One of the things I was thinking about, after watching curly-topped 7-year-old Northern Irish golfing prodigy Rory McIlroy fight his way back up the leaderboard to finish in a tie for third, was how often people who’d shot 63 in a golfing major (as McIlroy did in the first round at St. Andrew’s) went on to win the tournament. And having done a bit of research I can now tell you: not as often as you might think. There have been 24 such rounds in major championship history – here’s a chronological summary:
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 | final | 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 |
So there have been five winners out of 24, for a total of 20.8%; of the rest a further eleven finished inside the top ten, with the remaining eight trailing in lower down the field, with the lowest finisher being Michael Bradley in the 1995 USPGA, who followed his opening 63 with 73-73-74 to finish sixteen shots behind the winner in a tie for 54th place.
That’s the meat, now here’s a few bits of statistical garnish: the only people to appear twice on this list are Vijay Singh and Greg Norman, the course with the most 63s is Baltusrol with three (Nicklaus and Weiskopf in 1980 and Bjorn in 2005), the second round is the most popular time to shoot 63 with eight entries on the list, and Nicklaus and Weiskopf in 1980 and Faldo and Stewart in 1993 shot theirs on the same day. Also, the only man to shoot a 63 in the final round to come through and win the tournament was Johnny Miller at Oakmont in 1973, the very first entry on the list.