Billy Horschel won the BMW Championship on the strength of his hot putter. Talking about his victory, Horschel said, “I made a lot of putts this week and something I haven’t been doing all year. So it was huge to rely on the putter when it hasn’t shown up as much as I would have liked.” Horschel gained 0.2 strokes per round with his putting during the season, but a remarkable 3.0 strokes per round this week.
Horschel’s average score of 66.5 bettered the field average of 69.8 by 3.3 strokes per round. He gained 3.0 strokes per round with his putting and ranked first in the category. His strokes gained tee to green, the PGA TOUR’s newest statistical category, accounted for the remaining gain of 0.3 strokes per round against the field. Horschel’s putting contributed a whopping 90 percent of his total gain on the field for the tournament.
To better understand Horschel’s putting performance, here’s a strokes gained breakdown of his putting into short (0-6 feet), medium (7-21 feet) and long (22 feet and over) putts for the tournament and for the season:
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | ||||
| Billy Horschel | Putt | 0-6 ft | 7-21 ft | 22+ ft |
| 2014 Season | 0.2 (64) | 0.1 (47) | 0.1 (54) | -0.1 (146) |
| BMW Championship | 3.0 (1) | 0.7 (3) | 1.1 (4) | 1.2 (1) |
| Round 1 | 1.6 (8) | 0.6 (20) | 0.6 (25) | 0.3 (18) |
| Round 2 | 4.6 (1) | 0.5 (24) | 2.6 (3) | 1.5 (3) |
| Round 3 | 4.1 (2) | 0.9 (9) | 0.7 (19) | 2.4 (1) |
| Round 4 | 1.6 (14) | 0.7 (14) | 0.3 (24) | 0.5 (15) |
Horschel’s putting performance this week was stellar (his gain of 3.0 per round was 1.3 strokes per round better than the second-ranked putter at the BMW, Brian Stuard)—but not likely to be repeated any time soon. Why? Because only two players this season gained three strokes or more per round with their putting in a single tournament: Jimmy Walker in his Frys.com victory last October and Greg Chalmers at the McGladrey Classic last November.
Here’s a round-by-round breakdown of Horschel’s play into four categories: driving (tee shots on par-4 and par-5 holes), approach shots (shots starting outside 100 yards from the hole, excluding drives), short game shots (shots starting inside 100 yards from the hole, excluding putts) and putting at the BMW Championship:
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | Rank | |||||
| Billy Horschel | Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt | out of |
| 2014 Season | 0.8 (45) | 0.5 (18) | 0.2 (70) | -0.2 (155) | 0.2 (64) | 203 |
| BMW Championship | 3.3 (1) | 0.7 (9) | 0.1 (31) | -0.5 (51) | 2.9 (1) | 66 |
| Round 1 | 3.1 (11) | 0.8 (11) | -0.1 (37) | 0.8 (19) | 1.6 (8) | 69 |
| Round 2 | 4.1 (8) | 0.5 (19) | 0.5 (29) | -1.6 (64) | 4.6 (1) | 68 |
| Round 3 | 6.4 (2) | 0.4 (24) | 2.2 (5) | -0.4 (46) | 4.1 (2) | 66 |
| Round 4 | -0.3 (35) | 1.1 (9) | -2.2 (62) | -0.8 (49) | 1.6 (14) | 66 |
World number one Rory McIlroy had the misfortune of four-putting the 12th hole in both the third and fourth rounds of the tournament. McIlroy said his previous four-putt was going through his mind on the second putt on hole 12 today. He continued, “I said, like let’s not give any more shots away to this hole …. So, I maybe put a little bit too much pressure on myself to hole the second putt. On the third putt, I’m thinking, okay, you don’t want to 4-putt again, and I actually holed a decent length putt for a four putt.” McIlroy’s putt distances on hole 12 in the third round were, in order, 4 feet, 5 feet, 2 feet, and 2 feet. In the fourth round his putts were from, in order, 19 feet, 3 feet, 3 feet, and 4 feet.
