Ben Curtis Regains Putting Stroke and Confidence AVONDALE, La. - Ben Curtis knows how cruel sport can be. His favorite team, the Cleveland Browns, has had two winning seasons since returning to the N.F.L. in 1999. Even in their leanest years, the Browns have recorded at least two victories, which is perhaps why Curtis did not think twice before setting a goal of winning at least once a year on the PGA Tour. At the time Curtis could not see the valley through the clouds. He was coming off a victory in the first major championship he had entered but learned soon enough that golf can be more heartbreaking than Earnest Byner's fumble near the goal line in an A.F.C. championship game. 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. 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. A subtle adjustment in Curtis's putting grip caused a seismic shift in his fortunes and served as a reminder - as if any pro requires one - that the difference between success and distress in golf can be as thin as a worry line. At the suggestion of Herb Page, who coached him at Kent State, Curtis moved his right hand over the top of his 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. Justin Leonard, a 12-time tour winner, was on his way to the T.P.C. Louisiana practice green last week when he saw Curtis. He greeted Curtis warmly and said: "That was awesome Sunday. I was so pulling for you. 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. "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. Having regained his confidence on the greens, Curtis said, he feels free to make aggressive swings because he trusts 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. "Just felt like just go out there and see what happens this week and just play stress free," Curtis said. His strategy appeared sound as he opened the Zurich Classic with a five-under-par 67 and had birdie putts on his first nine holes, three of which he made. After two rounds, he was tied for 15th at seven-under. 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. 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. One of McDowell's best friends from childhood is Ricky Elliott, who caddies for Curtis, so he was not as surprised as the rest of the golf world when Curtis won for the first time in nearly six years. "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." Curtis went 2,045 days between victories, a drought that continued even as other blessings rained down on him. In September 2006, three days after his win in the 84 Lumber Classic, his wife, Candace, gave birth to their first child, Liam Benjamin. A daughter, Addison Marie, followed in December 2007. He made 118 tour starts between victories, and as his children grew old enough to have some sense of what he does for a living, Curtis yearned to succeed more for them than for himself. He wanted them to see him as a winner. 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. "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 perspective what I actually do." The next morning, Curtis said, Liam went outside in sub-40-degree weather to hit golf balls. "I've been playing golf my whole life, since I was 2 years old," Curtis said. It's all about the competition. You get to test yourself against the best players in the world. That's what motivates me more than anything.