Is Breaking 60 the New Normal? Hayden Springer became the 14th person on the PGA Tour to break 60 last week. By all means, it is an exceptional feat, but has it lost its historic impact? Springer’s 59 was the second of that number in 12 days after Cameron Young completed the same feat at the Travelers a couple of weeks ago.
The Art of 59
Shooting 59 is mostly inconceivable to 99% of golfers worldwide. Everything has to go your way. You have to hole some putts. But these guys make it look so easy, so maybe it is just a wider indication of where the game is going. Breaking 60 was originally this superficial concept, and now it feels like just a perfect round. Take nothing away from Springer, Young, or anyone else who has achieved it on Tour. But it does not have that same ecstatic sensation from a viewing perspective that it used to. It is becoming increasingly common, and so is it because of the game’s ever-evolving technology that pros can just play better.
Breaking 60: How technology has changed the game
At the John Deere, the course was 7,300 yards long, granted the weather meant it was ball in hand. In years past, any track north of 7000 yards would have been universally considered long. But now it is standard and does not seem to terrify these Tour pros like before. The rollback debate is ongoing and will take a few years to come to fruition with any sort of verdict or outcome. So, for now, pros will continue to overpower courses with ease.
Golf club technology has enabled the best players to hit it longer and straighter. As a result, they are going to shoot lower scores. Not to take anything away from their unworldly talent and skill, that is not what this is about. But the increasing frequency of players shooting 59 is surely a by-product of the ball going further and club faces that ensure mishits still go straight.
A wider sporting evolution
Perhaps it is just a natural trend of professional sports. As the world evolves, as sport evolves, the people who are the best at their respective sport are going to get better. With the upcoming Olympics in mind, we have seen and probably will see, previous world records tumbled, smashed, and disintegrated by young and upcoming athletes who are just a step above anything we have ever seen before. Maybe this can be extrapolated to golf. The golfers are just better. That is an uninspiring and blunt way to put it, but it is ostensibly the truth.
We will see more 59s in the future, and those rounds are something to be admired. For a casual golfer, their best round might be something close to par. So to just think about someone shooting 11, 12 or 13 under par is quite unfathomable. It is a damning demonstration of how good professional golfers are.
Breaking 60: The rollback potential
But the potential of a rollback, with distance being reduced, would allow golf courses to re-establish their toughness and ferocity to challenge the best players in the world. No one is pretending that TPC Deere Run is a really hard golf course, there is a stark difference between a Tour setup and a Major setup. 62 is the best score in a major, with the par of the course being notable. A 62 on a par 72 is better than one on a par 70.
But Xander Schauffele broke the record with the lowest score across 72 holes in the PGA this year finishing on 21-under par. Whether the setup was too mild or Xander just played insanely well is subjective but the point remains.
Golf courses are running out of land to make their courses longer. We have this problem at the home of golf at St. Andrews where the course is just not long enough to test pro golfers in the modern age. At the Open in 2022 this was a big talking point, as three or four of the par fours were easily drivable.
Breaking 60: An ambiguous future
The general future of golf is unforeseeable in almost every aspect. Personnel changes are occurring at the highest level in the game’s top governing bodies. The R&A has a new CEO Mark Darbon, who replaces Martin Slumbers. Seth Waugh has also stepped down from his position as CEO of the PGA of America. The ongoing debacle between the PGA Tour and The Saudis continues to cloud what the pro golf landscape will look like in years to come.
All in all, through a short-term microscope, Hayden Sprinegr added his name to a short but expanding list of players to break 60 on Tour. Something that should be commended, but with it becoming a more common accomplishment in this day and age, soon there will be a time when it is no longer considered the astonishing feat it once was.
