PGA Tour golf tournaments are almost all 72-hole stroke-play events. That means a golfer has 72 chances to make birdie (or better) in an event.
In the history of the PGA Tour, though, a golfer making birdie on at least one-third -- or 24 -- of those holes has been a standard of impressive performance. There have been rare instances, though, of PGA Tour players going even further, making at least 30 birdies (just birdies, not eagles or albatrosses) in a single PGA Tour tournament.
What's the PGA Tour record for the most birdies in a 72-hole golf tournament?
The PGA Tour record for the most birdies in a single 72-hole golf tournament is 34, and that record belongs to Sungjae Im, who set the mark during the 2024 Sentry (formerly the Tournament of Champions) at Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course in Hawaii.
Over the course of the week, Im made 34 birdies, 30 pars, 7 bogeys and one double bogey.
This record only accounts for birdies on the card. Eagles do not count as two birdies, and albatrosses do not count as three birdies.
The prior PGA Tour record had been 32 birdies in a 72-hole tournament, and it had been accomplished by three players.
Jon Rahm was the most recent player to score 32 birdies in a PGA Tour event, doing so in the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions. He finished at 33 under par for the tournament, losing by a shot to Cameron Smith. For the event, he made 32 birdies, 38 pars, 1 bogey and 1 eagle.
Rahm tied a record first set by Mark Calcavecchia in the 2001 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona, then equaled by Paul Gow in the 2001 BC Open in New York.
A player has scored 31 birdies in a tournament a total of 10 times, with Cameron Smith most recently making 31 birdies in winning the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions on a record PGA Tour under-par score of 34-under total.
