Tag: 59

‘Mr. 59’ Al Geiberger isn’t surprised the club he founded is growing

When Geiberger shot his famous 59 in 1977, he was sure other 59s would follow.

When Al Geiberger shot his famous 59 in 1977, the first sub-60 round in the history of the PGA Tour, he was sure other 59s would follow.

“Then I remember when it went for 14 years, I thought, you know, maybe nobody will,” Geiberger said. “I figured if I could do it, then somebody else could. And then year after year for 14 years no one did. And then (Chip Beck) does it on a little simple course over in Las Vegas (in 1991). And they predicted it beforehand. It was a substitute course (in that year’s tournament). And then they waited eight years for (David) Duval’s here at PGA West.”

For Geiberger, now 86 and a long-time desert resident, there isn’t much surprise in two 59s on the PGA Tour in the space of 14 days. Cameron Young shot an 11-under 59 in the third round of the Traveler’s Championship on June 22. Thursday, Hayden Springer fired a 12-under 59 in the opening round of the John Deere Classic. Both recent sub-60 rounds were shot on courses where a 59 had been shot before.

“There are all these weeks where I go, well, okay, Hawaii, (The American Express), Travelers, a couple of others that I keep my ear on. John Deere is one,” Geiberger said.

For years Geiberger’s 59 was the gold standard for a round on the PGA Tour, overshadowing even his 1966 PGA Championship victory and earning him the nickname Mr. 59. Now Geiberger’s round is one of 14 sub-60 rounds on the tour, 13 59s and Jim Furyk’s 58 in the Travelers event in 2016. Geiberger, who won 11 times on the regular tour and 10 times on the PGA Tour Champions, says there are reasons more sub-60 rounds are being shot these days, including eight in the last nine years.

“It’s the combination of the equipment, the ball, the grooming, the golf course grooming. And it gets down to putting I guess and the mowers for greens are so good now,” Geiberger said. “And the guys know they can do it.”

That wasn’t necessarily true when Geiberger shot his 59 in the third round of the 1977 Danny Thomas tournament at Colonial, considered one of the toughest courses on the tour at the time and still considered a difficult layout. Geiberger points to some other changes in the game, including professional golf’s current trend toward drivable par-4s, as a reason low scores including sub-60s rounds seem more common those days.

More: Golfers who have broken 60 in the history of pro golf

Al Geiberger, 76, is the founding member of golf’s ’59 club,’ the original “Mr. 59,” who on June 10, 1977, made history during the second round of the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic at Colonial Country Club.

“When they shoot one now, it’s okay, let’s start comparing,” Geriberger said. “Let’s compare par, let’s compare courses, conditions. That gives them something to talk about. When I did it there was nothing to compare it to.”

Geiberger never fails to mention that while some of the more recent 59s were shot on par-70 or par-71 courses — Furyk’s 58 was 12-under par on the par-70 TPC River Highlands in Connecticut — Geiberger’s 59 was 13-under par on a tough Colonial course.

“Duval’s was 13 under, too,” he said. “The rest of them, I kind of lose track. It’s funny, nobody talks much about that 58. It’s like 59 is the magic number. Because it breaks 60, I guess.”

Geiberger says a series of physical issues including a bad knee have stopped him from playing golf for almost 18 months, though he does hit a few balls from time to time. But he still keeps an eye on the tour and weeks like the John Deere Classic where 59s seems to pop up.

“They seem to come in spurts, and at certain courses,” Geiberger said. “Who knows? The week’s not over yet.”

4th of July fireworks: Hayden Springer shoots 59 to grab the lead at John Deere Classic

“It’s like something you dream of, right?”

The fireworks started early for Hayden Springer on the 4th of July.

The PGA Tour rookie shot 27 on the front nine, pitched in for eagle at 17 and made birdie at the last to shoot 59 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, in the first round of the John Deere Classic. He became the first player in Tour history to play his final two holes in 3-under par en route to a sub-60, the second player in three weeks to shoot 59 on Tour and the 13th different player to shoot a sub-60 round in Tour history.

“It’s like something you dream of, right?” Springer said, noting he was still shaking during his post-round interview. “We all want to go out and shoot 59. You don’t ever really — I don’t know how many chances I’ll ever get at doing that again.To pull it off and hole that shot on 17 and give myself a putt at it and make the putt on 18 was pretty special.”

