Rickie Fowler’s Four-Putt Within 20 Feet is a Statistical Anomaly

The Wells Fargo Championship was full of many memorable events, including a resurgent Jason Day. One of the craziest stories, however, came from fan favorite Rickie Fowler.

In a shout out to the all the golfers out there who have had a frustrating moment on the green, Rickie had a terrible trip to the 17th hole this week. After hitting a tee shot within 20 feet of the hole for birdie, Fowler missed that putt, then the next, then the next, and one more before converting a double bogey. Two of those putts that he missed were within three feet of the hole.

After the poor putting performance took place, the stat geeks were out in full force to show how unlikely of an event this is to happen.

First, PGA TOUR pros make a 20 foot putt about 14% of the time, so it’s acceptable to miss that one. But the pros make 95% of putts within 3 feet, so it is a statistical anomaly to miss two of those putts. In fact, the stats say that this happens less than 2% of the time.

A post shared by PGA TOUR (@pgatour) on May 5, 2018 at 1:28pm PDT

Fowler tried to explain what happened after his round was over. “I was trying to make the first putt. It ran out a little bit more than I thought it would and didn’t expect to have that much coming back,” Fowler said. “A little mental mistake there. That’s golf. I mean, unfortunate.” I’d say that was a little more than a little mental mistake, but whatever helps Rickie move on.

It was unfortunate that Fowler had this mental lapse at this point, as he was rapidly climbing the leader board on Saturday before the double bogey set him back. Rickie still shot a three-under, 68 for the round, which put him only six shots back of the leader Jason Day. If he could’ve converted that birdie putt, however, that deficit would have been cut in half and who knows what Rickie could have done on Sunday.

This goes to show that even the best of us are prone to making those little mistakes on the greens. So next time you miss that easy putt that could have ignited your round, just remember that even the pros miss those putts too.

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