Could a 5 handicap putt better than Adam Scott?

[BB28403]

Ha!

 

Do folks realize how terrible at golf (including putting) a 5 handicapper is?!?!

 

I don't care what anyone says about "this guy and that guy roll the ball well" if you are a 5 handicapper, you aren't holing enough putts to compete with a scratch golfer, never mind a +3 golfer, never mind a mini tour player, never mind a guy that played on the PGA tour once, never mind a guy that has played on global tours for 10+ years, never mind a PGA tour winner, never mind a Major winner.

 

Anyone who things otherwise is utterly delusional about the game of golf and the performance of 5 handicapper weekend hacks!

 

I like this explanation! Golf clap

[sailfishchris]

For 18 holes? On any course? Or just just on a practice putting green? You'd really have to set parameters. Then I'd still take AS for the win, all day, every day. Why do people think randomly.....Hey! I'm better than that pro athlete? No....no... your not. LOL!

[BB28403]

Also, with or without the long putter? Adam's kryptonite is a regular putter.

[garyt]

someone competing here could putt better than him, and they are all kids, so the answer is YES

 

http://futurechampio...ntests/putting/

 

The best putters in the world aren't even on the PGA tour.

 

https://msop.com/

 

it's like long drive, a whole different sport.

 

That's what I was going to point out. It's like free throw shooting. there's guys out there who have made 1000 in a row, but they couldn't play pick up at the local Y. The guy that used to win the putting contests putted side saddle too I believe.

[Ty_Webb]

For 18 holes? On any course? Or just just on a practice putting green? You'd really have to set parameters. Then I'd still take AS for the win, all day, every day. Why do people think randomly.....Hey! I'm better than that pro athlete? No....no... your not. LOL!

 

I'm quite sure that there are 5 handicaps who compete in long driving events and do quite well at it. Do you think it's delusional to think that that 5 handicap can hit a longer drive than Adam Scott can? Because they quite clearly can.

 

The thing is the group of people who qualify as "5 handicappers" is diverse. There will be some who absolutely crush it, but hit it all over the place. There will be others who can't hit it out of their shadows, but rarely miss what they're aiming at. Some of them will have awful short games, but passable long games. Some of them will have weak long games and good short games. And some of them will be very very good putters. None of them drive it like DJ does. Some of them putt like DJ does. And DJ can putt better than Adam Scott.

 

I keep my stats. My best round strokes gained putting was a +4.8. I holed everything I looked at. It was eerie. My average is about -1.5 strokes gained. I'm not a particularly good putter. I know plenty of 5 handicaps who are much better putters than I am. I've also putted on plenty of greens that are tour speed and undulation. Once you get used to it, it's not harder than putting on slower greens. I hole more putts on faster greens, because the pace at the hole tends to be lower and they tend to run truer.

 

Pick an average 5 handicap out of a crowd of them and I don't think they have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Adam Scott over a lengthy period of time. Select one by having all of them putt off against each other and taking the winner, then I think they have a very good chance of beating Adam Scott.

[cwglum]

laughable really to even consider.

 

He's consistently on greens between 11.0 to 13.0, with Tour Pin locations and averages 30.38 putts per round (2018 stats).

 

A 5-capper will have 30 putts per round maybe 25% of the time on muni greens with pins setup for 9-hole beer leagues.

[sailfishchris]

For 18 holes? On any course? Or just just on a practice putting green? You'd really have to set parameters. Then I'd still take AS for the win, all day, every day. Why do people think randomly.....Hey! I'm better than that pro athlete? No....no... your not. LOL!

 

I'm quite sure that there are 5 handicaps who compete in long driving events and do quite well at it. Do you think it's delusional to think that that 5 handicap can hit a longer drive than Adam Scott can? Because they quite clearly can.

 

The thing is the group of people who qualify as "5 handicappers" is diverse. There will be some who absolutely crush it, but hit it all over the place. There will be others who can't hit it out of their shadows, but rarely miss what they're aiming at. Some of them will have awful short games, but passable long games. Some of them will have weak long games and good short games. And some of them will be very very good putters. None of them drive it like DJ does. Some of them putt like DJ does. And DJ can putt better than Adam Scott.

 

I keep my stats. My best round strokes gained putting was a +4.8. I holed everything I looked at. It was eerie. My average is about -1.5 strokes gained. I'm not a particularly good putter. I know plenty of 5 handicaps who are much better putters than I am. I've also putted on plenty of greens that are tour speed and undulation. Once you get used to it, it's not harder than putting on slower greens. I hole more putts on faster greens, because the pace at the hole tends to be lower and they tend to run truer.

