There’s a mountain of data that tells us an 8-foot putt on the PGA Tour is a 50-50 ball. Putts from that distance on Tour are holed half the time and missed half the time. What we don’t have is enough data on 8-footers played while the horn sounds.
But we did get started on that data pursuit Thursday.
Adam Svensson was playing the easier of Torrey Pines’ two courses — the North Course — during the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open when he reached his 18th hole — the par-5 9th — needing a birdie to make the weekend. It had already been a long day, considering the second round suffered an 86-minute suspension of play due to high winds in the area.
Svensson was well inside the one-over cut line when he made the turn at one under for the tournament, but began backing up on his second nine. He made five pars and three bogeys to require a birdie at the last. Nothing else would do, and he found himself with an 8-footer to advance.
Perhaps you know what’s coming.
Svensson was right at the top of his putting stroke when a nearby horn sounded, alerting players that the second round would be suspended for darkness. He could finish out, just as Ludvig Aberg finished out the 18th hole of the South Course, which he had started before the horns blew. Only for Svensson, it didn’t matter what followed. He had to clean up his par putt and head to the locker room having missed the cut by one.
This is about as bad as breaks get on the PGA Tour. Bad bounce? Don’t miss the green. Plugged lie? Don’t hit it in the bunker. Gusted by the wind? That’s tough, but not the end of the world. No one misses a cut because they got gusted by the wind. But a horn in your backswing? On a true 50-50 putt? There’s nothing you can really do to prevent that.
And yet, we can’t be certain that it affected Svensson. Only he could really tell us that, and he’d be a biased storyteller if he did. But you can see him release his left hand from the putter immediately after impact. He knew he had missed it. And he couldn’t really blame anyone for it, either. Just bad, bad timing in a tournament with multiple courses that had to get the word out that play was suspended.
Here’s hoping there’s a brutally good break next time Svensson is around the cutline.