Springer, 28, shot two strokes better than Sami Valimaki, who finished with a trio of birdies, and three better than Harry Hall, who shot a bogey-free 63. Preferred lies were in effect on Thursday due to wet conditions at TPC Deere Run and conditions were ideal for low scoring at a course that has a reputation for being a birdie-fest.

Springer went out in 27 on the front nine, including a stretch where he made a 13-foot eagle at the second and four straight birdies.

“It just seemed like I made every putt I looked at on the front nine,” said Springer, who took just 21 putts in all and holed 112 feet, 6 inches of putts.

When his 20-foot birdie putt from the fringe dropped at No. 6, he said he started to think this had the makings of a special round.

“That putt going in was kind of the trigger of, OK, like we might be able to go super low,” he said.

But Springer, who added birdies at Nos. 8 and 9 to post the lowest front nine in tournament history at TPC Deere Run, cooled off with pars on the first five holes on the back nine, including having to work hard to do so on Nos. 12 and 14 to keep his card clean. He tacked on another birdie at 15, but it was the hole out from 55 yards in the left rough at 17 for his second eagle of the day that got the juices flowing for Springer.

“It landed right where we were looking, just short left, and happened to go in,” he said. “I didn’t ever think I would make that shot really, but it kind of changed the momentum to actually be able to go shoot 59. I immediately knew, OK, now I have a chance.”

He stuck his approach at 18 to 13 feet and poured in the putt to post 12-under 59 and join an exclusive club — though its membership has been growing. Cameron Young shot 59 in the third round of the Travelers Championship two weeks ago and 11 of the 59s or better have come since 2010. Springer merely tied the course record because 5,110 days ago Paul Goydos shot 59 at TPC Deere Run in the first round of the 2010 John Deere Classic. TPC Deere Run became the third course to surrender to sub-60s, joining TPC River Highlands (Jim Furyk’s 58 and Young’s 59) and The Old White TPC (Stuart Appleby and Kevin Chappell).

In November, Springer and his wife endured the death of their three-year-old daughter, Sage, to a rare genetic disorder. In the midst of grieving, Springer earned the last of five cards available at PGA Tour Q-School to make it to the big leagues for the first time. His rookie season has had its pitfalls. Springer had missed six straight cuts before finishing T-10 last week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and entered the week ranked No. 127 in the FedEx Cup point standings. Asked to name what’s been the difference in his game of late, he credited Rosey Bartlett, who has coached him since he was six years old at his home club, Trophy Club Country Club, near Dallas.

“I took a little break from her for a couple years and then before last week, these last six tournaments missing those cuts I felt like I needed to get something going,” he said, noting it was mostly related to his setup. “She straightened me out a little bit and helped me get back to some feels that worked in the past. You know, so that’s made a little bit of a difference.”

Cameron Young shoots 59 during third round of the 2024 Travelers Championship

“It’s crazy, it’s unbelievable.”

CROMWELL, Conn. — Unless a tournament decides to build a dome and allow the best players to compete indoors, this venue, TPC River Highlands, is probably the place where you are most likely to see someone shoot a 59. Hell, Jim Furyk shot a 58 here back in 2016. Sixty-fives warrant passing notice. On Friday, there were two 62s, three 63s and five 64s.

But after Cameron Young, 27, birdied his first two holes and then holed a pitching wedge from 142 yards out on the par-4 third hole for an eagle and rolled in a 19-foot putt for a birdie on the fourth to reach 5 under, experienced eyes took notice. After last evening’s rain, and with no wind, the 6,807-yard course was there to be had, and Young certainly obliged, becoming the 12th player in PGA Tour history to shoot a 59.

“I didn’t think about it too much, kind of the middle that have back nine, just because it didn’t really feel like it,” he said afterward. “All of a sudden, like, everything was going in after kind of 10, 11 and 12. Yeah, then it kind of, all of a sudden, I had a putt for 59 on 18, which was a blast.”

Walking outside the ropes and following Young was a man wearing a Sleepy Hollow Golf Club polo shirt and a wide-brimmed hat that protected his face and neck from the sun. David Young, Cameron’s father, was the head professional at Sleepy Hollow for years, but these days, he’s only giving lessons to one student and on Saturday, that pupil didn’t need any help.

“We’ve just been waiting for the dam to break,” he said after walking up the hill from the 18th green. “It’s been a frustrating stretch because he’s been playing so much better than the scores show.”

