The Longest Official Putt In PGA Tour History Didn't Involve A Putter. Confused? We Explain All...

The longest putt holed on the PGA Tour was by Craig Barlow in the fourth round of the Buick Open of 2008. His eagle putt on the par-5 dogleg 1st hole measured 111ft and 5 inches.

However it was not played with a putter. It was a chip played with his lob wedge. But, as any shot on the green is classified as a putt, it is the longest officially recorded putt on the PGA Tour. Even if he didn't actually putt the ball.

Others have got the ball into the hole with a shot hit with a putter from further away than Barlow’s effort. Sang-Moon Bae, for example, did so from about 40 yards from the pin on the par-5 14th hole in the BMW Championship of 2015. But he played from the fairway and so this shot played with a putter from off the green is not officially considered a putt.

Rickie Fowler holed out on the Road Hole at St. Andrews with his putter from 126 feet at the 2010 Open Championship. But, again, that shot was not “a putt”, even if in everyday golfing parlance, his shot is described as a putt. He did, after all, putt the ball.

That day at the Buick Open Barlow had reached the green – albeit only by a matter of an inch or two – in two shots with his driver and then a 3-wood. The ball was on the front right of the green, the pin on the three-tier green was back right. He chipped onto the top tier, the ball bounced a couple of times and then rolled into the hole.

Shot Link was introduced on the PGA Tour in 2001 and has been used at every PGA Tour event since 2003. Shot Link, among other things, measures the length of every shot played. Before that, shot measurements quoted could be more haphazardly decided upon. Thus many lists of longest putts on the PGA Tour only include those from the Shot Link era.

But the Guinness Book of Records credits Jack Nicklaus and Nick Price with holing putts of 110ft, at the 1964 Tournament of Champions at Desert Inn and the 1992 PGA Championship at Bellerive respectively. In the Shot Link era, the nearest to Barlow’s monster effort is 103 feet and 5 inches in the fourth round of the 2011 Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale by Angel Cabrera.