I played in another competition this morning at Dunbar, and as usual I got out to the pro shop around 10 minutes before my tee time - plenty of time to check in, hit a dozen practice putts or so, take half-a-dozen practice swings with the driver and then get going. (That's all I really want or need these days in terms of pregame preparation.) But when I looked in my bag for my putter, it wasn't there. You may remember that I mentioned I now have artificial turf and a few holes cut into my backyard...well, on Tuesday my 11-year-old son and father-in-law were messing around with a few putters back there, and when they came inside they put my putter into the wrong bag. So I had to borrow a putter from one of the rental sets in the pro shop - a TaylorMade Ardmore 2, one of those ugly-ass red things with a massive grip - and it couldn't have been much different to what I normally use. I had time to hit three practice putts and that's it, and while I did make a couple of six-to-eight-footers in the round, I also missed two three-footers and hit several dodgy lag putts that also cost me strokes. Which sucks, because on a very difficult day (with a fierce, cold wind from the east) I shot a 79, which as things stand is one off the lead (gross). The CSS for today looks like it's going to be 75, three shots harder than normal, so my handicap should drop by 0.1, but I can't help but wondering if I might have won the whole thing with a putter I trusted.