That may be true, but consider this: In Cameron Young’s last five starts, his best finish was a tie for 34th at the Wells Fargo Championship back in May. He tied for 63rd at the PGA Championship, missed the cut at the RBC Canadian Open and tied for 50th at The Memorial. Last week at the U.S. Open, Young shot 73-72-75-75 to finish T-67. Before his 66 on Friday, his 10 previous rounds had all been par or worse and his last round in the 60s was a 69 at the RBC Canadian Open three tournaments ago.

So did he do anything differently this morning that translated into great golf?

“Nope. Woke up, would have preferred to go back to sleep,” he said with a wry grin. “Did exactly what I do every day coming to the golf course. Get a coffee, ate, saw the physio, went out there and warmed up. I didn’t feel particularly awesome, but I chunked a few less on the range than I did yesterday. Then, yeah, I came out and was very comfortable. Things just started coming down close to the hole.”

After Young made a 32-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole for a front-nine 28, the crowds on the 10th tee noticeably grew, and after another birdie on 10, they grew more. A pair of pars on the 11th and 12th holes (where Young’s playing partner Jordan Spieth made birdies) were still greeted with cheers by fans who endured sauna-like conditions Saturday throughout the lunch hour.

“Whenever you play with someone like (Jordan), you get some pretty big crowds,” Young said. “I know not many of them out there started out there for me, but by the end, maybe there were half a dozen that were watching me out there, so it was fun,” he added sarcastically. “I enjoy playing with those crowds and playing with a great player like Jordan.”

Before Saturday, Cameron Young’s lowest score in a PGA Tour event was a 62 at Riviera during the 2022 Genesis Invitational. According to his father, he has never shot a 59 in a casual round either.

A 59, which Young said he didn’t really take seriously while he played, became a very real possibility after his 3-iron on the 280-yard, par-4 15th hole bounced near the front of the green and rolled to within five feet of the hole.

“I’ve hit that (3-iron) everywhere, and I finally hit one just straight at it,” Young said. “I think I said something to the effect of, just give me all the right bounces, and it did. I mean, where that ended up would be a great pitch from the front of the green. So it’s, you know, a really good swing and a great strike, but for it to end up somewhere that you can basically tap it in for  two is not likely. You could hit that same shot a hundred more times and you would get two on that plateau right here.”

Young missed a seven-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole before his 9-iron from 161 yards out stopped five feet from the cup to set up his seventh birdie to go along with two eagles.

Father’s Day was six days ago, but David Young got a present from his son on Saturday that he won’t soon forget.

“It’s crazy, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “I mean, getting to come out here like this week after week has been a second dream come true. I feel like this is all too good to believe, but it happens.”

This American carded the lowest score in Asian Tour history on Saturday, shooting 59

“It’s pretty crazy. It hasn’t totally sunk in yet.”

John Catlin has three wins on the DP World Tour and four Asian Tour wins. But his latest feat is why his name will be known by more golfers now than ever.

Catlin, a 33-year-old American, shot 11-under 59 after holing a 20-foot eagle putt on the final hole Saturday at the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau event in China. He became the first player to break 60 in Asian Tour history, and his bogey-free performance helped him take the lead heading into the final round at Macau Golf & Country Club.

“Yeah, I’m pretty much speechless,” Catlin said, who later said all of his passwords end with 59. “It’s pretty crazy. It hasn’t totally sunk in yet. Wow. Yeah, the emotions are hitting me for sure. Just everything I’ve been through over the last two years. To be here. It’s pretty special.”

Catlin sits at 18 under for the tournament, beating LIV Golf’s Jason Kokrak by two shots. Kokrak and Lucas Herbert each shot 62 on the par-70 layout.

The purse is $2 million at the second International Series event of the year.

19-year-old Aldrich Potgieter shoots second sub-60 score in as many days on Korn Ferry Tour

Potgieter is the youngest player to shoot 59 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

The kids are good.

A day after Cristobal Del Solar became the first golfer to shoot 57 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event, a 19-year-old has also shot a sub-60 round on the same course.

Adrich Potgieter, who won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Bahamas Great Abaco Classic two weeks ago, has now shot the 10th sub-60 round in Korn Ferry Tour history with his 11-under 59 during the second round of the Astara Golf Championship at the Pacos Course at Country Club de Bogata in Colombia.

Potgieter is the youngest player to shoot 59 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

“I had to play well, I knew I had to play well to be able to shoot this low,” Potgieter said. “It was just kind of the confidence to hit the ball, get it close, make putts. Not many mistakes, I think that was a big thing, trying to eliminate the mistakes and just try to keep the ball in play. There’s not much danger on the short course, so just try to shoot under the 60s, try to get as low as I can, but definitely looking at that.”

