Jarrod Lyle says he’s just a good putting streak from contention.
Lyle, in the middle of his medical exemption and desperately trying to retain his full card on the US PGA Tour, says he hit the ball better in the recent Puerto Rico Open than he had since his return last spring.
And with an invitation to compete in this week’s Texas Open, the Victorian is hopeful good results are just around the corner despite his third missed cut in succession.
“Puerto Rico was … from tee to green … the best I had hit it all year,” Lyle wrote in his blog on Jarrodlylegolf.com.
“The first day it was blowing about 30 miles an hour all day and I missed one fairway for the day. I hit 13 greens and had 14 pars and four bogeys.
“I hit it even better the second day and gave myself about seven putts from inside 10 feet for birdie and missed them all.
“I did something that I have never done before on the golf course and that’s have 18 straight pars.
“I was extremely disappointed with the week, but took a lot away from it.
“There are so many positives; my ball striking is getting to the place where I feel I can be competitive, my course planning is where it needs to be (and) I am thinking my way around the course very well and keeping myself out of trouble.”
But in typically jovial fashion, the 33-year-old has a cunning plan to arrest his problems on the greens.
“The putting stroke is where it needs to be, I just need someone to either stop moving the hole when I putt or make the holes bigger!” he wrote.
Lyle said the TPC San Antonio for this week’s event had a “bit of an Australian feel around the place” with Steve Bowditch the defending champ and the course designed by Greg Norman.
“It’s a course that I have played a few times now and I like the feel of it. You need to be straight off the tee and need to be very precise with your irons,” he said.
“I am confident that with the work I have been doing on my putting that some putts will drop. “Putting is a confidence thing and I haven’t had a lot of that lately, but I can see things starting to turn the corner.”
Lyle has a medical exemption from his second battle with leukaemia that allows him to play 20 US PGA Tour events.
If he can earn approximately $US300,000, he will retain his card.
Since his return in October, Lyle has won $US53,795 in five events.