Profile / Editor / 11 April 2007 / Leave a Comment

A few years ago, there was a very grave danger that Aaron Baddeley would join the list of players who failed to fulfil the immense promise they showed during the early stages of their careers.

But that is happily not the case for the young Australian who has emerged over the last 18 months as one of the growing new forces in the game and a rival to the best in the world.

Baddeley shot to fame in 1999 when he won the Australian Open as an 18-year-old amateur and his star continued to rise the following year when he successfully defended the title in his first year as a professional.

The 26-year-old, who was born in America but raised in Australia from the age of two, found life a struggle initially when he returned to the country of his birth to try his luck on the PGA Tour. The best he managed in the standings, until last year, was 78th in 2005.

But 2006 was a breakthrough year for Baddeley as he showed the strength in both his mind and body to fight back in the final nine holes of the Verizon Heritage to eagle the last hole, beating world number two Jim Furyk by one stroke to claim his maiden PGA tournament success.

His game seems to have come on leaps and bounds since then, and Baddeley will have high hopes this week that he can mount a successful defence of his Heritage crown. He can be backed at 42 to win, 9.2 to come in the first five and 6 to finish as the top Australian.

The new season is barely three months old but Baddeley is already on course for his best ever year. Having added to his 2006 win with victory at the FBR Open, he has also managed two other top ten finishes, including a sixth place at the WGC-CA Championship.

Baddeley's big strength lies with a putter in his hand. He finished top of the putting statistics in 2006 after averaging 27.96 putts per round and he lies ninth in the table this year.

The Australian may be well down in the number of greens in regulation he hits per round, but his birdie conversion rate ranks in the top five which makes him a force in any tournament he plays.

He is also a player to watch in the final round at events as he scores better in that round than any other during a week, as he proved at the FBR Open when he came from six shots behind at the halfway stage to win thanks to back-to-back rounds of 64.

Baddeley has found the Majors something of a struggle in the past but he made the cut for the first time in three attempts at the US Masters last week. Many will be hopeful that performance will herald better things at the three remaining Grand Slam tournaments in 2007.