ON THE NUMBER
There’s data behind every swing. We crunch it so you don’t have to.AVERAGE CLUBHEAD SPEED ON TOUR
Top 20 over the last 10 years: 29.47
Percentage of first-
place prize money
won by Rory McIlroy
in the PGA Tour
events he’s entered
through the U.S. Open
(first on Tour).Men’s national
championship
trophies (16) won
by the University
of Houston since
the NCAA took over
the tournament.
(Yale won 20 from
1897-1936.)119.4 120.0120.4120.6 120.9120.7 120.9 121.5 122.4 121.3 122.42009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019$
75,000
Dollar amount
of winning bid at
charity auction
to carry Tiger
Woods’s bag in this
December’s Hero
World Challenge.heart as he embarked on his pro
career, after having played at Malone
University. But going home again has
brought him a newfound peace. Five
years ago he reconnected with the one
of the most popular girls from his high
school, Janice Sandrock. Back in the
day, he was a golf nerd and she was
a cheerleader, ergo, “She wouldn’ttalk to me,” Lower says. They are to
be married this fall, and late last year
they bought a house in their old home-
town. Lower is now once again fre-
quenting Lyons Den, a par 69 of 5,591
yards at which his best score is a 58.
Everyone there knows his name. “It’s
small-town America,” Lower says.
“It’s comfortable there.”
Yet the bright lights of the PGA
Tour still beckon. Lower calls his
near-miss last year “a tremendous
learning experience,” and he has
been solid so far in 2019, ranking
in the top 40 on the Korn Ferry
Tour in driving accuracy, greens in
regulation and scrambling. Knaus,
149th in the FedEx Cup standings at
press time, keeps close tabs on his
friend and says it’s only a matter of
time until he reaches the PGA Tour.
“That guy has the It Factor—the drive
to want to be there,” Knous says.
“I don’t see a lot of guys working as
hard as Justin does.”
Lower will have a chance for
redemption at this year’s Korn Ferry
finals. Would he want to face another
do-or-die putt to determine his
future? “Of course,” he says. “I know
I can make it.” But what if he doesn’t?
It’s a wrenching thought after all he
has been through. Lower dismisses
such talk. “There are worse things in
life than missing a putt,” says a man
who knows that all too well.COURSE LANGUAGE
Hey, got a good golf joke?“A guy hits his ball into the woods. He
pulls a 4-iron, hits his shot, the ball
hits a tree, hits him in the head and
kills him. He wakes up in heaven and
asks St. Peter, ‘Am I dead?’ St. Peter
says, ‘Yeah, you’re dead. Are you a
golfer?’ And the guy says, ‘I got here in
two, didn’t I?’ ” —LARRY THE CABLE GUYClubhouse18 GOLF.COM / S e p tember 2019Cl
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8
With Dustin
Johnson’s second-
place finishes at the
Masters and the
PGA Championship,
the number of
players who’ve
bagged the career
“Runner-up Slam.”
DJ joins Craig Wood,
Arnie, Jack, Watson,
Norman, Lefty and
Louis Oosthuizen.“
That guy has the It
Factor,” says PGA
Tour pro and Lower’s
friend, Jim Knous.
“I don’t see a lot of
guys working as hard
as Justin does.”