The Pacos Course is the shortest on the Korn Ferry Tour, playing at 6,254 yards, as well as being nearly 9,000 feet above sea level. However, narrow fairways and tricky greens always create challenges for players, and there had never been a sub-60 score until Thursday.

And now, for the second straight day, a player has recorded a sub-60 round.

Potgieter went out in 7-under 28, playing the back nine at the Pacos Course. Then on the front, he added five more birdies, including three in a row on his final three holes, to shoot 59.

Ten birdies, one eagle and even a bogey, but it was enough to record the 12th sub-60 score in Korn Ferry Tour history. It’s also the first time there has been two sub-60 scores at one PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

Potgieter sits at 16-under 125 after two rounds in Colombia, one shot in front of Del Solar, who followed up his record-setting performance with a 2-under 69 on the Lagos Course.

“I was kind of trying to get to that 57, so I was trying to push myself, but then kind of realized that we’re still in a golf tournament, we’re not playing a fun round out here,” Potgieter said, “so I was kind of trying to concentrate when I made those last three birdies, which helped a lot.”

This weekend, play shifts to the Lagos Course for both rounds, a par-71 layout that measures 7,237 yards.

Golfers who have broken 60 in the history of pro golf

It’s one of the hardest things to achieve in the game.

The first one came in 1977.

It was another 14 years before someone did it again.

It was then eight years after that before it happened a third time.

Breaking 60 has always held mythical status in golf.

Al Geiberger (1977), Chip Beck (1991) and David Duval (1999) were the first three to pull it off.

Since 2010, there have been eight more PGA Tour golfers who shot a 59, including Jim Furyk, who also shot a record-setting 58 from in 2016. He remains the only golfer to shoot a 58 on Tour and he’s the only golfer to break 60 twice.

Bryson DeChambeau joined the 58 Club after his 12-under round in a LIV Golf event.

Scottie Scheffler is the latest to break 60 on the PGA Tour, shooting a 59 in the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust. It’s the 12th time that a Tour golfer broke 60.

On the LPGA, there has only been one 59. It came in 2001 and was accomplished by Annika Sorenstam.

Joaquinn Niemann’s 59 in the 2024 LIV opener made him the second on that circuit to do it.

And in 2024, a golfer on the Korn Ferry Tour became the first to shoot 57 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

Here’s a closer look at the sub-60 rounds in pro golf.

Chan Kim wins on Korn Ferry Tour; David Kocher records circuit’s 10th 59

Kocher drained a long birdie putt on the 18th hole for a 59, the third on the Korn Ferry Tour this season.

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Chan Kim went bogey-free for 72 holes at the 2023 Albertsons Boise Open and won on the Korn Ferry Tour for the second week in a row. Kim went 66-62-64-64 to get to 28 under after four days at Hillcrest Country Club and still left himself little room for error considering what David Kocher did Sunday.

Kocher drained a long birdie putt on the 18th hole for a 59, amazingly the third 59 on the Korn Ferry Tour this season.

Kocher had 10 birdies – including six straight on Nos. 2 through 7 – and an eagle to get to 12 under for the day and 26 under for the week.

Kocher joins Mac Meissner, who posted a 59 at the Lecom Suncoast Classic at Lakewood National’s Commander Course in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, in April. That was the eighth sub-60 round in Korn Ferry Tour history.

Michael Feagles had the circuit’s ninth 59 at the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greer, South Carolina, in June.

Now there’s a 10th, and a third in four months, thanks for Kocher.

2023 Albertsons Boise Open
Chan Kim celebrates on the 18th green after winning the the 2023 Albertsons Boise Open at Hillcrest Country Club in Boise, Idaho. (Photo: Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)

As for Kim, he’s the first back-to-back winner in two years. Cameron Young and Mito Pereira each did it on the KFT in 2021.

His last seven holes a week ago were also bogey free, so Kim has actually played 79 consecutive holes without a bogey. He’s the first to win and go bogey-free at the Albertsons.

To the winner goes the spoils, as Kim, second on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List, has also earned his PGA Tour card for the 2024 season.

The Albertsons Boise Open is the first of four events in the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

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Mac Meissner eagles final hole, cards a 59 at Korn Ferry Tour’s Lecom Suncoast Classic

“I mean, definitely a little bit shocked right now.”

Heading into Friday’s second round at the Lecom Suncoast Classic, Mac Meissner was facing a missed cut.

Eighteen holes later, he’s in the record books.

