Sony Open
Don't shortchange Faxon's game
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Brad Faxon earned this trophy and a $720,000 paycheck after winning the 2001 Sony Open in Hawai'i.
Advertiser library photo WHAT: Full-field PGA Tour event WHERE: Waialae Country Club (35-35i70, 7,060 yards) WHEN: Jan. 10-13, from 7 a.m. Thursday and Friday, 7:30 a.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. Sunday PURSE: $4 million ($720,000 first prize) DEFENDING CHAMPION: Brad Faxon ADMISSION: Free Monday and Tuesday, $10 Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, $15 Saturday or Sunday. Children 12-under free with adult ticket holder. Season Badge is $50 for entire week. INFORMATION: 523-7888 or sonyopeninhawaii.com TV: ESPN |
"They putt as true from the first guy out to the last guy off," Peter Jacobsen said last year. "Always have, probably always will."
The last guy off last year was Brad Faxon, who might be the best putter on the planet. Faxon won the 2001 Sony Open in Hawai'i by going so low (20-under par) he broke Paul Azinger's tournament record and tied John Huston's course record (260).
Faxon accomplished all this in windy weather with two of the world's finest golfers monitoring his every final-round move. Faxon went into the last round with a three-shot advantage on Ernie Els and Tom Lehman, and came out four ahead.
Despite a "tweaked" swing that gave him 20 more yards off the tee, Faxon did not blow anyone away. He scrambled them into submission, getting up and down for par or better 22 times in 24 opportunities — an ungodly percentage only those blessed with remarkable touch can fathom.
Practice, practice, practice
It is a blessing that comes only with time, Faxon will tell you, having spent "250 days a year for most of my 40 years" practicing to make it appear so simple. And, according to Faxon, simplicity is the crucial concept.
"Last year when I played at the Mercedes I was not very impressive," Faxon recalled. "I hit it OK, just didn't putt well. I told myself, when I get to Waialae I need to be a lot more relaxed around the greens and a lot more trusting of my first instinct — not stepping away and not trying too hard.
"At Kapalua you have the grain, the wind, the slopes ... I was trying to be too exact. When I putt well, it comes very naturally and very easily to me."
The moment he touched down on Waialae's putter-perfect greens, Faxon's golf world came into vivid focus. Anything around the green was suddenly possible. Ultimately, for him, that meant anything was possible.
"He is such a good putter it takes pressure off his short game," Waialae head pro Greg Nichols said. "If you're a bad putter, you might need to knock it within three to five feet to be in your comfort zone. Brad's comfort zone is anywhere from six to15 feet. For him to hit a successful chip shot it can be anywhere within 15 feet and he has a very good chance to make that putt. It's really a psychological thing."
Putting on the PGA Tour is separated by thousandths of a stroke. Faxon has led that statistic three times since 1996, setting a record in 2000 with 1.704 putts per green hit in regulation. Even opponents find themselves taking mental notes when they are with him.
"It looks like he releases the putter head so well," Lehman said last year. "His speed is perfect almost all the time. He never forces a putt, or blocks it. He just rolls it, flows right through it. The best putters do that. Tiger does it, Faxon does it, Nicklaus did it."
Pushed further, Lehman was asked what player he would want putting for him if "his life depended upon it."
"With Brad," Lehman said, grinning, "you'd feel pretty confident you'd live to see another day."
Keep it simple
There are no tricks to Faxon's tremendous feel, no brilliant tips to turn hackers into short-grass geniuses. Time and talent are primary — more than half his practice involves the short game — and simplicity is his bottom line.
"I focus on the process, what I have to do — see the line, see the read, and putting it there," he says. "Not taking a whole lot of time to do anything else.
"There's definitely a rhythm. I have a great flow when I'm putting well.
You have to be very decisive. It's better to make up your mind
rather than trying to be correct. There is no exact way you have to putt, no exact speed that's perfect. You can hit it hard, hit it soft ... there's no right or wrong. It's just making sure you know what you want to do and staying with it."
Same from off the green, where Faxon believes his greatest attribute is visualization. At his best, which he was a year ago here, he can look at the ball, look at the flag, and immediately picture his next move.
Those Kodak moments captured an eagle a day last year at Waialae, including one from the face of a 3-wood from off the ninth green. They helped him massage an approach shot through the trees to save par on the 10th hole the final day. They inspired him to chip in on the second hole — Waialae's most difficult — to shrink a potential big number into an ego-building birdie.
It was a week, Faxon admits, where everything went right. It was also his first victory as a remarried man. That those two events coincided was not entirely by chance.
In his 18 years on tour, Faxon has won nearly $10 million and eight tournaments. He bolted into the top 10 in 1996 — when he lost to Jim Furyk in a Hawaiian Open playoff — and '97. But just before his second Ryder Cup appearance, in 1997, his first marriage broke up.
Back from the brink
Faxon didn't win a tournament in 1998, and dropped to 74th on the money list. He faded further in 1999, and broke his left wrist when he fell off a ladder at home.
"The only place Brad can't get up and down from," a former caddy once joked, "is a ladder."
But during Faxon's rehabilitation he met Dory Ricci. He won the B.C. Open a few months later, won it again in 2000, then married Dory, who is about to give birth to their first child. Faxon shares custody of his three daughters from his first marriage, and brought them to Hawai'i this year.
Happiness at home and on the road — "Dory likes to be out here more than I do," Faxon says — has bred success. In 2001, he returned to the top 20, winning nearly $2 million — $720,000 in Hawai'i.
"I love the golf course," Faxon says of Waialae. "It makes you hit shots. ... You've got to get it up and down there. Nobody is going to hit all the greens because they are small and well-trapped. When the wind is blowing, it's hard to get it close to the hole there.
"And, that Bermuda grass is very difficult. It can eat your ball up when you have a little flop shot or little chips around the green."
Waialae plays right into Faxon's soft hands and vivid imagination. He sees a shot, he hits the shot, he sinks a putt. His fundamentals are sound, his eyes peer perfectly over target lines, his arms and hands hang naturally. He reads greens exceptionally well. His pendulum-style putting stroke is poetry in golf motion.
"There is a real rhythmic beat to his stroke — very much a 1-2 rhythm," Nichols says. "People should look at the length of his back and forward strokes. It's very consistent. All the good pendulum putters have that same characteristic. They go back and forward the same distance from the ball. It's like a metronome."
It is a rhythm Faxon has worked on relentlessly, and it upsets him when people assume his gift is God-given. And, despite the red hair, it takes a lot to tick Faxon off. He takes great pride in his putting because it has taken him nearly 40 years to fine-tune and appreciate.
"I try and make putting athletic," Faxon says. "I don't try and make it exact. I like to think I have a nice stroke, but it's not perfect. I don't think you have to be perfect.
"I like to keep it pretty simple. A lot of people want to make it difficult, want to make it technical, want to make it hard, and not enjoyable. But if you can't love putting, it's hard to be a good putter."
There are days when even Brad Faxon is not a good putter. But not in 2001, at Waialae, during the Sony Open in Hawai'i. He shot 64 the first two days and closed with an eagle putt on the 72nd hole that was dead, solid, perfect.
"I could have five-putted and won," recalls Faxon, "but I knew that I was going to make that putt before I putted it. Which is a great feeling. I hit the putt so pure and it went in so dead center. I told a few people that that was the ultimate feeling you want when you putt i to know you've already made it before you putt it."