 

Pick an average 5 handicap out of a crowd of them and I don't think they have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Adam Scott over a lengthy period of time. Select one by having all of them putt off against each other and taking the winner, then I think they have a very good chance of beating Adam Scott.

Again, you had one good round.....One. He's done it for years. Played at the highest level of golf. It really is vision's of grandeur. You're a plus handicap do you think you could out putt him?

[ScratchHack]

I would think a senior private club player with a 12 cap would have a better chance than a 5 cap.

[double_d]

This is getting ridiculous.

 

There are people who putt professionally who couldn't break 80 who are way better putters than Adam Scott. That's what they do they putt professionally.

 

Just like there are people who can hit a ball further than DJ and can't break 80. (long drivers)

 

There are people who can make more free throws out of a 1000 attempts than Steph Curry but can't play even at a college level.

 

The best dunker in the world is almost certainly not in the NBA.

 

The man who can throw an NFL football the farthest probably does not play QB in the NFL.

 

I could go on and on and on.

[dlygrisse]

This is getting ridiculous.

 

There are people who putt professionally who couldn't break 80 who are way better putters than Adam Scott. That's what they do they putt professionally.

 

Just like there are people who can hit a ball further than DJ and can't break 80. (long drivers)

 

There are people who can make more free throws out of a 1000 attempts than Steph Curry but can't play even at a college level.

 

The best dunker in the world is almost certainly not in the NBA.

 

The man who can throw an NFL football the farthest probably does not play QB in the NFL.

 

I could go on and on and on.

 

Right.

 

Why is someone on tour?

Why is someone who takes the game seriously a 5 and not scratch or on tour?

Why is someone on the Web.com and not on the PGA?

 

We all have strengths and weaknesses.

 

For example I can hit my driver straighter than Tiger Woods, I hit a driver straighter than anyone I know in fact. BUT, I don't hit it very far, it is my strength and my weakness rolled into one club.

 

Some 5 cappers are really good ball strikers but horrible putters, some are relatively horrible ball strikers and have great short games (this would be me). The guy who is a 5 capper to scratch, but who can't strike it all that well but can chip and putt just might give AS a run for his money on the greens.

 

Adam Scott is on tour because he might have the best golf swing in the world, he has a decent short game for a tour player, but his putting has always held him back from dominating. If he has a good week he might win. EVERYONE's putting goes in streaks, an I will contend that a good handicap player who is putting well could give AS a run for his money especially when he is on a cold streak.

 

Again, I have played golf with a couple of guys who played professionally, and putting was not the strength of their game. They were savants as far as I was concerned hitting the ball, but putting was NOT why they were pros. Putting is actually one of the most overrated skills in golf to get to scratch.

[dlygrisse]

I would love to see a 5 handicapper facing a downhill putt at Augusta.

 

Why? If a caddie gave me the correct read, and I had a few holes under my belt to get acclimated to the green speed I am quite confident I could hold my own with a lot of people. The greens at AN are nothing magical, they have slope and are fast, but I have putted greens similar to that before.

 

We aren't talking about beating Jordan Spieth or Brad Faxon in a contest here. We are talking about putting against what is potentially the worst putter to ever be inducted into the golf HOF, as a player.

[oz dee cee]

When AS was a 5 hcp (probably aged 10), he was better than he is now??? Okaaaaayyy...

[tocino]

I guess it depends... did the low-capper achieve his -5 playing on courses with tour-level greens, especially recently? If "yes" than maybe.... if "no" then not a chance in hell

 

oh and let's make it interesting, if you lose to AS then you're out 30% of your annual income but still have to put the time in. Ok, now go and make evey putt

[double_d]

Let's look at this another way:

 

Could a 5 handicapper win the World Putting Championship? Indeed.

 

Could Adam Scott win the world putting championship? Um, no.

[rich_s2]

does the average 5 have a chance, no...I mean seriously? Is there a 5 out there right now that is a better putter than AS, of course...no question...I mean seriously? I think the discussion is coming from not understanding the question. Can anyone honestly say there is not one single 5 capper in the world that is better at putting than AS? Putting is just one aspect of the entire game.

[Hawkeye77]

Who knows, but have played with a Web.com winner who would not be considered as good a putter as Adam and not that good even by Web.com standards and he putts better than just about anyone I've ever seen, with a few exceptions I won't sidetrack the thread with.

[larrybud]

No, Adam Scott makes 47% of 10 footers, and is, in fact, 36th in the world:

 

https://www.pgatour....s/stat.348.html

 

No 5 handicapper is doing that.

 

 

Now, Keegan? dude is 7 for 40 from 10', 17%.... Ya wonder how a guy like that even makes birdies.

 

This is a strange stat to pick out - exactly 10'. AS is outside the top 140 in both putting from 5-10' and 10-15', as well as other measures of putting performance. Makes more sense to pick a stat where you have a much better sample size.

