Numbers in Action

Before in end of the golf year in late October, I played the second hole of the Robert Trent Jones course at The Legends Golf Club. Unfortunately I hit a drive off the tee that caused an unplayable lie and a penalty stroke. Being very frustrated, I hit my third shot fat an ended up 55 yards from the flag. With an overly aggressively lob wedge, I flew the green and ended up with my 4th shot lying 113 feet from the pin with the thought I might end up with a 7 on my score card if I didn’t carefully analyze what I concluded was best negotiated by using my putter.

I had 3 feet of first cut of rough, 6 feet of fringe and 104 feet of undulating green. I carefully walked the putt off, viewed it from the opposite side of the flag and from the side. With imagining how water would flow and plumb bobbing the putt, I extracted my putter 7 inches, struck the putt and ended up making the longest putt of my golf career. The previous long putt was 93 feet at the RT Jones course in Opelika, Alabama in 2002. That putt was the stimulus which caused me to write the book: “ Putting By The Numbers”. Thankfully this saved the hole and I ended the round with an 84.