There are something like 100 stats for putting on the PGA Tour.
The best overall one is Strokes Gained: Putting. This measures a player’s putting performance by comparing their putting to a benchmark of how many strokes it takes the average PGA Tour professional golfer to make a putt from a given distance.
A positive strokes gained number means the player took fewer strokes than the benchmark while a negative number indicates the player took more strokes than the benchmark.
So this allows golfers to see how much they are gaining or losing relative to the field, providing a more meaningful performance indicator than simply counting total putts.
Needless to say these are the best players on Tour so most of them are in the upper echelons but there are a few surprises.
United States Ryder Cup team strokes gained: Putting + Ranking
Sam Burns 0.983 1
Cam Young 0.642 5
Harris English 0.431 13
Ben Griffin 0.407 16
Scottie Scheffler 0.382 18
Justin Thomas 0.340 26
Russell Henley 0.220 42
Patrick Cantlay 0.155 56
JJ Spaun 0.113 72
Xander Schauffele -0.184 127
Collin Morikawa -0.313 141
Bryson DeChambeau 20th
What do we learn from the above?
1) The United Stares have the best putter on Tour in Sam Burns which is a captain’s dream when it comes to foursomes. If Keegan Bradley can find the holes where Burns can take advantage of his putting, then this is a huge asset.
2) Cam Young is the fifth best player on Tour and, statistically, a better putter than any European – Rory McIlroy is Europe’s best at seventh. And he’s also extremely long so, again, if Bradley can find the holes where he can get the driver and putter in hand then Young could be a serious asset. And it certainly explains their two picks.
3) The Americans have five of the best 20 putters on Tour, Europe have two. The rough will be short, as expected, and they will make this as much a putting contest as possible. Yes, Bethpage Black is tough but it will be nothing like the test that we’ve seen in Majors here.
4) Justin Thomas has sorted his putting out. There have been seasons where this has fallen off a bit of a cliff but he’s now picking up shots with his putter. And Scottie Scheffler is also a top-20 putter which, alongside being top in so many other categories, we can easily see how we have Tiger 2.
5) Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa are the two players who are losing shots with their putters. Morikawa might be straight and brilliant with his irons but he’s the worst putter at Bethpage.
6) Bryson DeChambeau isn’t listed as he plays on LIV Golf but he would be expected to be a top-20 putter and it is one of his key strengths.
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