Aw come on AGC, are you REALLY gonna give up?
It's funny - I see this as simple as you do and am as baffled as you are, coming from the other direction. No kidding - I really do think it is fundamental and obvious that a missed putt is a missed putt, and Faxon is gonna have way more on contoured greens, enough to make the lesser putter come closer to him. I really do believe this.
See, over time contour DOES accentuate the skill of the better putter - agreed. But to me that just means he's gonna get putts CLOSER over time. He's still going to leave putts that he can miss, though - which he just plain won't on flat greens. A perfect example of this was one I just rudely inserted into Ed's thread about Greywall, changing the subject to Meadow Club. The third green there has many putts that BOTH Faxon and Joe Hack are going to three putt, and they're not so severe that JH is going to four putt. To me, this is pretty common in a highly-contoured green. Put them back on a flat green, and Joe Hack still 3jacks from time to time, where Brad never does. So where does Joe Hack come closer to Brad? If you can't see that it's on the 3rd green at Meadow Club, then perhaps you should really give up.
Now of course you can argue that #3 Meadow Club is an atypical green, and I'd agree with that. But it is the kind of "highly contoured green" I thought this whole thing was based on.
In any case perhaps that is one of our disconnects. I'm thinking of pretty severe greens, where Brad will indeed three putt, versus flat greens where he never will. Maybe such scenarios don't exist and Brad never three putts anywhere. But I gotta tell ya, I'd bet good money he 3putts at least 50% of the time from the putt I had on #3 Meadow Club, because there is just no way under the laws of physics that one gets that inside of 10 feet, without holing it (which is also bloody unlikely). So IF Brad hits a great putt, he's left with another twisting 10 footer - not too much break, but enough so that I'm betting he only makes half. Meanwhile Joe Hack gets it to 20 feet and two putts from there, damn near all the time. Three putts = three putts.
That seems to be our fundamental disconnect. If we base this on who gets it closer to the hole, I agree with you whole-heartedly. But I believe we are basing this on putts holed, and for that reason I contend what I do.
TH