There have been some shockingly-high scores at Augusta National Golf Club on individual holes throughout the years, with the likes of Sergio Garcia, Tom Weiskopf, and Tommy Nakajima making history for all the wrong reasons.
Meanwhile, a handful of players have fallen foul of the supposedly lightning-fast greens around the property, using their putter as many as six times.
But what about the single worst total round score ever seen at the home of The Masters? Well, that’s easy. Sort of. According to the official record books, the largest number ever made over 18 holes at Augusta National Golf Club is 95 – courtesy of the late Charles Kunkle.
In 1956 – 22 years after the inaugural Masters (initially called the Augusta Invitational Tournament) – the former World War II veteran and self-taught amateur golfer ended a horrible week with a final-round total of 95.
It was the highest-scoring round of his 340 over the four days. That’s 52-over and also remains the largest tournament score ever at Augusta. It will remain that way, too, given the year after was the first Masters where a halfway cut was introduced.
According to Kevin Kaduk of Yahoo Sports, there were a number of unhelpful factors which led to Kunkle blasting 95 on the Sunday, mind you, and it was not that he was a poor player.
He had earned his way to the tournament fair and square by reaching the quarter-finals of the US amateur in 1955 – part of a run of five consecutive US amateur appearances.
Firstly, he was 42 at the time and clearly did not have the access or insight into modern-day physiotherapy etc.
Secondly, he had only played nine holes of actual golf in the build-up due to the fact that he was a businessman during the week who reportedly spent much of his practice time hitting balls off of a mat in a barn. And when he travelled down to The Greenbrier in West Virginia to practice weeks before The Masters began, poor weather prevented him from doing much at all.
Therefore, when he was met with similarly woeful rain and wind during the 1956 Masters – said to have hosted some of the worst weather in tournament history – Kunkle knew he was likely to be up against it somewhat.
Unhelpfully, as far as Kunkle was concerned, the 1956 tournament was also the first to be televised in the US. Not that every shot was shown…
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