The story of how one player went from missing cut after cut to winning on the European Tour.
The problem was not obvious
A run of missed cuts feels like everything is broken. The stats almost always say otherwise: one department has collapsed and the rest are fine.
Here the ball striking held up week after week. The damage was concentrated in the short game and in a small number of catastrophic holes.
Big numbers cost more than bad putting
Doubles and worse are cut killers. Two of them in a Thursday round means the rest of the day has to be exceptional just to reach par.
Tracking penalty situations, recovery decisions and up and down rates exposed the pattern: aggressive recoveries from trouble that turned bogeys into doubles.
The change
A simple rule replaced instinct. From trouble, take the shot that guarantees a putt at bogey rather than the one that might save par.
The scoring average dropped, cuts started falling on the right side, and the win followed. Nothing about the swing changed.