Author: Kirsten Ross

T-minus 1 week!

For number seven in our countdown series of golf fun facts and statistics, we’re looking at the players themselves.

The average age of the Masters winners across 85 years is 32. But the players at the top of today’s game are younger than this average.

Last week was the Masters’ qualifying week. We took a look at this week’s OWGR list and found that seven of the top 10 players are in their 20s, making the chances of a younger-than-average winner this year look pretty good.

The seven players are, in order of rank, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton and Patrick Cantlay.

Morikawa is the youngest of the group at age 24 and is currently fourth in the OWGR going into this year’s Masters.

Hatton and Cantlay are the oldest and — coincidentally — the lowest ranked 20-somethings in the top 10. Both are aged 29 and in ranks 8 and 10 respectively.

Any player who is in the top 50 of the official world golf ranking list released in the week before that year’s Masters tournament automatically qualifies for the event.

What does that mean for this year?

While there is some decent potential in this group of seven for a younger winner this year, they will have some tough competition.

Defending champion and world number 1, Dustin Johnson is still the bookies’ favourite for this year. The 36 year old has got 8-1 odds on him with less than a week to go.

However, the younger players still have good chances, it seems. Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are all at 12-1 odds this week.

Jon Rahm, whose wife is expecting their first child during the Masters week, has already warned fans “not to bet on him”. The 26 year-old plans to drop everything if need be in order to attend the birth of his son.

Young stars making their first appearance also include Robert MacIntyre from Scotland who received support on social media this week after expressing his excitement for the event.

This article is part of our Countdown to The Masters series. Join us every day between now and April 7 for fun facts and interesting stories about golf and The Masters tournament.

People travel from all over the world to attend or play in the Masters tournament. For one week in the year, the entire golf world comes to Georgia.

For number 8 in our countdown series, we’re travelling from Augusta to Europe, where two men hold the record for most rounds of golf played in different countries in a single day. 

Two men from Belgium played 18-hole rounds of golf in eight different countries in one 24-hour period in 2013. 

An early start

It’s amazing how much you can get done in a day when you get up a little earlier than usual, isn’t it?

Kasper De Wulf and Alexander Hautekiet started their record-breaking day with a very early 2.30 am tee off in Tarvisio Golf and Country Club in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of north-eastern Italy. The club, just 6 kilometres from the Austrian border, sits at the foot of the Alps and offers some truly stunning views.

From Italy, they played in various courses in neighbouring Slovenia and Austria before heading north to Germany, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

According to Guinness World Records, the pair finished their final round in their home country of Belgium at 1.01am on the 25th of June 2013 at Damme Golf and Country Club. One of Belgium’s largest golf clubs, Damme GCC has 27 Championship holes and 9 Compact holes to its name.

More from the countdown series: If 2020 was a golf shot…

They were keeping score, too. De Wulf won overall in their stroke play match, hitting a 727 over the course of the day. Hautekiet posted the day’s lowest round with an 80 at their second stop in Bled, Slovenia. 

The proximity of national borders in Europe makes such a feat possible. It’s hard to image that golfers in other parts of the world could tick off so many countries in one day.

How many times can you play golf in a day?

The all-time record for most holes played in a single day goes to former Major League Baseball star Eric Byrnes in Half Moon Bay, California. He walked 105 miles and used glow-in-the-dark balls to play 420 holes in 24 hours. He played more than 23 rounds of golf that day to raise money for the Let Them Play Foundation, a charity in California that offers scholarships to youth sports groups so that they can buy sports equipment. 

Back to Augusta, where it will be about quality rather than quantity next week as we see the first tee off in just 8 short days.

This article is part of our Countdown to The Masters series. Join us every day between now and April 7 for fun facts and interesting stories about golf and The Masters tournament.

Only nine days left!

We’ve already looked at the worst records in Masters history in this series. Today, as we get closer and closer, let’s look at some of the best. 

Augusta National is regarded as a true test of golf for the very best in the world; a test that a rare few have passed with flying colours. 

The record low for any round at Augusta National during the Masters is 63, or 9 under par.

