Sergio Gets Hot En Route To Eleven (11) One-Putts (In-A-Row)

So, in my desperation to shave a few strokes off of my golf game, I have gone deeper into the analysis of data to  focus on fine tuning my failures into success.

Good golfers already know what my impressionable mind has just uncovered on paper.  Once you have improved your GIR (Greens In Regulation), you now have a fair shot at being mediocre in golf. It is rare for even mediocre golfers to bogey a hole and not 3 putt as well.  In other words, the key to golf is the putter.  I am learning to accept that par is a fabulous score on most days, especially when it comes with a fair amount of legitimate birdie opportunities. Scrambling to save par is the pathway to bogeys or worse.  Inside of these options that golf presents lies the ever important 2 putt.  Sadly the wisest golf decision one can pursue is also one that many golfers rarely embrace. The 2-Putt mentality becomes the equivalent of passing ahead for a better shot, but in the lonely world of golf, half court buzzer beaters are constantly tempting the fool hearty.

In honor of the putter, Sergio Garcia, and the death of the 3 putt, I have switched back to my putter that looks more like the one Sergio used to sink 11 one-putts in a row en route to a second place finish at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational tournament this past weekend.  You heard me.  ELEVEN.

While you digest the absurdity of 11 one-putts in a row, the more important question might be, why did I switch putters in the first place?  Because I stink at putting and I am uncomfortable in this pungent condition, so I tried something new....or old....or different.  Typically I am on in regulation, so the issue has clearly been identified as an inability to sink the free throw (I find these exercises to be somewhat similar).  However, getting on and getting close to the pin are distinctly separate worlds in the final scoring analysis. Simply "getting on" was the reason I switched to my long distance putter in the first place.  The extra weight offered an extra "bang" if you will, that my Sergio style putter wasn't giving me on those 60 footers I always had left for birdie.

This line of rationale was tragically flawed because no one needs a 60 foot (or longer) putter in the bag.  What you need is a much better approach shot.....or a 2 putt plan to finish that 60 footer with minimal damage (aka, maintaining par). For a long time, I had neither skills within my game, but backyard golf will give you a wicked chip game.  What I learned is that it is he who seeketh to drop 60 footers that invented the 3 putt.   On occasion, the long ones fall, but getting a sinkable second putt should ALWAYS be the ultimate mission for the average hack.

With all of that in context, did Sergio approach the pin perfectly 11 times in a row to accomplish this feat?  No.  He had a variation of everything golf offers, but time after time his line and speed proved perfect.  What allows a player to achieve such a feat and then return to the pack of normalcy that defines us as human?  Hard to say, but easy to answer.  Sergio certainly played well  the rest of the tournament, but his 11 1-putts may have been the only reason he salvaged second place in the end, as Rory McIlroy rushed from behind to win the tournament.  Was  11 in a row sheer luck?  Where is the line between great play and great luck? Only hard workers can answer the question because they are the only ones performing consistently enough to analyze the data.

......and their report?  Hard work has its own guarantee of luck.  Its the flip side to all of the failure that hard work guarantees as well. 11 in a row might be lucky, but it never comes to someone who hasn't putt in the work (golf pun intended...of course).

Way to go Sergio.  Keep up the hard work.