Earlier this month, I wrote a story about the most unbreakable records in golf. I feel pretty confident all of those records will stand for at least the next few decades, if not my entire lifetime.
That got us thinking about records that will be broken in the near future.
I found this was actually a tougher list to compile than the unbreakable records. A lot of these marks have stood for a long time so it won’t be easy for any of them to fall.
However, I think these seven are bound to be broken in the next six years. In descending order this time, here are the records that won’t hold their ground.
1. Tiger Woods leading the career money list ($120.9 million)
This is a no-brainer.
Woods earned just shy of $121 million on the course throughout his career and it’s unlikely he will be adding much to that total.
Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler is already above $71 million, which puts him in third place all-time.
Give Scheffler five more seasons of solid play and he will easily be above $120 million. There is far more money in the game now so this feels inevitable.
Pretty soon we will be talking about $200 million as being a new leader in career earnings.
2. Longest average drive on Tour (326.3 yards)
Rory McIlroy set the average driving distance record in the 2022-2023 season by reaching 326.3 yards.
While that is awfully impressive, I think the trend of longer driving distances will continue up until 2028 when the rollback takes effect.
Also, if there is a Tour-PIF deal in the next little while, guys like Bryson DeChambeau will come back and have a chance to set the record.
I think it’s realistic for someone to average 330 yards per drive, a ridiculous number.
3. Jim Furyk shooting the lowest 18-hole score on Tour (58)
I think we are absolutely going to see a 57 on Tour at some point before the decade finishes.
I count four sub-60 rounds in 2024: Joaquin Niemann on LIV, John Catlin on the Asian Tour, Cameron Young on the PGA Tour and Hayden Springer on the PGA Tour. Last year, DeChambeau shot 58 at a LIV event.
We now have 13 sub-60 rounds in Tour history—10 of them have come in the past 15 years. In the case of Young, he shot 59 while hitting only six fairways and making nine pars. He even made par on a par-5. Young easily could have shaved two strokes off his score.
It seems likely that someone will go nuclear on a par-70 course and break Furyk’s record. If you want to extend this to all levels of elite professional golf, then I’m only more certain that a 57 (or lower) is coming.
4. Lowest 18-hole score shot in a major (62)
Low scoring will be a theme on this list.
For many years, 63 was a sacred number in majors. A long list of players hit that mark but could never do better.
Now we have multiple players coming in at 62 in majors. Xander Schauffele and Shane Lowry shot that score at the PGA Championship last year. It had been done previously by players like Rickie Fowler and Branden Grace (who was recently relegated from LIV).
A lot of majors are held on par-70 courses so it seems destined that someone will take advantage of a soft conditions and reach 61.
If anyone ever gets to 59, I think that host course should be barred from hosting ever again.
5. Major championship 72-hole scoring record (21-under)
This is another record that was set in 2024.
Schauffele took advantage of a comically easy golf course—one that should never host a major again—to shoot 21-under for the event. DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland were nipping at his heels.
We’ve also seen major winners reach 20-under on four occasions, all of them coming in this new era of outstanding technology and athletes who work out non-stop.
I would bet the farm that one of the next 30 majors sees an easy setup and a remarkable performance, leading to a 22-under total or better.
6. Fastest round of golf by a foursome (48 minutes, 56 seconds)
OK, let’s go way outside the box here.
In November 2017, four New Zealand natives—Matthew Dalton, Steven Holloway, Landyn Edwards and Michael Ryan—completed 18 holes in less than 49 minutes.
Going off of nothing but blind optimism, I am banking that some other group of golf friends will break this record. Speed golf is becoming more popular and a lot of pace records have been set in the past 10 years.
Maybe four of us here at MGS could set it? Uh, maybe not.
7. Tiger Woods the youngest to win a major in the modern era (21)
While this one is no sure thing, I am bullish on one of these young bucks to grab a major, breaking the modern record of Woods being just 21 years old when he won the 1997 Masters.
I’m less optimistic about the oldest player to win a major record being broken—Phil Mickelson set that at the 2021 PGA Championship—just because I think people will retire younger given all of the money in the game now. But on the young side of the equation, there is a strong chance someone pulls through unexpectedly.
Jordan Spieth was only five months older than Woods when he won the 2015 Masters. And we’re already seeing amateurs like Nick Dunlap win Tour events.
With how strong college golf is at this point, I think this record is bound to fall eventually.
What other records do you think will fall by the wayside this decade?
Let me know in the comments.
Top Photo Caption: Jim Furyk’s scorecard from his record-setting 58 at the 2016 Travelers Championship. (GETTY IMAGES/Michael Cohen)
Mike
2 weeks ago
When you talk about shooting 5758, what’s the par? I’ll lay good money that no one’s shooting 57 on a par 72 course. And as far as the Major scoring records, given all the Majors (unfortunately including the Masters) are trying to make the courses harder, I doubt we’ll see any records broken.