02/04/2016
Golf comes so easy to Lexi Thompson she's decided to putt with her eyes closed
Not even 21, Lexi Thompson has mastered golf to the point where she doesn't even need to look at the ball or the hole when she putts. OK, so that reason is not exactly true, but Thompson has turned to the unorthodox method of closing her eyes on the greens in an attempt to improve her putting. And so far, so good.
“It feels like I’m burning a hole through the golf ball with my eyes sometimes,” Thompson told reporters at the Coates Golf Championship after an opening 69.
Thompson began practicing putting with her eyes closed during last year's season-ending event. The drill helped her stroke enough to the point she decided to try the method under tournament pressure this season. She finished T-17 at last week's season-opening event, the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic.
“I basically just feel it in my stroke and and take a deep breath,” Thompson told Golfweek.
Known more for her power, Thompson, already a six-time winner on the LPGA Tour, certainly has room to improve when it comes to putting. Last year, she finished 37th on tour in putts per greens in regulation and 114th in putting average.
Thompson isn't the first tour pro to try putting with their eyes closed. Most notably, Johnny Miller did it during his win at the 1994 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-am, the final of his 25 PGA Tour titles.
