How to Create The Perfect Golfer

If you regularly tune in to coverage of the PGA Tour you will probably have grown weary of hearing the commentary team extolling the virtues of Rory McIlroy’s ability with a driver in his hands.

It is fair to say that when he is on song he is a thing of beauty with both his distance and accuracy from the tee.

It got me thinking about the make-up of the perfect identikit golfer. There is much to consider and there will be many who will disagree with my choices but here we go:

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Best Temperament - Bernhard Langer

For me, this is a no contest. No golfer has struggled more on the greens in the early part of his career than the German. When he first suffered with the yips he was one of the first to come up with a version of the claw grip. For a time he found a way to make that work. Eventually that method also failed him and he was the first leading golfer to turn to the broomhandle putter, which he wafted like a magic wand. When that was banned he had to turn to a more traditional long putter - and he made that work for him too. Through it all, Langer held his head high. There were no temper tantrums. Remember that he was never one of the game’s longer hitters but he kept finding a way to remain competitive - and is still doing so as he nears his 70th birthday. An extraordinary individual with a will of iron.

Best Driver - Rory McIlroy

Some will point to Bryson DeChambeau and you cannot argue with the distance the American hits the ball, but there are times when the ball can go anywhere. McIlroy is always near the top of the driving distance charts on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. He strikes the ball magnificently with the driver - and his misses are nowhere near as bad as those of DeChambeau. And when he has his eye in he can make any golf course look ludicrously easy.

Most Accurate Driver - Mo Norman

You may not have heard of Norman. He was a Canadian golfer with a swing that was all his own but he was deadly accurate. He utterly dominated the professional scene in Canada but struggled to cope with the pressure involved in playing on the PGA Tour. It was later discovered that he was autistic, which explained a great deal about his unease in surroundings with which he was unfamiliar. But one thing that everybody who ever saw him play is agreed upon was his extraordinary accuracy from the tee. He once stunned his playing partners by hitting a drive onto a bridge in order to clear a water hazard when everybody else was laying up. And he proved it was no fluke by doing it four times in the same tournament.

Best Fairway Woods - Henrik Stenson

I have watched a lot of professional golf and I have never seen anybody who is as proficient with a three wood in his hands as the Swede. He is so good that he often leaves his driver in the bag and opts for the three wood instead. And in his prime he could hit it 300 yards.

Best Long Irons - Jack Nicklaus

It would have been easy to have included The Golden Bear in any number of categories in this list but, for me, with a long iron in his hands he stands head and shoulders above anybody else who ever played the game. He hit everything with a controlled fade and when he pulled out a one-, two- or three-iron you just knew that he was going to find the target. In calm conditions he would hit the ball miles into the sky; when the wind blew he was able to keep the flight down. Remarkable.

Best Mid Irons - Tom Watson

When Watson was in his prime during the late 1970s and early 1980s he was widely regarded as being one of the best putters in the game. But that totally overlooked the fact that he only faced so many makeable putts because of his laser accuracy with his mid irons. If Watson was standing in the middle of a fairway with a five- or six iron in his hands you could almost give him a birdie. For a lot of years it was like watching a machine.

Best Wedge Player - Phil Mickelson

There can’t be much argument about this one, can there? In all the years I have spent watching professional golf I have never seen anybody as accurate and creative with a wedge in his hands as Mickelson. His ability with the short irons meant that he always believed he could get himself out of trouble even if he had hit his drive into the trees. And he did it over and over again. His mastery of the flop shot had to be seen to be believed.

Best Bunker Player - Gary Player

There can surely be absolutely no debate whatsoever about this one. Player learnt how to play out of bunkers in his native South Africa and would spend hours mastering his craft. When Player found himself in a greenside bunker you could bet the mortgage on him getting up and down in two. He had a glorious touch from the sand.

Best Putter - Tiger Woods

I have never seen a better putter than Woods. At times, it was almost as if he could hole unlikely putts through sheer willpower. Even when he looked to be down and out he would somehow drain a 30-foot downhill putt with a huge left to right break. And if you ever wanted somebody to hole a 12-foot putt to save your life, Woods was the man. 

Best Recovery Player - Seve Ballesteros

It surely will not surprise you to see Seve’s name here. He was wild from the tee and that meant he had to play a lot of shots from the rough. He had an imagination like no other golfer who has ever lived. During his glittering career, the Spaniard found himself in some pretty unlikely places. But time and time again he was able to conjure up something special. The man was a genius. Even when he was well past his best the one thing that never left him was his ability to find a way to get the ball onto the green when it did not seem possible.

Best Entertainer - Bryson DeChambeau

I was never a huge fan of DeChambeau. But that all changed in 2024. Until the day I die I will never forget his performance at the US PGA Championship. He may well have lost out to Xander Schauffele but some of the shots he played were breathtaking - and the way he orchestrated the crowd was something to behold. They cheered him every inch of the way. And he showed some proper class at the end when he waited by the final green to warmly congratulate Schauffele on his victory. And, of course, he went one better at the US Open, where he once again had the huge galleries cheering his every shot and eating out the palm of his hands.

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