Repeat wins on golf tours the current rage

If you missed the story on last night’s world news, Thailand’s Boonchu Ruangkit turned in a deafening performance at the Senior Masters, held in his native land. Ruangkit signed for scores of 64-66-65 (he gave no excuses for the middle round) to finish 21 under and 11 shots clear of a visibly-distressed, second-place trio. This performance by itself would mark a mile for any champion; that it represents Ruangkit’s second European Senior Tour title in 8 days (playoff win in Brunei last Sunday over Frankie Minoza of Phillipines) makes us wonder if something is in the performance water this year.

Why? you might ask…Ai Miyazato opened the LPGA season with consecutive victories and Fred Couples has won back-to-back on the US Senior Tour (known by some as the Champions Tour, as if those guys needed an ego massage or some such.) Given that ticking clock, can Camillo Villegas return from six shots down on Sunday to win at Doral? I doubt it. We’ll have to look to today’s champion next week at Innisbrook Copperhead for that double.

If you press a champion on how she or he strings together multiple, consecutive wins, the ultimate answer comes down to putting. The putter, after all, gets the ball in the hole. Although Robert Allenby has holed out this week at Doral for eagle 1, eagle 2 and eagle 3, no one counts on hole-outs on any professional tour to make the difference. Only the putter, the club you use on every single green, can effect a 5-6 stroke difference.

On the tours, everyone has a sublime game from tee to green. Some players are a little better with the wedges and will save 2-3 shots with a combination of a pitch, a chip and a long sand shot. You won’t see five hole-outs from sand nor six sunken chips. You will witness flat-stroke wizardry from the young and the old, the female and the male, as someone gets on a role.

Ernie Els is putting extremely well this week, but he’s not entered in the Transitions in Tampa, so I won’t pick him. Charl Schwartzel is not on the entry list, either, so the South African apprentice gets a prediction pass from me. The most likely guy to win this week and next is Padraig Harrington. He’s in third place after three rounds and probably steaming after a three-jack on the 54th green yesterday. Paddy might come out stoked, he might make an early move and he might head across the state to Innisbrook with a fire in his belly and a trophy in the passenger seat.

If you’d like a double-deal dark horse, consider Bill Haas for these three reasons:
1. He has one victory this year;
2. He is a Haas…remember Jay? Once they figure out how to win, they are capable of winning in bunches;
3. He survived a MAJOR hiccough yesterday, making three bogeys in his first seven holes to stand +2 for the round, by finishing with four birds and seven pars over the final 11 strands. He’s a mere three seats behind the driver.