Lee Hodges gets a costly lesson on how to win

On Sunday in the California Desert, Lee Hodges got the most expensive – and possibly most important – golf lesson of his life.

The lesson subject: What it takes to win on Tour. The lesson fee: About $965,000 upfront and another million or two over the next 18 months.

That $965,000 is the difference between the $1.368 million champion Hudson Swafford earned in winning the American Express Sunday and the $402,800 Hodges earned in tying for third, three strokes behind. The additional million or two is the amount Swafford will realize – and Hodges will not — thanks to guaranteed spots in the Masters, the Players, the PGA, and the Tournament of Champions, plus any other events to which a Tour champion is guaranteed entry for the next two years.

Hodges entered Sunday’s final round tied for first with fellow tour rookie Paul Barjon, both at 18-under. That was one stroke ahead of eventual runner-up Tom Hoge and three ahead of Swafford, who began final round play in a tie for fourth.

It’s not that Hodges played poorly Sunday. He shot 70, about one stroke below the field average for the final round.

But the lesson Swafford demonstrated in overtaking Hodges Sunday is that merely playing decently isn’t good enough to hold the trophy against fields as deep and talented as those on Tour. You have to go out and kick butt, start to finish.

That’s what Swafford did in firing a final 64, the week’s fourth-lowest round. (Hodges shot a 62, but that was on Thursday.) And Swafford, with the advantage of having won twice previously on Tour, took particular advantage of his less-tested competitor on the Stadium Course’s greens.

Sunday’s putting numbers provide stark evidence of how the veteran overtook the rookie.

Swafford needed only 25 putts to complete his play Sunday, six fewer than Hodges.

He holed 119 feet worth of putts, dropping a 45-footer on the 10th, a12-footer on the sixth, and a 10-footer on the 14th. Hodges made only 50 feet worth of putts during his final round  — that’s basically a tap-in every hole – and only once drained one from outside five feet. That was a 13-footer for birdie at the second hole.

On the back nine, with Swafford catching and passing him, Hodges used up 17 putts and never made anything from outside five feet.

The result was foreordained. Swafford ran through the back nine in 31 strokes, with an eagle and five birdies…partly offset by two bogeys. Hodges played the same nine in even par 36, his lone birdie offset by a pushed six-foot par putt that sailed two feet by at 13.

The lesson was probably all the more difficult for Hodges to swallow because despite his rudimentary front nine he managed to hold or share the lead through the 11th hole. It wasn’t until Swafford dropped his 96-yard wedge approach within four feet at the par 4 12th – then ran in the birdie putt – that the rookie lost his lead.

Playing one group behind, Hodges sent his own wedge at the same hole 22 feet short, then watched his own birdie try to lick the cup’s left rim before rolling four feet by. He made the par putt coming back.

Hodges remained within a stroke of Swafford through 15 holes, although by then he was tied for second with Hoge and Lanto Griffin.

But on the 560-yard par 5 16th, he watched from the tee as Swafford sent his 201 yard second shot within eight feet of the flag, then rolled home the eagle. Hodges’ 219 yard second shot stopped 33 feet short in the front fringe, condemning him to a mere birdie.

When Hodges followed Swafford’s 20-foot birdie putt at 17 with a 17-foot birdie try of his own that stopped a maddening two inches short, the lesson was over and all that remained was for Swafford to collect his teaching fee.

Beyond the schooling he received from Swafford, the day was not a total loss for Hodges. The rookie roughly quadrupled his season-earnings-to-date, from about $119,000 to about $521,000. He ran his total of FedEx Cup points total to 200 and improved his standing on the season-long list from 145th to 52nd.

It took about 440 points by last season’s end to qualify among the top 125, so Hodges isn’t there yet…but at least this showing puts him in the running. That’s not bad for a rookie.

But it is one more area where Swafford got the better of Hodges Sunday. The victory gave Swafford enough FedEx Cup points to leap from 123rd position at week’s start to seventh. With 573 points already locked away, he’s all but formally guaranteed a spot in the big-money season-end events.