Just how good are the games best on the greens? We compare the stats of the PGA Tour leader in Strokes Gained putting, Maverick McNealy, to both scratch and typical golfers.
Approximately 1% of amateurs play to scratch, so if you are in or around this category, you are in an elusive group. The majority of amateur golfers float around the 15 handicap mark and so we are using that as our typical golfer.
Putting is often referred to as a game within the game, the saying drive for show putt for dough further emphasises the importance the flat stick has on scoring.
All shots count the same but dropping shots on the green sting a lot more than a missed green for some reason. For many, it seems easier to hit a drive 250 yards than to make a 10ft putt!
Here is how Maverick compares to a scratch golfer.
Putting Stats
Putts Per Round
One Putt %
3 Putt %
0-3ft Make %
3-6ft Make %
6-9ft Make %
Holes Per 3 putt
Maverick McNealy
27.7
46%
0.97%
100%
92%
70%
102.6
Scratch
29.3
37%
3%
98%
76%
49%
39.2
Average
31.8
30%
10%
94%
59%
45%
10.4
Immediately we can see that Maverick saves over a stroke and a half on the green in terms of putts per round. For 18 holes, to average 27.7 putts for the whole season is ludicrous!
Unsurprisingly, when we look at one-putt percentage, it comes as no surprise that McNealy has so few putts given that he single putts 46% of the time. Nearly 10% more likely than that of a scratch player and 16% more than the average player – quite the difference in a game of fine margins.
Whilst scratch players do not three-putt very often, this is another incredible stat of McNealy’s. At this point in the season, just after the Ryder Cup, Maverick has had 10 three putts from 1,026 holes played!
A scratch golfer typically three-putts every 39 holes and the average golfer nearly twice every 18 holes – McNealy is worlds apart at nearly every six rounds.
A truly remarkable stat. It must be nice to have a putter that behaves like McNealy’s! It is no doubt as a result of countless hours of practice, something that most amateurs neglect. If you want to get more out of your practice, check out this blog.
We can see at the various distance increments, with the exception of inside 3ft, McNealy is nearly 20% more likely to make a putt from 3-9ft compared to a scratch golfer and almost 30% more likely than the average golfer.
Inside 10ft McNealy’s make percentage is 91%, incredible when you consider the difficulty of the greens that the PGA Tour plays on. Can you imagine the strokes an amateur would save if they could putt like Maverick!?
When we look at the other areas of Maverick’s game, relatively speaking, he does not perform well compared to his fellow Tour players.
Strokes Gained Total: 0.316 (74th)
Strokes Gained Off the Tee: -0.601 (180th)
Strokes Gained Approach the Green: -0.303 (154th)
Strokes Gained Around the Green: 0.162 (50th)
This of course would be better than the amateur golfer but it really confirms just how good he is with the putter in hand. A potential contributor to his electric stats is that he leads the Tour in scrambling from 10-20 yards – he gets up and down a lot!
Shot Scope users with products like the X5 GPS Watch, or PRO LX+ gain access to over 100 Tour level statistics including Strokes Gained with no subscription fees.
Our latest addition to the eBook series, eBook Six How to Improve your Game with Data can help both existing and new performance trackers to utilise their data in the best way possible.
Did you know that 84% of missed putts over five feet finish short?
Or, that your typical drive is nearly 30 yards shorter than your Sunday best drive? These are just two intriguing statistics thrown up by Shot Scope’s performance tracking data platform.
Download our free guides for golfers now!
Blog
