Colonial Invitational Winner? Take Sean By O'Hair

Sean O'Hair sits three stokes behind Steve Stricker on the leaderboard, but nobody in the field is striking the ball better. A case can be made for why each of the four leaders will win, but the numbers suggest O'Hair will prevail if the putts start to fall.

Through two days of golf at the tree-lined Colonial Country Club, O'Hair has missed exactly one green in regulation. That is not a misprint. O'Hair ranks first in the field in greens in regulation at 97.22 percent, having hit 35 of 36 greens heading into the weekend.

The flip side of hitting so many greens in regulation is not hitting the ball next to the pin every time. O'Hair has averaged 31 putts per round, which is among the most of any player that made the cut.

Conversely, Stricker rode his hot putter to a Colonial Invitational 36-hole record—14 under.

Stricker ranks in the top three in each putting category. He ranks first in putts per green in regulation at 1.448 and first in total greens in regulation putts at 42. His 25.5 putts per round is good for third.

"I'm going up to every putt with a lot of confidence knowing that I made a lot of putts these first couple of days," said Stricker. "So I'm very excited to reach the green, and look forward to putting it, which is always a good thing."

Perhaps you think the spoils of Colonial are earned by the player who makes the fewest mistakes. If that is your philosophy, than Vijay Singh and Tim Clark could be poised to host the trophy. Through two rounds, both Singh and Clark have made only one bogey each.

Clark has been especially efficient plotting his way through the doglegs at Colonial. Clark ranks third in driving accuracy, having landed in the short grass 23 times out of 28 attempts.

Clark has always been a solid putter, and this week is no different. He is averaging 27 putts per round, and his 1.548 putts per green in regulation ranks third best in the field.

"I really hit the ball good these two days," said Clark. "A lot of fairways, a lot of putts, dirty putts. If anything I left a few out there, but obviously I can't look at it that way."

Singh has flashed both power (a 343-yard drive on 11) and scrambling ability (100 percent sand saves this week). His 309-yard driving average ranks second in the field.

The greens at Colonial Country Club are immaculate. Its only a matter of time before O'Hair starts draining some putts. If he can add a hot putter to his ball striking ability, O'Hair will don the plaid jacket come Sunday.