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PGA Tour Golf, Booz Allen Classic
The more i think about it, to play well at Firestone you
need to be a long, straight hitter and Stenson is the best
long, straight hitter in Europe
I'll just be glad to see the lad live up to my expectations
of him but i'll be surprised to see him play much in Europe
next year, as he's got the states written all over him
you've all taken this way too far. he's gonna be a big lay for
the next few weeks if he keeps getting hyped like this.
Noone's disputing that he looks pretty awesome from tee to
green but that really is only half the battle (if that).
Putting is what separates the greats from the also-rans and
he has a huge problem. For some reason, people forgive poor
putting as if it doesn't actually count but its the most
crucial part of the game.
People also assume that it can be
easily overcome because it takes less talent and can be
learned the hard way. But that isn't true either. Its so
much a psychological part of the game that it's actually
harder to turn around than other parts of the game. Tee to
green form can change drastically from week to week (and
that's what makes golf punting so tough) but putting is
often set in stone. Just look at Tiger (on the = side) and
Singh (on the side). Although hot and cold spells are
inevitable cos of role of chance, its very hard to make a
good putter bad and vice versa.
He clearly will know that he has a dodgy putting stroke
(people will have told him that breaking his wrists on the
backswing and downswing is NOT a good idea) and that will
have a knock-on effect on his confidence on the greens
(crucial) as well as the obvious, inherent problems that a
bad stroke produce. When the heat is one, he's going to
crack on the greens - just look at the abysmal effort in the
recent playoff for early evidence of that. For him to become
a big-time winner, something huge is going to have to happen
to his short game. Not at all convinced.
Its hard to be a
winner if the putter is the weakest club in the bag. He will
no doubt have the odd week when the short stick is on fire,
but bad putters are not serial winners. The next Garcia?
Possibly as Sergio is another who can't putt that well,
currently 200th on the putting stats. Give me a player with
good putting and GIR stats over the good drivers anyday.
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