Rarely has lost luggage had such profound impact. Normally, when an airline misplaces a bag – an occurrence that seems far more frequent than normal these days – the anxiety makes it hard to focus on much else. Jessica Korda felt it when she arrived at the AIG Women’s Open while her clothes stayed in Zurich. Other players have tweeted about golf bags gone missing with a tournament a few short hours away. It’s a nightmare, one that LPGA Tour pros know all too well.
But for Paula Reto, a lost golf bag led to one of the most remarkable transformations in recent memory.
Reto, a nine-year veteran of the LPGA Tour who had never won and only managed six top-10 finishes in her career before arriving at the CP Women’s Open, shot back-to-back rounds of 67 on the weekend at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club to finish 19-under par, good enough for a one-shot victory over Nelly Korda and Hye-Jin Choi.
But the win itself was not the only transformative aspect of the week, although it was wonderful to see a player so universally liked and respected finally break through. The remarkable part was watching someone known by insiders as a mediocre putter morph into Inbee Park overnight.
For some perspective, Reto arrived in Canada ranked 87th on the LPGA Tour in putts per green in regulation. A couple of weeks this season, she averaged more than two putts per hole, a number that would be poor by amateur standards. There were times when watching her routine was painful, the mechanics so deliberate and technical that you wondered if she understood the concept of feel.
Then, just like that, in Canada she averaged 27 putts a round, a number that gets it done more often than not. The ones she missed, even from 40 to 50 feet, looked like they had a chance of going in until the final roll. Her speed was extraordinary, many putts falling into the hole at a snail’s pace. It was reminiscent of Ben Crenshaw in his heyday. No matter how improbable, every green she hit was a birdie opportunity.
So, how did this happen? And what does it have to do with luggage?
Reto explained. “I lost my bags in Ireland (after the ISPS Handa World Invitational) and I didn't get my bag back for a whole week,” she said. “I was home and trying to practice, so I actually brought out an older putter that I had.”
But it was more than a new look at an old friend. There was physiology involved.
“This putter is a little bit more upright, so my eyes are a bit more over the ball, and I did a couple changes where my eyes are a bit more over the ball,” Reto said. “I think that just makes a difference. I was able to see my lines a bit better because my eyesight was a bit off.”
Seeing the line is like magic. When it happens, a good putter knows the ball is going in before it makes one full rotation. It’s like a Yellow Brick Road laid out before you. All you need is to get the ball rolling on that line.
Sightline also improves speed control. When you can see the line, your mind instinctively calculates the speed needed to keep the ball on it.
That is the athletic aspect of putting. It’s not technical. It’s how athleticism translates into feel.
It also makes the rest of the game easier. According to Crenshaw, who has long been in the conversation as perhaps the best putter who ever lived, “Once you know you can make a putt from any distance, you don’t feel pressure to attack every flag with your approaches. And once you know you don’t have to hit it the flag every time, you’re freer to swing the driver.”
That was Reto’s week in a nutshell. Her swing looked slightly out of sync on Saturday when she missed more fairways by a wider margin than any other time in the week. But the putter proved to be her secret weapon. And with the confidence of knowing she would either make birdie or have stress-free pars, she swung better than ever on Sunday, finding the middle of most fairways and the center of a lot of greens. She had five birdies on the front nine of the final round, some short and one from almost 60 feet. Then she made a couple of deft up-and-downs coming in – none better than at the 17th where she hit a perfect pitch from the rough left of the green – and rolled an 18-footer on the final green to within 18 inches.
“Yeah, that (airline fiasco) forced me to use that putter,” Reto said. “I'm really happy I did. Maybe there is a reason for the lost bags.”
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