Overview
- Marking the 40th year of Nick Price’s 63, players and past champions say the single‑round mark is the most vulnerable, with some even tipping a 62.
- Only Price in 1986 and Greg Norman in 1996 have shot 63 at Augusta National, and the Masters remains the only major without a sub‑63 round.
- Other benchmarks look sturdy, including 11 birdies in a round by Anthony Kim in 2009, 28 birdies in a tournament by Jordan Spieth in 2016, and Dustin Johnson’s 20‑under 268 from the softer, November 2020 Masters that many call an outlier.
- Augusta National now stretches to 7,565 yards, about 660 yards longer than when Price set the mark, with firmer, faster greens and tweaked bunkers that punish mistakes and slow birdie runs.
- Golf’s rulemakers plan a ball rollback in roughly three years that could trim carry by about 15 yards, and tournament officials say the Masters will follow, a shift that could make breaking records tougher.