#6: Bam’s 83 Points In Golf Terms
Dear Pards,
Are you a fan of the Association? With your love of a good column, I’d assume you’ve been a ball knower since the BS Report (IYKYK).
So here’s my question - what’s the golf equivalent of Bam’s 83 point game, passing Black Mamba’s *modern* scoring title?
PS - yes… my 3rd grader somehow still yells “Kobe!” when he shoots a driveway fade. Time is a flat circle.
-Ball is Life in Beantown
Dear Ball is Life,
I remember playing NFL Gameday 99 with the Denver Broncos the morning of 9/11. In February of 2020, I remember settling bets in a post-round grille when I learned of Kobe’s passing. And funny enough, I remember sitting in a windowless basement caddyshack watching Jim Furyk card 58 at the Travelers in 2016.
I already forgot where I was when Bam’s 83-piece blew up my feed a few days ago. But it did send me down a rabbit hole trying to think of golf’s closest comp to Adebayo’s historic night against the Wizards on Tuesday.
A lazy comp to Bam’s night would be Furyk’s 58 a decade ago. Though a deeper dive into the data suggests that final round at the Travelers wasn’t even in the top 20 rounds ever played. Obviously “best” is a tad subjective. 58 is sick, regardless of where it happens. But objectively, I think we can get closer to a real golf translation to Adebayo’s night in Miami. Stick with me as I dive down a dark hole with the data boys for a bit…
There have been 15 sub-60 rounds in PGA Tour history. A couple others sprinkled across international tours. Jim Furyk’s 58 is the only round lower than 59 on the PGA Tour, and he’s also the only player with two sub-60 rounds. Ironically, I think his 59 at the 2013 BMW Championship was more impressive. Here’s why.
A big difference between the NBA and golf is that the “court” changes every week on the PGA Tour. Every day even. Thanks to strokes gained, we now have a way to put some context around historic rounds. Data Golf sits at the helm of golf’s stats universe, so I’ll quote their explanation for the few non-sickos reading this.
A golfer’s strokes gained is defined as the difference between their score and the field’s average score on a given day. What Data Golf calls “true strokes gained” adjusts those values to account for the strength of the field.
Data Golf
According to Data Golf, Furyk’s 58 was actually the 22nd-best round ever at +10.90 strokes gained. In other words, TPC River Highlands played easy that day. All that said, I’d still rather be the sole owner of a 58 regardless of what the numbers say.
The best round ever by Data Golf’s measure was Furyk’s 59 at the 2013 BMW Championship (+13.09 SG). If that’s golf’s 100-point game, the Black Mamba of our sport might actually be the OG ball-speed imposter, J.B. Holmes, shooting 62 at the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Championship, gaining +12.02 strokes on the field.
Now that we have a little context for the Wilt and Kobe of golf rounds, let’s jump back to hoops.
Of course I’ve been a Bill Simmons fanatic since the jump. Grantland got me through the gauntlet of undergraduate lectures. The Ringer is my north star for ranking all things basketball. His site has Bam as the 28th-best player in the league as of February. Without diving too far into hoops, we’ll trust the Podfather here.
So let’s translate that to golf.
What Bam did is like the 28th-ranked player in golf gaining more than 12 strokes on the field in a single round. So who’s the 28th-best golfer? Given the current state of the crooked OWGR, I’ll lean on Data Golf again to find our guy: Kurt Kitayama.
Five players grabbed the early lead at The Players Championship yesterday, each shooting 67 (-5) in round one. That gained them +6.12 strokes on the field. Add six more shots — a 61 — and you’re looking at roughly +12.12 strokes gained, which would pass J.B. Holmes as the second-best round ever recorded.
It’s not the sexiest answer, but it’s the best I’ve got.
Bam’s 83-piece on Tuesday is like Kurt Kitayama firing 61 in the first round of The Players — about 13 shots better than the 74 he actually posted.
And yes. I still yell “Kobe” every time a golf ball flies straight into the cup.
P╞r╠℮