What Is a Condor in Golf? The Rarest Score in the Sport

A condor in golf is a score of four strokes under par on a single hole, the lowest score relative to par ever recorded in the sport. In real terms it means a hole-in-one on a par 5, or a 2 on a par 6. It outranks the albatross, the eagle, and the birdie, and it is so rare that fewer than ten are widely documented in the entire history of golf, none of them officially ratified by a governing body.

Here is where the condor sits among the scoring terms, why it is almost impossible, and the short list of players who have actually made one.

Where the condor sits on the scoring ladder

Every scoring term counts strokes below par, the standard set by the USGA. The condor is the bottom of the ladder: the best possible score anyone has ever posted on a hole.

Term	Strokes under par	On a par 5	Rarity
Birdie	1 under	Score of 4	Common good hole
Eagle	2 under	Score of 3	Rare for amateurs
Albatross (double eagle)	3 under	Score of 2	Extremely rare
Condor	4 under	Score of 1 (hole-in-one)	Rarest score in golf

Each step down the ladder is far less likely than the one above it. Eagles happen to most serious golfers occasionally; the albatross is a lifetime achievement for the lucky few; the condor is in a category of its own, a score most golf professionals will never witness in person.

Why a condor is almost impossible

A hole-in-one on a par 5 would normally require carrying the ball 500 yards or more, which no human can do. So a real condor almost always depends on one of two shortcuts.

The first is geometry. Nearly every recorded condor came on a short, sharply doglegged par 5 where the player aimed straight over trees or a hillside, cutting off the entire corner and turning a 500-yard hole into a driveable one. The second is altitude. The ball flies noticeably farther in thin mountain air, which is why Denver, roughly a mile above sea level, appears on the list. Combine a tight dogleg, a bold line, a big drive, and a lot of luck with the bounce, and the impossible becomes merely astronomically unlikely.

Crucially, neither the USGA nor The R&A keeps official records for condors, so every one is a reported claim rather than a ratified record. The evidence is anecdotal by nature: a ball vanishing over the trees and turning up in the cup.

The confirmed condors in golf history

Only a handful of condors are widely reported, and they span six decades and four countries. This is the short list golf historians point to.

Year	Player	Course	The shot
1962	Larry Bruce	Hope Country Club, Arkansas, USA	Drove over trees on a dogleg par 5
1995	Shaun Lynch	Teign Valley Golf Club, England	Aimed over a hill to drive a par 5
2002	Mike Crean	Green Valley Ranch, Denver, USA	517-yard par 5, aided by altitude
2007	Jack Bartlett	Wentworth Falls, Australia	Teenage amateur on a par 5
2020	Kevin Pon	Lake Chabot, California, USA	A 2 on a long par 6

Mike Crean’s 2002 ace is the standout: at 517 yards it is recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest hole-in-one ever made, the mile-high Denver air doing what no amount of clubhead speed could at sea level. Kevin Pon’s 2020 effort is a rarer variant still: a condor on a par 6, one of the very few holes long enough to allow four-under by holing the second shot.

The rarest name on the scoring ladder

For all but a few golfers in history, the condor will only ever be a piece of trivia, the theoretical bottom of a ladder most players never reach past the eagle. That is exactly what makes it worth knowing.

If you are collecting the full vocabulary of golf scoring, work up from the terms you will actually use: what is an eagle in golf covers two under par, what is an albatross in golf explains the score one rung above the condor, and what does E mean in golf anchors it all against even par, the number every one of these terms is measured from.