I heard a great interview on the radio that touched on a lot of things that apply across all sports. For just the fourth time in the history of the PGA tour, a golfer shot a round of 59 in a PGA tournament. Paul Goydos did it last week in the first round of the John Deere Classic in Silvis. He talks about how everything can come together on one particular day for anybody but the best pros put it together week after week.
SIEGEL: You were four under par at the turn. That means after the first nine holes, you had five pars and four birdies, which is terrific, and then you caught fire. You birdied eight of the last nine holes. What happened? What was going on?
Mr. GOYDOS: I'm trying to figure that out so I can maybe bottle it and keep it for the next 10 or so years. Just, you know, everything kind of fell into place. You know, I played the 10th hole very well and made a pretty easy birdie there and then just Mr. Putter decided to cooperate for the last eight holes of that nine and just, you know, everything I did turned to gold. It was one of those days where, you know, if I was walking down the fairway and tripped and fell down, I would have fallen down on $100 bill.
SIEGEL: Obviously, what you did yesterday, shooting a 59, demonstrates that if you can always drive the ball in a round as well as you can drive the ball and always hit your irons as well as you can hit your irons and always putt as well as you know you can putt, with that consistency, you can shoot a better round than Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus has ever shot.
And I wonder, what do you think it is? What is it that in one round permits you to have absolutely everything under control and at your best and, you know, I don't want to jinx subsequent rounds, but another 59 would be pretty rare if you do that.
Mr. GOYDOS: Right.
SIEGEL: What is it? What happens on a day like this?
Mr. GOYDOS: You know, I think that it's a series of events that come together and merge and supernova into a round of golf. Yeah, on any given day, Paul Goydos is capable of beating Tiger Woods or anybody else who's played the game. You know, what stands Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus or the people you talk about away from me and believe me, they're light years away from me is their ability to do it every single week.
Why everything again supernovaed for me yesterday, you know, it was just I think when we die and meet our maker, that may be the first question I ask.
SIEGEL: I'm just curious, before you go, I saw you were asked yesterday were you nervous with that last putt on the 18th green, and you said you're always nervous.
Mr. GOYDOS: Yes, that's part of the fun of the game. You know, nerves mean expectations, and my expectations are very high. I think that the day that I'm not nervous is the day that I probably retire.
Now, having said that, there's different levels of nervousness. I would have to say that from a golf standpoint, over that putt on 18 was probably the most nervous I'd ever been. And a big part of my success on making that put was more or less, you know, muscle autopilot than it was necessarily a calm head or calm nerves.
SIEGEL: Muscle autopilot.
Mr. GOYDOS: I just made that up myself.