Notebook

Why All the Low Scores on Tour?
It's the Ball, Stupid

Almost overnight the game has changed on the PGA Tour because an ever-expanding number of players are driving the ball huge distances, which allows them to attack every pin with shorter irons. As a result, Mark Calcavecchia broke the Tour's alltime scoring record with a 256 at Phoenix, and Davis Love III shot a course-record-tying 28 on the front nine of the final round at Pebble Beach. In all, six of the last eight winners of stroke-play events have either broken or tied tournament records, and none of those winners are named Tiger Woods.

"Everything has changed," says Dennis Paulson, an adherent of the new, extreme style of play. "We used to think that 62 or 63 was a good score. Now there's no one in the top 70 who thinks he can't shoot 59, or even 58 or 57 Guys are hitting par-5s with 280-yard three-woods, and every time you look up, somebody's holing out from the fairway. All of a sudden, anything's possible."

The best laboratory to test the irresistibility of this new scoring force is this week's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in La Quinta, Calif. Anything but an immovable object, the Hope is the Tour's annual birdie binge. The four courses on which the 90-hole tournament is played have wide, fast-running fairways, little rough and perfect greens. The light desert air and typically climate-controlled weather also contribute to ideal scoring conditions.

In the last decade the worst winning score at the Hope was 23 under, by Mark Brooks in 1996. The Hope is where, in '99, David Duval shot a 59 in the final round without making a putt longer than 10 feet. One of the most impressive displays of sustained subpar golf in history, Tom Kite's tournament-record 35-under 325, also occurred at the Hope, in '93. Considering golf's 2001 odyssey, I expect Kite's record to be shattered this week and, if the planets line up correctly, the first official 58 to be shot.

These are outrageous predictions, but they are based on the powerful forces that have converged to create a sea change on Tour. The most obvious force is Woods. Nothing motivates the competition like defeat. Tiger's training methods have become models that many pros have copied, but it is Woods's assault on par in 2000 that has become the real motivator. "The days of trying to hang on with even par on the back nine on Sunday are gone," says Jay Haas. "Everybody's pushing with more birdies, and the winner ends up going really low just trying to survive."

Most players agree, though, that the most noticeable difference in the game is superior equipment. "The new stuff is improving at a much faster rate," says Jeff Sluman. "I've got a new driver and a new ball, and I'm 20 yards longer than last year. It's a joke."

Scott Simpson, 45, missed all of last year with a broken left ankle, but when he came back this season—with a new ball and a new driver—he was longer, despite the rust. "The game has definitely changed, in a lot of the same ways as tennis," he says. "It's more about power and less about hitting different shots."

Says Love flatly, "The latest technology is the reason the scores are so low."

Most players agree that the solid, nonwound ball has made the biggest difference, not titanium drivers with better shafts. The nonwound balls have a higher rate of initial velocity and a more penetrating flight than wound balls. Therefore, in a trend that was first noticed last year (GOLF PLUS, May 1, 2000), pros are flocking to nonwounds. At the 2000 Buick Invitational, 13% of the field played a nonwound ball. About 77% did so there last week What's more, all seven Tour events this season have been won with nonwound models.