Adam Scott and his shorter putter
Aussie edges Garcia for 1st Tour win since ’14
edged out Sergio Garcia on Sunday to win the Honda Classic, marking the Australian’s first Tour win since 2014.
PALM BEACH GARDENS — If nothing else, Adam Scott’s victory Sunday at the Honda Classic should put an end to the debate over the anchored putter ban.
The ban by golf’s governing bodies took effect on Jan. 1, so Scott wasted little time in winning his first tournament with a short putter since he switched to a long putter in 2011.
“It ’s probably good for everybody who likes talking about it, and therefore good for me because maybe we don’t have to go over it too much anymore,” said Scott of his victory and the anchoring-ban debate.
“It just reassures me I’m on the right track with the things I’m doing on the greens. If I can get better and better, then I like what’s to come.”
Starting the day tied for the lead with Sergio Garcia, four shots ahead of the next-closest player, Scott shot an even-par 70 on the Champion course at
PGA National Resort & Spa to beat Garcia by a shot.
Scott’s 9-under-par 271 total earned him his 12th career PGA Tour victory — his first since May of 2014 — and $1.098 million. It was his third top-10 finish in five events this season and his second in a row. Last week, Scott, 35, tied for second at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera.
Justin Thomas shot 69 to tie Blayne Barber, who shot 70, for third place at 5-under 275. Graeme McDowell, who started the day in a three-way tie for sixth, shot 69 to finish alone in fifth at 276.
Second-round leader Rickie Fowler shot 71 to finish tied for sixth at 3-under 277 with Vijay Singh, who shot 70.
It was a disappointing final two rounds for Fowler, of Jupiter, who fired a pair of bogey-free 66s the first two days. He made four bogeys in a 74 on Saturday and four bogeys and three bird- ies Sunday.
“Unfortunate the last two days,” Fowler said. “Didn’t swing as well as I did the first two days. Couple tough breaks, and it wasn’t playing easy out there for sure. It’s a fine line between playing well on this golf course and it eating you alive.”
With no one making a move, the tournament came down to Scott vs. Garcia. Scott birdied the first hole and went two ahead with a birdie at the fifth while Garcia scrambled to save pars.
Garcia got even when Scott made bogeys on 9 and 10, but when Garcia bogeyed 11, Scott led the rest of the way.
“I’m not swinging that great,” Garcia said. “I managed to score very nicely throughout the whole week, and today was more of the same. I hit some good shots, but I didn’t feel like I was firing on all cylinders like I would like to.”
The Bear Trap did in the Spaniard, who bogeyed 16 and 17. A 12-foot birdie putt at 18 only meant that Scott had to make a 2-foot par putt to win.
“Credit to Sergio. He didn’t hit it his best, but he holed a lot of good putts to stay in it,” Scott said. “We both were doing absolutely the best we could and I think we played fairly good rounds of golf, relative to the situation.
“Today it felt like a battle. At the end there was definitely a sense of relief and just satisfaction. I was quite happy that it was over and I managed to hang on.”
Scott had experimented with a short putter a year ago at the WGC-Cadillac Championship, which begins Thursday at Trump National Doral, and tied for fourth. But after a missed cut and a tie for 35th the following two weeks, he went back to his long putter
He eventually put more time in with the short putter, which he uses with a claw grip.
“Brett Rumford, an Australian pro who plays in Europe, showed me the grip, and it felt good. So thank you, Brett,” Scott said.
“It’s not exactly the same as the grip with the long putter, but it’s very similar I guess in philosophy. It keeps all my angles and technical things in good order, so it feels really comfortable. It just feels normal to me now.”