 

Fair enough. From 5-10' he's at 54%. 142nd in the entire world. If he just makes 3 more per 100 attempts, he's 70th in the world.

 

By the way, he's ahead of Rory at 5-10'.

[kyledeen]

Who knows, but have played with a Web.com winner who would not be considered as good a putter as Adam and not that good even by Web.com standards and he putts better than just about anyone I've ever seen, with a few exceptions I won't sidetrack the thread with.

 

What i was saying. I'm sure there's a savant in everyone's life, but these dudes play in the major league of golf. hooters guys back in the day were the best strikers ive ever seen. couldn't wedge it or putt it good enough to be better than Hooters guys tho. And they were all better than dang near everyone ive every played with since i was 4. i'm 37.

[deadsolid...shank]

I guess it depends... did the low-capper achieve his -5 playing on courses with tour-level greens, especially recently? If "yes" than maybe.... if "no" then not a chance in hell

 

oh and let's make it interesting, if you lose to AS then you're out 30% of your annual income but still have to put the time in. Ok, now go and make evey putt

 

Ok. Is AS putting up 30% of his income too? Remeber, they’re not playing for their own money either.

[deadsolid...shank]

Let's look at this another way:

 

Could a 5 handicapper win the World Putting Championship? Indeed.

 

Could Adam Scott win the world putting championship? Um, no.

 

Keep putting it out there. Maybe it will sink in eventually.

[Hawkeye77]

This whole world putting champ thing is confusing me, aren't we talking in the context of competitive golf?

[deadsolid...shank]

This whole world putting champ thing is confusing me, aren't we talking in the context of competitive golf?

 

To me Hawk, a putting championship is a form of competitive golf. Just like a long drive competition is.

 

But others certainly might interpret it differently.

[BB28403]

No, Adam Scott makes 47% of 10 footers, and is, in fact, 36th in the world:

 

https://www.pgatour....s/stat.348.html

 

No 5 handicapper is doing that.

 

 

Now, Keegan? dude is 7 for 40 from 10', 17%.... Ya wonder how a guy like that even makes birdies.

 

This is a strange stat to pick out - exactly 10'. AS is outside the top 140 in both putting from 5-10' and 10-15', as well as other measures of putting performance. Makes more sense to pick a stat where you have a much better sample size.

 

Fair enough. From 5-10' he's at 54%. 142nd in the entire world. If he just makes 3 more per 100 attempts, he's 70th in the world.

 

By the way, he's ahead of Rory at 5-10'.

 

That’s because Rory just drives all his shots straight into the hole with aces. It just does not reflect in the stats because he does not even own a putter !

 

 

[Hawkeye77]

This whole world putting champ thing is confusing me, aren't we talking in the context of competitive golf?

 

To me Hawk, a putting championship is a form of competitive golf. Just like a long drive competition is.

 

But others certainly might interpret it differently.

 

I guess the parameters are fuzzy. OP was talking about putting "for Adam" on the Tour, i.e. (I guess) this 5 cap would run up and hit his putts for him. I'm not feeling the love for most folks being able to putt better than Adam in a Tour event with all that entails, however, like I said before who knows. If we are talking about the "average" 5 being his designated hitter on Tour I vote no way in heck. Is it possible there is some 5 out there with special putting talents? No doubt. If it happens to be some putting contest wizard, maybe that translates to the PGA Tour situation, I suppose that is possible for sure, but I'm not sure it's as much a given as the person pushing seems to think it is.

 

LOL, maybe this isn't any more useful than talking about a 4 beating an LPGA player!

 

All I know is if Adam had been teeing off with my group when I got either of my aces, pretty sure I'd have whipped his butt on those holes and I'd have made Stevie take pictures with my camera! (Since I know I can't putt better than him, why not work in a good passive brag?).

[AFcelica]

No, Adam Scott makes 47% of 10 footers, and is, in fact, 36th in the world:

 

https://www.pgatour....s/stat.348.html

 

No 5 handicapper is doing that.

 

 

Now, Keegan? dude is 7 for 40 from 10', 17%.... Ya wonder how a guy like that even makes birdies.

 

This is a strange stat to pick out - exactly 10'. AS is outside the top 140 in both putting from 5-10' and 10-15', as well as other measures of putting performance. Makes more sense to pick a stat where you have a much better sample size.

 

Fair enough. From 5-10' he's at 54%. 142nd in the entire world. If he just makes 3 more per 100 attempts, he's 70th in the world.

 

By the way, he's ahead of Rory at 5-10'.

 

That’s because Rory just drives all his shots straight into the hole with aces. It just does not reflect in the stats because he does not even own a putter !

