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The Loop

Adam Scott's short-putter experiment lasted all of three tournaments

April 01, 2015

Adam Scott's short run using a short putter is over. On Tuesday, the Australian Associated Press reported Scott is going back to his broomstick putter for the Masters.

Scott finished fourth in the WGC-Cadillac Championship to start 2015, but he missed the cut at the Valspar -- ending his tour-best streak of 45 consecutive cuts made -- and then finished T-35 at Bay Hill. Scott hinted to PGATour.com following that finish that "Putting with a longer putter is maybe the smarter thing to do [at Augusta]. . . . It's all about the lag putting. It's such a difference in weight of club and stroke and everything. I'm just trying to figure it all out."

Scott currently leads the tour in greens in regulation, but is only 184th in strokes gained/putting. He's even worse from inside 10 feet at 195th, and he's missed 11 times from inside five feet in 10 rounds.

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Scott was an excellent putter at one time before he switched to an anchored stroke in 2011. In 2004, the first year that strokes gained/putting was kept by the PGA Tour, Scott finished first. Since he switched to anchoring, his best finish in that category was last year at 55th, and he finished outside of the top 100 the other three years.

There's the argument that Scott might as well use the style that helped him claim his lone major at Augusta National in 2013 and reach No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking last year for as long as possible. Still, it's an interesting move for a man who will be forced to change putting styles when the anchoring ban goes into effect at the end of the year. And is 10 tournament rounds enough of a sample to ditch the short putter for now?

Clearly, Scott has decided that being comfortable for four rounds at Augusta National trumps everything.