60. Many players do not have to do much special in order to make a par on any hole, well, if you don't do much special 18 times in a round, you can still play to scratch

Back in 1981, the Australian, David Graham won the US Open at Merion in Pennsylvania. His terrific achievement contained a remarkable feat on the last day which was, and still is, a benchmark in defining quality performance. The US Open venues are notoriously demanding with narrow fairways lined with heavy semi rough. Graham, on the last day just missed just one fairway and that was on the first hole. He still managed to find the green with his second shot though and made a birdie. From that point on, he never missed another fairway and if memory serves me right, he only missed one green in regulation figures. In the playing of a near “perfect” round from tee to green, he shot a 67 and won the tournament.

Many newer players to the game I find have the wrong perception of golf played at the top level. It is a widely held belief that the best players hit the fairways and greens with monotonous ease all the time but it is far from the truth. Ballesteros for instance played his best golf from the trees, rough and in winning the 1979 Open championship, from a car park as well. He lost his form and confidence when he attempted to revamp his game in pursuit of the impossible.

The Swedish Golf Federation instill into their elite players that hitting just 12 greens in regulation should equate to a scratch handicap level. The tour Pros are the best scramblers in the world. Every week, players hitting maybe 12 greens in regulation and only 6 fairways from the tee record sub par rounds. It is their remarkable powers of recovery from 75yds in that enables them to do this. Do yourself a favor and get the notion of perfect regulation golf out of your head by waking up because it is, after all, only a dream.

I will finish on a very profound note. Many players do not have to do much special in order to make a par on any hole, well, if you don't do much special 18 times in a round, you can still play to scratch.