Putting. It's THE MOST important part of the game. There's a saying, "Drive for show, Putt for dough." You can hit every fairway and every green, but if you can't finish it up with the those key putts, you will not produce wins. That was the case for Charley Hoffman yesterday in the Final Round of the FBR Open.
Hoffman's putting the last 2 holes in regulation were as bad as his haircut. He rammed a 4 ft birdie putt on #17 5 ft passed the hole - luckily he made the par putt coming back. On #18, he had an 8 ft birdie putt to, at the time, tie Kenny Perry for the lead,which hopefully he was unaware of. If his putt on #18 drops, Perry bogey's and Hoffman claims victory.
Buuut he didn't. He parred, Perry bogeyed, and a Sudden Death Playoff was forced. The two players went back to the 18th tee with hopes of out-playing each other. Their drives were awful. Perry reached the fairway bunker, just as he did in regulation. Hoffman also reached a fairway bunker, but with a significantly shorter approach. Both second shots weren't anything to brag about, much less their third shots. Once again, it came down to putting, but there was no victor decided yet. So back to #10. Well, once again, both players miss VERY makeable birdie putts. So now, to #17.
Hoffman scrapes around to finally find himself with about a 30 ft birdie putt. As he's reading the putt you can just tell that something isn't right. He's a great player, don't get me wrong, he won the Bob Hope Classic in 2007 so we know he is capable of winning on the PGA Tour, but when there is a big-time putt to be made he just doesn't look comfortable. He doesn't look like he knows he has the confidence to make it. After his pre-shot routine, Charley approaches his putt and missed it, tapping in for par and slowly walking to the edge of the green to watch Kenny Perry's ball drop into the cup for the win. Hoffman had 3 prime and opportune moments to take the FBR Open away from Perry, but his putter failed him.
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I caught the highlights from that game and I couldn't believe the breakdown at the end of the game. Even though they are pros, I won't critize to much, becuase my putting can come and go as well, and that is without a few million people watching. I think the only player who doesn't have those mental breakdowns is Tiger.
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