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European and PGA Tour General Chat Thread 2016 season

Rickie is playing the best golf of the top 4 so far this season. If he keeps it up he should be looking to win at least one of the majors this year.

Hope he does, he's a very good ambassador for the sport. Even after losing the play-off to Matsuyama the other week, heard he had stayed behind for a while signing autographs for all the kids. Class act.
 
Rory's 3 stab on the 18th....yuk.

I hope he sorts it out. I wonder if there's a point at which he ditches Stockton and finds someone else with a different approach to see if it works better for him. I don't think one size fits all for putting, and if it isn't working, stop doing it.

It's not impossible to change for the better. After all, look at Sergio - he was shocking a few years back. He'll never be Speith, but at least he seems to have something that works well enough to get him round the course. Ironically, they showed some stats on the Golf Channel that suggested that his ball striking is now pants! That's golf, I guess.
 
^^

I said this the other day. He cannot putt and he isnt tiger on the greens.
He really shouldnt be missing those putts every week on tour. He doesn't look close to winning a major this year which is a real shame since Speith looks rattled. If Speith isnt holing putts he's never going to be in contention and he just isnt at the moment.

Rory is by far the most frustrating golfer to watch. Im a huge fan but he drives me bloody mad !
 
SugarPenguin said:
^^

I said this the other day. He cannot putt and he isnt tiger on the greens.
He really shouldnt be missing those putts every week on tour. He doesn't look close to winning a major this year which is a real shame since Speith looks rattled. If Speith isnt holing putts he's never going to be in contention and he just isnt at the moment.

Rory is by far the most frustrating golfer to watch. Im a huge fan but he drives me bloody mad !
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Really? He missed the cut after 1 bad round in his last tournament, but before that he had a solid top 25 at Pebble, had a top 5 in Abu Dhabi and blew the field away by 8 shots at the Hyundai shooting 30 under par, becoming only the 2nd player to reach that score in a PGA Tour tournament. So how exactly is he looking rattled?

There also seems to be this irritating myth going round on the net about Jordan relying on his putting. It simply isn't true. Last year he was ranked 8th in putting on the PGA Tour, but ranked 4th tee to green. His putting was good, but his play tee-to-green was exceptional. His tee-to-green strokes gained average was beaten only by Bubba, Stenson and Furyk.
 
It's a fact that speith was top of the pile in ball striking last year.

However...I still think that the short stick is the key. It's so important psychologically to putt well. You walk to the next tee with a spring in the old step. Imvvvho, if his putting returns to earth this year, the rest of his game will come under more pressure and will suffer as a consequence.

And yes, I'm sure he's really worried about what I think.
 
Speith was never in contention in his top 25 and 5th place finish. Had a great final round that glossed over the fact he played pretty poorly in the first three rounds.

Like what has been said above, when his putting isn't quite there his longer game starts to suffer a little as well. For a player of his quality his wedge play seems pretty average compared to the others at the top.
 
If speith didnt hole ridiculous amount of putts last year theres no chance he would of had the year he did.
Nobody looks at him and goes wow that guy is amazing Tee to green. The only way he can dominate s field is if he putts well and that means holing out.
Just my opinion. I dont think he will win a major this year.
 
He might not "look" amazing tee-to-green, whatever that means, but the facts don't lie. He was one of the top 5 players in the world last year tee-to-green. Sure, his putting helped, but he put himself in the position to make so many putts with his superb ball striking. Spieth is a class player. He will win again this year, and will contend in the majors, as he has the last 2 years.
 
You know what I mean. Rory looks amazing tee to green, Speith doesnt - he cannot tear a course apart like Rory and Bubba do.
Speiths extremely consistent which is backed up by his stats as you have mentioned but for me his X-factor is his putting. If that fails him he hasnt got a chance.
 
IMO, Spieths ball striking is at his best as a consequence of great ability with the putter. On his best days (which there were A LOT in 2015!!) he holes out for birdie from 20ft, goes to the next tee confident, puts it down the middle. He then doesn't put himself on too much pressure to get it stone dead as he backs himself from almost anywhere on the green. So he finds the middle of the green, and holes out from 30ft, and so on...

On the rounds I have seen him score poorly, he misses a couple of putts and then tries too hard from there, gets frustrated and loses shots in all areas. I think this will massively improve with experience, but time will tell. It will be very interesting to see how he handles the inevitable regression to the norm with his putter, whenever that may be!
 
SugarPenguin said:
You know what I mean. Rory looks amazing tee to green, Speith doesnt - he cannot tear a course apart like Rory and Bubba do.
Speiths extremely consistent which is backed up by his stats as you have mentioned but for me his X-factor is his putting. If that fails him he hasnt got a chance.
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He can though, and he has. You don't shoot -30 in a tournament, or -18 at Augusta without being able to tear up a course. He might not have a pretty swing like Rory, or monster drives like Bubba, but he gets the job done. He's incredibly consistent and a fantastic ball striker. He constantly puts himself in excellent positions and then, unlike Rory has the putting game to back it up. I definitely agree that the strongest element of Jordan's game is his putting, but you don't win tournaments, especially with the scores he wins tournaments with (-30 this year, his Masters score) without being able to seriously tear up a course.
 
SugarPenguin said:
If speith didnt hole ridiculous amount of putts last year theres no chance he would of had the year he did.
Nobody looks at him and goes wow that guy is amazing Tee to green. The only way he can dominate s field is if he putts well and that means holing out.
Just my opinion. I dont think he will win a major this year.
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Nobody ever has an amazing year without holing an ridiculous number of putts
 
Looking forward to tonight's choke-athon.

I really like both players, but over the last few holes I can only watch through my fingers.

If you're the leader in the clubhouse, how many do you need to be behind before its safe to be packing the clubs away and driving to the airport??

On a positive note, it's good to see two guys who have struggled with their putting turn it around somewhat. Gives hope to us all.
 
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