Perhaps the younger ones don’t believe this statement, but Sergio García was one of the best putters in the world. That’s what all his rivals said without blinking during his brilliant amateur years, as well as in his early professional skirmishes. “Sergio? Yes, of course, he has always been very good from tee to green, but with the putter it was an abuse, he put everything in,” his contemporaries affirm.
Sergio himself, in petit comitè, admits it. He is not one to boast, quite the contrary, he punishes himself more than he flatters himself, especially in public, but when a certain intimacy is reached, he acknowledges: “I was a good putter in my early years”. So much so that, in a way, his struggles and fatigue with this part of the game in recent years, have to do among other things with his desire to recover that version on the greens from a quarter of a century ago.
This week in Miami, where the fifth event of the LIV Golf season is being held, he has made a new attempt to travel back in time. He has brought back an old friend to whom he returns from time to time to revive old laurels. It is the Scotty Cameron Del Mar Prototype, the same putter he used in 1999. Well, not exactly the same. The club is the same, but it is tuned for the new times.
The memories with that old travel companion are fantastic. ’99 was Sergio’s first year as a professional, he won twice (Ireland and Germany), finished second in his debut at the PGA Championship in Medinah, after that mythical battle against Tiger Woods, he qualified for the Ryder Cup and finished in the top ten in eleven of the 24 tournaments he played. He was 19 years old and was known all over the world as ‘the Kid’.
Well, 25 years after that fabulous burst onto the world golf scene, Sergio has again turned to that putter. He used it yesterday in the first round at the Trump National Doral and, obviously, in view of the results, tied leader, it will stay in the bag for a while, probably also at the Masters in Augusta, although with Sergio you never know.
“The guys at Golf Fire, the putter (peculiar as they come) that I was using, are working on building me a smaller version. I feel more comfortable with that type of putter, a bit more compact, a bit smaller. So in the meantime I’ve gone back to my 1999 Scotty Cameron that I had at home. Obviously it’s not the same, they’ve adjusted it and made it like new. Needless to say, I have a lot of good memories of that putter and wanted to bring it back. Today it worked very well,” explains the Spaniard.
Precisely, his performance on the greens was key to his leadership, as Sergio did not feel entirely comfortable from tee to green, despite handing in a card of 67 strokes without bogeys. “The par saved on 13 was huge to keep the rhythm in my round, as I was not spectacular with my irons. Although I caught many greens, the reality is that I didn’t leave them very close. However, my long putts were very good, so I didn’t stress too much. Obviously, that helped me,” he concludes.
It’s never bad to feel comfortable on the greens a few days before visiting the Augusta National.
