Secondly, the recently completed PGA Championship in Atlanta provides a further data point for my list of golfers who have shot a round of 63 in a major championship. Steve Stricker's first round was the 25th such round in major history, and he missed a very makeable putt of ten feet or so on the last green which would have given him a 62 and sole possession of the record, and incidentally rendered all my statistical analysis obsolete and pointless, so in a way I'm quite glad. I'll reproduce the whole table here so you haven't got to go and look it up.
Player | Tournament | Year | Round | Result | Winner |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Johnny Miller | US Open | 1973 | final | WON | Johnny Miller |
Bruce Crampton | USPGA | 1975 | second | 2nd | Jack Nicklaus |
Mark Hayes | Open | 1977 | second | tied 9th | Tom Watson |
Jack Nicklaus | US Open | 1980 | first | WON | Jack Nicklaus |
Tom Weiskopf | US Open | 1980 | first | 37th | Jack Nicklaus |
Isao Aoki | Open | 1980 | third | tied 12th | Tom Watson |
Raymond Floyd | USPGA | 1982 | first | WON | Raymond Floyd |
Gary Player | USPGA | 1984 | second | tied 2nd | Lee Trevino |
Nick Price | Masters | 1986 | third | 5th | Jack Nicklaus |
Greg Norman | Open | 1986 | second | WON | Greg Norman |
Paul Broadhurst | Open | 1990 | third | tied 12th | Nick Faldo |
Jodie Mudd | Open | 1991 | final | tied 5th | Ian Baker-Finch |
Nick Faldo | Open | 1993 | second | 2nd | Greg Norman |
Payne Stewart | Open | 1993 | final | 12th | Greg Norman |
Vijay Singh | USPGA | 1993 | second | 4th | Paul Azinger |
Michael Bradley | USPGA | 1995 | first | tied 54th | Steve Elkington |
Brad Faxon | USPGA | 1995 | final | 5th | Steve Elkington |
Greg Norman | Masters | 1996 | first | 2nd | Nick Faldo |
Jose Maria Olazabal | USPGA | 2000 | third | tied 4th | Tiger Woods |
Mark O’Meara | USPGA | 2001 | second | tied 22nd | David Toms |
Vijay Singh | US Open | 2003 | second | tied 20th | Jim Furyk |
Thomas Bjorn | USPGA | 2005 | third | tied 2nd | Phil Mickelson |
Tiger Woods | USPGA | 2007 | second | WON | Tiger Woods |
Rory McIlroy | Open | 2010 | first | tied 3rd | Louis Oosthuizen |
Steve Stricker
| USPGA | 2011 | first | tied 12th | Keegan Bradley |
So we continue the slightly surprising trend of a round of 63 only giving you a one in five chance of winning (5 out of 25). It's getting more difficult, too: while four of the first ten 63s resulted in wins (up to and including Greg Norman at the Open in 1986), only one of the subsequent 15 (Tiger Woods at the USPGA in 2007) has resulted in a win.
Here's the distribution of 63s by the major they were made in:
- 2 at the Masters
- 4 at the US Open
- 8 at the Open
- 11 at the USPGA
No comments:
Post a Comment