Monday Finish: Five things from 3M Open

SOUTHAMPTON, Bermuda – If you’re wondering if a golfer with aspirations for a PGA TOUR career has time to feel sorry for himself after missing by six shots at the second stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament, the answer could be a resounding, no. And if you wanted to be more emphatic, you could add, “Just go ask Patrick Flavin.” As in the same Patrick Flavin whose 5-under 66 in Friday’s second round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship pushed him to 7-under 135 and in contention in just his second PGA TOUR start, a mere two weeks after failing in that KFT qualifier. Fortunately, Flavin didn’t have time to bemoan his fate. The world of pro golf being filled with chances, Flavin teed it up three days later in a Monday qualifier, shot 67, and was one of four players given a spot into the Bermuda field. “I believe in myself,” said Flavin, 25, who missed the cut in his previous PGA TOUR start, the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Most of his pro golf has been played on the Korn Ferry Tour (14 tournaments, most of them in 2020) and PGA LatinoAmerica (21, most of them in 2019). But it’s that LatinoAmerica experience that he is drawing on this week in Bermuda. “It’s a similar vibe (given the warm weather, island culture, cozy confines) and I’ve had success in this sort of environment.” But mostly, Flavin came to Bermuda with his parents (“It’s a road trip for them,” he laughed), gave his father, Mark, his bag, and committed to a simple plan. “Just put my head down and believe in myself.” For the Highwood, Ill., native who went to Miami University in Ohio, being within four of Taylor Pendrith’s lead is owed to that pair of blinders he metaphorically put on this week. Playing in Thursday afternoon’s robust win, Flavin bogeyed three times going out and was 2-over for his first 12 holes. He’s played the last 24 holes in 9-under. Not bad, considering the hiccup his career took a few weeks ago and the mad scramble to make all the international travel plans on short notice. “But having my dad on the bag has been really, really nice,” said Flavin. “We’ve made it work and this is a dream come true.”

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When your confidence takes a hit on the greens, sometimes all it takes is a new putter to shake things up. It’s no secret that five-time PGA TOUR winner Rickie Fowler has struggled on the greens in recent years after using that club to his advantage during some of his most successful seasons. He led the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting in 2017 and gained strokes on the greens in all but one of his first 11 seasons on TOUR. His performance in that metric has dropped precipitously, however. He ranked 126th last year – losing strokes for the first time since 2012 — and has dropped to 205th (out of 216 players) this season. As he told GolfWRX on Tuesday ahead of the 2022 Honda Classic, though, he’s trying to “switch up the mojo a bit.” Fowler has switched between different Scotty Cameron and Cobra putters recently, but at last week’s The Genesis Invitational, Fowler used a TaylorMade putter for the first time in competition. The 2015 PLAYERS Champion opted for a blacked-out TaylorMade Spider GT with a single white sightline on the crown and a short slant hosel. The new, recently released Spider GT putter design from TaylorMade is noteworthy for its winged-shape, multi-material construction and perimeter weighting, which is meant to boost forgiveness and improve consistency. Although some may believe that every equipment decision on the PGA TOUR is ultra-calculated, Fowler’s change last week was less complicated. Ahead of the The Genesis Invitational, he simply approached a TaylorMade staff bag full of new putter options on the practice green at The Riviera Country Club and started checking them out. “I was hitting putts on one of the greens and they have the bags set up, and I looked at a few different things because I was just not hitting some great putts,” Fowler told GolfWRX. “I looked at a few of the different necks and different sight lines. … The longer line that’s on there right now seemed to be the one, and the small neck just sat clean. It looked nice and was really easy to line up.” Fowler was searching for a different look to freshen things up and get that old feeling back, but it seems he knows not to place too much emphasis on the putter itself. It’s really more of an internal battle. “Really, from what I’ve seen, whatever I’ve hit – any putter – if you make a good stroke, it’s going to go in,” Fowler said. “I just needed to switch up the mojo a little bit and have a different look. I hit a couple putts on the practice putting green last week, and (the Spider GT) was just kind of lining up easy and starting on line. “I’ve always been a good putter, it’s something I’ve always just, not necessarily been able to just rely on, but take advantage when I’ve hit it close or help save rounds by making putts. But, unfortunately over the last couple years, it’s not necessarily been there. So, everyone makes great stuff. It’s been fun working with Cobra on the new putter line there, and yeah, I just wanted a different look and try and switch up the mojo a bit.” Right now, coming off a T55 at The Genesis Invitational, Fowler is happy with his stroke in a vacuum, but he’s working on matching up his reads with confident strokes on the course. “The stroke’s fine,” said Fowler, who ranks 75th in the FedExCup. “It’s more about the confidence and then trusting that I either have the right read, or getting the right read. Sometimes I feel I’ve been a little off on reads and so it doesn’t matter what you do there, you’re not going to make it. And then, sometimes I do have the right read and not trusting it…you throw me on a flat surface with no hole there and I’m just hitting putts, I’m going to make great strokes and I’m going to start the balls on line. But obviously things change when you start to throw in outside elements. If I’m not reading the green properly, it doesn’t matter how good the stroke is.” Heading into the Florida swing, Fowler is confident in his abilities on Bermudagrass putting greens, like those at PGA National. “It’ll be good to be back on Bermuda greens that I’ve putted a lot more on over the last 10-15 years,” said Fowler, who lives in South Florida and won The Honda Classic in 2017.

