The lowest 18-hole score ever recorded in a professional golf tournament is 55. It was achieved by Rhein Gibson on May 12, 2012, at River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond, Oklahoma. Gibson shot a course record 12-under-par 58 in the second round of the Astara Golf Championship, which was a Web.com Tour event.
Gibson’s round included 12 birdies and two eagles. He started the round with a birdie on the first hole and never looked back. He birdied the next four holes to get to 5-under par through five holes. He then birdied the ninth hole to get to 6-under par for the round. All in, the round was shaping up to be something of a record breaker.
On the back nine, Gibson birdied the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th holes to get to 10-under par for the round. He then eagled the 14th hole to get to 12-under par for the round. He finished the round with a par on the 18th hole to shoot a course record 12-under-par 58.
Gibson’s round was the lowest 18-hole score ever recorded in a professional golf tournament. It was also the lowest round ever recorded on the Web.com Tour. Gibson’s round was so impressive that it was recognized by the Guinness World Records.
Gibson’s round was a one-off performance. He has never shot another round in the 50s. However, his round is a reminder of the incredible talent that exists on the professional golf tour. It is also a reminder that anything is possible in golf.
The organisation that became the present-day PGA Tour was founded, as the ‘Tournament Players’ Division’ of the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America in 1968 and, over the last seven decades, just six men have recorded a score of 30 or more strokes under par in a 72-hole tournament. Interestingly, all six did so since the turn of the 21st century and five did so on the same course in the same tournament.
The professional golfer who has recorded the most strokes under par in a 72-hole tournament is 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith. Prior to winning his first major championship, the Australian had already shot 65, 64, 64, 65 on the 7,596-yard, par-73 Plantation Course at the Kapalua Resort on Maui, Hawaii the previous January to win the year-opening Tournament of Champions with a record-breaking 34-under-par total of 258.
The Tournament of Champions has been played on the Plantation Course since 1999 and, nowadays, players qualify by winning a tournament on the PGA Tour the previous year or finishing in the top 30 in the final FedeExCup standings and, thereby, qualifying for the Tour Championship.As such, the Tournament of Champions features a small, select field. In 2021, for example, a record 42 players teed it up at the Kapalua Resort, but eight of them were in the top 10 globally, according to Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).
The competitive nature of the event and, of course, benign scoring conditions may account for the regularly low scoring. The 2003 winner, Ernie Els, shot 64, 65, 65, 67 for a 31-under-par total of 261, whileJohn Rahm and Matt Jones, second and third behind Cameron Smith, shot 33 and 32 under par, respectively.
Jack Nicklaus, the all-time leader in major championships with 18 wins, has set a formidable record. However, the question remains: Is his record safe from the pursuit of other talented golfers?
Nicklaus’s dominance in the major championships spanned a remarkable period of over two decades, from 1962 to 1986. His unwavering skill and competitive prowess allowed him to outshine his contemporaries and etch his name in golfing history.
One prominent contender seeking to surpass Nicklaus’s record is Tiger Woods, who has amassed an impressive 15 major championships. Despite enduring injuries and setbacks, Woods has consistently displayed his exceptional golfing abilities and mental fortitude. At the age of 46, he still has time to compete at a high level and potentially close the gap on Nicklaus’s record.
However, Woods is not the sole threat to Nicklaus’s record. Rory McIlroy, a young and talented golfer at the age of 29, has already secured four major championships. With his immense potential and the years ahead of him, McIlroy has the opportunity to challenge Nicklaus’s record and etch his own name in golfing lore.
The pursuit of breaking Nicklaus’s record adds an element of excitement and anticipation to the world of golf. The next few years are poised to be thrilling for golf fans worldwide, as the outcome remains uncertain and the stage is set for potential history-making performances.
Ultimately, only time will reveal whether Nicklaus’s record will stand the test of the ever-evolving golf landscape. As Woods, McIlroy, and other emerging talents strive to leave their mark, the legacy of Nicklaus’s 18 major championships serves as both an inspiration and a benchmark for greatness in the sport. Golf enthusiasts eagerly await the unfolding of events, embracing the uncertainty and exhilaration that come with witnessing the pursuit of sporting immortality.
Professional golf is blessed with an abundance of highly memorable, instantly recognisable short holes, some shorter than others, but all utterly terrifying to mere mortals. Those that immediately spring to mind include the devilish 12th hole at Augusta National, a.k.a. ‘Golden Bell’ – described by Jack Nicklaus as the ‘toughest hole in tournament golf’ – and the equally iconic 17th hole on the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, with its signature island green. However, the former plays at 155 yards from the back tees and the latter at 137 yards, so neither is close to being the littlest of the little gems on any of the professional tours.
The 8th hole on the Old Course at Royal Troon, a.k.a. ‘Postage Stamp’ – since dual Open champion William Park Jnr. used the phrase to describe the size of the putting surface in 1922 – is the shortest hole on Open Championship rota and, as such, is definitely one for the shortlist. However, while fraught with danger, including the infamous Coffin Bunker, the ‘Wee Beastie’ still plays a relatively ‘generous’ 123 yards from the back tee.
By contrast, the shortest hole on the PGA Tour, the 7th hole on the Pebble Beach Golf Links, a.k.a. ‘Land’s End’ because of its position on Arrowhead Point, which is surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean, plays at a 106 yards from the back tee. Indeed, Pebble Beach has hosted the US Open six times, most recently in 2019, and during the 2010 tournament the hole played as short as 92 yards. From the tee, the hole drops 40 feet to a small green – which has become increasingly smaller down the years – and is often, but not always, played into an onshore breeze. Club selection is key, as is the ability to play a ‘knockdown’ shot, with a low, boring flight, to migitate the effects of the wind.
Historically, ‘even fours’ or, in other words, a total of 72, became the unofficial standard for stroke play scoring on an 18-hole golf course long before Scottish-born architect Alister MacKenzie incorporated the idea into his design of Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia during the Great Depression. Today, a symmetrical balance of holes – that is, four par-3s, 10 par-4s and four-par-5s – with distance balanced, more or less, between the front and back nines, remains the most common configuration for an 18-hole golf course, championship or otherwise.
Consequently, longer, par-6 or even par-7, golf holes remain a curiosity for most golfers, especially for those in the professional ranks. They do, of course, exist; although not ‘officially’ tackled by professionals, the longest hole in the world is the 1,098-yard, par-7 third hole on the Jeongeup Course at the Gunsan Country Club in North Jeolla Province, South Korea. Professionals on the various tours in Europe and the United States get off lightly, by comparison, but still have to do their fair share of yomping from time to time.
On the PGA Tour, the longest hole played, so far, was the 690-yard, par-5 ninth hole on the North Course at The Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Arizona during the 1991 Tucson Open; the tournament was won by 21-year-old amateur Phil Mickelson. On the Korn Ferry Tour, the developmental tour for the PGA Tour, TPC Colorado, home of The Ascendant, features the longest par-5 in professional golf, the 773-yard thirteenth hole, aptly named ‘Longer Still’. The grandaddy of them all, though, is reserved for players on the European Challenge Tour. In the 2019 D+D Real Slovakian Challenge on the Legends course at Penati Golf Resort in Senica, Slovakia, the par-6 fifteenth hole measured 783 yards, making it the longest hole in professional golf.