2021 Northern Trust: Taking Liberties with Liberty National
By Bill Felber
The place is called Liberty National, and the pros are certainly taking liberties with it.
Through three rounds of the Northern Trust – the first leg of the three-tournament Tour Championship Series — Liberty National has produced a full two dozen rounds of 65 or lower.
That includes a 60 (Cameron Smith), five 62s (Erik VanRooyen, Shane Lowry, Corey Conners, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele) and three 63s (Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Doug Chim).
Between the start of the Memorial Tournament early in June and last week, PGA Tour players had produced scores of 64 or lower at a rate of 1.95 for every 100 rounds played. At Liberty, they’re rattling off five sub-65s for every 100 cards turned in.
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This event may be the start of the Tour Championship Series, but the scoring looks a heck of a lot like the Sony Open.
Jordan Spieth shot a 62 Friday but closed play Saturday outside the top 30.
Doug Ghim turned in a 63 Saturday, and he’s still outside the top 20. Charley Hoffman shot back-to-back 65s and can’t make the top 10.
The full-field average Friday was 69.02. Relative to par, that’s the third-lowest average recorded for any of the first two rounds of a “full-field” event all season.
And that was just a warmup for Saturday when Smith shot his 60, VanRooyen, Lowery, and Conners all laid down their 62s, and a stunning nine players posted scores of 65 or lower. The average on that post-cut day was 68.29, 2.71 strokes below par.
How out of whack is scoring at Liberty? The 69.72 field average through three rounds is a half stroke lower than the three-round average when the tournament was played on the same course two years ago. The 68.29 Saturday average is nearly three strokes lower than the average for the same round in 2019.
Many things can account for a sharp season-to-season drop in field scoring average, the most obvious being weather and course conditions conducive to scoring. Experts say Liberty National is in immaculate shape.
Still, the scoring numbers are absurdly low for an event heralding the start of the season’s climactic championship stretch. The Tour tends to play its biggest tournaments on courses that demand the most of players. That has decidedly not been the case at Liberty National.
The table below shows this season’s 15 lowest rounds relative to par based on field scoring average. In looking at this, keep in mind that there are have been nearly 50 events already this elongated season, encompassing nearly 200 rounds. With the glaring exception of the Northern Trust at Liberty National, this list is populated by second-tier, schedule-filling events that are over and forgotten by the Super Bowl kickoff.
Rank Event Round Course Avg. to par
1 Sony Three Waialae -3.34
2 Byron Nelson One TPC Craig Ranch -3.23
3 RSM Four Sea Island -2.95
4 Northern Trust Three Liberty National -2.71
5 Sony Four Waialae -2.53
6 Shriners Three TPC Summerlin -2.48
7 Waste Mgmt. Three TPC Scottdale -2.15
8 Waste Mgmt. Four TPC Scottsdale -2.12
9 Mayakoba Three El Camaleon -2.11
10 Shriners Two TPC Summerlin -2.10
11 Wyndham Four Sedgefield -2.00
12 Northern Trust Two Liberty National -1.98
13 Mayakoba Four El Camaleon -1.96
14 Waste Mgmt. Two TPC Scottsdale -1.87
15 Shriners One TPC Summerlin -1.72
2021 Northern Trust: Friday’s Risers and Fallers. dark. Next
The Northern Trust is supposed to be the beginning of the PGA Tour’s post-season. But the pros this week are treating it like a spring training exercise. Either the Tour needs to toughen this supposed championship test or find a new and more challenging site for what is supposed to be a premier event.