_KeithCook

📢 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Does "never up, never in" apply to PGA Tour players? Do the best players in the world get every putt to the hole? I dug into 5 years of PGA Tour putting data to find out. Inside 10 feet, almost nothing finishes short (3.4% or less). Then it climbs. Fast. ▶️20-24 feet: 26% short (about 1 in 4) ▶️30-34 feet: 40% ▶️45-49 feet: 49% ▶️70+ feet: 59% From 45 feet and out, the best players on the planet leave about HALF their putts short. The best putters (top 20 in strokes gained putting) leave a few less short than the worst putters (ranked 160+). From 15-16 feet it's 11% vs 15%. So getting it to the hole matters the closer you are. As you move farther from the hole, the bigger difference is speed control. Here's how to read the "Where Putts Finished" chart. Each bar shows where about 68% of missed putts finish (for the math nerds, that's plus or minus 1 standard deviation from the average “North/South” miss). Where the bar sits shows where the misses are centered. From 20 and 30 feet, the bars sit mostly PAST the hole. As the putts get longer, the average miss moves back toward the hole. By 50 feet, the bar is centered right over it. How long the bar is shows how good the speed control is. The number on the right is the length of that “speed control” zone. The shorter the bar, the tighter the distance control. The best putters have the shorter bar at every distance, and the gap grows the farther back you go. From 50 feet, their zone is about 8 feet long. The worst putters' zone is almost 10 feet. Tighter distance control means a shorter next putt. Shorter next putts mean fewer three-putts.

The best drivers of the golf ball do NOT eliminate one side of the golf course. They center their pattern so that they are missing equally left and right. Below is off-the-tee data from a world ranked top 100 amateur who is VERY GOOD with driver. cc: @adamyounggolf