Winning Ways

Last updated: 1st February 2010

ROBERT KARLSSON - QATAR MASTERS CHAMPION

In the bag

Driver - Titleist 909D2
Fairway-wood - Titleist 909F3
Irons - Titleist MB
Wedges - Titleist Vokey Spin Milled & Vokey TVD
Putter - Scott Cameron Prototype
Ball - Titleist ProV1

Turning point

There were two.

The first came on the 14th hole when the event was transformed from a five player shootout into a head-to-head between Robert Karlsson and Lee Westwood; then, two holes later, that head to head was decided.

To deal with the 14th first, Karlsson and Westwood teed off with Bradley Dredge in close attendance and Brett Rumford and Alvaro Quiros a little further back.

Both players found the fairway and then proceeded to hit their approaches to ten and three feet. Westwood holed his longer birdie putt first and Karlsson followed him in.

Unbeknown to them Dredge was recording a double bogey as they did so, and the others were struggling to break par - it was now a head to head between Europe's number one ranked players in 2008 and 2009.

The two were ultimately separated two holes later on the deceptively easy short par four 16th hole.

At just over 300 yards it is an apparently straightforward birdie opportunity but it proved it had teeth when the two leaders played it.

Westwood hit an errant drive, failed to pitch close from the rough and then three-putted the grainy green; Karlsson's one shot advantage had been doubled, granting him the freedom to hit his tee shot close on the par-three 17th, more or less confirming the win there and then.

Stats

The stats prove that Karlsson's game was in superb shape.

If a player ranks fourth for Greens in Regulation (hitting 77.8% of the greens) and third for both putting categories (Putts per Round and Putt Average), then he is going to be pretty hard to beat.

Karlsson also completed every sand save he attempted and only 13 players who made the cut hit the ball further from the tee box. Little wonder he was such a tough opponent to crack.

One interesting stat in Doha was Driving Accuracy. Before the event started, Kenny Perry echoed many when he said: "Literally, this golf course is all about driving it in the fairway. The guy that does well this week will probably be the guy that hits the most fairways."

Add in the new groove regulations which are designed to place added emphasis on driving accuracy and the fact that the gnarly rough was enough to have some players complaining about tough lies, you'd think the top players must have hit lots of fairways.

Err ... in actual fact none of the top eight finished in the top 20 for Driving Accuracy.

Insight

After Wednesday's Pro-am Ian Poulter tweeted, "Good day folks, just finished Pro-am in Qatar, wind was blowing 35MPH, course nearly unplayable, same tomorrow, scoring will be brutal."

And so it proved as the morning starters struggled to break 70 - with one exception.

Karlsson's four-under par 68 didn't give him the round one lead but his round was the lowest of those playing in the worst conditions and allowed him to stay in the event.

He added two 70s before completing his tournament with a best of the week 65 that swept him to a three-shot victory.

In his words

Karlsson lost much of the 2009 season to an eye injury and admitted after his comeback win that he struggled on his return to the tour.

"It was definitely tough," he said, "because I was hoping I had not lost that much, but being out for such a long time, the form was harder when I actually started playing.

"It was hard to not get down on myself. I played poorly and it definitely felt tough."

His fortunes began to improve towards the end of November: "At Hong Kong I showed some signs, and going to Japan, playing really well there was very important.

"And then to keep building on that in the World Cup with Henrik was great, then I steadily moved on from there."

BEN CRANE - FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN WINNER

In the bag

Driver - Titleist 909D2
Fairway-woods - TaylorMade V Steel
Hybrid - Titleist 909H
Irons - Titleist AP2
Wedges - Titleist Vokey Design & Spin Milled CC
Putter - Odyssey White Hot #5
Ball - Titleist ProV1x

Turning point

Crane made an early move in round four and it proved decisive.

On the 387-yard par-four second hole he hit his approach shot to three-feet and converted the birdie to move to within one shot of the leader (and his playing partner) Ryuji Imada.

On the dramatic 198-yard par-three third hole the lead flip-flopped: Crane drained an enormous 46-foot birdie putt and then watched Imada complete a messy bogey.

Once in charge Crane never relinquished control, adding another birdie on the fifth hole and extending the advantage on the 11th (with another putt of over 40-feet) giving himself a buffer he ultimately needed when a couple of nervous putts on the back stretch contributed to two bogies.

Stats

Crane's success was built entirely on his ability to hit the greens in regulation.

He didn't just top the rankings because in hitting 87.5% of the greens he hit 5.6% more than the next best player.

That figure might have been even more impressive had he not dropped the standard on Saturday. In round one he hit 94.4% of the greens, he made 88.9% on both Friday and Sunday, with "only" 77.8% found on Saturday.

Insight

A player's approach to winning has been a running theme on the PGA Tour in 2010 - quite literally so in the case of Tim Clark, Bubba Watson and Michael Sim who have all layed up on par-fives at critical moments.

All three of those players were deemed guilty being overly-cautious with their strategy and lacking conviction when the pressure was toughest.

The third deadly sin on Sunday (according to some) is "not looking at the leaderboard" and Crane bucked the 2010 trend in being guilty of one of these offences and still winning.

When he rolled in the final shot of the tournament (a short putt of two or three feet) there was no fist pump, wide smile or jump for joy. Instead Crane looked around in a vaguely bewildered state.

One observer thought they lip-read him ask his caddie, "Did I win?"

Crane himself revealed: "The first person that told me was Ryuji. He goes, 'Congratulations.' And I go, 'Did I win?' He kind of looks at me. I said, 'Did I win the tournament?' He's like, 'Yeah.' I'm like, 'Alright thanks.'"

Crane is known as the slowest professional golfer on the planet and he didn't disappoint when he won - it took him longer than any other winner to realise he could celebrate.

In his words

Now a three-time winner on Tour Crane explained after this triumph that he wants this one to be different: "In the past when I've played well, I think I've rested on it, and I think I have a better plan in place this year."

In the close-season he and his team got together to re-evaluate his career, a process that makes him comfortable with the idea of not being complacent again.

"We all sat down and said, what are the things we need to improve on and what are the things we think we're doing well. We pulled up every stat for the last nine years. It was kind of fun.

"One of the things is I need to play ready golf. I've been too slow in the past, and it's bothered me.

"We also determined that when I finish a round, we talk differently about the round. We don't talk directly about results, we talk about the process I went through before, during and after every shot and how that went. And to judge myself based on that as opposed to just the outcome."