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Cameron Smith's 18 putts. Greatest putting ever?

I saw this headline this morning of Cameron Smith’s 18 putts in 18 holes at the WGC FedEx St Jude invitational yesterday.

It sounds impressive, right?

But was this really the greatest Putting ever for 18 holes by a PGA Tour player?

What a 3 time European Tour winner can learn from his golf stats

Hi There,

Some golfers think that the top players in the world play perfect golf and are flawless.

It’s just not true.


They also have areas they need to work on to improve their games.


Let’s take a look at Golf Stats Coach data, 25 rounds, of this 3 time European Tour winner.  


He has a scoring average of 70.04 over this period, is very good with Driving and Approach shots, with his Putting being his big weakness.  

You cansee this from his Strokes Gained numbers below.

Golf Stats Coach, european tour player

So let’s take a deeper dive into his Putting and look at his skill from different distances.

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It is clear that he is pretty poor inside 12 feet, losing shots from every distance, except 9 feet. 


So how does he perform on different breaks of putts from 12 feet and in?

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About exactly the same on left to right and right to left putts.

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Straight putt strokes gained golf stats
Right to left putt strokes gained golf stats

He also misses both sides of the hole on left to right, right to left and straight putts.  So no trends popping out here.


If we look at his performances over time, something interesting stands out though.

Strokes gained golf stats tournament play

He tends to putt well or poorly a few rounds in a row.  These also coincide with his tournaments and therefore his good performances all happen on the same greens. The same goes for his poor Putting performances.


So if I was this player’s Coach, which I’m not, I would start off by taking a look at:

  1.  His green reading process since it seems to me that he struggles on some types of greens

  2. His ability to aim at his intended start line, since he misses both sides of the hole from short range

So this type of analysis then gives this player and his Coach, a great starting point to investigate ways of improving his Putting.

Do you know what you need to work on to improve your game?

Golf Stats Coach highlights the areas you need to work on to improve your golf game and best of all, your stats will sync through to your Coach each time you enter a round.

Till next time,

Martin