What’s the greatest round of golf ever played? Was it Johnny Miller’s closing 63 to win the ‘73 US Open? Or Stenson’s 63 to win the 2016 Open? How about Jack’s epic 65 at the ’86 Masters? Or was it my dogged 81 in the howling wind and rain at Rye Golf Club a few weeks back?
None of the above. I strongly contend that the greatest round of golf ever played is the 64 from Joe Ezar, a journeyman US pro, in the third round of the 1936 Italian Open at Sestrieres.
Joe who? Sestri-what? The Italian Open? I know, but trust me. If you don’t know about this round then prepare to have your strictly regulation knee-length golf socks blown off.
Joe Ezar was a colourful, unpredictable character who played golf all round the world, living by his wits and his clubs. He arrived at the Italian Open in good form, and wearing a magnificent leather-trimmed camel hair coat bought with his winnings from the previous week’s German Open (a coat he insisted on wearing between shots when playing, despite the sunny weather, slung around his shoulders like a cape).
Ezar, who was probably better known as a trick- shot artist than a golfer, had been hired by the Sestrieres club president to give an exhibition during the event. It was an incredible show, with Ezar announcing and executing all manner of astonishing shots, and finished with him on the putting green correctly predicting when and how he would hole various long and tricky putts.
One of the most impressed onlookers was the president himself who, on handing Ezar his fee, said, “It is a wonder with your skill that you do not break the course record.” “How much would you give me if I do break the record?” Joe replied. “One thousand lira for a 66,” said the president (the record stood at 67, shot that very day by the legendary Henry Cotton).
“How much for a 65?” asked Joe. “Two thousand lira,” said the president. “And for a 64?” said Joe. “Four thousand lira,” said the president, laughing. “Right,” said Joe, ’I’ll do a 64.”
Now, remember this was 1936, when any score in the 60s was pretty special (as illustrated at that year’s Open, where, among all the players in the final top ten, there was only one 60-something round across all four days – and that was a 69). Yet here was Ezar blithely announcing that he would play the (admittedly short) Sestrieres course in 64 shots, three less than anyone had ever achieved.
So far, so cheeky. But then he took it to another level. Casually taking a cigarette packet from the president’s pocket, he proceeded to write down the exact scores he would get on every single hole. Not only did he intend to shoot a 64, but he would get it in the most perfect and precise – and preposterous – manner: 32 out and 32 back, with 18 set-in-stone scores along the way.
The audaciousness of this extra prediction is staggering. Even pros would agree that golf is a wildly unpredictable game, not just round-by-round but shot-by-shot. So, what Ezar was attempting here was, frankly, ridiculous. Indeed, why would he even go there? The bet was already a lunatic one – just pull the 64 off and people would be amazed – so why make it 18 times harder to win his money?
The next day, he set off for the third round followed by the president and many other intrigued, but sceptical, spectators. Impressively, as he neared the turn he was still on track, with eight ‘correct’ scores in a row. But now, on the 9th, he was in trouble: fifty yards short of the green in two but needing a birdie three to go out in 32 and keep the bet alive. Nae bother. He holed his pitch shot. Amazingly, he then went on to play the back nine in 32 as well for the predicted 64, and on every single hole he achieved the exact score he said he’d get. He’d actually done it.
It is mainly thanks to Henry Cotton, who won the tournament easily (with Ezar second), that we know about this feat at all and can trust its veracity. In one of his many books, Cotton wrote a detailed account of Ezar’s incredible accomplishment. He ends it thus: “Knowing golf as I do, and its uncertainty in particular, I count these feats as some of the most extraordinary I have ever heard about. But there the fact remains – they did happen, and Joe collected his 4,000 lira from the president.”
Ezar, we salute you. Not just a trick-shot artist but a trick-‘round’ artist too.
