The Loop

You probably didn't notice: Adam Scott's stellar week with his new short putter

March 09, 2015

OK, so you may have noticed this one. If you were following the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral, you probably heard about Adam Scott ditching his long putter. And if you saw where the Aussie ended up on the leader board (T-4), you probably figured he putted pretty well with his new short one.

But just how well did Scott fare on the greens? We took a closer look.

Scott wound up with a strokes gained/putting average of .765 to finish 12th in the field. Not bad for his first week using a standard-length Odyssey putter with the anchoring ban set to go into effect in January.

In fact, since Scott switched to the long putter in early 2011, he's only had eight events in which he finished with a better strokes gained/putting average for the week than he did at Doral. Again, that's eight events in four years.

Over 72 holes at Doral, Scott only three-putted once, and he made 87 percent of his putts from inside 10 feet. That included a perfect 52 of 52 from five feet and in -- a range where anchoring, in theory, helps a golfer. But Scott was good from any range as evidenced by his daily average of holing more than 84 feet worth of putts, which put him 15th in the field.

Any way you look at it, Scott's return to a regular putter was a success -- not that we should be too surprised. The farthest back the PGA Tour goes with its strokes gained/putting stat is 2004. Leading the category that year? Adam Scott.