PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Xander Schauffele’s putt was just two feet and seven inches.
Which made missing it all the more painful.
It looked like Schauffele was hitting a pretty good shot, but his par try on Riviera’s par-3 16th dove right on the hole, caught the edge and charged to the other side. The crowd groaned, a universal reaction to seeing a missed shortie, which was only made worse considering Schauffele’s position in contention at one of the most prestigious events on the PGA Tour schedule.
It was by no means an isolated incident. Just a few minutes later at No. 17, Schauffele’s playing partner Rory McIlroy had a four-footer for birdie and missed. And at number 18, tournament leader Jacob Bridgeman marked his approach to two meters and missed Thatat.
Of course, pros always miss short putts. But if it feels like professionals miss them more often herethat’s because they do.
Ron Klos has analyzed some data here; Over the past five years, pros at Riviera have three-putted more often and made fewer putts from any distance. The Tour average of 1.20 meters to 2.5 meters is 69.2 percent; here it drops to 65.6. From outside 25 feet, Tour pros three-putted at an average of 8.9 percent; at Riviera it is above 11 percent.
For Riviera, the scores are unusually low this week. Bridgeman’s three-round total of 19 under par is unthinkable. But the same conditions that have given players many birdie tries — soft, boggy, fast greens that have allowed approach shots to hit and stick, even from the rough — have made putting much more difficult.
Overall, the well challenges arise from a combination of factors. Riviera, like Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines, has pure poa annua greens, which tend to get bumpier in the afternoon (a “waffle iron effect”) despite their impeccable conditioning. That’s another factor; Riviera’s greens are active quicklymeaning it’s difficult to get out of the equation and leads to players putting defensively. And this week’s rain magnifies imperfections, makes peak marks easier to leave and makes surfaces less predictable.
In summary, these are very soft, ridiculously fast, unpredictable poa annua greens with an unusual amount of subtle two-way breaks. Still a lot of putts going in – these guys are good! – but many don’t.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what some of this week’s contenders said:
Schauffele, after his second round:
“Pebble was almost a good preparation for the fact that it gets even wetter and spongier here [faster]this is a lot scarier. But in terms of committing putts that looked dodgy, it was good preparation.
Scottie Scheffler, to CBS, after his third round:
“The greens here have so much pitch, and as the day goes on, the greens keep their speed and they stay fast and they get bumpier and bumpier, just with the nature of poa annua… the greens get softer and they’re fast, which I think is a really good challenge. It’s a little bit underestimated how difficult that is.
“And especially when you add a little bit of wind, it can be quite a challenge to hole putts. So I think you’ll see guys get a lot of looks, but you still have to find your way.”
Rory McIlroy, after his third round:
“Yes, the greens there have become very fast at the end of the day. Then you just can’t leave it dead. You grind over three meters and suddenly you get one that you think you can run on a bit and if you hit it a bit too hard [motioning] I just found the greens very difficult today.”
More McIlroy:
“They’re hard because you don’t want to hit [putts] too hard, of course, and the softer you hit them, the more break they’ll take early.
“There are a lot of double breakers here, so my putt on 16 today was a good example of that. I had to hit it really soft. It was played left to right early, but the last half of the putt was right to left, but it went right so early because I hit it so soft, that it never had a chance to come back. It’s, yeah, it’s tough.”
Jacob Bridgeman, tournament leader (and statistical putting leader):
“In the past I’ve really struggled with POA. For whatever reason I didn’t like it, I didn’t really know what to do. I think I’ve now accepted that some of them are going to bounce out. Like mine on the last hole I hit a good putt, it just bounced to the left and it didn’t go in. I think in the past I would get quite frustrated with that and it would get into my stroke and game a bit.
“I had to make an adjustment halfway through the round. At first I got off to a good start, had some short putts and didn’t really have 15-footers where speed matters, and then halfway through my round I hit a couple way too hard and told my caddy, I have to hit those a little softer, they’re not taking a break. After that, I feel like I hit a lot of good putts.”
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#Grinding #3footers #short #putts #nightmare #Riviera