97 over par! The worst round in Masters history hole by hole

The drama came thick and fast in the opening round of the Masters at Augusta on Thursday, with defending champion Sergio Garcia front and centre – that is the centre of the water in front of the 15th green.

The Spanish star ended his run as the “most talented player never to win a Major” in stunning fashion last year when he slipped on the Green Jacket that he looked destined to win from the time be announced himself to the golfing world as a teenager when winning the Irish Open at Druids Glen .

But the golfing gods at Augusta both giveth and taketh away and never was that more true that on the 15th hole on Thursday as Garcia’s defence drowned in the water that fronts the green on the par five.

Twelve months earlier Garcia had eagled the hole on the way to his win; this time he dunked his ball in the water five times on the way to recording a 13 as he slipped back to 10 over.

Sergio Garcia racks up unlucky 13 on 15th hole at Augusta

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Looking to make up for a bogey on the 14th that pushed him out to two over, Garcia went for the green in two to set up an eagle chance.

The ball landed on the front edge and lingered for a second or two before rolling back down in to the water.

Taking a drop, Garcia proceeded to put four more balls in the drink despite landing the ball close to the flag on each occasion.

His 12th shot finally hung on but he was left with an eighth-foot putt, which he sank to avoid the honour of becoming the player to card the highest score at any hole in Masters history.

Tom Weiskopf carded a 13 on the par-three 12th hole in 1980 – the highest score to par in history at 10 over – while Tommy Nakajima carded a 13 at the par-five 13th in 1978.

Garcia’s 13 on the 15th knocked a trio of players off the record list, with Jumbo Ozaki (1987), Ben Crenshaw (1997) and fellow Spaniard Ignacio Garrido (1998) having each made 11 at the hole.

It also pushed the worst scorecard in Masters history out to 97 over par, if you pick the worst scores on each of the 18 holes.

Starting with Ernie Els’s putting nightmare on the first hole in 2016, when he ran up a ‘hide behind the sofa’ nine, to Luke Donald’s eighth on the ninth in 2014, the worst scores add up to an eye-watering 42-over-par 78 for the outward nine.

Danny Lee’s nine on the 10th starts the back nine, with Amen Corner adding 35 shots to the scorecard (nine-13-13) before the ship is steadied relatively speaking with Nick Price’s eighth on the par-four 14th.

Garcia’s 13 now starts the run for home, with Herman Barron’s 11 at the par-three 16th in 1950 keeping up the double-digit scores on the back nine.

A total of 19 players have had a seven on the 17th, including Darren Clarke in 1998, while the most recent players to do it were Fred Couples and Ted Potter Jr in 2013.

The honour for the worst score on the 18th is the eight shared by seven players, including Henrik Stenson in 2012.

It all adds up to a 55-over 91 on the way home for a grand total of 97-over-par 169.

Not much chance of an invite coming in the post next January after that performance.

If you add up the lowest scores recorded at each hole over the years, you get very neat outward and inward halves of 16 for a total of 32 - 14 twos and holes in one on the four par-threes. It even beats former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's reported best round of 34 by two shots, although he managed five aces on the 7,700-yard Pyongyang Golf Course. That round was reported to have happened in 1994, when Kim was 52.