There’s been a lot of talk about records and incredible golf these last few weeks as Nelly Korda and Scottie Scheffler have every golfer except for Stephen Jaeger playing for second place.

It got me thinking about records and some that will never be broken. More on that in a moment.

A few quick items, first…

• If you have people in your life that you think would love this newsletter, please forward it along to them.

• If you’re looking for some fun competition this golf season, I am hosting two events with Jordan over at Fn3P. We’re calling it the Half Swing Series. The first event is at Butter Brook on May 30. Grab a partner or sign up as a single, and we’ll partner you up! Details and sign up here.

• In last week’s mid-week newsletter, I wrote about meeting Don Forbes, who caddied at George Wright in the 1940s. His family sold donuts and coffee to the men building the course in the 1930s in order to keep their house during The Great Depression. A fun story to write. Read it here.

• If you have something you’d like to see covered in this newsletter, don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected]. I'm always looking for ideas, topics, or questions!

Myopia Hunt will forever be in the USGA record books

Records, they say, are meant to be broken. However, some records will outlive us all. One of golf’s unbreakable records was set at Myopia Hunt Club in 1901 by the Scotsman Willie Anderson - one of just four men to win four U.S. Open trophies (Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus).

His victory in 1901 was particularly outstanding because Anderson needed 331 shots to complete the 72 holes at South Hamilton’s incredible golf course. That’s 82.75 shots per round.

For some context, the lowest score is held by Rory McIlroy at 268.

Alex Smith also shot 331 that week. The two gentlemen played an 18-hole playoff on Monday, June 17, 1901. Anderson, who called Pittsfield, Mass. home at the time, shot 85 to beat Smith by a shot.

Back in those days, the U.S. Open was held over two days. 36 holes on Friday and 36 more on Saturday. So Anderson and Smith had to sit around for an entire day on the North Shore before going back and having their brains beat in my Myopia Hunt for 18 more holes on Monday.

This was the first playoff ever, and the Boston Post reported that the association officials decided on Saturday to have an 18-hole playoff. Sounds like they were winging it a little bit.

If you’ve been lucky enough to play Myopia Hunt, it’s not a surprise that scores were high in each of the four U.S. Opens at Myopia. In addition to the 1901 score of 331, Fred Herd shot 328 in 1898, Anderson shot 314 in 1905, and Fred McLeod shot 322 in 1908.

That accounts for four of the highest five scores ever shot to win a U.S. Open. In 1899, Willie Smith shot 315 at Baltimore CC.

The story goes that Myopia was made challenging because of of the course designers Herbert Leeds would walk the course with players and drop coins and other items in places where players would hit their shots. Leeds would then build a bunker in that spot.

Bunkers were true hazards back in the early 20th century, and players could take many shots to escape. Between the bunkers and the severe greens, Myopia packed a punch.

Over the last 123 years, Myopia has added 425 yards of distance. In 1901, the course measured 6,130. Now it’s 6,555. There just isn’t much room to make the course much longer given the small parcel of land the course is on, surrounded by private property, roads, and Myopia facilities.

Myopia’s front nine is stupendous because it has a wealth of variation and “half-par” holes that can yield birdies or bogeys. I imagine that they were not “half-par” holes in 1901 because the length of the course was not commensurate with the 2024 course’s 6.555 yards.

It would be fun to watch top-level pros play Myopia Hunt and see how they manage the course with modern equipment, heck it would be fun to watch them battle the course with old equipment.

I’ll add it to my golf wishlist that will never be fulfilled. I’ll just have to stare at the Willie Anderson illustration and imagine what a round looked like in 1901 at the excellent Myopia Hunt.

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