Adam Scott is hitting the golf ball with near-immaculate precision in Boston but won’t contend for victory in the final round thanks to a horror week on the greens.
The 32-year-old sits 12 shots off the lead held by South African Louis Oosthuizen after the third round at TPC Boston, too far back to make a charge despite putting on a golfing clinic from tee to green.
The world no.9 is ranked first in the field this week in ball striking, third in the field in driving distance and greens in regulation and fifth in driving accuracy and proximity to the hole.
Usually this would add up to a bunch of low scores and be the numbers of a man leading, or at least very close to the top rung on the leaderboard.
But when you are dead last in the field in putts per round and ranked 61st of the 78 remaining players in the ‘strokes gained putting’ category the numbers suffer.
“At least today I was hitting good putts whereas the first two days it was just a lottery,” Scott said.
“They didn’t all go in but I got the feel back so I’m happy with that.
“Maybe they’ll drop tomorrow if I can keep the feel going and if they do that will make me very happy going into next week.
“I have to try to make the most of the good play. I need to try to eek a top 10 which would be a good week’s work when you’re not in contention.
“It’s important to keep this rhythm I’ve got going because I am just hitting it beautiful and I should be in the mix.”
The poor putting is a continuation of the same problem that has plagued the Queenslander’s career.
Despite winning 19 times around the world his flatstick has always been an Achilles heel, prompting a move to the broomstick putter in early 2011.
In his 10 years on the US PGA Tour Scott has never ranked better than 90th in putts per round (29.00), and that was back in 2004.
Coming into this week he was 155th on tour (29.61) and likely to slip further, down from his 116th at seasons end last year (29.39).
With the debate raging on the legality of long putters and the games governing bodies widely tipped to ban them from 2016 onwards, Scott may well be forced back to the short putter.
In his last two seasons with a short putter he was ranked 176th (30.10) and 174th (30.07) but even if the ban comes Scott says he’ll continue with the long putter in the near future.
Despite the struggles Scott remains confident he can find a way to get into the winners circle and give himself a shot at the FedEx Cup, and the $US10 million ($A9.75 million) bonus it comes with.
“I am absolutely still confident I can win this whole thing,” he said.
