Paul Goydos follows through on a tee shot during the first round of the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run on July 8, 2010 in Silvis, Illinois. (Photo by Darren Carroll/Getty Images)Darren Carroll/Getty Images
It's too soon to say that there's a new wave in golf where players aren't afraid to go really low, as in the 50s if not frequently at least more than rarely. But there's enough evidence to suggest that the scores they are 'a changing, and that 59 and even lower is getting more likely all the time. It's not a surprise any more when it happens.
Check out some recent scores. Stuart Appleby made three mid-length birdie putts on the last three holes Sunday to shoot 59 at the Greenbrier Classic in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., and overcome Jeff Overton's seven-shot lead to win the inaugural PGA Tour event. He poured his last putt into the middle of the hole. It was breaking into the centre all the way and the 39-year-old Australian was so confident it was going to fall that he started celebrating before it did.
That's called being in the zone.
Then there was Paul Goydos. On July 8, he shot 59 in the first round of the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill. Goydos made a seven-foot putt on the final hole to hit the magic number.
Nobody on the PGA Tour had shot 59 since David Duval did so in the final round of the 1999 Bob Hope tournament in Palm Springs, Calif. Duval holed a six-footer there to hit the jackpot and win the tournament. That was more than a decade ago.
And now two golfers have gone and rung the bell. Maybe they've been listening to the coaches Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott. They call their golf school Vision54, because they see no reason a golfer can't birdie every hole on a par-72 course and shoot 54. It's all in the mind, they claim.
There are more - low scores, that is. The teenage Japanese pro Ryo Ishikawa shot 58 in May in a tournament on the Japan Golf Tour. Bobby Wyatt, who turned 18 Sunday, shot an absurd 14-under-par 57 on July 28 in the second round of the Alabama Boys' State Junior in Mobile, Ala.
Wyatt wasn't paying much attention to his score, and doesn't even count his score when he plays casual rounds. He's in that place called "the present," as tour pros refer to it. The now, you know. Anyway, he was doing something special after 11 holes, when it hit him.
"Holy crap, I'm 11 under through 11," he said to himself.
A junior named Trey Mullinax was playing with Wyatt, and gave him some sage advice.
"I said, 'Play like you're 10 over. Battle. Don't start playing for par. Play aggressive like you have been."
Wyatt did, and he shot that 57.
Maybe a mental barrier is being broken. It can't all be the fearlessness of youth, given that seasoned tour pros have been hitting the 50s. Annika Sorenstam, it should be said, also shot 59, in the second round of the Standard Register Ping tournament in Phoenix. Sorenstam subscribed to the Vision54 idea, that's for sure.
Along these lines, a conversation that 1982 Masters champion Craig Stadler had with his son, Kevin, a PGA Tour player, is worth mentioning. Stadler told this story last month when he was at the Coppinwood Golf Club in Uxbridge, Ont., for former Canadian Open director and former Canadian Tour commissioner Dick Grimm's charity tournament to benefit the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. Stadler and Grimm are old pals.
"Kevin asked me what I think about when I'm five under after 12 holes," Stadler said. "I told him I think of making birdie on every hole the rest of the way. Why would I think any different? I'm obviously playing well. I asked him what he thinks about and he said, 'Par in and shoot 66.' Why would you do that? You don't think about making pars the rest of the way after you birdie the first hole, do you?"
So going low is all about getting high on the idea of playing Vision54 golf. Appleby said he "felt pretty comfortable out there." No kidding.
Comfort zones are changing. Barriers are being broken. Golfers are starting to feel at ease in the 50s. What's next, 54?
Why not?