Turning Stone Championship round four: Flesch spins a load of balls

The story of how Steve Flesch suddenly began playing tournament-winning golf is a load of balls, quite literally. After duly wrapping up this one without too much sweat he talked of how his season had been going to hell in a handcart, to the point where it sounded as if he was ready to chuck it all in. Then came his eureka moment: he changed virtually all his gear and hit his way to a confidence-inspiring 5th place in the US Bank Championship in July. What followed was a pretty spectacular run of results that has brought him close on $2m he never thought he’d be looking before that Milwaukee breakthrough.

The vital element in the change of gear was the golf ball. He swallowed hard and ripped up the contract with his ball supplier - he discretely chooses not to name them - and went in search of a ball that suited his game, one that spun. The problem he identified was that most popular golf balls these days are dedicated to turning us all into bombers, at the expense of the spin that deft iron players like to use. So instead of buying the driver and then the balls, he bought the balls first and then found a driver that worked best with them. “The industry has taken so much spin off the golf ball; that’s the only way that skill players like ourselves can control the ball…. It’s not all about the driver.”

And so it came to pass that the best part of Flesch’s game, his iron play which had been rubbish for the past three years and more, suddenly came to life again and rescued him from oblivion. He topped the tournament for greens in regulation. Eat your heart out Hans Christian Andersen.

It has to be said that Flesch’s successes have so far come in second-string events like Milwaukee, Reno and this first ‘Fall Series’ tournament, but it’s early days with the new set-up and you can probably count on him not to rest on his laurels because he now needs to protect the 25th place in the money list he’s earned himself - majors all the way next year.

I wonder how much of a mad panic for the exits his backers made when he bogeyed his first two holes Sunday. It really was the perfect opportunity for Carl Pettersson to come back at him, but the Swede proved not up to the task, effectively robbing us of any competition. He had his share of bad luck, but in these sort of situations you have to make your luck and he just collapsed.

In the end Flesch’s two-stroke lead distinctly flattered his chasers, although Michael Allen can feel justifiably miffed that his birdie shot to the 15th was squeezed out of the hole and off the green by the flagstick. Sunday’s round was mightily similar to Flesch’s victory at Reno last month: windy conditions and firming greens keeping scores down - at 72.6 Atunyote played more than two strokes harder than the rest of the week - and Steve doing just enough to sit on a big overnight lead.

Not surprisingly he was gushing about the course, but there was more than the odd complaint that the greens were far too soft for a professional event like this. And what a subdued affair it was, especially coming slap bang after the FedEx Cup. Most punters just melted away and the Betfair winner market never even made it over the £1m mark. It’s going to be worse this coming week, with all eyes, cameras and microphones on the Presidents Cup.