Sanderson Farms Championship Recap: Eyes off the Prize

A big deal was made during the Sanderson Farms Championship that Sergio Garcia was putting with his eyes closed. Hey, if putting with your eyes open doesn't work, why not? Just to confirm, Garcia keeps his eyes open when using his other clubs, and he hit two such spectacular approach shots on Sunday that, if they had happened in a major, would be talked about forever.

Garcia boomed a 5-wood from 260 yards to three feet for a kick-in eagle on No. 14 to tie for the lead. He then lasered an 8-iron from 171 yards to two and a half feet on 18 for a walk-off birdie to win the tournament by one shot over tough-luck runner-up Peter Malnati.

The victory suddenly put a difficult year of golf in a new light for Garcia, who struggled mightily after the restart. He missed the cut at both majors, failed to make the FedExCup playoffs and last week fell out of the top 50 in the world rankings for the first time in almost a decade. And then after Garcia had his finest golf moment of the year, he disclosed personal tragedy, that he had lost two uncles to the coronavirus, one at the beginning of the pandemic and another just days before this tournament.

It was just the latest example of how we never fully know what's going on in an athlete's life, how there could be more to a poor performance than just playing poorly. Twitter, take note.

Through it all, however, Garcia remained one of the elite ball strikers in the game today and perhaps all-time. He finished last season ranked third on Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and fourth in SG: Tee-to-Green. He was 27th in driving distance at an average of more than 305 yards. He even ranked 22nd in SG: Around-the-Green. Putting? That's another story. Garcia's problems have been well documented throughout the years, and he ranked 187th last year.

Which brings us to Jackson, Miss., where observers on Thursday noticed Garcia putting with his eyes closed, something he said he's dabbled with for a few years. Well, beside leading the field in SG: Off-the-Tee, Tee-to-Green and greens in regulation, he ranked 28th in putting, gaining strokes all four days. Not many, but enough, especially on Sunday.

Just imagine closing your eyes, even for a 30-inch putt, with more than a million dollars on the line. It didn't take long for Garcia to open them, however, as he pumped his fist and grinned as the ball disappeared into the cup. If you close your eyes are you too afraid to look? That takes stones, actually.

The win extended a remarkable streak. Despite the fine folks at the Golf Channel saying it was Garcia's first win on Tour since 2017 -- which is true -- he has actually won at least one tournament somewhere in the world for 10 straight years now. This victory also moved him back inside the top 50 of the OWGR, to No. 38.

This was Garcia's first win as a 40-year-old. He's a family man with two young kids -- a man far removed from the scissor-kicking teenager who burst on the scene to duel Tiger Woods at Medinah more than two decades ago.

In other words, he has interests off the course, more than he'd ever had before. We had wondered whether his poor season, one in which he played only 12 times on Tour, signaled a turning point in his career. But, again, we didn't know the full story. 

Maybe this kick-starts Garcia's 2020-21 season. He looked happy on the golf course for the first time in seemingly forever. He now heads to Vegas for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The Masters is only six weeks away.

Would he actually putt with his eyes closed on the diabolical Augusta greens?

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Peter Malnati
The 2015 winner of this event shot an early 63 on Sunday and watched it stand up until the final shot of the tournament. It's a tough way to lose, but when your career had been going like Malnati's, a runner-up means everything. For one, he's already secured enough points to lock up his card for 2021-22. Since winning the tournament out of nowhere five years ago, Malnati had had only three top-10s in 135 tournaments and missed the cut in almost half of them. But he's an elite putter, and therefore always has a puncher's chance.

Keegan Bradley
Bradley tied for fourth, his first top-10 in more than a year. Heck, he hadn't had even a top-25 since January as he tumbled outside the top-100 in the world rankings. His game is similar to Garcia's in that he's very good off the tee and terrible on the green. But he ranked 27th in the field in SG: Putting, one position better than Garcia. Bradley is back inside the top 100 at No. 93.

Tyler McCumber
The runner-up two weeks ago at Puntacana tied for sixth. That's 300 FedEx Cup points plus 83 more. That would've placed him 125th in the standings for the 2018-19 season -- the last campaign in which the full schedule was played. In other words, he's all but certain to keep his Tour card beyond this year.

Maverick McNealy
McNealy finished 17th but totaled more DraftKIngs points than some players that finished top-10. That's because he sank a tournament-best 23 birdies after leading the field in putting. Rarely is a golfer's place on the leaderboard that different from his position on the DraftKings leaderboard, but it was this time. The 24-year-old McNealy now heads to Vegas, where he lives, for the Shriners this week.

Cameron Davis
He began the final round tied for the lead in the final group with Garcia. But a 3-over 73 relegated him to a tie for sixth. It was the second time in a little more than a month that the 25-year-old Aussie contended. He shot 64-65 in the first two rounds at the Northern Trust – a loaded field playoff event – before fading on the weekend. It appears that Davis is finally coming.

MJ Daffue
In the spring, he was ranked in the 1300s OWGR while playing on the Korn Ferry Tour. But his last five starts have come on the PGA Tour. He not only has made four cuts, he has two top-25s, including a tie for 12th at the Sanderson. He's in the field for this week's Shriners.

Brandt Snedeker
He was in the mix for only the second time all year but faded on Sunday to drop from T4 to T17. A tie for third at his beloved Torrey Pines remains his only top-10 in more than a year. In 11 tournaments since the restart, this was Snedeker's only finish inside the top-40. At 40 years old, Snedeker appears to be fading fast, now 78th OWGR.

Doug Ghim
The former top-ranked amateur in the world arrived at the Sanderson ranked just inside the top-500 in the OWGR. He had played 19 tournaments since last year's Sanderson with only seven made cuts. But four of them had come in his past six starts, and three of those were top-20s. Now add a top-25 to the sudden surge for the 24-year-old, who may now be finding his way.

Scottie Scheffler
There's not much to be gleaned from Scheffler's tie for 37th. It was his first time out since testing positive before the U.S. Open. He appeared headed for a missed cut, then turned in a Friday 67 only to do little on the weekend. We expect a better performance this week now that he has a tournament under his belt.

Henrik Stenson
Stenson missed the cut at both majors, then tied for 21st at the weakest field in years (Puntacana), then missed the cut again last week. He hasn't had many reps this year. But then again, maybe he's showing 44 years of age. He's down to 46th in the world rankings. He hasn't been out of the top 50 since 2013.
 
Matthias Schwab
Give him credit, he could've been playing in weaker European fields. The Austrian came over after the restart but has not fared well on the PGA Tour. In eight tournaments, he missed four cuts, including both majors. His only top-30 was a tie for third at the opposite-field Barracuda Championship. Now he's missed the cut at the Sanderson. Schwab is about to fall out of the top-100 but perhaps these past few months will pay off down the road.