AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Brooks Koepka was asked a couple of years ago whether it was possible to shoot 59 at the Masters and shatter that most hallowed scoring barrier few will ever touch and even fewer have accomplished in a professional tournament.
The look of incredulity that crossed his face was at once withering and comical.
“Have you played here?” Koepka replied.
“Not yet,” he was informed.
“Yeah,” Koepka said, “I could tell by the question.”
In fact,
only two people have managed a round of 63 at the Masters, much less 59. Nick Price was the first to set the record four decades ago, and the most recent was Greg Norman, whose first-round 63 in 1996 came before his epic final-round collapse.
That remains the highest single-round scoring record of any of the major championships.
“I'm surprised that it has been that long,” said Justin Rose, who has twice shot 65, including the first round last year, which he paired with a final-round 66 that put him in a playoff that he lost to Rory McIlroy.
Rose also has shot 81 at Augusta National, by the way.
“There's so many great players capable of putting up that number,” Rose continued, reflecting on the longstanding record ahead of this year's tournament. “I think that the course lends itself most ideally to that score on a Sunday, but also if conditions allow, Sunday is kind of when the course is getting its most sort of maxed out, in terms of green speeds and firmness. So that kind of counteracts some of those more accessible hole locations that traditionally we see on Sunday.”
There's reason to believe the record could one day be matched, or even broken. For one thing, scores keep coming down, including in the majors. Branden Grace was the first to shoot 62 when he did it at the British Open in 2017, but four have matched him in the past three years at the U.S. Open and PGA Championship, where Shane Lowry and Xander Schauffele both shot 62 in 2024.
Then there's the fact that technology, physiology and just about every other “ology” has improved over the years. Players have been hitting the ball farther and just as accurately, and that has forced Augusta National to continually change to keep up.
Those changes are one reason, Rose said, that its current record still stands.
Subtle alterations have taken place around greens and bunkers, but the most noticeable changes are in sheer length. The course played to 6,925 yards when Norman shot the most recent 63. It will play to 7,565 when the first round begins on Thursday.
“I think that's a big thing, a lot of mid-irons into small targets. Wedges into small targets,” Rose said. “If you're on and it's your day, sure, you can make a lot of birdies. But you're also going to make a bogey or two quite easily.”
Anthony Kim set the single-round record for birdies at the Masters with 11 in 2009, but he also dropped enough shots to finish with a round of 65. So, birdies alone probably aren't enough to challenge Price and Norman; it would take an eagle or two as well.
That's possible. Four players have even eagled consecutive holes in the same round, including Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.
It just isn't easy. Nothing is at Augusta National.
“The scores are always a little higher than you think they're going to be,” said 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman, who has just three rounds in the 60s — all 69s — in 20 competitive rounds at the Masters. "You know, when you come out here and you play, you feel like you can go shoot low numbers. It’s just not a lot of the low numbers out here.
“It’s a lot more of a grind than people think,” Harman said.
The second nine tends to play about a stroke more difficult than the first nine at Augusta National, thanks in part to water that comes into play through Amen Corner. But while seven players have gone out in 30, most recently Min Woo Lee in 2022, only two have come home in 29: Mark Calcavecchia in the final round in 1991 and David Toms in the final round in 1998.
In other words, going back to that question posed to Koepka of whether someone could ever shoot 59 at the Masters, it would take pairing the best first nine with the best second ever to do it.
“If I want to go play the member tees and maybe play like, 15 holes," said Koepka, a five-time major winner, "yeah, I could do that.”
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