Monday 12th September 2016.
A GROSS 59 is an incredible score and has only been acheived seven times on the main golf tours in history.
Can we learn anything from these astonishing rounds of golf?
I believe we can as all of my lessons are based on my observations of how the best golfers in the world play golf. I then establish the common denominators of how they acheive their success and apply the common denominators to all of my puplis with very carefull consideration given to their physique, strength, flexibility, the time they have available, and their ambitions as we are all different.
Of the approxiamately 61,000,000 golfers in the world, only seven have had a gross 59 on the main tours so the odds of acheiving this score are extremely low. My philosophy however is based on reducing the scores of all of my pupils from whatever their starting point is.
The golfers who have scored 59’s are
CHIP BECK in 1991
PAUL GOYDOS in 2010
JIM FURYCK in 2013
ANNIKA SORENSTAM in 2001
STUART APPLEBY in 2010
Al GEIBERGER in 1997
DAVID DUVAL in 1999
With the modern obsession for distance, it may be a suprise to many that non of the 59ers (as they will now be called) are classed as long hitters but they are all very straight hitters. Jim Furyck and Annika Sorenstam only missed one fairway in their rounds.
I can therefore say with some authority that the 59ers chose accuracy over distance even though the average length of the courses the men played was over 7,000 yards and the course Annika Sorenstam played was 6,659 yards long.
The average length of golf courses that the majority of golfers play on will be 1,000 yard shorter than the courses the 59ers played on so when you next play ensure you hit more fairways by choosing the best club to use off the tee to put you in the best position for your next shot. There is no need to use a driver off the tee. Choose the best club for you to put the ball in the best position for the all-important next shot.
One of my pupils, Eric, used irons off the tee for the first two years of his golfing career and his handicap went down to nine because he was nearly always on the fairway. He then became more confident and started using woods, when appropriate, of the tee and lowered his handicap to four. The highlight of Eric’s golf to date has been a gross 65 ( par 71) on the Parkland Course at Canford Magna Golf Club, Dorset U.K. The course sadly closed in 2016.
The second aspect we can learn from the 59ers is how important controlling the distance of your iron shots is. David Duval hit 11 iron shots to an average distance of less than four and a half feet from the hole. This is supreme distance control and whilst the average golfer may not be that accurate most golfers can become more accurate with a very simple excercise as follows.
Hit 20 shots with any of your irons in still conditions on a warm day on a practice ground or driving range. Measure the distance of your longest shots and the shortest shots ( disregarding any truly awful shots) and then you can easily work out the average distance. Use the same criteria for all of your irons and write them all down and store them in your phone or have them laminated to keep in your golf bag.
Armed with this vital information on the golf course and by using a course planner or range finder you will know the exact distance from your golf ball to the flag. Your distance chart can then be consulted. You will need to assess the wind, ground conditions, uphill or downhill lies, etc, and then choose your club from the adjustments you have made.
You may not be as accurate as David Duval was but you have given yourself a great advantage in knowing you have chosen the correct club for the distance. The important thing to do then is to take dead aim and hit the ball with confidence knowing you have the correct club for the shot.
We can also learn that it is a sound philosophy to play each shot and each round as they come. Paul Goydos, when he scored 59, had not been under par for his last six rounds and then he produced a round of 12 under par. ‘where did that come from?’ he probably asked himself. The answer is that golf is a fantastic game and no one can predict what is going to happen. The reason for that is that the golf ball is only in contact with the club head for half of one 1.000th of one second and the club head will have travelled approxiamately 30 feet prior to impact and the ball can go from no where at all or in to the hole or anywhere in between.
So we can learn from the 59ers that anything can happen so we must play one shot and one round at a time.
One of the 59ers, Paul Goydos, had been putting poorly in his previous rounds and suddenly in his 59, he started holing putts up to 40 feet. He didn’t attempt to analyse why he just carried on as though it was normal to hole long putts.
We can learn from this that when your putting is on song just let it happen and do not analyse it. Being ‘ in the zone ‘ is great so just stay in it.
Stuart Appleby had not won a tournament for four years and in the final round of the Greenbriar Classic, West Virginia, the U.S.A. on August 1st 2010 he scored a 59 to win.
We can learn from this that no one can foresee the next shot let alone the next round so just enjoy being on the golf course and see what happens because no one knows what will happen and if we did playing golf would become extremely boring.
One of my pupils, Mark Plummer, had a gross 59 ( 7 under par) at Truro Golf Club, Cornwall, UK. This is the lowest score ever recorded in the West Region of the P.G.A UK. Mark has many of the qualities of our other 59ers. His iron shots were a consistent distance, he was very accurate of the tee and he considered this more important than distance. When he was in the putting zone he just stayed in it and Mark always played one shot at a time, forgetting the previous shot whether it was a good shot or a bad shot.
The last point is important and will promote consistency. Mark was 18 under par when he won the P.G.A. National Assistants Championsip in 1994. He had a lesson with me the week before he won and another one the week after he won. I congratulated him on his win and I asked him how many good shots had he played and after careful consideration the answer was none. I then asked him how many bad shots he had hit and answer was the same.
Perfect answer I thought.
My entire golfing philosophy was contained in the two answers as I believe a good address and posture ( 75% of the shot) allowing a good back swing to happen (95% of the shot) followed by the finish of the swing (5% of the shot) will lead to consistent shots and scores and sometimes incredible scores.
CONCLUSION.
All of the 59ers, Chip Beck, Jim Furyck, Paul Goydos, Stuart Appleby, Al Geiberger, David Duval, Annika Sorenstam, and Mark Plummer shared many aspects of our great game and yes we can all learn from the very select band of 59ers.
JIM FURYCK SCORES A 58 – another blog on its way.
