Women's Open: Man up! To no great surprise, this suggestion is not totally embraced by many of the players who will tee off Thursday at The Broadmoor. And she is almost right. The extra muscle with which men play makes comparison impossible, except when it's time to putt. On the greens, where strength means little, all things become equal.
Or, at least, they do in theory. So we ask: Do women pros putt as well as their male counterparts? And she has opinions. I think there is a little less boldness. If you are going to make putts, I think you have got to be bold. Women's world No. Gal, consistently one of the LPGA's better putters statistically since she joined the tour in , is there with backup.
Overall, we probably hit it a little bit softer. But that does not make our putting worse. A total of 40 women are averaging 1. If you really want to reach, Annika Sorenstam used putts at The Broadmoor in on her way to winning the U. Women's Open. Eduardo Romero used on the same course to win the U. Senior Open. All of which adds up to pretty much nothing. The numbers are compiled, if not on different courses, then under different conditions and varying speeds.
We don't have the same conditions, so it makes it hard to compare. Pepper added, "For the guys, it's almost like playing in a dome out there. They putt better because there is so much consistency. You do not go from Sunday to Monday, getting ready for another event, with an enormous amount of chance. What both sides can agree on is that putting is the game's inside joke on players. Golfers often travel plus yards in two swings, only to ruin a hole by needing three whacks to cover the final 50 feet.
A fluid, athletic swing on the fairway can be replaced by struggles on the green. You have to be able to feel the slope, and kind of visualize and feel within your body like how the ball is going to roll on the green, where is it going to end, where is the high point. It's really just focusing on line and speed and knowing that that's going to take care of everything, being very artistic.