The honour for having shot the best single round doesn’t go to any of the all time great winners of the tournament. 

Nick Price of Zimbabwe hit 63 in his third round in 1986. He claimed at the time that he could have done better if his hungover caddie hadn’t been giving him incorrect distances throughout the round.  

Ten years later, in 1996, Australian Greg Norman opened with a 63, matching the 9 under record held by Price. 

More from the countdown series: the history of the green jacket

It’s not just the winners who make history

Although great golfers, neither Price nor Norman were able to convert their record rounds into a tournament win and neither man would win a green jacket throughout their careers. In 1986, Price watched Jack Nicklaus win his record breaking 6th Masters. In 1996, Nick Faldo took his 3rd, still the most by any European.

Norman, who was 41 at the time, famously choked in the final round of the 1996 Masters after having maintained a six stroke lead ahead of Nick Faldo. 

There has been much speculation in the sports world since then about what caused one of golf’s most famous chokes. Reports since then suggest that overthinking and pressure to perform caused the decisive slipup on the last day.

He later told phycologist Rick Jensen that he “didn’t sleep a wink” on the Saturday night before his 78 in the final round. Faldo ended up winning by 5 strokes.

This article is part of our Countdown to The Masters series. Join us every day between now and April 7 for fun facts and interesting stories about golf and The Masters tournament.

Often referred to as US Masters, qualifying golfers from all over the world are invited every year, not just Americans.

While it may be true that most competing players – and winners – have been American, there are 11 countries in total who have won the major at one point or another in its 87 year history. 

The Masters is becoming more diverse than ever. In 2021, players representing 23 different countries have been invited to compete.

Of the 87 players, 46 are international players while just 41 are US nationals. 

Carlos Oritz of Mexico and Englishman Joe Long are among a handful of players making their Masters debut this year. 

Ahead of the 2021 event, here’s how the winners’ nationalities have been divided up so far: 

United States – 62 wins

South Africa – 5 wins

Spain – 5 wins

England – 4 wins

Germany – 2 wins

Scotland – 1 win

Wales – 1 win

Fiji – 1 win

Canada – 1 win

Argentina – 1 win

Australia – 1 win

Gary Player became the first non-American player to win the Masters in 1961. 

Player won over 160 professional tournaments on six continents over seven decades and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. 

More from the countdown series: the highest score in Masters history

Nick Faldo became the first non-American to successfully defend his title and win the tournament two years in a row in 1989 and 1990.

The Englishman shares the record for most consecutive wins with two of golf’s biggest legends, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

This article is part of our Countdown to The Masters series. Join us every day between now and April 7 for fun facts and interesting stories about golf and The Masters tournament.

Anyone who wins the Masters is allowed to keep the famous green jacket for 12 months, until the next event is played.

After that, the jackets are kept in Augusta in their very own special-purpose cloakroom.

This tradition, like everything else, was interrupted in 2020 when the 2020 Masters was postponed until November due to the coronavirus outbreak. This means that last year’s winner, Dustin Johnson, will have only had his jacket for 6 months before he has to hand it back in to Augusta National.

2020 aside for a moment, let’s take a look back at the story behind the green jacket in honour of the 12-month tradition.

It was never meant to be part of the award ceremony…

The iconic Masters green jacket was not always given to those who win the tournament in the way it is today. In fact, it was first introduced in 1937 as a uniform for members of the club to wear so that they could be recognised by visitors. 

The first time it was presented to the winner at the award ceremony was in 1949, to Sam Snead.

Snead, who that year didn’t get off to the best start in the first two rounds after posting a 73 and 75 in the first rounds, won by three strokes after posting two consecutive rounds of 67 at the weekend.

Not to be left out of the fun, the jacket was also awarded retrospectively to the previous 12 winners up until then. 

Since then, the previous year’s winner presents that year’s winner with the jacket.

Gary Player was famously the only Masters winner who didn’t bring back his jacket the next year after winning his first Masters title in 1961. At the time, he claimed to have accidentally left it at home in South Africa. 

Green jackets for sale, anyone?

