I used to be one that wondered how those kinds of scores were possible. I never thought anyone cheated, just that perhaps they were better than I was capable of being. But, having shot a 29 for 9 holes on SA that missed being a 24 by a total of 6', having shot a 27 back 9 in the RSG qualifier and a 28 front, having shot a 59 at SA and a 28 front 9 at BPB, and knowing that in every case, I left strokes out there I shouldn't have needed... I can see how someone could shoot mid20s, or low 50s. Understand, you won't see many mid-20s or low 50s on single play tourneys.
Let's take for example the RSG qualifier. Bollox shot a 52. I'd be curious how many attempts he'd estimate it took. I know the best I did was 58 and I probably tried 70 times and kept 15 scores. But in the Open, single play rounds, with nearly 200 players capable of shooting below 60, only one player managed to average that for two rounds. Understand the conditions were much more difficult in the Open than the qualifier, but if they were cheating... I think Bollox shot mid 120s in the Open. If he was able to cheat his way to a 52 in the qualifier, wouldn't he have averaged better than 63 a round in the actual championship? There were only 2 or 3 sub-58 rounds out of the 350+ played.
No, this isn't real golf. There are no variables here. Theoretically, it is possible to play the best possible shot every time here. So given unlimited reps on a severely limited number of courses (compared to reality), is it any wonder that people eventually learn the best way to play each shot with each club? Some of these folks... maybe not as far as meter and ding, but as far as course navigation, some of these folks could probably get around with their eyes closed, save perhaps putting.
There's an interesting question for the top players. If you kept your eyes closed for all but putts, how would you do? I'm betting 50% greens at least if you could only see to ding. So, you stand on the tee box, close your eyes, aim your shot, draw back and release then open your eyes for the ding. Close your eyes and aim your shot, draw back and release, open your eyes for the ding. I bet some here could come close to par on some courses LOL