Twenty-six-and-a-half holes into
Sunday's Match Play final, Scott McCarron was in the driver's seat. Two up on
Kevin Sutherland, he had smoked a drive on La Costa's par-5 9th hole and put
himself in position to reach the green in two. Sutherland, meanwhile, was lying
two in the right rough, stymied behind a tree. Then lightning struck. McCarron,
swinging a driver off the deck, dumped his second shot into a tough lie short of
the green. Sutherland, taking advantage of his extremely steep swing, used a
pitching wedge to hit a low bullet that flew under the branches of the tree
and over a gaping greenside bunker before skidding to a stop
eight feet from the hole. After McCarron missed a 14-footer for birdie,
Sutherland drained his putt to win the hole. This reversal of fortune was the
match's pivotal moment, and over the final nine Sutherland rode his flatstick to
the winner's circle with a series of pressure-proof
putts.
CLAWING BACK Heading into the Nissan Open two weeks ago, Sutherland ranked 145th
in putting and out of sheer desperation tried the claw -- the Tour's Band-Aid
du jour -- for the first time. "I made my first 10 putts and thought,
Wow!" he says. First-timer's luck had given Sutherland an overly optimistic
view of the claw, which led to a surge of confidence on the greens, but my
feeling is this faddish putting grip is soon going to go the way of the
macarena. For long-term putting success, Sutherland needs to master a
shoulders-and-arms pendulum motion and ditch his tendency to make a wristy jab,
which the claw can mask for only so
long.
BUZZ KILL Including his final-hole defeat at the Nissan, McCarron has now
finished second two weeks in a row, but the Match Play loss shouldn't sting as
much as his fold in L.A. McCarron played solid golf throughout; Sutherland
simply used a magical short game to steal the title from his childhood rival.
"Kevin made mistakes all day, but was still making par," says
McCarron. "He was an absolute buzz
saw."
DRIVE FOR SHOW McCarron wasn't exaggerating: Sutherland hit only 10 of 28
fairways. The problem? Sutherland's swing is a rock-and-block move that's way
too steep. The golf club should be swung around your torso, but Sutherland's
action is mostly up and down, which shuts the club face in the backswing. This
means he can't square the face at impact unless his timing is perfect.
STRANGE BUT TRUE Lesser lights dominate this tournament because the format
encourages them to go for broke, while the same guys play more conservatively in
stroke-play events, in which they're worried about making the cut and earning a
decent check. The success of these unsung journeymen -- like Sutherland, the
62nd seed -- may be surprising, but as Curtis Strange said a million times
last week, "That's match
play."
Brad Redding is the director of instruction at Hartefeld National in
Avondale, Pa., and one of GOLF MAGAZINE's Top 100
Teachers.
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