Not Badds: Aaron finishes 3rd in Texas

Australia’s Aaron Baddeley notched his best finish of the season by far by finishing 3rd at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday.

“Badds” as he is popularly known bounced back from an opening round of 75 to shoot 66 in the second round. After poor weather had forced a 36 hole Sunday finish, the Aussie fired rounds of 67 and 68 on the marathon final day to finish at 12 under par for the tournament, 2 shots behind eventual winner and fellow Aussie Adam Scott.

While it was the end of a long victory drought for Scott on the US PGA Tour, Baddeley would be encouraged that he too is not too far from winning form and ending a drought of his own (his last victory came at the 2007 FBR Open). Going through swing changes while competing at the highest level can be tough for even the most talented players in the world, however with his performance this week Baddeley seems to have turned a corner.

Baddeley returned to his childhood coach Dale Lynch earlier this year after having experimented with other swing methods. The pair had plenty of success early in Baddeley’s career as he lifted the 1999 Australian Open as an amateur and retained his title the following year having turned professional. He has been looking to return to the same principles in his game that brought him all that success, the basis of which is taking a holistic approach to golf as outlined in Dale Lynch and his coaching partner Steve Bann’s Pure Golf Training program.

The numbers:

Baddeley was typically strong on the greens this week ranking T4 for Putts Per Round (26) and 3rd for Putts Per Green In Regulation (1.574). He also bombed it off the tee ranking 2nd in driving distance (averaging 310.5 yards). Driving Accuracy (57.1 %- T25) and Greens in Regulation (65.3%- T24) might be two areas in which he did quite well but might look to improve a bit to get him over the line for that win.

With Baddeley’s putting talent, more greens will surely mean more birdies. More birdies ought to lead to that breakthrough win sooner rather than later.

Thanks to the Pure Golf Training team for this article, and well done Badds!