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AVONDALE, La. — Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel birdied six of their final eight holes Saturday to shoot a 9-under 63 and take a one-shot lead at 19-under 197 into the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. RELATED: Leaderboard | Doug Ghim, Justin Suh bounce back to get in contention at the Zurich Classic The South African tandem birdied the par-3 17th with Oosthuizen’s 33-foot putt and Oosthuizen missed an eagle on the par-5 18th by 4 inches before tapping in for the lead while wearing a somewhat disgusted look because of his narrowly missed previous putt from nearly 17 feet. Oosthuizen then allowed for a smile while fist-bumping Schwartzel in acknowledgment of a successful round in a best-ball format that included nine birdies — five by Schwartzel and four by Oosthuizen in the PGA TOUR’s lone regular-season team event. Schwartzel got the pair going when he birdied No. 4 with a nearly 58-foot putt. The tournament will close with an alternate-shot round. “It’s going to be tough tomorrow,” Oosthuizen said. “Anyone within four shots of the lead has got a chance with the format that it is tomorrow. … The way the wind is the whole week, I think the golf course plays very tough, especially in alternate-shot.” In all, 17 teams were no more than four strokes back. Australians Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith also shot a 63 to move into a tie for second at 18 under with Cameron Champ and Tony Finau, who shot a 67 after Finau’s tap-in birdie. “Cam is playing great, putting great. I’m feeling a lot better over the ball today than I did the first two rounds,” Leishman said. “If I can play good, Cam keeps doing what he’s doing, I think we’ve got a good chance.” Tied for fourth at 17 under were the teams of Bubba Watson and Scottie Scheffler, and Norwegians Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura, who’d shared the lead after the first and second rounds. Ryan Palmer and Spaniard Jon Rahm, the defending champs from 2019, shot a third-round 65 to remain in contention at 15 under and tied for ninth with nine other teams. Saturday’s action included some exceptional shots by players further back in the field, including Sam Ryder’s double-eagle from 206 yards on the par-5 second hole and Wyndham Clark’s 106-yard approach from the muddy edge of a water hazard on 16. Clark stood in the water in bare feet with his pants rolled up and splattered virtually all of himself with mud as he sent his ball to the edge of the green, about 15 feet from the hole, from where he made par. Clark and teammate Erik van Rooyen were among the teams at 15 under. Ryder and Doc Redman, who shot a third-round 66, were tied for 19th at 13 under.

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