The standard in golf is getting higher. That means scores should be getting lower

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Cognizant Classic once had a reputation for some of the toughest scoring conditions on the PGA Tour because only one number for the score was required next to the winner’s name.

During a 16-year stretch from when it first went to PGA National in 2007, only seven players — two who were runner-up — finished in double digits under par.

Arnold Palmer took notice.

The King spent more than a decade watching the winning score at his beloved Bay Hill average 15-under par. Tiger Woods won four of those. One year he finished at 19-under despite spending most of the final round on his knees with the dry heaves from some bad pasta.

So in 2007, Palmer decided to convert Bay Hill into a par 70, turning two of the par 5s into par 4s. The winning score during that three-year experiment was roughly the same. Woods won in 2009 at 5-under 275, the same winning score he had in 2002, only then it was 13-under 275.

Low score always wins, no matter the number.

And it’s time to stop this fascination with how low they go. The standard in golf is getting higher, meaning scores should be getting lower.

Jake Knapp did the unthinkable last week when he opened with a 59. Even more staggering was the winner, Joe Highsmith, who closed with rounds of 64-64 for the lowest weekend total at PGA National and a score of 19-under 265, another PGA National record.

The culprit — or the credit for those who prefer watching birdies — was overseeding the Bermuda grass with rye. It made it greener, prettier, softer. Of course, there was that small matter of not having enough wind to move a palm frond.

Whatever the case, it led to some guarded outrage lest anyone minimize a most excellent round put together by Knapp.

“It is a little disappointing,” Billy Horschel said. “I’d say the condition of the course is very scorable. But at the same time, you’ve still got to go out there, you’ve still got to hit golf shots, you’ve still got to make putts.”

Jack Nicklaus watched the tournament unfold on TV and had no problem with it.

“Guys hit it further, the conditions are good, you got a benign day and guys can shoot a good score. That’s OK. I like that,” Nicklaus said during the Saturday broadcast. “If a golf course won’t yield to good golf, then I don’t think it’s a very good golf course. Now, if you have a day like we did Thursday and 3 under is the low score, then I think it’s the golf course’s fault.”

Nicklaus speaks from experience, having designed some 300 golf courses and running his own PGA Tour stop at the Memorial. One year when Muirfield Village was dry and fast, Jon Rahm won at 9-under par. The previous year when it was soft, Patrick Cantlay won at 19 under.

Low score wins. And there’s no doubt, scores are getting lower.

It’s easy to point only to technology — whether that’s big drivers, solid-core golf balls or the modern agronomy tools — and overlook the science that goes into training players in the gym and on the range, allowing them to get the absolute most out of their games.

It’s the simple evolution of sport, and golf isn’t the exception.

Swimmers and skaters have suits aerodynamically designed. Sprinters have better shoes and consistent surfaces. Basketball players are bigger, stronger and no longer wear Chuck Taylors.

That doesn’t mean a 59 is no longer worth celebrating just because it was the 14th time for a sub-60 round since Al Geiberger first did it in 1977.

Remember the 63 that Johnny Miller shot at Oakmont in the 1973 U.S. Open? It was historic.

And then Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf each shot 63 in the 1980 U.S. Open on the same day. Tommy Fleetwood has done it twice. And it’s not even the record — Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler each shot 62 about 10 minutes apart at Los Angeles Country Club two years ago.

If times are coming down on the track and in the pool, should golf be any different?

Rory McIlroy seized on this in 2017, a month after Branden Grace posted the first 62 in major championship history at Royal Birkdale.

“If we weren’t better than the previous generation, we’d say, `What’s going on here?’” McIlroy said at the time. “We have Trackman and biomechanics, and we know everything about everything — nutrition on the golf course, things that guys didn’t have back in the day.

“So if we’re not better, then we’re doing a pretty bad job.”

The wind didn’t blow at Kapalua — a rarity — and Hideki Matsuyama set the PGA Tour record to par at 35 under. Torrey Pines featured cold Pacific air and strong gusts and Ludvig Aberg won the Genesis Invitational at 12 under. Only two players broke par in all four rounds that week.

PGA National was soft and green. There was no wind. The scores were lower than ever. It’s time to start getting used to that.

“I get that the overseed was there and the wind was down, but it’s still a stressful golf course,” Jordan Spieth said. “And this was some of the best golf I’ve seen played relative to what I would have thought would have happened on a golf course in quite a while.”

Spieth finished at 14-under par. Eight players finished ahead of him.

“If you had told me 14 under at the beginning of the week, I would have shook your hand and gone home,” he said. “It’s crazy good golf out there.”

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