OT - Golf is a Fantastically Fascinating Game!

[Peter Pallotta]

So you may have seen that Fred Funk made the cut at this week's PGA Tour stop in Barbados, sitting at -1. That's cool enough, becoming only the 4th player aged 64 to make the cut at a Tour event since 1970 -- the others being Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson. Fred always seemed like a terrific guy -- so that's a fantastic result.

But the fascinating part is *how* he made the cut at a PGA Tour event, at 64. Here are his stats for the first two days (when he shot a 2 under 69 and a 1 over 72 today, in very trying conditions). Check out the stats below, and marvel at what a truly great game golf is, and how many ways there are of 'getting it done':

Driving Distance: 226 yards (today), 234.8 yards (average for the two days).

Driving Accuracy-Fairways Hit: 28.57% (today), 53.57% (average for the two days)

Greens in Regulation: 33.33% (today), 38.89 (two day average)

Putting: (they don't list it in terms of strokes gained, just putts per green): 1.667 for the two days.

I keep looking at these stats in disbelief, and marveling at them (and at the nature of golf itself): At 64, on a PGA Tour course that's (granted, not long by modern standards, but played in windy conditions) 6850 yards, Fred Funk could shoot a 1 over par 72 by driving it 226 (!) yards, hitting less than a third of his fairways and only a third of his greens.

Yes, golf is a physical/athletics game -- but man it is also something else.

[David Ober]

So you may have seen that Fred Funk made the cut at this week's PGA Tour stop in Barbados, sitting at -1. That's cool enough, becoming only the 4th player aged 64 to make the cut at a Tour event since 1970 -- the others being Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson. Fred always seemed like a terrific guy -- so that's a fantastic result.

But the fascinating part is *how* he made the cut at a PGA Tour event, at 64. Here are his stats for the first two days (when he shot a 2 under 69 and a 1 over 72 today, in very trying conditions). Check out the stats below, and marvel at what a truly great game golf is, and how many ways there are of 'getting it done':

Driving Distance: 226 yards (today), 234.8 yards (average for the two days).

Driving Accuracy-Fairways Hit: 28.57% (today), 53.57% (average for the two days)

Greens in Regulation: 33.33% (today), 38.89 (two day average)

Putting: (they don't list it in terms of strokes gained, just putts per green): 1.667 for the two days.

I keep looking at these stats in disbelief, and marveling at them (and at the nature of golf itself): At 64, on a PGA Tour course that's (granted, not long by modern standards, but played in windy conditions) 6850 yards, Fred Funk could shoot a 1 over par 72 by driving it 226 (!) yards, hitting less than a third of his fairways and only a third of his greens.

Yes, golf is a physical/athletics game -- but man it is also something else.

Yup. Golf is, indeed, a truly fascinating game. Length absolutely matters -- and it matters in a big way over a season of events. But it's not the end-all-be-all and over any one tournament, short knockers can "grind" out cuts for sure. What was the average driving distance of the field? 290?

[Tommy Williamsen]

When Fred was the golf coach at Maryland he was a member at my club. Everyone loved him. He just has a winning persona. I think, with his win at The Players, he is also one of the overachievers in golf and one of the most deserving.

[Peter Pallotta]

I haven’t checked David, but I’m guessing the average distance is not nearly as long as 290 this week. A number of famously ‘short hitters’ (Peter Malnati, Luke Donald, Ryan Armour) feature at the top of the leader board and seem to be averaging c 265-275, and even some of the tour’s long hitters today seem hampered by the wind. But in any context Fred Funk was still a long way back/behind. So what a lovely reminder for anyone who’s started yet another round of golf with a short and crooked drive off the 1st tee that you can still shoot a great round — unless you yourself get discouraged by ‘the numbers’.

[Matt_Cohn]

Hit 14 greens in 2 days, made 8 birdies. Missed 22 greens, had 6 holes over par. Wouldn't want to attempt that every week, but he did it this week.

[Ronald Montesano]

They said about Fred The Coach that as soon as the guys teed off, he was on the range, working on his game. Similar to the club pro jobs that Hogan, et al., would hold at clubs.


Thing is, with coaches like Fred and Mike Small (Illinois) and Jerry Haas (Wake) and Tim Straub (Davidson), they are such stud players, that their playing skill did/does the coaching for them. Keep up with coach, and you will do just fine. Coaches like them need incredible support from their staffs at the college. Without assistants to do scheduling/driving/coordinating, and administrative staff to do everything else, the team suffers.

[jeffwarne]

Just saw that.
Driving distance is 2 holes so if one was into the wind and/or he duck hooked it or heeled it it would skew the stat pretty badly.
Extremely windy today.
That normally wouldn't be a long course for Fred Funk-even at 64, who , while never a long hitter, wouldn't have a lot of long irons normally at Port Royal, which is in Bermuda, not Barbados.
By comparison to the field yes,he would be very short, but the leader is averaging 250, though second place is at 299,
demonstrating that 2 measuring holes isn't all that relevant and/or that a shorter hitter can thrive/survive at 6850-especially in foul conditions.
Having a world class short game pretty important as well