Average strokes gained rank among top 12 players at PGA Championship.
Drive 28
Approach 25.25
Short 19.33
Putt 16.5833
So you see it was a virtual putting contest.
QED
Garland:
1. If you want to compare shot-making with putting, you should not separate out approaches from driving. You should combine them.
2. Top 12 is both arbitrary and not especially meaningful. Top 1 is very meaningful. And Rory won mostly with his shot-making. To quote the article in PGATour.com: "McIlroy led in strokes gained from the long game (shots starting outside of 100 yards from the hole), gaining nearly three strokes per round on the field. That represented 70 percent of his total gain of 4.1 strokes per round against the field. He was second in strokes gained-driving and fifth in stokes gained from approach shots, with each contributing a gain of 1.4 strokes per round."
His putting gained 1.1 strokes on the field per round. i.e. based on strokes gained, his shot-making was nearly 3x more important than his putting. Again it was that combination of driving and approach shots that put him so far in front of the others. By dividing the two, as you do, that key fact gets hidden.
3. Dubuisson didn't come close to matching Rory in shot-making. Rory gained a total of 2.8 strokes per round from the long game; Dubuisson gained just 1.8. And while Victor putted poorly, he had a great short game: he picked up 1.7 strokes per round there, where Rory only picked up 0.2 strokes. Add short game and putting together, and Rory and Victor were nearly the same: 1.3 for Rory, 1.1 for Victor.
My take is that Rory won with a great all-around game, but especially his long game.
4. Look at the top 4 -- any one of whom could have won the tournament on Sunday. As a group, they picked up an average of 1.8 shots on the field with their long games, and 1.3 shots with their putting. If you really want to use averages (they have lots of limitations IMO for analyzing outcomes of golf tournaments), this says to me that for the players who were really in contention, the long game mattered more than putting.
i.e. it was more of a ball-striking contest than a putting contest, though to contend you had to out-play the field in both categories.