Is A 59 Achievable At The Masters? Tiger Woods And Brooks Koepka Weigh In...

There have been 12 sub-60 rounds in PGA Tour history but no player is yet to manage the feat at The Masters.

That may not come as a great surprise given the stern test that Augusta National provides, with its firm, fast greens and undulating fairways. 

The current Augusta National course record - shared by Nick Price and Greg Norman - sits at 63 but some believe that constant improvements in equipment technology, coupled with ever-increasing driving distances, mean that record may not stand for much longer.

Rory McIlroy almost equalled the record when he shot an eight-under-par 64 in 2022 but few others have come close in recent years. That, in part, is down to Augusta National's continued development of the course to defend it from low scores.

Last year the tee box on the 13th was moved back 35 yards to increase the difficulty of reaching the penultimate par-five in two shots and, according to Tiger Woods, that is one of the many recent changes that makes shooting a 59 at Augusta now almost unfathomable. 

 "If we played the old yardage and the old tee boxes, I would say yes [a 59 was achievable] but not at 7,600," the 15-time Major champion said when quizzed at his pre-tournament press conference. 

"The golf course has the ability to get longer than it plays. When I first played here, the fairways were more cut down, now they're into the grain. The overseed has gotten thicker. The golf course just plays stickier, in a sense. 

"I know they sand-capped all the fairways, but the roll-outs are not what they used to be. So you just can't sneak down there. I was talking to Mr. Chairman when we were playing that when I played here in 1995, I had a 60-degree sand wedge into 1, an 8-iron into 2 and a 5-iron into 8.

"There were a lot of 60-degree sand wedges. I had pitching wedge into 15. That doesn't exist now. So I don't think that's a reality anymore just with the fact that we're so far back."

Brooks Koepka meanwhile, took a more comedic approach when asked before the tournament, jokingly responding to the reporter: "Have you played here?"

"I mean, anything's attainable. But, yeah, if you want to go play the members' tees and maybe play like 15 holes, yeah, I could do that," he added.

While both didn't fancy their chances of achieving the record-breaking feat, one man believes he could have done it. In 2018, Jordan Spieth shot an eight-under-par 63 but, speaking a few weeks later, the American insisted a hot day with the putter could have seen him shatter the course record. 

“I look back on it and I actually thought that I truly could have shot 59 without doing much more other than making a few more putts," Spieth said. "I put myself in opportunities on each hole to shoot 59 that day, which is really, really cool. I made a couple putts, but it wasn’t really a hot day with the putter.”