No. I don't believe there is anything that can reduce the importance of putting in golf.
Matt, I got the impression Oakmont may have done that in 2007. That is a big reason Cabrera, one of the tour's poorest putters -- he ranked 166th on tour that year -- won. I think he even said something along those lines.
By that logic, shouldn't poor putters have a great chance at Augusta, too? But that's just not how it goes.
Maybe because they play ANGC each year, they know the greens well. Also, maybe Oakmont's greens are tougher? I'll see if I can find average putts per GIR, some other stats like that.
For sure Tiger putted very poorly that week. On Saturday he shot 69, with 35 putts as I recall. I'm almost as sure that Angel made some comment about the greens equalizing everyone.
A real tight, heavily-roughed course can take shot-making abilities out of the equation. Often given as one reason Seve never won a U.S. Open. Perhaps in a similar way real tough greens can neutralize putting.