Well folks, it’s official. Sergio Garcia has reached the “might as well give it a shot” portion of his career on the greens. Please keep him in your thoughts.
Garcia, who has been plagued by a faulty flat stick for two decades, has tried everything from the claw grip to mallet putters to blade putters and beyond. Not much of it has worked, making his resume—10 PGA Tour wins, 16 European Tour victories, the 2017 Masters, an impeccable Ryder Cup record—all the more impressive. His putting woes only further highlight just how elite he is off the tee and with his irons.
On Friday at the Sanderson Farms, Garcia was captured by PGA Tour Live cameras trying his latest and greatest putting technique: putting with his eyes closed. Yes, we’re being dead serious. The craziest part? It’s working:
Hey, don’t knock it until you try it. This 16-foot conversion was Garcia’s first birdie of the day, and he added another four holes later to reach six under for the tournament. It’s still very early in his round, but so far he’s gained 1.037 strokes with his putter. He gained 0.005 on Thursday (anything in the plus is good for Serg), and he currently ranks T-25 in the field in putts per green in regulation. Go Sergio Go!
By the way, Garcia is not the first well-known player to give this unconventional technique a try. Johnny Miller famously putted with his eyes closed for the entire 1994 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which he won for his final victory on the PGA Tour. LPGA pros Lexi Thompson and Suzann Pettersen have employed the eyes closed routine as well, and, like Miller, Thompson won while doing it at the 2016 Honda LPGA Thailand. If Sergio Garcia can win with it this week, every weekend hacker will be glueing their eyelids shut on the course next weekend.