Taylor Montgomery has just produced one of the more extraordinary debut seasons on the PGA Tour. From 32 starts and 23 made cuts, the recent Korn Ferry Tour graduate was able to boast one third-place finish (the 2022 Fortinet Championship) and four more top-10 results - raking in a highly respectable $3,079,378 in prize money.
And although the 28-year-old is yet to hoist a PGA Tour trophy above his head, Montgomery has set the rest of his rivals on red alert via some outrageous play from his shortest club.
He ranked second across the whole PGA Tour in terms of strokes gained: putting behind only Maverick McNealy, 10th in total putting, 10th in longest putts made, and 20th in three-putt avoidance. And that doesn't include the plethora of putting stats that Montgomery is at the top of.
Admittedly some of them are quite niche, but the University of Nevada-Las Vegas alumnus tops the following statistical groups with his flat stick:
- Putting average (1.667)
- Overall putting average (1.521)
- Birdie-or-better conversion percentage (38.21%)
- Putts per round (27.38)
- Putts per round - round one (27.43)
- Putts per round - round four (26.95)
- One-putt percentage (46.62%)
- Putting from outside 25 feet (9.50%)
- Putts made between six and seven feet (81.48%)
- Putts made between four and eight feet (80.80%)
- Average distance of putts made (83' 9)
While the 28-year-old can also lay claim to sitting in the top-10 among a handful of other scoring areas - such as total birdies (10) and total eagles (2) - a strange chink in Montgomery's putting armour arrives when analysing his success rate from between 20 and 25 feet.
Curiously, while seemingly able to roll the ball home from almost anywhere, this particular distance causes him some trouble as - during 2023 - Montgomery placed 166th. He also sat 150th in approach-putt performance, stating that he often left himself far too much to do if the first effort didn't drop.
But when you have a putting game like Montgomery's, you can afford to give every chance a real run at the hole knowing you will almost certainly tidy up. Of the 29 putting categories measured by the PGA Tour, Montgomery sits inside the top-25 among his peers in all but five of them and inside the top-10 in 19.
Should he refine that long game, a first PGA Tour win for Montgomery seems only a matter of time.
