The made-putts-by-distance numbers from ShotLink in that range are quite significantly higher than the same numbers gathered by Dave Pelz 15-20 years ago. I trust the ShotLink number completely and the Pelz numbers unless someone has evidence his methods were flawed. I don't have the comparison at hand but they have come close to doubling their percentage made in the 6, 8, 10 foot range over just a couple decades.
Brett - when I looked at that, I do not agree. Shotlink gives percentages in ranges, say less than 3 feet, between 5' and 10' etc.
It is impossible, however, to convert that to the Pelz measurements because you do not know how putt lengths are distibuted within that range. For example the stats showing a player makes 99% of putts of 3 feet or less is misleading because the vast majority of those putts will be tap ins. If 99% of the putts are tap ins and 1% are three footers, the statistic would show the guy was a lousy putter, not a good putter.
Shotlink stats generally show players making more than 50% of putts between 5 and 10 feet. If players have a lot more 5 footers than 10 footers, Pelz 6 foot 50/50 range may still be accurate.
I suspect the Pelz number has changed but do not have enough information to be sure by how much. 12-18" was my best guess, but I cannot recall how I came up with it.
Jason, the 2005 PGA Tour media guide included some putting info from 2004, and it's a lot more detailed:
Inside 3 feet 99.1%
3-4 feet 90.9%
4-5 feet 80.8%
5-6 feet 69.8%
6-7 feet 61.6%
7-8 feet 54%
8-9 feet 47%
9-10 feet 42.2%
10-15 feet 31%
15-20 feet 18.9%
20-25 feet 13.2%
Over 25 feet 5.8%
Given those numbers, it looks like the 50% line has moved about three feet in the 20 years since Pelz collected his data.
And there was also this re. proximity to the hole for approach shots:
All shots 32'2" feet
From Rough -- Left 42'4" feet, Right 42'5"
From fairway 24'11"
From inside 75 yards 16'5"
From 75-100 yards 18'1"
From 100-125 yards 20'8"
From 125-150 yards 23'11"
From 150-175 yards 28'10"
From 175-200 yards 34'4"
From outside 200 yards 42'7"
And:
Proximity to the hole from sand 9'10"
Sand saves 49.1% (Which tells me the average proximity is skewed by a small # of bad shots. Because that's a better putting average than they should get from 10 feet.)
Scrambling from the fringe 85.3%
Scrambling from the rough 83.8%
Scrambling from 10-20 yards 61.3%
Scrambling from 20-30 yards 47.9%
Scrambling from more than 30 yards 26.8%
Finally, a driving distance quirk. The Tour has maintained its driving distance stat as two holes per round, but Shotlink keeps it for all drives.
Driving distance (two holes) 287.3 yards
Driving distance (all drives) 279.4 yards
They hit 64.2% of fairways
Ken