From Hall of Fame to Walk of Shame… St Andrews worst scores

Par at the Old Course is 72, and the record individual Open score 63, but an eclectic tally of St Andrews worst scores is a real cricket score of a total

While much of our Open 2015 coverage is rightly devoted to the glorious achievements, magical moments and unforgettable records of St Andrews Opens past, it’s also worth reflecting for a moment on those times when things have not gone quite so well out on the Old Course.

Holes like the fearsome 17^th – the Road Hole - naturally steal the limelight when thoughts turn towards Old Course disasters, but over the years, each and every hole has proved a stumbling block to varying degrees to one or more of the world’s finest players.

So here, without further ado is our tribute to the fine men whose mis-hits and misfortunes have contributed to a ‘Worst Eclectic Old Course Score’ of 138 – that’s 66 over par – over the period from Seve’s dance of delight in 1984 to Louis’ peerless performance last time round in 2010…

1^st hole – par 4 7 – Ricardo Gonzalez 1990. Despite one of the widest fairways in world golf, we’re perhaps a little surprised that no-one has done worse, with out of bounds and the Swilcan Burn to contend with. 3-over.

2^nd hole – par 4 8 – Tom Pernice 2005, Ewan Porter 2010 The American and Aussie have both thrown in quads on ‘Dyke’ to take us to 7-over through two.

3^rd hole – par 4 6 – 11 players in total Nothing worse than a double several times on this sub 400-yarder. 9-over.

4^th hole – par 4 7 – Robert Karlsson 2000, Scott Verplank, Mark Hensby, Thammanoon Srirot 2005 This 480-yarder has tripped up a few players over the years, particularly in 2005. 12-over.

5^th hole – par 5 9 – Mark Calcavecchia 2010 Calc was rolling back the years in 2010 after two great opening rounds. But it all came crashing down on Saturday on the 5th after some lost ball/provisional ball confusion that cost him three penalty strokes. 16-over.

6^th hole – par 4 7 – 5 players in total Another treble on our eclectic card thanks to Eduardo Romero and Craig Stadler among others. 19-over.

7^th hole – par 4 7 – 5 players in total More treble trouble on this short par 4 with Aussie trio Nick O’Hern, Robert Allenby and Rod Pampling all coming unstuck in 2005. 22-over.

8^th hole – par 3 7 – Martin Laird 2010 Playing in just his second Open, the Scot put paid to his chances of weekend action with a costly quad on the first of the two par 3s in 2010. 26-over.

9^th hole – par 4 6 – 20 players in total Perhaps no great surprise that a 350-yarder should hold out with no worse than a double to see us turn at 28-over.

10^th hole – par 4 7 – Mike Sullivan 1984, Gary Clark 1995 Treble bogey time again on the second of the short back-to-back par 4s around the turn. 31-over.

11^th hole – par 3 8 – Gary Clark 1995 Same year, same player, different round as Clark racks up our first quintuple of the round during his third round in 1995. 36-over.

12^th hole – par 4 8 – Stephen Gallacher 2005 One of Scotland’s favourite golfing sons limped to a quad on ‘Heathery (In)’ a decade ago in round two. 40-over.

13^th hole – par 4 7 – 10 players in total Quite surprisingly the damage is limited to just a treble on this testing par 4. 43-over.

14^th hole – par 5 12 – Bill Rogers 1984 Just three years earlier, Rogers had claimed the title by four shots at Royal St George’s. In 1984 at St Andrews his septuple bogey on the 14^th in round one contributed to a 15-over two-round total and a stone-cold last place finish. 50-over.

15^th hole – par 4 8 – Russell Weir 1995 The closing stretch at St Andrews can play tough, with Scot, Weir, throwing in a quad on 15 in 1995. 54-over.

16^th hole – par 4 8 – Richard Boxall 1995 Same score, same year with Englishman Boxy adding four more shots to our worst eclectic tally. 58-over.

17^th hole – par 4 9 – Scott Hoch 1990, Zach Johnson, KJ Choi 2005 With out of bounds, an evil pot bunker and a bank and road beyond the awkwardly angled green, it’s little surprise several players have emulated Tommy Nakajima’s famous quintuple bogey in 1978. 63-over.

18^th hole – par 4 7 – Katsumasa Miyamoto 2010 Only 357 yards and with a vast acreage of fairway but still a less-than-healthy treble from Japan’s Miyamoto last time round to see us home in 138 blows – 66-over par!