You know, this is absolutely true. I followed a guy who ran stat service for Tour players. He had stats on every shot of every player, so it was easy to separate the factors that tended to be shared by the top players. As I recall, the most important was how good they were on long irons, ie 175-225. That correlated most closely to Tour success.
Now the question that van is raising, as I see it, is that just because long hitting correlates with Tour success, what evidence is there that the same dynamic applies at the rec level? All Tour pros by definition are very very good at putting, short game and wedge game. You can't say the same for rec players. But it's also wrong I believe to expect a lot of magic from, say 100 in, what is called scoring range. You really expect a birdie putt. But the Tour average from 100 is something in the 20 foot plus range. The Tour average putting percentage from that range is probably under 40%. For recs, aim at biggest part of the green and take your two putt. That's how you avoid missing short side and taking a double.