A strokes gained breakdown of McIlroy’s play at the BMW Championship shows that he continued his stellar driving (he was second only to Bubba Watson) but struggled with his short game in round 3 and his putting in the final two rounds:
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | Rank | |||||
| Rory McIlroy | Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt | out of |
| 2014 Season | 2.7 (1) | 1.5 (1) | 0.8 (9) | 0.0 (94) | 0.3 (35) | 203 |
| BMW Championship | 1.8 (10) | 1.4 (2) | 0.7 (16) | -0.1 (40) | -0.1 (37) | 66 |
| Round 1 | 4.1 (1) | 1.2 (6) | 1.4 (13) | 0.4 (26) | 1.2 (13) | 69 |
| Round 2 | 3.1 (12) | 2.3 (2) | -0.4 (49) | 0.6 (18) | 0.5 (22) | 68 |
| Round 3 | -2.6 (58) | 1.4 (4) | 0.1 (34) | -2.8 (66) | -1.3 (51) | 66 |
| Round 4 | 2.7 (12) | 0.5 (19) | 1.6 (9) | 1.4 (9) | -0.8 (48) | 66 |
A strokes gained breakdown of McIlroy’s putting at the BMW Championship shows that he lost a total of 4.4 strokes putting inside 6 feet in rounds 3 and 4 (those two four-putts will do that):
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | ||||
| Rory McIlroy | Putt | 0-6 ft | 7-21 ft | 22+ ft |
| 2014 Season | 0.3 (35) | -0.2 (159) | 0.2 (33) | 0.3 (2) |
| BMW Championship | -0.1 (37) | -1.3 (66) | 0.5 (16) | 0.7 (3) |
| Round 1 | 1.2 (13) | -0.4 (43) | 1.9 (5) | -0.3 (46) |
| Round 2 | 0.5 (22) | -0.4 (48) | -0.6 (46) | 1.5 (4) |
| Round 3 | -1.3 (51) | -2.4 (65) | 0.2 (29) | 1.0 (5) |
| Round 4 | -0.8 (48) | -2.0 (65) | 0.5 (21) | 0.7 (10) |
Here’s a strokes gained breakdown of the top ten finishers at the BMW Championship:
| Strokes gained per round (ranks in parentheses) | |||||
| Golfer | Total | Drive | Appr | Short | Putt |
| Billy Horschel | 3.3 (1) | 0.7 (9) | 0.1 (31) | -0.5 (51) | 3.0 (1) |
| Bubba Watson | 2.8 (2) | 1.6 (1) | 1.0 (11) | 1.2 (2) | -1.0 (59) |
| Morgan Hoffmann | 2.6 (3) | -0.8 (59) | 0.8 (12) | 1.3 (1) | 1.2 (5) |
| Ryan Palmer | 2.1 (T4) | 1.3 (3) | 1.0 (9) | 0.2 (26) | -0.5 (51) |
| Jim Furyk | 2.1 (T4) | 0.1 (30) | 1.1 (5) | 0.0 (31) | 0.7 (10) |
| Sergio Garcia | 2.1 (T4) | 0.1 (31) | 0.5 (19) | 0.9 (6) | 0.5 (13) |
| Rickie Fowler | 2.1 (T4) | 0.3 (21) | 0.2 (30) | 0.0 (32) | 1.5 (3) |
| Adam Scott | 1.8 (T8) | 0.3 (23) | 1.7 (2) | 0.5 (14) | -0.7 (52) |
| Jordan Spieth | 1.8 (T8) | 0.0 (33) | 0.3 (25) | 0.4 (18) | 1.1 (6) |
| Rory McIlroy | 1.8 (T8) | 1.4 (2) | 0.7 (16) | -0.1 (40) | -0.1 (37) |
| Top 10 average | 2.2 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
| Fraction of total | 100% | 23% | 34% | 18% | 26% |
This post appeared originally on pgatour.com here