Sports fans are obsessed with rankings, and golf is no exception. Determining who bests whom in a skill category gives a framework for what happens between the ropes. Without these arguments, the game stops when the final putt drops each Sunday night.
Jack vs. Tiger is a popular debate among pundits. Are 18 majors worth more than 82 PGA Tour wins? How much does the era each man played in factor into this discussion? Will we ever get definitive answers to these questions? Unlikely. But that doesnât mean itâs not fun to ponder.
Count Brad Faxon among those entering the rankings debate. However, instead of getting tangled in the messy Jack-Tiger discussion, he stuck to a subject heâs a bit of an expert on â putting.
Faxon, who was perennially one of the best putters on the PGA Tour during his eight-win career, released his (hand-written!) list of top-10 putters of all time, and although it contained some noticeable omissions (he only ranked male golfers on his list), itâs still a worthy crop of candidates.
Check out the top Faxonâs top 10 below.
10. Rory McIlroy
âCall me crazy.â
Although McIlroy has four majors to his name, heâs only ranked inside the top 40 on Tour in SG: Putting once in his career. Maybe Faxon sees something everyone else doesnât?
9. Bobby Jones
â13 majors!!â
Jones played long before anyone had ever heard of advanced analytics, so there arenât many stats to back up his place on the list. But with 13 majors on his resume, itâs likely a worthy spot.
8. Billy Casper
âA lot like Locke.â
Casper was a three-time major winner and ranks seventh all time with 51 PGA Tour victories. Plus, anyone mentioned in the same breath as Bobby Locke is doing something right.
7. Jose Maria Olazabal
âSo intense and simple.â
Simple is always a compliment when it comes to golf.
6. Jack Nicklaus
âHope this doesnât insult him.â
Most would rank Nicklaus higher on a list like this, but thereâs no debating his spot as one of the all-time greats.
5. Bobby Locke
âLoved to hook em in.â
Locke coined the phrase âdrive for show, putt for dough,â and that philosophy helped him win the Open Championship four times in his career.
4. Tom Watson
âWho can forget â82 at Pebble?â
Faxon is of course referring to the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where Watson held off Nicklaus with some brilliant putting to claim his only U.S. Open win.
3. Seve Ballesteros
âLooked second best to Ben.â
Ballesterosâ touch around the greens was always his calling card, and those skills served him well on the greens, too.
2. Ben Crenshaw
âLooked the best doing it.â
Few would argue with Crenshawâs place on this list. His languid stroke is still considered among the best of all time.
1. Tiger Woods
âMade every putt he had to.â
There are many assets that make Woods great, but his ability to will the ball in the hole at the biggest of moments might be his greatest.