“Drive for present and putt for dough” – it’s one of many oldest traces in golf.
However does it stack up?
The boys behind the revolutionary Strokes Gained don’t imagine so. They insist that strokes gained from tee-to-green are what matter most.
They argue that the golfer who provides themselves relentless alternatives via a season or a profession will win extra tournaments and extra prize cash.
They may do that by dint of consistency and in addition having the odd good week on the greens.
In distinction, they’re uncertain about scorching putters who want a lot extra to go proper to capitalise on their high quality with the flat stick in hand.
Based mostly on the PGA Tour’s official Strokes Gained stats over the past 5 seasons who’re the most popular putters and what do their careers inform us concerning the Strokes Gained principle?
1. Denny McCarthy
There’s no getting away from the warmth of Denny McCarthy’s putter.
He presently ranks sixth for SG Placing this 12 months. He was additionally 4th 2024, third 2023 and 2nd 2022.
That’s insane high quality and amount.
However right here’s the rub: he’s nonetheless but to win on the PGA Tour.
One motive is that he ranks 121st for SG Tee-to-Inexperienced this 12 months. Discuss distinction.
He was the winner of the 2018 Korn Ferry Tour Championship and has been unfortunate on the PGA Tour – he misplaced play-offs within the 2023 Memorial Event and 2024 Texas Open.
Critically, nevertheless, whereas he often ranks prime 20 for Placing in tournaments, he hardly ever does so for Tee to Inexperienced.
2. Sam Burns
There have been no profitable issues for Sam Burns who has captured 5 of them on the PGA Tour because the begin of 2021.
However his reliance on a scorching putter has impacted his profession.
The standard of his work on the greens is revealed by these rankings for SG Placing: 1st 2025, 14th 2024, eighth 2023, tenth 2022 and ninth 2021.
That’s excellent work by any measure.
Now comes two distinctions.
The primary is that each one 5 of his wins, plus his second tier win and most of his prime finishes, have come within the south-east of the US, the so-called Bible Belt the place it’s humid and the greens have Bermuda grass.
Burns’ greatest placing comes on them.
Secondly, main championship golf is most frequently decided by the lengthy sport and maybe that explains why Burns has only one prime 10 in 20 begins.
3. Taylor Montgomery
He ranks twenty fifth for SG Placing this 12 months however Taylor Montgomery was 1st in 2024 and 2nd 2023.
He graduated from the second tier off a surprising run of prime 10s in 2022 however he finds profitable tough.
He has performed it on the minor excursions however has seven KFT prime threes and one on the PGA Tour with out lifting a trophy.
His card is below risk this 12 months: he’s virtually by no means gaining strokes on the sector together with his drives or approaches and his putter isn’t rescuing him regardless of how good it’s in comparison with the remaining.
He rounds out an intriguing prime three.
4. Maverick McNealy
The winner of final 12 months’s RSM Traditional – his first on the prime stage – is just 51st for Placing this season however he’s improved the remainder of his sport which has helped his potential to contend.
He ranked 1st for Placing in 2023 and nineteenth 2022.
5. Harry Corridor
The Englishman ranks third this 12 months and he was 4th in 2023.
Put merely: he’s excellent with the putter.
However right here’s a humorous factor. When he landed his first PGA Tour win – the 2024 ISCO Championship – he was solely twenty fourth for Placing (nonetheless good by the way in which) but third for Tee to Inexperienced which is considered one of solely three prime 10 event rankings in that class for him.
6. Christiaan Bezuidenhout
His friends rave about his placing and the rankings again up that evaluation.
He’s 14th in 2025, was twentieth 2024 and sixth in 2022.
That mentioned, though the South African is a four-time winner in Europe and his residence tour, he’s but to win Stateside.
7. Mackenzie Hughes
The Canadian has the same profile to Bezuidenhout however he’s a two-time winner on the PGA Tour.
Final 12 months he ranked third for SGP, he was 14th in 2022 and fifteenth in 2021.
He particularly likes the greens at Sea Island. He’s ranked 1st for Placing within the final two years and has a win and two runner-up finishes there.
8. Xander Schauffele
The anomaly: an distinctive lengthy sport service provider who additionally putts very nicely.
He ranked twelfth for Placing in 2024, fifth in 2023 and sixteenth in 2021.
When he gained the PGA Championship final 12 months he ranked 2nd Tee to Inexperienced and allied to thirteenth Placing it was a lethal mixture.
Within the Open just a few weeks later he was 1st Tee to Inexperienced (gaining a tremendous 16 strokes on the sector) and sixteenth for Placing.
(Strokes Gained: PUtting rankings appropriate on the time of the 2025 Memorial Event)
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