It's not all about the drive...

'Drive for show, putt for dough ' - is such a well worn adage that many non-golfers will be familiar with the phrase.

It dispenses a kind of 'tortoise vs hare' wisdom. Perseverance through each hole, allied to precision on the greens, will often see you reap greater rewards than those players who rely solely upon their fast starting, fast swing credentials.

The premise is not without foundation. After all, during a typical round you'll only hit a maximum of 10-15 drives. Your putter on the other hand...well if you're struggling on the greens you could wrack up three times as many shots with the 'flat stick'.

Statistically, good putting rather than great driving is more likely to secure a decent score.

Truth to power.

Even big hitting Happy Gilmour quickly worked out that getting the ball in the hall was where the game was at:

"Just tap it in, just tap it in, give it a little tappy, tap, tap, taparoo" .

And in the Pro ranks, where everyone can reach the next post code from the tee, a supreme driving performance, while desirable, is even less likely to guarantee victory.

Let's 'fact check' that with Aaron Rai's contrasting fortunes in the two opening majors of 2026.

At the Masters Aaron was in pole position in terms of driving accuracy statistics - impressively hitting almost 90% of fairways.

Rory McIlroy only managed a 55.6% accuracy driving rate. His inconsistency from the tee meant that just one player in the entire field found fewer fairways over the four days of competition.

But Rory scrambled like a champion and was seventh best in terms of putting.

Aaron meanwhile was ranked worst for 'shots gained' on the green. He lost on average of 1.7 shots per round against the rest of the field, and nearly 2.5 shots (per round) against McIlroy.

As good as his driving was, he was literally in reverse gear when he reached the greens.

Ultimately, Rai finished tied 48th at +5...while the fairway dodging McIlroy became only the fourth man in history to win back-to-back Masters. His winning score of -12 was seventeen shots better than Rai....ten of those coming on the greens.

A disappointing and frustrating Masters for the man from Wolverhampton, not being able to convert excellence from the tee into a Championship challenge.

But do you know one of the most appealing things about professional sport?

Now and again it loves to serve up a redemption story.

Just six weeks later, Aaron wrote his own at the second major of the year - the US PGA.

The setting was the Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania - the home state of one of cinema's all time sporting icons:

"It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!".

Rocky Balboa

Aaron was still pretty tidy off the tee at the PGA Championship.

He nearly always is.

So what made the difference between tied 48th at Augusta and winner by three shots in Philadelphia?

Well this time Aaron backed up solid driving with being ranked first in approach play and fifth best on the greens.

Sinking a 70 foot birdie putt at his penultimate hole was perhaps the most memorable example of a brilliant putting display!

It's an inspiring achievement, one that has prompted a Golf101 post for the first time in nearly a year.

Our humble blog would like to add it's hearty congratulations to the avalanche of good wishes to Aaron, his team, his family and caddie Jason Timms.

Jason knew exactly where his player had made the winning contribution to his score.

"His putting was probably his strength today which, well, I don't think I've ever said that! 

It must have been fun to be inside the ropes with the first Englishman to win the Wanamaker trophy in over a century.

Fun and profitable.

Aaron won the healthy sum of £2.8m and reportedly Jason will receive £270,000 of that.

So, £2.5million and a 1/4 of a million to be deposited in their respective building society savings accounts.

'Putt for dough' indeed.