How to bounce back from a 4-putt … or a triple bogey

FORT WORTH, Texas – The problem with playing friendly rounds of golf is the boatload of gimmes that tend to be offered. Especially when you’re a PGA TOUR pro and putting is one of your calling cards. Like Jordan Spieth. RELATED: Leaderboard | ‘Strange’ and ‘odd’ atmosphere for the TOUR’s official return Why bother putting out from 2 or 3 feet when you don’t have to? And for the last three months during the suspension of the TOUR season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Spieth didn’t really practice or putt from short range when playing on his home course or with his friends in the Dallas area. Of course, those gimme days are over now as the TOUR has returned to action with this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge. And on Friday at Colonial, it might have very well cost Spieth two strokes. Having zoomed to the top of the second-round leaderboard going into the Horrible Horseshoe – the rugged three-hole stretch regarded as one of the toughest on TOUR — Spieth had just lagged his birdie putt from inside 30 feet at the par-4 third to gimme range. But he missed the par attempt from 2 feet, 11 inches. Too much speed, with the ball rolling past the hole. Then he missed the bogey attempt from 2 feet, 10 inches, again on the other side of the hole. Finally, he converted his fourth putt from 3 feet, 2 inches for double bogey, giving up the lead and all the momentum he had been riding after starting his round with 6 birdies in his first 11 holes. It’s the first time he’s ever four-putted a hole at Colonial in his 540 holes played in this event. And it’s just the ninth time in his career he’s done it. Shocking at it was, Spieth quickly went to work putting the four-putt into perspective, telling himself that it was simply an issue caused by the unprecedented circumstances of the last three months. “I felt that I gave myself some grace to say, look, I haven’t really been practicing a ton of those kind of short-range putts,â€� Spieth said. “Those are ones where you just have a ton of them when you’re playing in competition but you’re picking them up a lot of times when you’re playing regular rounds of golf at home.â€� We knew rust might impact the field of 148 players at Colonial, and never was it more evident than on the third green for Spieth. His two missed putts inside 3 feet equals his total entering the week, as he had missed just two putts in his first 160 at that distance this season. The carryover effect lasted one hole, as Spieth followed with a bogey at the par-3 fourth when he missed the green and failed to get up-and-down. He called it his “20-minute hiccup.â€� But he did not panic. A 17-foot birdie putt at the fifth – the hardest hole on the course – followed by another birdie at the sixth got him back on track. And for good measure, he saved par at the par-3 eighth with an up-and-down that he called one of the top 5 in his career. “There wasn’t a huge swing of emotions,â€� said Spieth, who won here in 2016. “I stayed calm. I was just trying to hit each shot where it needed to go to make the best score on that hole, and 5 was huge. 5 was really big, to feel like I kind of salvaged the Horrible Horseshoe and came out of it with actually some momentum.â€� If we’re ranking them, Spieth’s bounce-back may have been only the second-best of the day. Consider the way tournament leader Harold Varner III started his round Friday off the 10th tee. His errant tee shot found the bridge going across the gulley in the fairway. Not under the bridge, or over on the bridge. But the actual bridge. Varner was forced to take a penalty shot. He dropped in the rough, then found the greenside bunker, then blasted out over the green to the rough. Triple bogey for Varner, the 18-hole co-leader with Justin Rose after his opening 63. “Obviously not the start I wanted,â€� he said. The round could have easily come unraveled, but this is not the Varner of three years ago, when he missed the cut in his only previous start at Colonial. This is his 78th PGA TOUR since then, and he’s matured – both physically and mentally. And not just inside the ropes. “I’ve grown up a lot off the course, so it makes it easy to make good decisions that prepare you a little bit better for on-the-course stuff,â€� Varner said. “Yeah, I’m a lot better golfer. “I don’t really get rattled as much.â€� He certainly wasn’t rattled Friday. Three birdies in his six-hole stretch regained the momentum, and then he regained the lead with five birdies in his last six holes, leaving him at 11 under through two rounds, one shot ahead of Spieth. “He’s hitting his mid-irons really well,â€� said playing partner Scottie Scheffler. “Just stiffing it.â€� Since 2003 in the ShotLink Era, 691 players have opened their rounds at PGA TOUR events with a triple-bogey. Varner’s 66 is the lowest score ever shot under that circumstance. “Even after a triple, you just can’t live in the past,â€� he said. “… After making the triple I was just fighting for my life. Pretty impressive stuff for the golfer who’s bidding to win for the first time in 129 career starts (and it just so happens that his 129 total through two rounds is his best career 36-hole score). If he breaks through, Varner would be just the second African-American to win a PGA TOUR event since Tiger Woods won the first of his record-tying 82 victories in 1996. Cameron Champ has two wins since 2018. In all, seven African Americans have won on TOUR. Given the developments in the U.S. since George Floyd’s death in late May, a Varner victory would be of increased significance. On Friday, Varner – along with all golfers, caddies and others at Colonial – stood for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. in Floyd’s memory. It is a reminder each round this week of the “efforts to end systemic issues of racial and social injustices,â€� according to PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “It’s pretty cool that the TOUR is doing that, but when you’re out there, you’re just so in the moment,â€� Varner said. “Well, I was anyway. I don’t know, man, I was just trying to make a birdie.â€� Understandable. When you start with a triple bogey, it’s really the only approach to take.

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