You know, this is absolutely true. I followed a guy who ran stat service for Tour players. He had stats on every shot of every player, so it was easy to separate the factors that tended to be shared by the top players. As I recall, the most important was how good they were on long irons, ie 175-225. That correlated most closely to Tour success. Now the question that van is raising, as I see it, is that just because long hitting correlates with Tour success, what evidence is there that the same dynamic applies at the rec level? All Tour pros by definition are very very good at putting, short game and wedge game. You can't say the same for rec players. But it's also wrong I believe to expect a lot of magic from, say 100 in, what is called scoring range. You really expect a birdie putt. But the Tour average from 100 is something in the 20 foot plus range. The Tour average putting percentage from that range is probably under 40%. For recs, aim at biggest part of the green and take your two putt. That's how you avoid missing short side and taking a double.
Good points. It is impossible to score by getting to the green one or two shots too late. Thus the amateur must focus on the drive so as to use a higher lofted club in order to spin it and stick the green.
This is all good and you may not believe that I avg 1.7 putts per hole, but I do. Granted, I am not playing Pebble Beach or St Andrews. This is further evidence of my case that amateurs need to focus on getting to the green with a great long, straight, drive and then a nice second shot on a par 4 using a higher lofted club to stick the green. You have made my point---thank you.
If a guy only hits 4 greens per round, then he might very well average 1.7 putts, but that is very different from saying he averages 1.7 putts per green in regulation. So the guy has 31 putts per rd, hits 4 greens in reg, gets up and down less than half the time. If he suddenly turned into a ball striker and hit 15 greens per round, doubtful he would get under 2.00 putts per GIR. This is where golf stats can be very deceptive.
Yeah the PGA stats are almost a science unto themselves... but either way B1 is saying that he is averaging 31 putts per round total and there is no way on God's green earth he's doing that. And honestly, for him to even say this... portends a level of naivety about the game that makes this entire narrative of his personal golf commentary... quite suspect.