McIlroy can learn from Garcia’s putting woes
October 13th, 2009 | PGA European Tour Golfers, Rory McIloryBy Karl McGinty
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
If Rory McIlroy ever gets bored with the daily putting drills prescribed by Dr Paul Hurrion, he need only watch the video of Sergio Garcia beating his own brains out at the Madrid Masters. It was horrible to see Garcia, one of the most majestic ball-strikers in golf, so badly humiliated on the greens at Centro Nacional de Golf.
Stripped of all confidence, he looked muddled, confused and, at times, utterly clueless about what was happening to him. Admittedly, the putting surfaces in Madrid became spiked-up and bobbly in late afternoon. Yet, no matter how accusingly Garcia looked at the line of each missed putt, the real problem lay elsewhere.
The figures for Sunday’s final round tell a tale of maddening incompetence by a player ranked at No 9 in the world. Garcia sublimely hit 17 greens in regulation that afternoon — then two-putted every single one of them. Astonishingly, of the 71 strokes which sent Garcia tumbling into a tie for 17th place in a tournament which he had led at half way, 36 of them were putts!
The likes of Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington were born with an assassin’s touch around the green.
Garcia wasn’t so-blessed.
Neither was McIlroy — but Dr Hurrion, the English bio-mechanics expert who also works with Harrington, believes that through sound method and hard work a good putter can be made. If anything, McIlroy’s more exciting from tee to green than the mercurial Spaniard. He currently leads the Race to Dubai and the European Tour in stroke average (69.86), despite languishing in 109th place in the putting charts (17 behind Garcia) with 30 putts per round.
So for the past 14 months, McIlroy’s devoted one hour per day — not easy for a young lad with so much excitement in his life — to repetitive putting routines which Dr Hurrion expects will provide the 20-year-old with the feel for a good putt which should stand to him for the rest of his career.
Inevitably, it’s been mind-numbingly tedious but, at this stage of McIlroy’s career, method is the one sure way he has of avoiding the madness of Sergio Garcia.
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