Adam Long had quite a Sunday on the greens at the Stadium Course at PGA West. In winning the Desert Classic for his first victory on the US PGA Tour, Long made seven birdies in a final-round 65, including birdie putts of 16, 15, 20 and, after a magnificent iron shot on the 72nd hole, 13 feet.
If some were surprised by his prowess with the putter, Long was not. “You can make a lot of putts because these greens on all three courses are just perfect,” Long said after Saturday’s third round. “So you can make them from all over.”
Long’s strokes gained mark of 2.886 in the final round seemingly attested to that fact, as did his ranking atop the field in putts per green in regulation.
Long uses a Scotty Cameron by Titleist X5R mallet putter – a design with “wings” to help boost moment of inertia to provide better performance on mis-hits. The design hollows the area underneath the soleplate, moving the weight to the wings on the perimeter to achieve this.
As for the achievement of winning his first PGA Tour event, again, Long, despite his shocked look after making the final putt, had confidence after 54 holes. Asked if he was surprised at his fast start, Long said, “I had some pretty good hopes, I guess, because I played well in my practice rounds and made a lot of birdies and felt pretty good leading up to Thursday, so I would have been surprised had I not had a good start.”
As it turned out, he had a pretty good finish, too.
What Adam Long had in the bag at the Desert Classic:
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: TaylorMade M4 (Project X Even Flow Black 6.0), 8.5 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade M4, 15 degrees
Hybrid: TaylorMade M3, 19 degrees
Irons (4-PW): TaylorMade P760
Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind (52, 56 degrees); TaylorMade Milled Grind Hi-Toe (60 degrees)
Putter: Scotty Cameron by Titleist X5R