Appleby loses putter, finds game at Kapalua
By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM Managing Editor
KAPALUA, Hawaii -- Stuart Appleby was standing on the practice green, about to begin his warm-up session prior to Thursday's first round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, when he noticed something missing in his bag. Specifically, his Odyssey White Hot XG330 mallet putter, the one he used to shoot 59 en route to winning The Greenbrier Classic last year.
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That was the putter that helped the Australian end a three-year victory drought and helped qualify him for this week's winners-only event. Now it was gone, mysteriously disappearing at some point after Appleby's caddie Scott Sajtinac put his bag into the tournament's official storage area.
First response? Both Appleby and Sajtinac racked their brains in hopes of remembering where it might be. But frankly, there was little time to dwell on what they didn't have. Appleby's team, including his manager Matt Judy, needed to find a replacement. And fast.
They did. Appleby, unfazed by the turn of events, used a two-ball Odyssey Black Series putter bought at a nearby pro shop to shoot a solid 4-under 69, putting him firmly in the mix of contenders heading into Friday's second round at the Plantation Course at Kapalua.
"How about that?" Sajtinac said after the round, still impressed with Appleby's ability to adjust to unfortunate circumstances.
Even more impressive is the fact that Appleby led the field Thursday in putting average at 1.462. He needed just 28 putts, tying him with Charley Hoffman, Matt Kuchar and Carl Pettersson for lowest in the field during the first round.
Asked why he seemed so stress-free on the greens despite the loss of his trusty putter, Appleby just shrugged.
"There's not much you can do," he explained. "That's the thing. You can kick and scream, but there's no way it can help you get to the first tee. It is what it is."
What it was prior to Appleby teeing off, however, was plenty of drama.
First, there was the case of the missing putter. No one seems to know what happened, and neither Appleby nor Sajtinac would say that it was definitely stolen.
But considering it's not your ordinary putter -- after all, just five rounds of 59 have been shot in PGA TOUR history -- Appleby did say, "Maybe that's why it magically disappeared."
The race to find a new putter offered its own kind of drama.
The pro shop at the Plantation Course did not have any Odyssey putters, but the nearby academy pro shop did have a handful. So Judy raced down to the pro shop, where four putters were waiting for him. He quickly grabbed them and headed back to the putting green.
Appleby looked at one. No good. Looked at another. No good. Looked at a third. Nope, won't work. Finally, he opted for the Black Series two-ball model, one he had never tried before. The cost was $120, and the bar code sticker was still on the putter shaft when Appleby ended his round. Appleby joked that his room had already been charged.
After spending 10 minutes with his new putter, Appleby was ready to go.
"I knew if I had an Odyssey putter, I was halfway there," he said.
Even so, he had to immediately put his faith in an unfamiliar club, the most important one in his bag. Faith, as Appleby said, is believing in something that isn't real. Or in this case, something unfamiliar.
"I had to have faith ... that I was going to make putts," he said.
He made plenty on Thursday, including a couple outside of 22 feet on the back nine. But that faith might be tested if his old putter pops up somewhere.
Also, Appleby will likely receive a carbon copy of his old putter from Odyssey by Saturday, so he could opt for something that at least looks more familiar to him.
Yet if his new putter stays hot, it might be difficult to switch again.
Of course, it might not matter what Appleby putts with at Kapalua. He won here three consecutive times starting 2004 and knows how to handle the big greens.
"A broomstick," joked his agent, Judy. "That's what we're going to next."
For now, though, Appleby is satisfied with what he has.
"I'll keep that one the rest of the week," he said. "It seemed to work all right."
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