Every once and a while in sports a professional athlete posts a score that mere mortals cannot relate to….it seems beyond human for them to have done it….it reaches so far beyond the pale of what we think is possible.
Roger Bannister running a 4 minute mile in 1954…..Wilt scoring 100 against the Knicks in ’62…..Bob Beamon breaking the long jump record in the 68 Olympics by almost 2 feet……Isner and Mahut playing the fifth set at Wimbledon to 70-68 in a match that was played over 11 hours and 4 minutes……
These are numbers at the time that we could not relate to-they just seemed huber human.
Well Nick Watney shot 27 on the back nine in the third round of the ATT National at Aronimink Golf Club yesterday…..this was not a casual round….it was in a full field PGA event on par 70 course that plays over 7200 yards and has only two par fives.
He scored the back nine in base 3. He took only 11 putts. It was just a routine two pars, six birdies, and an eagle. 8 under on the back nine!!!
Either the greens keeper replaced the cups with suction drains or the pins had duck pin gutter guards on either side of them on every hole.
People don’t contemplate 27 on the back nine at their local Putt-Putt…..even there they would expect a 5 to ruin the card when they get a bad bounce off the windmill and get stymied under the house. Guess there were no clown’s noses or windmills at Aronimink yesterday.
Maybe we could imagine 27 on the back nine at Augusta…..playing EA Sports Tiger Woods 2011 Masters video game…….at three in the morning after a six pack of Red Bulls.
The majority of the pros who played at Aronimink yesterday had 27 on their back nine scorecards by the time they pegged it on the par three 17th with two holes to play.
When asked about the round Nick said, “For some reason……the hole just looked really big on the back nine….”. That explains it……..we just need holes the size of ash cans.
July, 2011
moegolf 