The 9 Highest Scores Ever Recorded On A Single Hole In A PGA Tour Tournament

The average golfer is all too familiar with what is commonly referred to as a blow-up hole. It’s pretty rare for people who play the sport for a living to see their game fall apart to the point where they end up jotting down a double-digit number on the scorecard, but there are a number of players who have been forced to do exactly that after falling apart in spectacular fashion during a PGA Tour tournament.

These are the highest number of strokes ever recorded on a single hole in a PGA Tour tournament

Virtually every amateur golfer knows what it’s like to see their game fall apart to the point where they feel like leaving the course and dumping their bag into the nearest trash can on the way back to their car.

A particularly bad hole has the potential to spoil a round, but you can always pick up your ball if you were attempting to play for fun and resign yourself to a double par if you’re keeping tabs on your handicap. However, golfers on the PGA Tour do not have that luxury, which has resulted in some pretty staggering scores over the years.

Kevin Na: 16—2011 Valero Texas Open

There are three golfers who’ve scored a 16 on a hole in a PGA Tour tournament, and I’m going to start with the most recent occurrence and work my way back.

Kevin Na was sitting at -1 when he arrived on the par-4 9th at the Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio during the Valero Texas Open in 2011. However, that number rose to +11 by the time he arrived at the turn.

Na sliced his tee shot into the woods and found himself facing a very unenviable situation before finally emerging out of the thicket after his 12th shot.

He carded a 16 and ended up with an 80 after making three birdies on the back nine, and he missed the cut after finishing with a 77 on Friday.

Gary McCord: 16—1986 FedEx St. Jude Classic

If you haven’t seen Tin Cup and don’t want it spoiled, you should stop reading and skip past the video posted below.

If you’re still with me, you likely know it ends with Kevin Costner’s character repeatedly dunking balls in the water at the U.S. Open, which was inspired by the painful sequence Gary McCord endured at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in 1986.

His 16 appropriately transpired on the par-5 16th hole during the first round of the event that was held at Colonial Country Club.  He hit a tree with his tee shot and was looking at a 209-yard shot to clear the water, which he repeatedly failed to do five times in a row with the 4-iron he pulled out of his bag.

McCord only had a single ball left when he switched to a 3-iron to set up the 25-foot putt he managed to sink, and he headed into the clubhouse with an 87.

Ed Oliver: 16—1954 Bing Crosby Pro-Am

The 16th hole at Cypress Point is one of the most iconic holes in golf, as players who step up to the par-3 are tasked with shooting over the Pacific Ocean and either laying up on the fairway or going for a green flanked by a couple of small beaches leading to the water.

Wind can make hitting the putting surface a particularly tall task, and Ed Oliver learned that the hard way thanks to the 50 MPH gusts he had to grapple with while playing in the Bing Crosby Pro-Am in 1954.

I can’t find any record documenting exactly how he managed to become the first golfer to record a 16 on the 16th hole at a PGA Tour tournament, but it’s safe to assume the man who was known as “Porky” deposited a few in the drink before moving on.

George Bayer: 17—1957 Kentucky Derby Open

As things currently stand, George Bayer is the only golfer who has needed exactly 17 strokes to finish a hole during a PGA Tour event.

The manner in which he did so is actually pretty hilarious, as he had a meltdown after getting fed up with how he was playing at Seneca Golf Club during the 1957 Kentucky Derby Open. He opted to pull out his 7th iron on the par-4 17th and chip down the fairway before ending up with the 17 that contributed to his score of 90 on the day.

The PGA Tour initially decided to hit Mayer with a 30-day suspension for the temper tantrum, but it was downgraded to a three-month probationary period and a $200 fine.

John Daly: 18—1998 Bay Hill Invitational

John Daly’s aggressive play style helped him win a couple of majors and five events on the PGA Tour, but it also came back to bite him on plenty of occasions.

That was certainly the case at the Bay Hill Invitational in 1998, which featured a par-5 6th with a dogleg that could be bypassed with a tee shot that required players to clear around 320 yards to make the green. Daly had harnessed his power-hitting prowess to clear the hazard earlier in the tournament, but he failed to do so when he attempted to replicate that feat during the final round.

He took a drop and pulled out the 3-wood that deposited five more balls into the water (including the one he was attempting to lay up), and while he had started the hole a -2, he ended up at +11 and ultimately finished in 53rd place out of 55 golfers.

Willie Chisholm: 19—1919 U.S. Open

This one is a throwback to the point where I can’t even find a picture of Willie Chisholm, as it appears his only contribution to golf history is the 19 he recorded at the U.S. Open at Brae Burn Country Club in 1919 when you consider that’s the only reason his name comes up when you search for him.

Chisholm apparently managed to shank his tee shot on the par-3 8th into a valley where it came to rest next to a rock, and he had a ton of trouble getting it out of there before it finally ended up in the hole after 19 shots.

Dale Douglass: 19—1963 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am

There are three men who are officially tied for the record for the most shots recorded on a hole in the history of the PGA Tour.

Dale Douglass is the most recent golfer to achieve the feat, although he did it more than 60 years ago. It also transpired at the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, which was held at Pebble Beach in 1963.

You need to avoid slicing your drive on that hole if you don’t want to end up on the beach at the bottom of the cliff on the right side of the fairway, but Douglass was unable to avoid that fate. He was facing his 14th shot when he finally got his ball back onto some green stuff, and it took him another five to get it in the cup.

Hans Merrell: 19—1959 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am

We’ve got another golfer who is merely a footnote in the annals of golf history thanks to an atrocious score, and the 16th hole at Cypress Point was also the site of this one.

Hans Merrell is responsible for what is the highest score over par on a single hole in PGA Tour history, as the other two 19s that were recorded came on a par-4.

He managed to avoid the Pacific Ocean during his harrowing experience at the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am in 1959 (there seems to be a curse associated with the crooner), but he did end up on one of the aforementioned beaches before his next shot ended up in a plant that he took five swings at before declaring it unplayable.

It ended up back in the same plant after he took a drop, which forced him to take another one before he finally got on the green and ended the suffering with a two-putt.

Ray Ainsley: 19—1938 U.S. Open

The first man who recorded a 19 in a PGA Tour tournament probably could have avoided it if he had been a bit more familiar with the rules, as Ray Ainsley was thrust into a comedy of errors when his ball landed in a creek on the par-4 16th at Cherry Hills during the 1938 U.S. Open.

He repeatedly attempted to shoot it out of the moving water that gradually ferried his ball further away from the green as he was attempting to salvage things, and he finally got it out of the stream and into some trees with his 17th shot.

He was approached by a rules official who asked him why he declined to take a drop instead of subjecting himself to an exercise in creek-related futility, which was the first time Ainsley learned that was an option after assuming he had to play it as it lay.

Honorable Mention: Tommy Armour’s 23

Tommy Armour was a three-time major winner who had 25 victories on the PGA Tour, and he was just one week removed from his win at the 1927 U.S. Open when he took part in the Shawnee Open.

He purportedly needed 23 shots to finish the par-5 17th during his second round after hooking 10 tee shots out of bounds (which would have been an archaeopteryx, the word used for any score 15 or more shots over par).

However, a contemporary report published in the wake of the tournament asserted he “only” shot an 11, and golf historians agree that was indeed the case.