Jason Day Is On Pace For A Record Putting Performance

Rick Arnett / May. 8th, 2018

Jason Day won the Wells Fargo Championship mainly because of his stellar putting. In fact, his putting prowess is at all-time Tour record levels. Like how about converting all 177 putts inside 5′ this season–the only player with a perfect score from that distance.

Is that good? Well, look at another star missing two putts inside 3′ on the same hole.

Golf: where a top 10 player in the world can still do this pic.twitter.com/L3YVW2KKpR

— Total Golf Move™ (@totalgolfmove) May 6, 2018

Golfdigest.com’s Alex Myers has the details of how Day’s flatstick is on fire.

Let me be clear that I’m referring to the Strokes Gained Era. Created by Columbia University professor Mark Broadie, the best putting metric has existed since 2004 and Day’s most recent performance has him on pace to have the best strokes gained/putting average in those 15 years.

Day is currently gaining 1.594 strokes on the field during the 2017-2018 PGA Tour season. That’s 1.594 strokes per round, meaning he’s gaining more than six shots than the average putter during a four-round tournament.

“I just didn’t have my driving today, didn’t have my irons going to the greens,” Day said after picking up his 12th PGA Tour title. “Good thing I had my short game around the greens and my putting was phenomenal.”

But Jason Day being a great putter isn’t exactly shocking. In fact, Day already holds the best strokes gained/putting season on the books with the +1.130 (the only recorded SGP above +1.00 for an entire season) he put up in 2015-2016. What is a bit eye-opening, however, is who ranks right behind him: Phil Mickelson. Not always known as the most reliable putter — especially from short range — not only is Mickelson the tour’s current No. 2 in the SGP stat, he’s tracking to post the second-best average ever in the category at +1.177.

Day looks like he’s on his way to becoming just the third player to lead the tour in SGP for multiple seasons, joining Luke Donald (2009-2011) and Ben Crane (2005-2006). With considerably more firepower than those other two, it’s no wonder that when Day is putting at his best, he’s difficult to beat.