Sometimes it’s comforting to see a tour professional rack up a big number – not just a double or triple bogey, the double-digit kind that we amateurs frequently put down on the card.
When an elite pro starts duffing balls into the lake and carving multiple shots out of bounds, it just goes to show how difficult this game can be, for everyone.
So if you’re feeling bad about your game, take a look at these record numbers – the biggest scores to have been carded on golf’s elite tours.
Gary McCord – 16
The former pro and now-commentator will always be able to sympathise with anyone on the verge of making history in a way no one wants – he’s been there.
At the 1986 FedEx St. Jude Classic, playing the par-5 16th at Colonial Country Club, McCord found himself with just one ball left in his bag after dumping five consecutive 4-irons in the water.
You can’t help but smile at what happened next: he pulled out a 3-iron and made a 25-footer for a 16. “I’m looking right between the eyes at a 17 if I don’t make that putt,” McCord said of his final shot. “I was determined to make it.”
Ed Oliver – 16
If you turn up on the West Coast to play Cypress Point, you’ve got to be able to control your ball in the odd zephyr. In fairness to Oliver, the gusts were reported to be around 50mph during the 1954 Bing Crosby Pro-Am .
The knees must have been knocking when he arrived on the hazardous par-3 16th, where a bogey would have been a good score. Unfortunately, Oliver took 12 more shots than that. Ouch.
Kevin Na – 16
Kevin Na’s nightmare hole came on the 9th hole at the AT&T Oaks Course at TPC Antonio during the 2011 Valero Texas Open. After driving into the trees, he took an unplayable lie and went back to the tee. Okay, regroup.
Unfortunately for Na, he found the same spot with his next shot, and the one after that hit a tree and bounced off his leg (that’s a penalty) before coming to rest behind him in a spot that he declared unplayable.
There was also a left-handed whiff in there, although we must give the American some credit – he did one-putt. To make matters worse, he was wearing a microphone at the time for the Golf Channel.
Chris Gane – 17
Despite leaving the 17th green at +9, Chris Gane was still battling to make the cut at the 2003 Diageo Championship.
Teeing the ball up on the final hole of the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles, a par 5 measuring 533 yards, he needed a birdie – and the chances of making one looked half decent after he split the fairway with his tee shot.
However, things started to unravel when he pulled one into the rough, after which he started to hack around wildly. There was a penalty and, most likely, a few swear words.
Andrey Pavlov – 17
The Lyoness Open in 2015 was played at Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg, and it welcomed players with a nice, friendly opener – a 506-yard par-5.
Unfortunately for Russia’s Andrey Pavlov, he made a right pig’s ear of it, finding the water six times en route to racking up a 17. On the positive side, it wasn’t the worst single hole score ever made on the European Tour (now DP World Tour).
George Bayer – 17
Former football player George Bayer was a bit of a hothead. The red mist allegedly descended at the 1957 Kentucky Derby Open when, unhappy with his game, he appeared to throw the towel in by chipping around on the 17th green with a 7-iron.
Not only did he have to write 17 on the card, he was later fined by the PGA Tour for his behavior at Seneca.
John Daly – 18
The former Open champion has racked up a few big numbers over the years, and there have been occasions where he has lost his head and maybe not given each shot enough care and attention.
During the 1998 Arnold Palmer Invitational, the American took 18 shots to get the ball in the hole at Bay Hill’s par-5 6th, a somewhat card-wrecking 13-over.
What caused the damage? Six balls in the water. Daly was, understandably, raging.
Willie Chisholm – 18
Willie Chisholm did something all weekend golfers can relate to during the 1919 US Open – he topped his tee shot. And it has disastrous consequences, too, for it toppled down into a valley and came to rest against a rock.
This happened on the par-3 8th hole at Brae Burn Country Club. After a number of attempts to get the ball back into play, Chisholm eventually reappeared and tidied up on the green for an 18.
Ray Ainsley – 19
Reports suggest that Ainsley, playing the par-4 16th in the 1938 US Open at Cherry Hills Country Club, got into trouble when he attempted to play a submerged ball that had landed in a creek.
Things got ugly for the club pro when the ball moved downstream in the current every time he took a swing. Eventually, he managed to advance the ball properly… only it went past the hole and behind a tree.
Apparently, there were some spectators who disputed that score, saying it was actually one or two shots more. Let’s just say it was a momentum killer.
Hans Merrell – 19
How cool must it have been to have played in the Bing Crosby Pro-Am… at Cypress Point?! Not for club pro Hans Merrell who, in 1959, came a cropper at the notorious par-3 16th.
Although Merrell didn’t hit his tee shot in the ocean, he did find the beach some 75 feet or so below the putting surface. He then got in a serious scrap with some unforgiving ice plants – and came out second best.
Dale Douglass – 19
Another Bing Crosby Pro-Am and another big number – this one coming just a few years after Merrell’s meltdown.
Pebble Beach. It’s a beautiful part of the world, but what with it’s sandy shores, cliffs and raised greens, it ain’t half difficult.
Douglass’ difficulties began with a sliced drive onto the beach, which is where he stayed for some time playing shots of various kinds, most of which had unsuccessful results.
Mitsuhiro Tateyama – 19
What’s the best way to deal with suffering a disastrous hole? Japanese golfer Mitsuhiro Tateyama decided that laughter would be the best remedy, and why not.
At the 2006 Acom International, Tateyama made 19 at the par-3 8th hole at Ishioka Golf Club. After finding the rough with his second shot, he hit it into the bushes and took 14 more swipes to hack it out.
“There were more reporters around me than for the leader," he joked. “That must be a world record or something.” Not far off, Mitsuhiro.
Philippe Porquier – 20
Par 5s are where you want to be making ground, not heading backwards, especially when they measure just over 500 yards, as the 13th hole did at La Baule Golf Club.
During the European Tour’s French Open in 1978, however, Philippe Porquier didn’t so much as slip back through the field as plummet out of sight, as he suffered a case of the shanks. Poor man.
Tommy Armour – 23*
Is this the highest ever score in PGA Tour history? At the 1927 Shawnee Open, the Silver Scot recorded the first instance of the “archaeopteryx,” a single-hole score of 15 or more over par.
Now, we should say that reports do vary. Some say that he struck 10 consecutive drives out of bounds, others that he suffered a case of the yips on the green.
* With so many different versions of what was supposed to have happened, and what the final number was supposed to have been, we’re not sure that this score can be called official. Tommy, you’re off the hook. Excuse the pun.
