About the only putt David Skinns missed all day was his penultimate one.
Skinns, who was a birdie away from becoming the third PGA Tour player to shoot 59 in 2024, had 9 feet for yet another circle on his final hole during the opening round of the 2024 Sanderson Farms Championship.
The putt started at the right edge of the cup, and on the pristine greens of The Country Club of Jackson started breaking left, but it didn’t stop. The putt missed just left of the hole, and with that missed his chance at adding his name to an exclusive club in professional golf.
“It’s hard not to be a little bit disappointed because how many 9-footers are you going to get to shoot 59?” Skinns said. “I’m sure I’m not going to get many. Tough not to be a little bit disappointed, but I really want to just look back on how kind of in control mentally I felt, how I kept attacking. Wasn’t really thinking about the future at all, which is kind of the thing I’m going to take away from today.”
All is not lost for Skinns, however. The 42-year-old from England shot 12-under 60 on Thursday during the opening round of the Sanderson Farms, setting a new 18-hole scoring record with a stellar performance approaching the greens and on the putting surfaces. As poor as he was off the tee (Skinns hit only 5 of 14 fairways), he gained nearly five strokes on the field approaching the green, and once he got on the putting surfaces, he hardly missed any, gaining nearly four strokes while making 134 feet of putts on only 21 putts.
From 9 feet for a 59 …. 😩@SkinnsyGolf | @Sanderson_Champ pic.twitter.com/PY0EvicwW5
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 3, 2024
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Skinns made twice as many birdies (12) as he did pars Thursday, and he holds a three-shot lead over PGA Tour rookie Michael Thorbjornsen after the morning wave. He said soft greens and light winds helped contribute to the numerous low scores from the morning wave, but Skinns’ score stands above them all.
He started on the back nine and birdied his first two holes. After a pair of pars, he proceeded to birdie four straight before making the turn in 6-under 30. Once on the front nine, he had another string of four consecutive circles from Nos. 2-5 and added two more on Nos. 7-8.
Then came the miss on the closing par-4 ninth. Nevertheless, it’s a 60 for Skinns, who remains searching for his first PGA Tour victory.
“A bit of a dream, really,” Skinns said of his stellar performance. “Those are the ones that you turn around and you’re 7 under, you’re like, ‘wow, I didn’t feel like I did too much.’
“Great to see a couple go in that maybe some days don’t. Just kind of catapulted, and I was able to keep the momentum going, which is what I was most pleased about, and I never really thought about the score too much, just where I was going to hit the next shot.”
Skinns’ season has had its ups and downs. He has a T-4 at The Cognizant Classic and a T-7 at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, but he also has missed 10 cuts in 21 starts.
Coming into the Sanderson Farms, he missed the weekend in three of his past five starts, though he did finish T-44 at the Procore Championship, the opening event of the FedEx Cup Fall.
Yet on Thursday, Skinns had his sights set on 59. If he would’ve made the putt, he would’ve become the 15th player to shoot sub-60 in PGA Tour history. He said it’s the first time in his professional career he has had a legit shot at adding his name to the exclusive club.
“I think on the Korn Ferry Tour, I’ve had a couple going where it’s kind of entered the back of my head,” Skinns said, “but that’s the closest I’ve got as a pro, for sure.”
If Skinns got to hit the putt again, he says he’d likely aim a cup outside the hole instead of a ball.
But it’s not a putt he’s going to dwell on.
“That’s kind of this golf course. Sometimes the grain is a little different to what you think,” Skinns said. “Just so happened that that was for a 59. But there were a lot out there that I got right, so I’m going to focus on the ones that I got right.”