Is Dustin Johnson’s record-setting Masters score safe? He certainly believes so
The question centered on the possibility of Augusta National Golf Club’s staging a tournament for women professionals. Fred Ridley explained the challenges.
“To have another tournament of any kind would be very difficult based on our season, based on the fact that this is essentially a winter and spring golf course,” the chairman of Augusta National and the Masters Tournament said Wednesday. “It’s not open in the summer. It doesn’t play the way we want it to play in the fall for a major tournament.
“We did have one, one time — and Dustin Johnson did very well.”
Yes, he did.
Johnson, the Columbia, South Carolina native who sparkled at Dutch Fork High of Irmo, South Carolina, and Coastal Carolina University, shattered the tournament scoring record in the 2020 Masters, which officials moved from its traditional April date to November due to the COVID outbreak.
No one could forget, least of all Dustin or Ridley.
“And as a matter of fact,” Ridley said Wednesday of Johnson, “he pulled me aside — we had a nice conversation after the Champions Dinner last night. And he said, ‘You know, I think my 20-under is safe.’
“And I said, ‘Well, I think you’re right, unless we have another tournament in November.’
“And he said, ‘Well, I think it’s still safe.’ ”
The move to November prompted all sorts of questions. Remember the concerns that the course would be more challenging in cooler temperatures and the potential of less-than-pristine fairways. And they played without fans on the grounds.
Johnson responded in the best possible way.
He came to Augusta that November ranked No. 1 in the world and playing the best golf of his life. He went into the third round in a five-way logjam for the lead with two of those challengers, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas, right behind him in the ratings. His 7-under-par 65 Saturday afternoon left them all in the dust, and he went into Sunday’s final round with a four-shot advantage. He birdied the third hole, but his failure to birdie the par-5 second hole and bogeys at Nos. 4 and 5 gave the challengers a ray of hope.
His tee ball on the par-3 sixth set up a birdie that, he said then, “helped the nerves. I played really solid the rest of the way. I drove the ball well, hit a lot of quality iron shots and gave myself good looks (at birdies).”
His 65-70-65-68—268, or 20-under par, bettered the tournament record by two strokes and joined some of the game’s greatest names in establishing the Masters’ record.
Masters low scores in history, scoring record
1953: With four rounds of 70 or better, Ben Hogan smashed the tournament record by five strokes with his 14-under-par 274. Ralph Guldahl had set the previous mark in 1939.
1965: Along came Jack Nicklaus. He took command with a third-round 64 and won by nine strokes with a 17-under 271. That prompted Bobby Jones’ famous comment that Nicklaus “plays a game with which I am not familiar.”
1976: Raymond Floyd set all sorts of records in matching Nicklaus’ 17-under 271. His 13-under 131 for the first two rounds took all the mystery out of the weekend and he won by eight shots.
1997: At age 21 and in his first Masters as a pro, Tiger Woods set the tone for things to come, rebounding from a front-nine 40 in the first round to dominate. He finished at 18-under 270 and prevailed by 12 in what Jim Nantz called “a win for the ages.”
2015: Making his second Masters start at age 21, Jordan Spieth set a tournament record with 28 birdies and matched Woods’ 18-under 270 total. The key: make putts. “I’ve hit it better a lot of years than I did that year and ... I was just rolling ’em,” Spieth said Tuesday.
2020: Low scores abounded for two rounds, then Dustin Johnson took command with his record-setting 268.
