Calcavecchia putts new club to test in Florida

THE world’s top 75 golfers descend on Doral Golf Resort in Florida this week for the World Golf Championships/CA Championship, with 27-year PGA Tour veteran Mark Calcavecchia and his store-bought putter two of the more unexpected participants in the event.

The 46-year-old earned his spot in the elite tournament with his win at the PODS Championship a fortnight ago, his 13th PGA Tour title and the first since 2005.

The victory gave him enough points in the tour’s new FedExCup standings to catapult him into the top 10 and thereby make him eligible for this WGC event.

Calcavecchia, the 1989 British Open champion, can thank a huge turnaround in his putting game for his presence at Doral this weekend.

The week before the PODS, he struggled on the greens at the Honda Classic, with his longest putt that weekend just four feet, two inches.

So he took a leaf out of the book of hackers everywhere and stomped off to a golf shop for a solution.

He chanced upon a Ping Redwood Anser model and coughed up $256.18 (around €190) for a putter he could have had for free, from the company whose clubs he endorses.

Calcavecchia took two putters to the PODS Championship, the newly-bought Redwood and a new prototype putter that Ping made for him.

He used the prototype in the first round but that didn’t feel right and the American felt had nothing to lose using the Redwood.

The rest is in the scorebook. A first-round 75 was followed by rounds of 67, 62 and a closing 70 for victory, while the new putter helped Calcavecchia finish first in putts per green in regulation (1.620) and third in putts per round (27.3), after taking 36 putts in the opening round.

“I was in a major putting slump,” he said. “And we all know the story about the putter, the store bought putter, and it looked good to me.

“It was Friday morning, I was hitting some putts on the putting green. It dawned on me to pull more with my left hand. I kind of loosened up my right-hand grip and tried to putt basically left-handed with my right hand just on the putter for guidance, and here I am.”

Calcavecchia less than hi-tech selection process for which putter to use: “I just kind of look at it and see which one looks less ugly.”

The Redwood is likely to catch Calcavecchia’s eye for some time.

“I know I can putt with it, so that’s about three-quarters of the battle.” And as for the prototype putter, Calcavecchia also has plans for that: “I will be sending it back.”