Allenby's solid, but just imagine if he could putt

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Robert Allenby has struggled to find his way with the putter.

It's one of the most helpless feelings in golf.

You're splitting every fairway, hitting almost every green. But when you pull out your putter, you feel like Roberto Duran. Not the "no mas" part, but the "hands of stone."

Robert Allenby experienced that awful feeling at last week's Turning Stone Resort Championship. He led the field in greens in regulation at 83.8 percent -- and he led the tournament by two shots with five holes to play. But his inability to make any putts -- and we mean ANY putts -- cost him a chance to end his seven-year victory drought on the PGA TOUR.

The 72nd hole said it all. Allenby, tied with Dustin Johnson for the lead, had a 12-foot uphill putt to take the lead. But he inexplicably left the putt a few inches short, and could only watch as Johnson confidently rolled in his 8-footer for his first PGA TOUR win.

Missing the putt was frustrating enough. How he missed it was the agonizing part.

"If you're short," Allenby said, "it ain't going to go in."

Thing is, Allenby was short with virtually all of his putts on the back nine of this tournament that seemed destined for him to win. He said he "probably had the worst putting round of my life" in Saturday's third round and "lost my nerve with the putter" afterward.

Allenby was only half-joking when he said he punished his putter after the third round. "I took the putter home with me and slept with it handcuffed to the bed with me on the other side," he said.

Maybe Allenby should have showed the putter some love. Hey, it worked for Camilo Villegas, who kissed his putter before it made a clutch birdie putt while winning last week's TOUR Championship Presented by Coca-Cola.

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Robert Allenby of Australia reacts to his missed birdie putt on the 18th on Sunday.

Every golfer has a day like Allenby, where they leave a half-dozen shots on the greens. Problem is, Allenby has had too many of those days lately. Not once at Turning Stone did he have less than 30 putts in a round, ranking 63rd in the field with an average of 31.5 putts a day.

And so it's gone this season. The 37-year-old Australian ranks third on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation (69.5 percent), but he's 177th in putts per round at 29.93.

According to ShotLink, he struggles with different lengths of putts. He's 95th in converting putts 5 feet and under (96.2 percent), 133rd in putts from 5-10 feet (53.4 percent) and 164th in putts from 10-15 feet (26.6 percent). That's why it has been 188 starts since he won the last of his four PGA TOUR titles, the 2001 Pennsylvania Classic.

What's amazing is, despite his problems with the flat stick, Allenby has had a fabulous season. He ranks 12th on the money list with a career-best $3.45 million, has missed just one cut in 26 starts and has eight top-10 finishes and 16 in the top 25. He almost ended his victory drought when he lost a playoff to Justin Leonard at the Stanford St. Jude Championship.

Just imagine what he could have done with an average putting season, not a Ben Crenshaw kind of year.

"It's very disappointing, because I've played very well this year," Allenby said.

Allenby has worked hard to improve his putting in recent years. He often works with countryman Ian Baker-Finch, the 1991 British Open champion who still possesses a solid short game.

"Putting is so much confidence," Baker-Finch said. "Once Robert starts making some putts, a lot more will go in."

Not any time soon, though. Allenby admits he's so downcast over letting this tournament get away, he's probably going to skip a few of the Fall Series events. "I need a few weeks to recover from this one," he said.

What Allenby should do is follow the leads of Vijay Singh and Villegas, who recently convinced themselves they were great putters even thought the results show otherwise. Hey, it worked, because Singh and Villegas both won two consecutive tournaments to finish 1-2 in the FedExCup standings.

Perhaps Allenby should have a hypnotist stand next to his coach and remind him, over and over, "You are a great putter."

It sure beats that helpless feeling.

Craig Dolch is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.