Characterizing the top players

[lmf1030]

First, a disclaimer: Any top touring pro player is obviously strong in all of these categories. I'm just curious to see where those on this board who know more about players than I do would place them.

Four categories:

Power players (generally play well on more open courses due to their distance advantage)
Kallstrom, Jenkins, Brinster

Technical players (the more tightly wooded, the better)
Schultz? He seems to be able to throw unbelievably straight on those MSDGC DVDs

Putting masters (need a putt to save your life? Pick one of these guys)
?

Shotmaking wizards (use creativity and a mixed bag of shots to score/ get out of trouble in unorthodox ways)

Schweberger


Suggest other categories as you see fit. I haven't seen enough footage of top players to make many good judgements.

1. Kallstrom, Jenkins and Rico

2. Schultz and Climo

3. Russell, Schultz and Climo

4.Schweberger , Mela

 

[Scoot_er]

Barry isn't a putter...... I putt better than that guy.

Jd Ramirez is one of the sickest putters I have ever seen. Rico is a great putter as well.

 

[matchu]

Kenny has a good pro arm, but these days, I think the 400-425 is pretty standard for a top pro. That said, I don't think Kenny would look at a 500' flat hole and try to go for it with all drive, like Feldberg or Jenkins could.

Kenny can throw far, but his key strength is his putting without a doubt. That, and being able to drive straight.

he hits the green on 460'+ hole on the clash dvd, as does Barry

 

[RustyP1]

Barry isn't a putter...... I putt better than that guy.

Jd Ramirez is one of the sickest putters I have ever seen. Rico is a great putter as well.

Never played with Barry or Steve (I did watch Barry do some warm-up putting at a few tourneys and was surprised at how many 20-footers he missed...then again, it was just practice), but I can vouche for JD...his putting is indeed sick! I played a handful of rounds with him when I lived in Dallas and he was always dead-on.

 

[Jerry r]

i was at the beaver state fling last year and noticed kenny was using rollers for any long open shots

anybody seen him throw sidearm?

 

[x-out1]

1. Climo

2. Climo

3. Climo

4. Climo

I think Climo isn't that much a power player, but he is so strong on the other three parts that it doesn't matter. Big up for the champ!

it appears that Climo isn't much of a power player, but i think there are other factors to consider. i watched Climo play the Golden State NT (very long course) and it seemed like he was only hitting 350-370ft on wide open holes. this was well behind the distance the other power players were hitting on the same holes. the most important part of his 350-370ft drives was that he was exactly where he need to be for the next shot. <------key factor in playing well on the Golden State layout.

its not a matter of if he is able to throw that distance (Clash is proof).

i think that he prefers to take the highest percentage shot for the lowest score. i.e. throwing his 350-370ft drive on a dime rather than push for more D and less accuracy.

just food 4 thought

 

[Cgkdisc]

I checked back to my distance stats taken at the 2002 Worlds which Kenny won and his throw was about 360. He's never been the longest , but long enough for the courses at the time. I think some of the young guns such as Doss, Leiviska, McCabe, Brinster, Feldberg, Jenkins and Kallstrom will continue to take him down on some of the newer courses where the balance is more in favor of the long arms versus being long with enough technicality.

Worlds courses for Open this year were a little more open for their length on average than I would have liked and KC took seventh. As open as Winthrop is, it's not really a power course and KC's accuracy and course management have kept him on top there despite the actual course length being close to 10K feet.