The way in which professional golfers’ proficiency from tee to green was revolutionized when Columbia University professor Mark Broadie introduced strokes gained statistics. Thanks to the PGA Tour baseline, which was determined by hundreds of thousands of data points collected over the past few decades, we know that pros make 20 footers roughly 14% of the time.
Rickie Fowler was making his way up the leaderboard on moving day at the Wells Fargo Championship as he worked his way towards the clubhouse. The No. 6-ranked player in the world shot 3-under par on the front nine at Quail Hollow and came to the 17th green with a 20-footer for a fourth consecutive birdie.
What happened next takes place less than 2% of the time: he four-putted, missing two putts from inside three feet.
“I was trying to make the first putt. It ran out a little bit more than I thought it would and didn’t expect to have that much coming back,” Fowler said after the round. “A little mental mistake there. That’s golf. I mean, unfortunate.”
Justin Thomas Makes The Cut Using Rickie Fowler’s Backup Putter
While we’re going over the strokes gained: putting baseline numbers, PGA Tour pros make putts from 3 feet 95% of the time.
Rickie Fowler was 279-for-280 putting inside 3 feet this season before the 17th hole today. Then he missed consecutive putts inside 3′ to make double.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) May 5, 2018
Fowler recovered to par the difficult 18th hole and post a 3-under par round of 68, his best score of the week to head into Sunday at 4-under par for the tournament and six shots back of 54-hole leader, Jason Day.
The last 10 holes for @JDayGolf:
Birdie.
Birdie.
Par.
Birdie.
Par.
Birdie.
Birdie.
Par.
Par.
Par.https://t.co/QG4DK3FYFT— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 5, 2018
Here are the complete third round highlights from the Wells Fargo Championship.
