The Worst Statistical Golfers on the PGA Tour

Poor Bowdo. Steven Bowditch earned a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour with his win at the 2015 AT&T Byron Nelson, but he has had a rough go of it pretty much ever since. 

And in looking at our rundown of the worst performers on the PGA Tour for the 2015-2016 season, it's no surprise why the amiable Australian was so often a fixture at the bottom of the leaderboards. 

To see which areas the unfortunate Bowditch followed (as in, "everyone else was in front of him") the PGA Tour in, as well as the other low men, click through our slideshow.

Shortest Driver: David Toms

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The longest hitters on the PGA Tour average well over 300 yards per driver, as has been the case since 2003.

Hank Kuehne averaged a PGA Tour record of 321.4 yards per poke during that campaign, while J.B. Holmes was the longest hitter on the tour last year, averaging 314.5 yards per drive. 

At the opposite end of the spectrum, David Toms and Colt Knost each averaged 269.7 yards per drive last year.

Toms, 49, averaged 288.8 yards off the tee in the previously mentioned 2003 campaign. Unsurprisingly, age has taken its toll on his ability to thump the ball off the tee.

Least Accurate Driver: Steven Bowditch

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Not surprisingly, given the truism that you either have to be long or extremely straight to play on the PGA Tour, Colt Knost—the tour's shortest hitter last year—was its straightest. The 31-year-old found the fairway 73.36 percent of the time off the tee last season. 

Unsurprisingly, too, if you're not particularly long and never find the fairway, you won't play very well. Bowditch, who was worst on the PGA Tour at 43.02 percent of fairways last year, missed 15 of 26 cuts last year.

Worst Approach Player: Steven Bowditch

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The rap on Adam Scott is that if he could putt consistently he'd be among the all-time greats.

Scott's brilliance from tee to green was reflected last year not only by the fact that he lead the tour in strokes gained from tee to green (1.491), but that he was nearly twice as good as the second-best golfer: Kevin Na at .788. 

Unfortunately for Bowditch, the struggling Twitter humorist lost 1.680 strokes to the field average from tee to green. Not surprising given what we learned about his ability (or lack thereof) to find fairways in the previous slide.

Worst Wedge Player: Scott Langley

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While it isn't a perfect metric, we'll assume most players hit full wedge shots most of the time from between 100 and 150 yards on the PGA Tour.

Obviously, players will hit nine-iron shots in the 140-plus range. Regardless, the dual categories of proximity from 100 to 125 yards and approaches from 125 to 150 yards are the best metric of wedge play on the tour.  

For perspective, Adam Scott was  the best on the PGA Tour from 125 to 150 yards last year, with his average approach ending up 17'4'' from the flag. Left-hander Scott Langley brought up the rear, averaging 28'7'' on his approaches from the same distance.

Langley was also the second worst from 100 to 125 yards, averaging 25'4'' on those approaches.

Worst Scrambler: Steven Bowditch

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Scrambling is the measure of the percentage of time a player makes par or better after missing the green with an approach shot. And in this category, Bowditch is again the undistinguished fellow at the bottom of the pile. 

For the sake of comparison, the top players on the PGA Tour expect to get up and down better around two-thirds of the time.

Steve Stricker, who led all golfers in scrambling last year, was successful 66.01 percent of the time. Bowditch was nearly 20 percent worse at 49.14 percent.

Worst Bunker Player: Dawie Van Der Walt

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For most amateurs, the idea of saving par from greenside bunkers two-thirds of the time is incomprehensible. Even the worst bunker player on the PGA Tour during the 2015-2016 season, Dawie van der Walt, saved par more than one-third of the time (38.20 percent). 

If you're a weekend hacker, you'd take it. The best bunker player on the PGA Tour last year was Sean O'Hair, who salvaged par (or better) 62.42 percent of the time.

Worst Putter: Greg Owen

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Drive for show, putt for dough, as the saying goes. And although recent research suggests the importance of putting has been overstated, it's still tough to shoot low scores without holing on the green. 

Jason Day was the tour's best putter by a wide margin last season. The Australian picked up an average of 1.130 strokes on the field. For perspective on just how incredible his putting was last season, the second-best putter, a guy named Jordan Spieth, gained .758 on the field average. 

Greg Owen was the tour's worst putter for the 2015-2016 season. He lost .947 strokes to the field average each round.

In other words, if Day and Owen were equal from tee to green (they aren't), the Australian would beat him by two strokes every round—a healthy margin.