DUBLIN, Ohio – Last Saturday, Ryan Palmer had to return to Muirfield Village for one final hole to put the finishing touches on a second-round 81 at the Workday Charity Open and an ignoble early exit.
Instead of moping around Dublin waiting for this week’s Memorial he flew home to Texas and decided to make a change.
“[Caddie James Edmondson] mentioned we’ve got to find something different, and he mentioned getting the old putter that I’ve used forever,” Palmer explained.
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Palmer found the old putter, an early generation Odyssey Rossie II, that had been in his bag since his college days before falling out of favor around 2015. He also spent a day working with swing coach Randy Smith and when he returned to Muirfield Village he arranged a very specific practice round.
“I called Steve Stricker wanting to play nine holes with him and I wanted his advice on my short game,” Palmer said. “He showed me some things that I was doing wrong and what he does, what he concentrates on, and I put the work into it last night.”
All that work added up to a first-round 67 and second place on the leaderboard just behind Tony Finau as well as one of the most proficient putting days of Palmer’s career. He needed just 22 putts, including eight one-putts on his opening nine (he started on No. 10). He was also 9-for-9 in scrambling.
“That was a good text I sent to [Stricker],” he smiled.