This mistake cost Tiger Woods the 2009 PGA title. Why American amateurs still struggle at Hazeltine
Chaska, Minnesota — Tiger Woods’ loss to J.A. Young in the 2009 PGA Championship was astonishing because it was the first time Woods had lost a major championship after leading through 54 holes. Also astonishing was the way he lost, missing crucial 10-foot putt after crucial putt at Hazeltine National. If you rewatch the PGA final round, you’ll notice Woods missed by less than 10 feet on the first, tenth, twelfth, thirteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth holes. What do they have in common? Each time, Woods missed the hole on the upper side. After nearly all of his shots, Woods revealed that he was shocked that his putts weren’t breaking more often.
Interestingly, players at this week’s U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National also noticed that many of their putts weren’t hitting the top and weren’t breaking as often as they expected. “I think a lot of people overestimate a lot of putts,” said Garrett Engle, a University of Chattanooga graduate who used his newly acquired grip to win the marathon on Wednesday in a round of 64. Top-ranked amateur in the world Luke Clanton, who also won his first-round match, agrees that greens don’t break as often as players think they do. Luke Clanton says the greens at Hazeltine National don’t break as much as they seem.
Chris Keane
Tim Hanline, who has been a member of Hazeltine for about four years and became a volunteer this week, says it’s not just newcomers to the field who are confused. Hanline noted that competitors often struggle because they break too much: He points out that Haseltine’s caddies regularly advise half the break that Hanline initially sees. U.S. amateur players try to reproduce Tiger Woods’ “biggest image”, but does not work.
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First, as PGA Tour putting coach Ralph Bauer recently wrote at Golf Digest’s Happy Hour, putts on fast greens fall apart more often than putts on slower greens because “the ball has lower initial velocity. Gravity has a bigger effect,” Bauer said. While this might seem to suggest that players will miss the low side on fast greens like Hazeltine, which measures about 13 on the Stimpmeter, Bauer says that’s not necessarily the case.
American amateur competitors like medalist Jimmy Ellis, seen here, often miss putts from the high side. Chris Keene
“One of the interesting things I’ve found is that if you throw two punches with the same force, one high and one low, the low punch is going to be a lot bigger,” he said during Happy Hour. “The bigger kid is going to have a harder time going uphill and he’s not going to roll as much. This low one is going to find that slope and run out. Both of those putts can be hit the same speed, but there can be a foot difference very easily based on the line you take.\”
On greens as penal as Hazeltine’s the penalty for getting a putt traveling on the low side of the hole could be the difference between a tap-in and a three-foot slider. Elite players understand this, which is why they try to play at the highest level possible.
“I think because it’s so fast, you try to play high and just go with the flow, and sometimes that’s not the case,” Clanton said. Additionally, Engle noticed that the greens were so fast that the ball would sometimes slide across the surface instead of rolling, and during this sliding phase, he noticed that the ball was becoming less breakable.
“I think just because they\’re so fast, a lot of people are hitting it and it\’s just gliding more so than breaking and catching the break. On fast greens a lot of times you get a lot of that glide,” he said. To be clear, missing putts from the high side isn’t such a bad thing. In fact, as statisticians like Scott Fausett will tell you, speed is far more important than line when putting. Add to that Bauer’s idea of increasing the roll of low side putts, and you can see why players try to play as many breaks as possible. But on shorter putts, within 10 or 15 feet, where three-putts are rare, over-reading the break can be costly as U.S. Amateur week continues. This strategy works for offset putts, but players will need to adjust their vision and play the break a little more conservatively on shorter putts.
