You Hate To See It

Brad Faxon reveals his list of the top-10 putters ever, promptly gets roasted by Golf Twitter

May 05, 2021

We here at Golf Digest know just how divisive doing a ranking can be. Our latest list of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses was released on Tuesday and we can expect to hear complaints about it until the next edition comes out in two years. Well, Brad Faxon found this out for himself on Tuesday night. And he found out the hard way.

Actually, it seems that Faxon was aware of the stir making a top-10 list of putters would cause. His tweet revealing his personal list was prefaced with the words, “Hope this doesn’t get me in trouble. . . “ Yep, you’re definitely in trouble, Brad. With Golf Twitter that is.

Keep in mind Faxon is an analyst. He is paid for his opinions. He also happens to be an expert in this area because he was always considered one of the best putters during his PGA Tour career that included eight victories. But none of that matters on Twitter. Faxon had a feeling he was about to get roasted—and that’s exactly what happened.

OK, let’s start with the tweet/list itself:

In case you can’t read Brad’s handwriting, here’s his top 10: 1. Tiger Woods; 2. Ben Crenshaw; 3. Seve Ballesteros; 4. Tom Watson; 5. Bobby Locke; 6. Jack Nicklaus; 7. Jose Maria Olazabal; 8. Billy Casper; 9. Bobby Jones; 10. Rory McIlroy.

Obviously, the one that immediately stands out is McIlroy, whose struggles with the flatstick have been well documented. “Call me crazy,” Faxon writes. Yeah, Brad, you’re crazy.

Yeah, except it's a handwritten list. So much for typos. Look, there are stats that prove this simply isn’t true. McIlroy has had a couple seasons of decent putting, but he usually ranks outside the top 100 on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting as he is currently at No. 108. Then again, maybe Faxon was just doing this to motivate McIlroy. After all, he has served as the four-time major champ’s putting coach. Anyway, moving on. . .

Then there were many who were quick to point out that Faxon didn’t put any women on his list.

Of course, he knows the PGA Tour better, but still, he could have shown the LPGA some love— or at least thrown Inbee Park a bone.

Faxon also got ripped for spelling Peter Thomson’s name wrong.

Tough crowd.

But the ultimate can’t-win moment? Faxon was criticized for not putting himself on the list.

Surely, there were other quibbles out there like Bobby Locke being too far down the list or Loren Roberts, AKA “The Boss of the Moss,” not making it higher than honorable mention, but we’ll stop there. At least, for Faxon’s sake, pretty much everyone seemed OK with him having Tiger at the top.

Well, until Jack Nicklaus sees the list, that is. Sorry, Brad, but, yes, he’ll probably be insulted too.