Short of winning the Masters itself, the only way you can get your hands on a green jacket of your own is if you have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare.

Horton Smith, the winner of the very first Augusta National Invitation Tournament in 1934, had his jacket sold at auction for $682,229 in 2013. It’s said that no other piece of golf memorabilia has ever sold for such a high price.

Pantone 342 is the official colour of the jacket. However, due to various changes in manufacturers over the years, the tone can differ slightly from year to year. 

It’s just over 2 weeks until we find out who Dustin Johnson will present the next green jacket to.

This article is part of our Countdown to The Masters series. Join us every day between now and April 7 for fun facts and interesting stories about golf and The Masters tournament.

History is made on the golf course when a player does something that no other player has ever done before.

The best remembered records are usually for players who have – in a good way – outperformed all others in their field.

Unfortunately for Tom Weiskopf, Tommy Nakajima and Sergio Garcia this is not always the case. 

As far as records go, one you probably don’t want on your repertoire is the record for the highest record score above par on a single hole at the Masters – 13.

Last November, many thought that Tiger Woods’ 7 above par on the 12th hole at Augusta might have been the highest on Masters record. It wasn’t, but we’ll get back to that later in the series. 

Tommy Nakajima of Japan, was the first to reach unlucky number 13 at the Masters in 1978 – on the 13th hole, no less. Next came American Tom Weiskopf in 1980 on hole 12 and then, after a long wait, Spaniard Sergio Garcia in 2018 on the 15th. 

More from the countdown series: Apollo 14 and the first golfer in space

“I don’t like to be one of the three that is always going to be mentioned as making the highest score on any hole. But it sure doesn’t haunt me,” Weiskopf said, reflecting on the shot.

And neither it should. Weiskopf has had an otherwise successful career, picking up 16 PGA Tour titles and winning the British Open in 1973 in Troon, Scotland. 

It’s Garcia, however, whose 13 on the 15th in 2018 contributed to the single worst round in Masters history: 169, or 97 over par. With that, the previous year’s green jacket winner made history two year in a row.

No other player can recount such highs and lows at the Masters in such a short space of time.

This article is part of our Countdown to The Masters series. Join us every day between now and April 7 for fun facts and interesting stories about golf and The Masters tournament.

Next up in our countdown series we’re asking: what’s the furthest golf has ever been played from Augusta?

Technically speaking, it’s the moon. Astronauts hit a few golf balls on the moon’s surface during the Apollo 14 mission.

A bit too far to go to get some swing practice?

Apollo 14 was the third manned lunar landing mission. Between January 31 to February 9th 1971, it was commanded by Alan B. Shepard, Jr, who had been the first man in space.

Of the three astronauts aboard, Edgar D. Mitchell was the youngest at age 40 and lived until 2016.

Commander Shepard hit two golf balls with a six-iron head strapped to the handle of a tool used for sample collection.

He also holds the record for the first (and only) extra-terrestrial hole in one after they found one of the golf balls in a crater.

The only other sport to be played on the moon is javelin. In the same Apollo 14 mission, Shepard threw a javelin that landed just a few meters ahead of his golf ball.

While there might not be an official course on the moon (yet), there are still plenty of golf courses in extreme locations here on Earth: 

Davis Golf Links in Antarctica: golfers have to play with brightly coloured balls so they don’t get lost in the snow-covered landscape.

Arctic Links in Finland’s Arctic Circle region: in the summer, this course is open all day long due to the 24-hour daylight.

Himalayan Golf Course in Pokhara, Nepal: visiting golfers can play among the clouds, right in front of the worlds largest mountain range.

None of these courses are more extreme than the single par 3 hole at the UN Joint Security Area between North and South Korea. You’d better be confident with your short game as the green is surrounded entirely by land mines!

Maybe it won’t be long until there’s a golf course in space, who knows. Until then, there’s plenty to look forward to down here on Earth with less than two weeks until this year’s first tee time at Augusta.

This article is part of our Countdown to The Masters series. Join us every day between now and April 7 for fun facts and interesting stories about golf and The Masters tournament.