Category: Golf

According to the National Hole-In-One Registry, the odds against any Tour player making a hole-in-one on any given par 3 are 3,000/1, which makes the odds against making two holes-in-one in the same round 9,006,000/1. Astronomical though those odds may seem, the feat has actually been achieved twice, by professional players, on the PGA Tour and once on the European Tour.

In fact, the first player in PGA Tour history to record two holes-in-one in the same round was West Hatford amateur Bill Whedon, who did so during the first round of the Insurance City Open at Wethersfield Country Club, Connecticut in 1955. However, the first bona fide ‘professional’ to achieve the odds-defying feat on the PGA Tour was Japan-born Yusaku Miyazata. During the second round of the Reno-Tahoe Open at Montrêux Golf and Country Club, Nevada, in 2006, Miyazato holed his tee shot on the seventh and twelfth holes. In 2015, American professional Brian Harman recorded his first-ever competitive hole-in-one on the third hole at Plainfield Country Club, New Jersey, during the final round of The Barclays and, lo and behold, his second-ever on the fourteenth.

On the European Tour, Australian professional Andrew Dodt started his second round of the 2013 Nordea Masters at Bro Hof Slott Golf Club in Upplands-Bro, Sweden on the back nine, but made an ace at his second hole of the day, the 175-yard eleventh, and another on his sixteenth, the 208-yard seventh. He has the distinction of being the only European Tour player two holes-in-one in the same round.

For the best part of four-and-a-half decades, the record for the lowest single round in men’s major championship was 63, set by American Johnny Miller in the final round of the US Open at Oakmont Country Club in 1973. In a remarkable display of ball striking, on one of the toughest golf courses in the world, Miller birdied the first four holes, three-putted the par-3 eighth hole for bogey and made five further birdies on the back nine for his eight-under-par total. In so doing, he made up a six-shot deficit on the overnight leaders, which included compatriot Arnold Palmer, to win by a single shot.

Over the years, many other players shot 63 in a major championship, but 62 remained elusive. That was, of course, until July 21, 2017, when South African Branden Grace finally achieved the feat in the third round of the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Having made the cut by a single shot, on four over par, Grace birdied the opening hole, followed by the fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth, to make the turn in a five-under-par total of 29. He made further birdies on the fourteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth and, with no bogeys on his card, came home in a three-under-par total of 33, for a record-breaking eight-under-par aggregate of 62. Despite his heroics in the third round, there was to be no fairytale ending for Grace; in the fourth and final round, he shot a level-par 70 to finish tied sixth, eight strokes behind wire-to-wire winner, Jordan Spieth.

The PGA Tour is arguably the most important, and definitely the most lucrative, golf tour in the world. Week in, week out, between 120 and 156 of the best golfers on the planet tee it up in PGA Tour events, but only one can win. Winning on the PGA Tour remains notoriously difficult; some golfers play their entire career without ever doing so.

At the last count, the record for the most PGA Tour events without a win is held by Massachusetts-born Brett Quigley. Quigley, 49, is ranked number 2,066 in the world, according to Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) and currently plays on the developmental Web.com Tour, formerly the Nationwide Tour. Formerly U.S. Junior Amateur Champion, Quigley turned professional in 1991 and has two victories on the second tier tour – namely the Philadelphia Classic, in 1996, and the Arkansas Classic, in 2001 – to his name. However, on the main tour, Quigley has made a total of 407 starts and never finished better than second.

Of course, Quigley is not the only golfer to have made, quite literally, hundreds of starts on the PGA Tour without winning. Florida-born Michael Jancey ‘Briny’ Baird, for example, played 379 events on the PGA Tour, earning over $13 million, but the closest he ever came to winning was when losing a playoff, on the sixth extra hole, to Bryce Molder in the Frys.com Open, now the Safeway Open, in 2011. Baird hasn’t played a PGA Tour since 2014 and has since been surpassed as the highest money-winner never to win a tournament by Englishman Brian Davis, who has played 346 events.

Officially – that is, according to Guinness World Records – the longest drive ever recorded in competitive golf was 515 yards, achieved by the late Michael Hoke  ‘Mike’ Austin during a qualifying tournament for the U.S. Senior National Open at Winterwood Golf Course, Las Vegas in 1974. Using an old-fashioned persimmon driver, Austin achieved a carry of over 400 yards and when his ball came to rest it was some 65 yards past the flagstick on the par-4 fifth hole.

However, unofficially, the longest drive ever recorded was an eye-watering 787 yards, achieved by Carl Hooper in the Texas Open at Oak Hills Country Club, San Antonio in 1992. Hooper used a metal driver, but a rudimentary model. Nevertheless, his tee shot on the par-4 third hole landed on a concrete cart path and began a protracted journey to a spot behind the twelfth green, some 300 yards beyond his intended target. The general consensus was that the ball had travelled at least 750 yards from the third tee and his caddy worked out the yardage as 787 yards.