By The Numbers

2 - The number of times - in succession - Buddy Allen has qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur. Allen pulled off the repeat at Sunset Hills Country Club in Edwardsville, Ill. last month when he defeated Brett Allen of Columbia, Mo. in a playoff and earned the trip to Martis Camp Club in Truckee, Calif. Allen, who lives in Pevely, Mo., also played in the British Senior Amateur at Woodhall Spa Golf Club in England in early July. Not a bad summer so far, eh?

62 - The driver swing speed of an average women golfer is 62 miles per hour. That figure jumps to 96 mph for the average LPGA player. The average male golfer checks in at 84 mph, while the average PGA Tour player swings at 108 mph. For comparison, when he’s healthy Tiger Woods swings at around 128 mph. Meanwhile, Long drive competitor Ryan Winther has reached a top swing speed of 167.1 mph, which is a Guinness World Record.

59 - That’s how many putts from 10 feet and in Brian Harman made while winning the British Open at Royal LiverpoolGolf Club Hoylake last month. Oh, by the way, to be more specific, he made 59 out of the 60 attempts he had - that’s right, missed only once in 60 chances. Harman did not have a single three-putt during the week, while becoming the third left-handed swinger to win golf’s oldest championship, joining Bob Charles and Phil Mickelson. No surprise that he finished first in the championship for strokes gained/putting, gaining an incredible 11.57 strokes with his putter.

3.7 - The handicap index of Bret Baier, the Fox News anchor and self-proclaimed “golf nerd.” Baier was the captain of the golf team at Division III DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. He also is a member at Congressional

Country Club and Pine Valley Golf Club. He shot a 72 from the members’ tees the first time he played at Augusta National, and has the scorecard framed and hanging on the wall in his office.after winning the 2010 NCAA individual championship at Illinois. The lefthander also won the Metropolitan Open.

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- The number of years Persimmon Woods Golf Club has been open. The club will host the 33rd Metropolitan Amateur on Aug. 3-5 for the first time in 10 years. The last time the championship was conducted at Persimmon in 2013, Kyle Weldon joined David Estes as the only players to win the title back-to-back, repeating the championship he won in 2012 at Old Warson. “When you consider only one other player has won it back-toback and you look at the players who have won this, and some of the players who have not, it is a pretty special accomplishment,” Weldon told the Ol’ Bogeyman afterward. By the way, Estes won his consecutive titles in 1997-98.

9,473 - According to 2022 statistics, this is how many golf courses and country clubs there are in the United States. The number represented a decrease of 0.7% since 2021. That said, there appears to be more horses for the courses. According to Golf Datatech’s “Monthly Rounds Played Report” for April, 2023, play was up 7.8 percent compared with the same month a year ago. Likewise, year-to-date rounds played was up 3.1 percent compared with the first four months of 2022.

1 - The number of women who have made a cut in a PGA Tour event. The only one to do so is Babe Zaharias, who first accomplished the feat at the 1945 Los Angeles Open. That year she also made the cut at the Phoenix Open and the Tucson Open.