PRO’s putt to have the cut interrupted in brutal fashion

On By Littum

By:

Sean Zak




Adam Svensson Putt Torrey Pines

Adam Svensson had this putt to make the cut.

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There is a mountain of data that tells us that an 8-foot putt on the PGA Tour is a 50-50 ball. Putts from this distance on tour are holed half the time and missed half the time. What we don’t have is enough data on the 8-foot play as the horn sounds.

But we started this Data Pursuit on Thursday.

Adam Svensson played the easier of Torrey Pines’ two courses—the North Course—during the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open when he aced his 18th hole—the par-5 9th—needing a birdie to make the weekend. It had already been a long day, considering the second round suffered an 86-minute suspension of play due to high winds in the area.

Svensson was well inside One-over cut line As he turned in one under for the tournament, but began to back up his second nine. He made five pars and three bogeys to claim a birdie at the end. Nothing else would do and he found himself with an 8-footer to go ahead.

Maybe you know what’s coming.

Svensson was just at the top of his putting stroke when a nearby horn sounded, warning players that the second round would be suspended for darkness. He could finish just as Ludvig Aberg finished the 18th hole on the South Course, which he had started before the horns blew. Only for Svensson it didn’t matter what followed. He had to clean up his par putt and head for the locker room after missing the cut by one.

This is about as bad as breaks get on the PGA Tour. Bad jump? Don’t miss the green. Connected lie? Don’t hit it in the bunker. Gusted by the wind? It’s hard, but not the end of the world. No one misses a cut because they got angry with the wind. But a horn in your backswing? On a true 50-50 putt? There’s nothing you can really do to prevent it.

And yet we cannot be sure that it affected Svensson. Only he could really tell us, and he would be a biased storyteller if he did. But you can see him release his left hand from the putter immediately after impact. He knew he had missed it. And he couldn’t really blame anyone for that either. Just bad, bad timing in a multi-course tournament that had to get word out that play was suspended.

Here’s hoping there’s a brutally good break the next time Svensson is around the limelight.