 

Facts....oh wait that's just a video game :p

 

 

 

[David C]

There seems to be a quite over-inflated opinion of how well PGA Tour players putt and how poorly some 5 handicappers putt. 5 handicappers are miles away from tour players no doubt, but the vast majority of that difference is long game. There are plenty of 5 handicappers out there who hit it poorly but putt well. Some of them will putt better than Adam Scott does. You've never heard of them because they either can't hit it out of their shadow or because they hit it all over the place. That doesn't mean they can't putt though. There is no reason that a great putter among the universe of 5 handicappers can't putt better than a rubbish putter by tour pro standards.

 

To put that another way, the list of people who hit it like DJ, but aren't on tour is very short indeed. The list of people who putt like Adam Scott, but aren't on tour is muuuuuuuuuuch longer.

 

If there was a world putting championship, which included everyone on the planet who plays golf at let's say 10 handicap or better, do you think it likely or unlikely that the winner would be one of the 200 or so people with a PGA Tour card? I say that would be very unlikely. If you did the same thing over 4 rounds of golf, I think it would be very likely that the winner would have a PGA Tour card (or at least is good enough to have one if they wanted one - European players may not)

 

Dave Pelz mentions some putting genius winning (his?) world putting championship. Possibly the man had one arm or used his leg if I recall. But he also mentioned the top five and I’m sure it included two tour pros.

 

That was 20 years ago and the game has moved on obviously.

 

I would say AS beats 99.99% of 5 handicaps.

 

I mean, why a 5 handicap? For a 5 handicap to beat him, he’d have to be a prodigious putter. And I’m sure there are some. So why not a 10 handicap prodigy?

 

It also depends on your test. The 5 handicap will putt from 5 handicap positions, on 5 handicap greens, with a 5 handicap mentality. If it is a ‘putting competition’ one in ten thousand 5 handicaps would beat him. If it is over a round - a fairer test - they would get their ... kicked 24/7

[deadsolid...shank]

I had a friend years ago who was the best putter I’ve ever played with. Hit all over the place (if he hit solidly) then get it on the green and make the putt. We used to joke he was a 15 handicap player and a pro level putter. Was roughly a 5 cap.

 

His son told me once that still doesn’t putt as well as his dad..............

 

BTW, that son is currently on the tour.

[uitar9]

For 18 holes? On any course? Or just just on a practice putting green? You'd really have to set parameters. Then I'd still take AS for the win, all day, every day. Why do people think randomly.....Hey! I'm better than that pro athlete? No....no... your not. LOL!

As well as hacker golfer I was a dedicated hacker road bike racer-one summer the Neidermeyer's stayed in town, bought bikes , and came out for a few club rides. Good god, they were brutally fast, they are pros.

 

When I read a few tour stats, watch + handicaps playing in mens night, it confirms how good they are. Scott's putting might not be top of tour stats, but he's still probably one of the top 150 putters...in the world.

[Shilgy]

Defining the contest would go a long way towards answering this question, but here are a few points:

 

Scott currently is averaging -.53 strokes gained per round putting

I'm currently averaging -1.38 strokes gained per round putting and I'm a 3.0 index as of the last revision

 

There are certainly higher handicaps who are better putters than I am, and I would beat Scott at least a few times at whatever contest was proposed, as long as it wasn't a "all year" type of thing. And no, I'm not putting under the same pressure that he is, for a multitude of reasons. For instance, I'm not as young as he is, I'm not as good looking as he is, I'm not as rich as he is, yada, yada, yada. Heck, you could make the argument that I putt under MORE pressure than he does, lol!

 

Anyway, this is kinda like the long drive deal mentioned earlier. There are "5 caps" out there who can out drive DJ and there are certainly "5 caps" out there who can out putt Scott.

 

But, you have to realize that it is still very, very rare.

I would vertainly agree with you there are 5 caps out there than "can" hit it longer on occasion than DJ. I really doubt there are any 5 caps that drive it better than DJ. There is no one on tour that drives it better than DJ. Seems unlikely any 5 cap could.

[jasonfish11]

So I generally putt terrible. I'm a 10-15 handicap but my putting is normally on the higher side of that. Friday I played and couldn't do anything tee to green. But I putted lights out, I had 28 putts first sub 30 putting round in years. I made over 70 of putts on the last 7 holes (which included a 3 putt on #14).

 

From a strokes gained perspective (game golf) I was 1.72 strokes better than a scratch golfer putting. So I basically putted like an average pga tour player.

 

If the question is can a 5 handicap better Adam Scott in putting one time, the answer is understandably yes. There is a ton of variance in putting. Can a 5 handicap consistently beat him? Maybe?