The golf gods deny athlete chance to set record score

Tuesday, February 23, 1999

The golf gods deny athlete chance to set record score

COLUMN: Tryba almost immortal with second 59, but wavers at 18th
hole

It was the sequel to "The Golf Gods Must be Crazy" for 17 holes
Saturday at Riviera Country Club.

And just when Ted Tryba had the second 59 in a month within his
grasp, they took it away on one of the most storied finishing holes
in the world.

Just like that, golf immortality buried in the kikula.

We should have known better.

The par-fives may be a driver and a wedge, and the hole cuttings
may have been overly generous. But Riviera, the host of a U.S.
Open, PGA Championship and U.S. Senior Open, would rather break off
into the Pacific than have golf’s lowest round matched on its
greens, much less on the fabled 18th.

For 17 holes, Tryba played "Hogan’s Alley" like a miniature golf
course, scorching through one set of five holes at 6-under par. He
hit every fairway, every green and rolled in every putt with the
ease of a 2-footer.

For 17 holes, everything dropped Tryba’s way. The golf gods
wanted another 59, and they wanted him to do it.

Not so fast.

After David Duval’s 59 last month at the Bob Hope Classic, four
rounds stood as the greatest ever, including three in the 1990s.
But none of the rounds came on a course that had hosted a major
championship.

With golf technology driving scores routinely into the mid and
low 60s, 59 has become something of an afterthought. You could
almost hear the yawns around Pacific Palisades Saturday as Tryba
marched toward the number:

"Fifty-nine? Another one? What about 58? Let me know if he’s
going to hit 58." Consider that only a month into the 1999 PGA Tour
season, three rounds of 62 or better have been shot, including
Duval’s 59, Tryba’s 61 and Tiger Woods’ 62 last weekend at Torrey
Pines. All three of those rounds came on the weekend of a
championship tournament.

At this rate, not only will another 59 be chased this year, but
maybe 58 or 57. Surely Woods could do it. How couldn’t he when he
can two-putt a third of the holes for birdie?

With all that in mind, you can forget about it. There will be
scores in the low 60s, and some players will challenge 59. But the
golf gods will never let it happen. That much became clear Saturday
at Riviera.

Those are the same gods that led Lee Janzen to paydirt at last
year’s U.S. Open, when his tee shot miraculously fell out of a
fairway tree, and a wayward iron somehow bounced out of the monster
rough that sucked anything and everything into its roots and back
onto the green.

When Tryba stepped to the 18th tee at Riviera Saturday, the
gallery swelled, waiting for another of his perfect drives. They
got it, as he maneuvered around the dogleg left with ease, settling
the ball in for the ideal approach.

He was only 168 yards out and hit an eight-iron. I’ve chipped
with an eight-iron before. The pin placement below the fabled
Spanish clubhouse was right where he wanted it: back left corner,
with about 100 feet of green to play with in front of it. The sun
was blazing from above and the breezes of the Pacific were rustling
the sycamores.

It was too good to be true.

And it was too easy.

Tryba sent his eight-iron sailing beyond the hole and into the
kikula guarding the back fringe. He was within 25 feet but nestled
in grass deeper than the Santa Monica shoreline. But he still had a
shot at 59.

With his chip, Tryba found nothing but gobs of grass, trickling
the ball little more than 10 feet. The 59 was gone. But there was
still 60.

Given some of the putts he had made earlier in the round, this
15-footer was a gimme.

But not so fast.

Tryba’s putt skipped by the outside of the cup and rolled by.
Gone was 60. Now he had a tender 5-footer just to set the Riviera
course-record of 61, which he would do. It may be one of the most
remembered bogeys in golf history.

And just like that, history was gone. It was made, with the new
Riviera standard of 61, but 59 seemed untouchable again, if only
for a day.

And just like that, we were all wide-eyed golf fans again,
amazed at the ups and downs of this simple game. What was "just 59"
at the beginning of the afternoon became history again by the time
Tryba stepped off the 18th green.

So 59 has been shot three times this decade and twice on the
Nike Tour last year. Saturday at Riviera proved that even with the
technology and the generous pin placements, it still is something
to shoot for and something special.

For years, no one ever thought of shooting a sub-60 round. Even
though it is challenged now seemingly every weekend, enjoy those
memories of Duval’s pumping fist at PGA West because it is not
going to happen again for a while, and not in a major
championship.

Otherwise, the gods must be crazy.

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