Lowest 18-Hole Scores in Senior PGA Championship

What is the best score any golfer has posted for one round in the Senior PGA Championship? The tournament's 18-hole scoring record is 62 and, so far, two golfers have achieved that record round.

Kenny Perry was the first golfer to score 62 in this senior major championship, doing so in 2016. But, although he did so in the final round, his 62 only moved Perry up to ninth place.

When Rocco Mediate matched Perry's 62 in the 2016 Senior PGA Championship, Mediate won the tournament. Mediate's 62 happened in the opening round, and he led wire-to-wire en route to a 3-stroke victory.

These are the best single-round scores so far — all the rounds of 63 and better — in Senior PGA Championship history:

• 62 — Kenny Perry, 2012, final round (9-under), The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan
• 62 — Rocco Mediate, 2016, first round (9-under), The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan
• 63 — Buck White, 1961, first round (9-under), PGA National Golf Course in Dunedin, Florida
• 63 — Arnold Palmer, 1984 (January), second round (9-under), PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
• 63 — Peter Senior, 2012, final round (8-under), The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan
• 63 — Gene Sauers, 2016, first round (8-under), The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan
• 63 — Paul Broadhurst, 2018, final round (8-under), The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan
• 63 — Steven Alker, 2022, final round (8-under), The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan
• 63 — Richard Bland, 2024, final round (8-under), The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan

All but two of the rounds that make the list happened at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Michigan. And since that course remains in the rotation for this major, we can probably expect it to produce more low scores in the future. (Many of the lowest 72-hole scores in the Senior PGA Championship also happened at Harbor Shores.)

At the time of Buck White's 63 in 1961, no golfer had yet scored 64 ... or even 65. White lowered the tournament scoring record by three strokes, smashing the previous single-round best of 66. Nobody else shot 63 in the Senior PGA Championship until Palmer in 1984, then no others did it until the PGA of America made Harbor Shores a regular host site beginning in the 2010s.

Palmer won the tournament in which his 63 happened despite the fact that he followed that then-record-tying round with a 79 in the next round.

See also:

• Full list of Senior PGA Championship winners
• Golfers who won both the U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open

Sources:
PGA of America. Senior PGA Championship 2018 Media Guide.
PGA of America. 2024 Senior PGA Player Guide, All-Time Records.