Welcome to Teachable Moments, GOLF’s weekly instruction column that will help you improve your game through the excellence and expertise of the Tour stars of the week. Class is now in session.
Xander’s golden putting stroke
Xander Schauffele raised some eyebrows two months ago when he went away from a traditional putting technique in favor of the controversial arm-lock putting method. Even though he’s statistically been one of the better putters on the PGA Tour over the last several seasons, he decided to experiment with the arm-lock technique in search of even the slightest advantage.
Xander Schauffele’s winning clubs at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
“It’s just, it’s better, it’s easier, it’s more consistent,” Schauffele said at the time. “The fact that it’s anchored to your arm, there isn’t a whole lot of — you can flinch in your hands, but you can’t flinch your entire left arm, so that’s the process behind that.”
But last week, during his gold-medal effort at the Olympics, Schauffele was back to his old ways. Gone was the arm-lock technique, replaced by his old, traditional method.
“I switched because the arm lock was a little too slow, I guess, I couldn’t hit putts hard enough,” he said. “I kind of got some good feels back with my putter at the Open Championship and so my caddie and I decided to run with it this week.”
As Schauffele explained, he made the switch back two weeks ago at the Open Championship, but the Olympics were the first time with his traditional method while back in contention.
He had no trouble shaking off the rust, nor trusting his stroke under pressure. Schauffele clinched the gold medal by draining a testy four-footer on the final green.
“I just tried to really become more present and just focus on the 4-footer,” Schauffele said. “Once again I just reminded myself, this is just a four-footer, all you have to do is make it, no big deal.”
Family advice for Annika
Winning a major championship is always special, but with her family on hand at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, Annika Sorenstam’s victory last weekend was all the better.
Sorenstam lapped the field at Brooklawn Country Club, claiming the title by an impressive eight-stroke margin. Her family was on hand to witness the entire thing.
“It’s very different to share it with your loved ones,” Sorenstam said. “To kind of have them walk here, walk the fairways, see what I do for a living and see what it takes to get there, and to be able to share it with them, like I said out there, this is a totally family affair in a lot of ways.”
