PGA Tour: Sergio Garcia Is That Good Of a Ball Striker

The remarkable thing about Sergio Garcia’s win at last week’s Players Championship was not how he finally managed to win an important tournament, but was the fact that he was a good enough ball striker to win a tournament labeled as the "Fifth Major" despite being a poor putter.

Paul Goydos ranked first in the Player’s Championship field in putts per round. For most of the week, Goydos appeared to be unable to miss a putt.

Goydos averaged 26.5 putts per round compared to Garcia’s 31.0 putts per round. That is an astounding 4.5 stroke advantage; yet Garcia hit the ball well enough to overcome this Achilles' heel and beat out Goydos in a playoff on Sunday.

Garcia has always been considered one of the best, if not the best, ball striker on tour.

The reason why Garcia has not won a major or even a tournament in the past three years is because of his severe struggles on the green which have presented him with a difficulty to immense to overcome despite being possibly the best ball striker in the world.

Over the past three years, Garcia has averaged 169^th on tour in putts per round yet he has never finished outside of the top 15 in the World Golf Rankings. That statistic in itself is an amazing feat for a golfer who, on average, has been one of the worst putters on tour.

After years of struggling on the greens, Garcia finally sought help from putting guru Stan Utley this past February.

Garcia’s hours of work with Utley appear to be paying off.

Utley has tried to simplify Garcia’s putting game both physically and mentally.

After trying out just about every putter on the face of the planet, Garcia has gone back to the very first putter he used when he entered the PGA Tour and was years away from his meltdown on the greens.

This season Garcia ranks 131^st on tour in putting average; an improvement from his past average rank of 169^th.

Last week, Garcia ranked 69^th in putts per round in the Players Championship; not great, but an improvement over his ranking at most other tournaments over the past few years.

The key to Garcia’s win at the Players Championship was that he hit 43-of-56 fairways and 56-of-72 greens in regulation, both of which ranked first amongst the field.

This excellent display of ball striking in tough, windy conditions along with an improvement in his putting was all Garcia needed to win the "Fifth Major."

Garcia’s performance at the Player’s Championship might not have dispelled all of his critics, but if nothing else, Garcia has shown that he is such an incredible ball striker that even a slight improvement to his putting could be all he needs to win big tournaments.

Whether his putting has improved to the point where he can stare down a winning put on the 18^th hole of a major and confidently roll it into the back of the cup remains to be seen.