Will 62 still be safe after the Open?

By Mark Garrod, Press Association Sport Golf Correspondent Last updated: 13th July 2010

Records are there to be broken - and in golf, surely, it's time for one of them to finally go.

When Johnny Miller shot a closing 63 to win the 1973 United States Open, few would have thought that 37 years later nobody would have beaten it.

Not just in that event, but at any of the four major championships.

But that is the case going into The Open at St Andrews. There have been 22 more 63s, but nothing better - and certainly not a single round of all the thousands played that has threatened to do what American Paul Goydos did last Thursday in Illinois.

Goydos, one of Corey Pavin's assistants for the Ryder Cup in October, joined Al Geiberger, Chip Beck and David Duval in scoring 59 on the US Tour.

"I kind of realised if I birdied the last three holes I could shoot 59," said the 46-year-old. "They talk about you don't talk to the pitcher when he's got a no-hitter going blah-blah-blah, but the reality is in that situation that's a pretty good challenge to yourself.

"If you're playing this well let's enjoy it. Let's try to make the most of it and have a good time.

"I think trying to ignore what you're shooting and 'one shot at a time' you kind of lose sense of the fun of what we're trying to do.

"I kind of decided 'let's have a good time and see what happens'."

It paid off. He birdied the 16th and 17th and then left himself with a seven-foot putt to achieve the magic figure - a figure not yet managed in Europe.

"I was probably as nervous as I've been over a putt in my life. And it would have gone in a thimble. Don't know why - that's just the way it went."

Following Goydos's round and with it being only two months ago that 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa had his incredible 58 in Japan can a major 62 really be that difficult? We are about to find out again.

Nobody can say for certain it is impossible at the Home of Golf. Curtis Strange managed it in the Dunhill Cup in 1987 and Brian Davis (2003) and Graeme McDowell (2004) have achieved it in the Dunhill Links Championship.

But in The Open, when the course set-up is much more difficult, 63 is the lowest so far on this hallowed turf.

That was Paul Broadhurst back in 1990 - one of seven in the championship's history, but one the 44-year-old Englishman can claim to be the greatest of them all.

Why? Because his is the only nine under par round The Open has ever seen.

Turnberry, Royal Birkdale and Sandwich were all par 70s when Mark Hayes (1977), Greg Norman (1986), Jodie Mudd (1991), Payne Stewart and Nick Faldo (both 1993) handed in their 63s, while Muirfield was a par 71 for Isao Aoki's one in 1980.

Norman had the best chance to go lower. He had a putt for a 61 after a quite magnificent display at Turnberry 24 years ago, but with a moment of history beckoning he not only missed it, but missed the next one as well.

At least he went on to take the title then. He also shot 63 in the 1996 Masters, but that was the week the "Great White Shark" imploded on the final day and went from six clear of his great rival Faldo to five behind.

Vijay Singh is the only other player to have two 63s in majors, but did not win either the 1993 US PGA or 2003 US Open.

In fact, of the 21 players who share the record for the lowest round only five - Miller in 1973, Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 US Open, Ray Floyd at the 1982 US PGA, Norman in the 1996 Open and Tiger Woods at the US PGA three years ago - have also lifted the trophy.

Now 156 players, Goydos included after his second place finish at the John Deere Classic at the weekend earned him the last exempt spot, are preparing to set off in pursuit of the Claret Jug and maybe that elusive 62.

Here is a list of the rounds of 63 in majors:

THE MASTERS

Nick Price, Augusta 1986

Greg Norman, Augusta 1996

US OPEN

Johnny Miller, Oakmont 1973

Jack Nicklaus, Baltusrol 1980

Tom Weiskopf, Baltusrol 1980

Vijay Singh, Olympia Fields 2003

OPEN

Mark Hayes, Turnberry 1977

Isao Aoki, Muirfield 1980

Greg Norman, Turnberry 1986

Paul Broadhurst, St Andrews 1990

Jodie Mudd, Royal Birkdale 1991

Nick Faldo, Sandwich 1993

Payne Stewart, Sandwich 1993

US PGA

Bruce Crampton, Firestone 1975

Raymond Floyd, Southern Hills 1982

Gary Player, Shoal Creek 1984

Vijay Singh, Inverness 1993

Michael Bradley, Riviera 1995

Brad Faxon, Riviera 1995

Jose Maria Olazabal, Valhalla 2000

Mark O'Meara, Atlanta 2001

Thomas Bjorn, Baltusrol 2005

Tiger Woods, Southern Hills 2007

Mark Garrod, Press Association Sport Golf Correspondent