Sergio Goes With Two Putters; Champions Tour Just Twenty Two Years Away

Steve Elling reports on Sergio's latest attempt to improve his putting.

For the headshrinkers, the psychological merits of such a decision can be bandied about, of course. On the positive front, if he putts poorly, he has a fallback plan. But mentally, failing to commit to a putter might subconsciously undermine the whole endeavor.

"I'm sure it's a deal where he has something he can go to if he's having a problem," said Vijay Singh, who often has switched between belly and short putters, but never in the same round. "I'm sure it's a confidence thing."

The Fijian also added that even when his putting was at its worst, he never considered such a drastic plan.

"I did make a decision early on and I went with it for pretty much the whole round," Garcia said. "But then I started not feeling quite as comfortable. I hit a couple not very good putts. So I decided to go with the safe route the last couple of holes."

The short and long of it: Garcia missed a six-footer for par on the 14th to lose the hole, but made a clinching eight-footer for birdie on the 16th to cement the match.

"It felt really good on the putting green," Garcia said of the shorter option. "But it's different, the putting green is, than when you're out there on the heat of battle and the pressure is on. So I wanted to take just like, you can call it a safety net, just in case I didn't feel quite as comfortable."

Do the guys with white ambulances, padded cells and strait-jackets use nets to catch the crazies?