Low Scores and Loud Roars: PGA Tour Off to a Solid 1997

How low can you go? Fourteen under par? Or 20 under? Or 26 under? Or 33 under par?

The winning scores in the first four PGA Tour events of the year were a cumulative 25 strokes better than in those four events last year. What’s going on here?

A number of things, actually.

First off, it’s a Ryder Cup year and players will play more tournaments with more motivation as they try to make the team.

Secondly, an enormously talented crop of players in their 20s have matured into the kind of guys who can contend every week. In addition to Tiger Woods, there’s David Duval, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Ernie Els and Paul Stankowski -- all 27 or younger.

Thirdly, several veteran players have raised their game a notch and have the kind of experience to handle final-round pressure. Tom Lehman, Steve Jones and Mark Brooks got to a new level last year by winning major championships.

Fourth, players like Mark O’Meara, Fred Couples, Davis Love III and Corey Pavin remain at their peak while Nick Faldo -- probably the most feared and respected player in the world -- is as determined as ever and Greg Norman remains Greg Norman, with the best and worst of what that entails.

And a couple of former major winners -- Paul Azinger and Nick Price -- look like they are getting their A-games back.

Fifth, more quality foreign players like Jesper Parnevik and Frank Nobilo have added to the depth of the PGA Tour.

And finally, there is the Tiger Factor. Woods has played 11 tournaments as a pro with three victories and seven top-five finishes. He plays to win and that idea has become contagious among the other players.

This is shaping up to be a great year on the PGA Tour. The talent is the deepest ever and all four tournaments played to date have had very compelling storylines.

Woods won the season-opening Mercedes when he nearly aced the first hole of a sudden-death playoff against Lehman.

John Cook won the Bob Hope when he finished 62-63 over the last two rounds of the 90-hole tournament to get to 33 under par.

Jones won at the Phoenix Open when his 26-under-par total missed the all-time PGA Tour record by a single stroke.

And O’Meara held off a ferocious rally by Woods, who finished 63-64 at Pebble Beach and was one-stroke behind the winner.

Asked how he keeps his feet on the ground despite his success, Woods said: “Golf does it for me. Every week someone is going low.”

The Ryder Cup is no small motivation this year, especially since the U.S. travels to Spain in September to try to win back the cup it lost in 1995.

“You almost feel like your career is not going to be complete if you don’t make the team at least once,” Lehman said over the weekend.

“I think you’ll see guys playing more tournaments this year,” Lehman said. “Everybody wants to be on the team.”

Top-10 finishes this year earn double points in the race to be among the 10 players who get automatic bids to the U.S. team.

The emergence of so much talent -- and the increased opportunities to make a lot of money playing golf and signing endorsement deals -- has motivated many players to take better care of themselves and practice harder.

Faldo and Norman have been among the best conditioned players for years. Duval and Mickelson both lost significant weight in the off season. And -- scarily enough -- even Woods shows signs of working out.

Everyone said that one of the effects of Woods coming along would be to make everyone else work harder. The early indications are that this is very true.

He also had challenged a very deep sense of pride.

“I played well last year,” Lehman said. “And I know there’s a lot of guys in my position who aren’t quite ready to concede there’s a new guy on the block that’s going to step right in and be the man.”

Woods -- playing in the group in front of O’Meara last Sunday -- had the Monterey Peninsula rocking with laser-like iron shots to the 16th and 17th green for birdies and then an inter-planetary 3-wood to the final green for an eagle try.

But O’Meara might be playing the best golf of his life at age 40. The great shots and deafening cheers didn’t rattle him -- far from it.

“That just motivates me more,” O’Meara said with his warm, easy smile.

The way the scores have been on tour this year it seems like a lot of guys are very motivated. And it seems likely that even more thrills are to come.