn't buy a putt all week I thought I would have a look on the (excellent) Masters website and get a few stats to see if these back him up. I looked that the number of putts over the 4 days and the results were as follows for positions 1-4:

C. Schwartzel - 107
Jason Day - 114
Adam Scott - 111
Tiger - 120
G. Ogilvy - 111
L.Donald - 102

and Westy - 116

Intersting that Jason Day only had two less putts and Tiger had 4 more and still finished 5 shots better than Westwood!

What about Luke's 102 if anyone should be cursing a missed opportunity it should be him!

Oh and in case you were wondering, Rory had 124

 

[KeefG]

Oh and in case you were wondering, Rory had 124

And 120 of those were on the 12th last night werent they?

 

[timgolfy]

L.Donald - 102

Does this not mean that Luke missed greens more frequently, then chipped close to the hole?

 

[ADB]

L.Donald - 102

Does this not mean that Luke missed greens more frequently, then chipped close to the hole?

Yes, probably, and that tells a tale in itself for a usually v. accurate iron player

 

[evahakool]

Thanks for that Snaphook.

I was just wondering about the putting stats myself,I think it just goes to show that hitting 300+ drives and great iron play is not enough to win a Masters,you must be able to putt well,there was probebly 6-8 players that had a real chance of winning, but the putting let them down.

A lesson for us all I think improve the putting.

 

[Tiger]

Don't forget that Donald played the green on most par 5s in 3 while others often hit them in two and had long eagle putts. Westwood missed a lot of putts that he would of sunk last year but that said his chipping is still wanting. When he misses the green he HAS to give himself a better chance of making par!

 

[EZprophet]

Much better to look at putts per green in regulation as an indicator of how well theyve putted as it takes out all of those arguments that "he would have more chips" or "his chipping was bad" or whatever...

It appears you are definitely right though snaphooked as Westwood seems to have putted alright. The difference between his ranking here and his ranking in overall putts would probably indicate that Tiger is right aswell in that it was infact his chipping that let him down, as putts after his chips are not counted in putts per GIR, but they are in total putts...

Putts per GIR as follows (rank in brackets)

C. Schwartzel - 1.49 (2nd)
Jason Day - 1.58 (T 11th)
Adam Scott - 1.54 (T 3rd)
Tiger - 1.67 (T 32nd)
G. Ogilvy - 1.54 (T 3rd)
L.Donald - 1.42 (1st)

Westy - 1.61 (T 17th)

McIlroy - 1.72 (T 43rd) took 1.44 per GIR in first round. and 1.94 in final round....

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Westwood said his confidence was shot last night when interviewed and that he's thinking of going back to the belly putter on a more long-term basis. This smacks of a guy who has nothing good about his putting and is desperate. His chipping wasn't too bad but he was never going to make a putt last night.

 

[Crow]

The other thing that I don't think was in Rory's favour was being partnered with Cabrera for the final day.

Cabrera is a stolid player and Rory was much more himself playing with the other young guns on the first three days where they were firing off each other and having a joke.

A true champion should be able to play with anybody but I think on this occasion Rory would have gone on to win if he'd been paired with somebody he could relate to better such as Jason Day or Ricky Fowler.

As he matures this won't be so improtant but at just 21 and in a whole new environment I think it was crucial.

 

[sev112]

Was initially seriously worried for Westwood playing with the belly putter; but didnt do scott any harm - maybe he should swap to a really long one

 

[timgolfy]

I find it difficult to believe that pros, with all the practice they do on the greens, cannot hit the ball on the intended line. Surely the issue is in selecting the right line and judging the correct weight. Does a belly putter help with that?

 

[EZprophet]

I find it difficult to believe that pros, with all the practice they do on the greens, cannot hit the ball on the intended line. Surely the issue is in selecting the right line and judging the correct weight. Does a belly putter help with that?

Its really not as simple as that... No player in the world, no matter how much practice on the greens they do, can hit every putt on the intended line with the correct weight.

Lee Westwood CAN hit the ball on the intended line with the correct weight more often than 99.99% of the golfing population, but unfortuntately, hes not competing against the entire golfing population.. Hes competing against the best putters in the world.

If everybody on this forum putted like Lee Westwood from now on, they would drop 5-15 strokes from their handicap easily. He is a great putter, but the margin for error is so small at that level that 1 or 2 mistakes on the green per round that others dont can be the difference between winning the FedEx cup and losing your tour card..

The belly putter CAN help you putt the ball on line better but it completely depends on the person. Its commonly thought that the belly putters help more with line, due to the fixed point on your body and less moving parts, than it does with speed, as you lose "feel". Supposedly thats why a lot of players who use them struggle with long putts but are deadly from short range...

 

[JamesS]

I was looking at the masters stats pages just to see if I was getting close on anything. Sadly no.

Just look at the GIR for example. Wow:

http://www.masters.com/en_US/scores/stats/gir.html