Singh and the scary world of the 5-footer
AKRON, Ohio - Along about the middle of the final round Sunday, Vijay Singh was working on some kind of record on putts in the 4-to-8 foot range. Not that anyone has ever kept an authoritative book on such stuff, but with his success on such putts, he surely was making a mark for a pro of his stature. A guy who was keeping track at this WGC-Bridgestone Invitational said he was 8-for-18 from that range at one point. Pitchers who work at that skill level are pretty soon down in Class AA or thereabouts.He had, earlier in the week, described himself as an OK putter - nothing exceptional, but serviceable, and especially now that he's gone back to the belly putter, the one the end of which the bending golfer tucks about into his navel. It seems awkward until the ball rolls into the hole. But putting being what it is, it comes and goes. Seems it was OK this week, though it was questionable to the point of scary for a while Sunday.
But the putting and the rest of his game held together long enough for him to pull in this World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, his first victory on the PGA Tour or elsewhere since last year - his 32nd on the tour and his career 54th worldwide. It comes at age 45 years and 163 days, the oldest ever to win in the WGC series. It was enough to make a guy feel 10 years younger.
“I always feel 10 years younger,” Singh said. “Now I feel 20 years younger.”
Short putts aside, it should be noted that this was the case of one man playing well enough to win, but that he wouldn't have if someone else hadn't played badly enough to lose, and that someone was none other than old soap opera buddy Phil Mickelson, who squandered the lead and the victory by bogeying three of the last four holes.
The subject wasn't raised when Singh gave his winner's interview, nor was there a need to. This was, after all, golf, and it was hardly Faldo-Norman and the Masters.
The Tour statistics show that Singh had seven one-putt greens, and one three-putt, that at the 11th from 22 feet.
He saved himself, for example, at the 17th, the tough uphill par-4. He'd left his second shot from the short rough 22 feet from the pin. Then he left his first putt about 5 feet short. But he swallowed and drilled it.
“That was a good putt - right in the middle,” Singh said. A par there, and now he needed a par at the 18th to win.
At the par-4 18th, he hit a 312-yard drive. Good. He put his second 22 feet from the pin. Good again. A comfortable two-putt, and it's over.
“I had a good line, and I said just cozy it down there,” he said. “If it goes in, fine. Don't leave yourself a four-footer.”
And he left himself a 4-footer.
“I don't know why I left myself a four-footer,” Singh said, with a little giggle.
Then he rolled it in. Didn't drill it. Sort of lipped it in, meaning almost lipped it out, but his heart restarted in time for him to raise his arms in the good old victory salute.
“Those four- and five-footers, I've been practicing,” he said. “I told myself, just like home - go ahead and make the stroke, and it went in.”
This just wasn't a happy Singh, but a relieved one.
“I was really confident,” he said, “and although I hadn't won, I was confident I was going to win,. I told everybody that knows me that it's just a matter of time. It's going to come. So I'm glad that it's happened so quickly. I mean, this was a six-week run, and I was geared up to win.”
In the bookkeeping, this was his first WGC win in 26 tries, and fits nicely with his one Masters and his two PGA Championships, and he has reason to feel a bit feisty about notching a third at Oakland Hills near Detroit later this week.
Singh is famed for being a grinder, a guy who hits the practice tee and doesn't let go. And now, it develops, he's also been grinding on 4- and 5-foot putts. Why is that?
“Because,” Singh said, “I miss a lot of those.”
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