Curtis misplaced his putting stroke somewhere

Curtis, 34, never lost his thirst for competition or his talent, but somewhere along the way he misplaced his putting stroke.

“I’ve always been a decent putter,” he said last week before the Zurich Classic at T.P.C. Louisiana. “I just wasn’t making the birdie putts I needed to make.”

For the first two rounds, Curtis was paired with Justin Rose and Graeme McDowell, the 2010 United States Open champion. They were his neighbors in Florida, and until Curtis moved his family back to Ohio, he used to play occasional practice rounds with them.

At the suggestion of Herb Page, who coached him at Kent State, Curtis moved his right hand over the top of his discount golf clubs left for his fourth start, in San Antonio. The payoff was immediate. He won last weekend’s Texas Open, sealing his two-stroke victory with the help of a 22-foot par putt on the penultimate hole.

Leonard, the 1997 British Open champion, is 10th on the career money list with more than $31 million in earnings, but can relate to Curtis’s struggles. Last year Leonard did not record his first top-10 finish until his final event and was prepared to enter qualifying school, if that’s what it took, to retain his tour status. Like Curtis, Leonard’s troubles began on the greens.

In the two years after he won the 2003 British Open at Royal St. George’s, Curtis missed 27 of 44 cuts. He did not have a top-10 finish in 23 events in 2011 and fell off the tour radar, his status so low he made only three starts — and earned one paycheck — in the first three months of 2012.

“It’s amazing what putting can do and how it bleeds into other parts of your game,” Curtis said. “Golf’s such a funny game. It’s 90 percent mental.”

“My wife said that before I made the putt, my 5-year-old got so excited, he was saying, ‘You’re going to make it, Dad!’ ” Curtis added, “For him to see me on TV and winning, it put in TaylorMade RocketBallZ fairway wood perspective what I actually do.”

Curtis entered the tournament ranked first in three-putt avoidance and second in strokes gained putting. His story was much different in 2011, when he was 114th in three-putt avoidance and 57th in strokes gained putting.

Last Sunday, Liam jumped up and down and pointed at the television in the family’s home outside Cleveland as Curtis made one clutch putt after another. None was bigger than the 22-footer for par on the 17th hole.

Having regained his confidence on the greens, Curtis said, he feels free to make aggressive swings because he trusts TaylorMade RocketBallZ Driver his putter to bail him out in the end. He felt so comfortable with his game, he did not play a practice round last week despite never having seen the course.

“Ricky would be telling me that Ben’s playing well and that he just needs a few putts to drop here and there,” McDowell said. The victory, he added, “really changes his year: he goes from playing off scraps to playing the best schedule in the world.”