Herrmann: Suddenly there is a 50s revival in golf

How low can they go?

That is what everyone in golf, including famously low shooters on Long Island, is wondering after 17-year-old Bobby Wyatt shot 57 July 28 in the Alabama State Boys Junior Championship and Stuart Appleby shot 59 Sunday to win the PGA Tour's Greenbrier Classic.

Fifty-nine always has been golf's holy grail: conceivable, yet virtually impossible. It has happened only five times in PGA Tour history. But two of those have been in the past month, what with Paul Goydos shooting it at the John Deere Classic (the same day Steve Stricker shot 60). Add Wyatt's 57 at the 6,628-yard Country Club of Mobile, and this qualifies as the hottest year ever for scores that look like autumn temperatures.

"It's pretty remarkable, actually, to shoot those numbers. A lot of it is belief, in not being afraid," said Garden City Golf Club assistant pro Jesse Fitzgerald, who holds the course record at Bellport Country Club with a 63 and has shot 9-under-par 64 at his current workplace.

Local pros say several factors have contributed to scores that are like Baby Boomers' ages, such as Ryo Ishikawa's 58 to win The Crowns event May 2 on the Japan Tour and a 58 by St. John's University senior - the past weekend's Met Amateur champion - Evan Beirne earlier this summer on his home course, New Haven Country Club. Manufacturers are making clubs that hit the ball much farther than ever before. Balls are designed to fly straighter. Courses are manicured so that there are few bad lies or quirky bounces. Golfers' instruction, conditioning and video self-examination are vastly better. Plus, as Fitzgerald said, "Guys are stronger mentally."

Bob Rittberger, the Garden City Golf Club head pro who also has shot 64 on his home course, said, "I think a lot of players nowadays are trained and ingrained to focus on executing shots rather than on the outcomes. I can't speak for everyone, but the times I've had low rounds, I couldn't have told you what I was [under par] until I was finished."

"The grooves rule didn't do anything," said Deepdale Golf Club assistant pro Matt Dobyns, a two-time Met PGA Assistants champion and former University of Texas golfer who once shot 62 at a municipal course outside Austin. He was referring to regulations imposed by the PGA Tour to eliminate square-shaped grooves, which were said to make it too easy to put spin on the ball from the rough.

He said the overall quality in competitive golf might be the greatest factor. "Guys are going out believing they have to shoot really low numbers," Dobyns said. "That changes strategy."

Shinnecock Hills head pro Jack Druga, who once shot 64 in a college tournament for Florida International, said, "The thing that probably has the most to do with it is the clubs they're hitting into the greens. If a long hitter happens to be hitting straight that day, he's hitting a lot of wedges and short irons. When guys get hot with the putter, they're threatening to break 60."

That is especially true on traditional courses such as Greenbrier, which have flat greens.

Not that it happens everywhere, or every day. It took 48 years for someone to break Billy Edwards' record from the members tees at Shinnecock Hills before Jimmy Dunne shot 63 recently, and he needed a hole-in-one on the treacherous No. 11 to do that.

Sometimes, it's a matter of just having one of those days. Sean Farren once shot 60 at The Creek in Locust Valley, where he is head pro. "I remember I didn't play any differently than I normally do," he said. "I just made all the putts."

Given that everyone is privy to golf's new technology, there is one pertinent question and that will be addressed in the LI Golfbeat this Sunday: How come the rest of us aren't shooting in the 70s, let alone the 50s?