Every year, it seems, the drives get longer and the scores go lower.
Dustin Johnson bombed one 424 yards on the downhill, downwind 12th hole at Austin (Texas) Country Club last week. About the only witness who didn't faint was playing partner Jon Rahm, who proceeded to hammer his 438 yards.
And as for the scores, did you hear that 58 is the new 59? OK, not exactly, but Jim Furyk bettered his Conway Farms 59 by one stroke in August at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut. And since then, phenom Justin Thomas shot 59 in Hawaii and Canadian Adam Hadwin matched that a week later at La Quinta, Calif.
So does that mean this finally will be the year someone shoots 62 in a major? A score of 63 has been recorded 28 times by 26 players in majors, from Johnny Miller's 63 in the final round of the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont to Phil Mickelson's bogey-free 63 last summer at Royal Troon that featured a 16-foot putt on 18 that was bound for the center of the cup ... until it wasn't.
Only twice has a player shot 63 at the Masters -- Nick Price in 1986 and Greg Norman in '96.
Price shot 9-under using a wooden driver and laying up on all the par-5s. His 30-foot putt for a 62 on the 18th green rimmed in and out, prompting him to joke at the time: "I think (tournament co-founder) Bobby Jones' hand came up and popped it out of the hole. He said, 'That's enough.' "
Price also said this of the course record: "I don't expect it to last that long. So many guys hit it so much further than I do."
And yet 31 years later, no one has broken it.
"To me, 63 at Augusta is an amazing score," said ESPN analyst Andy North, who competed in 13 Masters. "You could put your ball 10 feet from the hole 18 times, and some days you might only make only two or three because of where the holes are located or the slopes around the holes.
"So will there be a 62? At some point in time, but, boy, you have to make so many putts and/or do some unbelievable things to make that happen."
Englishman Danny Willett (remember him?) won last year with scores of 70-74-72-67.
Asked if the course could yield a 62 next week, he replied: "Depends on the weather. When the weather is hot, the ball is traveling a long way and guys are reaching all the par-5s. Then yeah, there's definitely a chance. But the thing you have with Augusta is if the weather is good and it is hot, the greens are going to be firm and faster."
Conventional wisdom says that a soft course yields lower scores. At least that has been true at the U.S. Open. (See: Rory McIlroy, Congressional, 2011).
The forecast in Augusta calls for a 70 percent chance of showers Monday and Tuesday but clearing for the rest of the week.
"If it's damp, if it's calm and if it's playable, yes, I can see it happening," NBC/Golf Channel analyst Colin Montgomerie said of a 62.
But while Montgomerie said the weather conditions will play a "huge part," fellow NBC/Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee pointed out that Masters officials "have done a very good job of keeping scores sort of consistent over the decades with the advances of technology. Augusta doesn't miss much."
The club added a SubAir system in the late 1990s, it is believed, that keeps the greens running hot at all times.
"With the SubAir they can get receptive," North said, "but probably aren't going to get as soft and as receptive as they used to when it rained. Because of that, it just is so hard to make enough putts to shoot 10 under par."
"Agreed," said ESPN's Curtis Strange. "Fastest greens we putt all year long and with some of the most severe slopes we see all year long."
Strange then thought back to 1985, the year he opened with an 80 and made an airline reservation to return home the next day. Then things got ... well, strange. He caught fire Friday, holing out for an eagle from the third fairway, and had a 63 -- or even 62 -- in his sights.
"And then I kind of threw up on my shoes," Strange recalled. "I put it on the wrong side of the hole on 15, 16 and 17. So to (shoot 62), you have to play such precise golf, make your putts and be damn lucky as well."
Sports on 04/02/2017