Stats definitely influence our subjective opinion. But our eyes never lie!
A lot of money was won in 2021 across the major professional golf tours. There’s no question that those making the biggest paychecks and hoisting the most important trophies were draining the greatest number of putts while under pressure.
Here is our Top-5 list of the top putters we saw in 2021.
5. Inbee Park — Had she played in more tournaments in 2021 she would have been higher up this list. Inbee’s stroke — and the confidence it instills in her to make mad $ while playing her short-driving “fairways and greens” approach on the LPGA tour — is legendary. Pure as pure can be. And does she ever get nervous? Ever?
4. Bernhard Langer — The blond-turning-Silver Fox magician who waives the longest of wands on the PGA TOUR Champions. And those pants. So slim. So perfectly creased and probably hemmed in 2007, the year he posted his first Senior Tour victory. He’s now sitting on 42 victories in total — and there’s no sign of him slowing down even though he turned 64 this year.
In 2021 he won twice and managed to shoot his age. That’s simply crazy talk. He will always be one of our favorite players, especially knowing that putting at one point in his career was his game’s greatest weakness. But now rolling in 15 footers is a strength that powered his 2021 Charles Schwab Cup 1st place finish.
3. Louis Oosthuizen — Did anyone in the world make more 6-footers under pressure than Louis in 2021? No way.
He led the PGA TOUR in strokes gained putting. Now, don’t ask us how the stat is calculated; we just know that when you finish ranked #1 in SG: Putting it translates to lots of $$$ and TV time.
Lodewicus, or lovingly called Shrek by his fans, came within two errant drives (his) and two amazing putts by Jon Rahm from winning the ’21 US Open at Torrey.
2. Nelly Korda — Oh, what a year the 23 yr. old had in ’21! Five worldwide victories, including a Gold Medal Olympics performance; $2,382,198 earned on the LPGA Tour; ascended to World #1. Crazy stats.
Even though she bombs it and hits her irons like a modern-day, young, female, stays-out-of-trouble Tiger, she can flat out roll her ball in from all over the green. From what we saw, she made more long-range clutch putts in ’21 than any other golfer in the world.
1. Patrick Cantlay — Clutch with the metal broom. Over and over and over again. Four victories on the PGA Tour. 3.5 out of 4 points earned at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Fed Ex Cup #1.
We all knew he was good. But when his putter got hot, he was unstoppable. Just ask Bryson who played nearly perfect at the BMW Championship, bombing 350-yard drives fairway-after-fairway, setting scoring records of his own, but still couldn’t shake Patrick down the stretch, especially in the playoff. Just watch the video and tell us if you saw a better, clutch putting performance in 2021. No way. No how.