Meissner carded a 12-under 59 during the second round at Lakewood National’s Commander Course in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, the eighth sub-60 round in Korn Ferry Tour history. He vaulted more than 100 spots up the leaderboard and was only four shots behind leader Kevin Daugherty after the morning wave.

“Based on how yesterday went, I didn’t expect today to go as it did,” Meissner said. “Didn’t hit it great, did not putt very well. I was hoping I could just sneak in the cut and ended up shooting 59. I mean, definitely a little bit shocked right now. That’s my first one ever, and to do it in competition is pretty insane.”

The 24-year-old from Charleston, South Carolina, lost in a playoff against Sam Saunders and Pierceson Coody in Panama earlier this year, and his best round of the season coming in was a 67.

In fact, Saunders was the last person to shoot in the 50s on the Korn Ferry Tour, coming in 2017 at the Tour Championship.

His day started on the back nine, where he birdied two of his first three holes and then three of his last four to turn in 5-under 30. Meissner started the back nine with a pair of pars before birdieing four straight. After a par on 16, he went birdie-eagle to card a 7-under 29 on the back and signed for a 59.

“I’ve had a few 61s, a 60, so been around there, but actually never had a putt for 59,” Meissner said. “That was cool to have one on 18, or on 9. It was kind of a tough putt and I just made a good-sized one on 8 and I was like, ‘Why not?’ It rolled in right in the middle, that was pretty crazy.”

Meissner sits tied for third at 12 under par with Chris Gotterup after the morning wave.

Heading into Saturday, Meissner hopes he can continue the momentum.

“Yesterday I made two birdies, didn’t hit — hit it to a bunch of fringes, just felt like I was close, couldn’t really get the ball on the right side of the hole,” he said. “I just kind of shot a really average even par round out here. That just goes to show you that every day’s different. You wake up, you never know what can happen. I’m just super fortunate to be able to do this in a tournament.”

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Watch: Golfer in Canada makes eagle for 59, celebrates by jumping in pond

The eagle putt for 59 was good. The celebration was even better.

Michael Caan made a splash on Friday.

An aspiring professional golfer and PGA of Canada teaching pro at Riverway Golf Course in Burnaby, Caan produced a viral moment by making a long putt for eagle on his final hole at Meadow Gardens Golf Club in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia. But the putt wasn’t just an impressive big bird from distance, it was for a 59.

The celebration — a dive into the greenside pond — was even better than the putt.

“To non-golfers this number won’t mean much, but if you know.. then you know,” wrote Caan on an Instagram post with the video of the putt. “This could be my only chance to ever shoot 59 and it was one of the best golfing experiences of my life. I’m so happy to have done this with a great group of guys: @jpkahlert @ethanp.5 and @eriklaw. Thank you guys for capturing a life long memory! #59”

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Caan later shared a picture of his scorecard, which featured five birdies on the front nine and four more on the back, alongside two eagles on Nos. 11 and 18.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CO5bjztMf5P/

The 27-year-old signed up for Mackenzie Tour Q-School this year, but qualifying was moved to the U.S. In the meantime, Caan plays locally on the Vancouver Golf Tour.

Annika Sorenstam’s caddie dug out yardage book 20 years later to relive historic 59

Annika Sorenstam’s longtime caddie, Terry McNamara, went hole-by-hole through his yardage book to relive a magical day in 2001.

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On March 16, 2001, Annika Sorenstam became the first player in LPGA history to shoot 59 at the Standard Register Ping. Sorenstam’s longtime caddie, Terry McNamara, took Golfweek hole-by-hole through the yardage book from that magical day at Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix. What follows are excerpts from that conversation, edited for length.

Our warmup was terrible. Annika was late. Actually, I was late and worried about it. I was only staying a mile-and-a-half away at my uncle’s and I got up very early, and for some reason I dilly-dallied around. All of a sudden, I had to be there in five minutes. Luckily my aunt drove me down the hill and dropped me off. I grabbed a doughnut and a coffee.

Moon Valley Country Club
Yardage book from Moon Valley Country Club, site of Annika Sorenstam’s round of 59 on March 16, 2001. (Photo submitted)

I got out there thinking Annika would be there and she wasn’t … which happened never. That may have been the only time until 2008 (when she retired) that she was ever late.

Anyway, her warmup was really bad on the range. I remember a TV crew trying to shoot behind her. She moved, slammed her club down. Walking through the parking I said, ‘What’s up?’

‘Oh, I was running late, couldn’t get out of the house, this and that.’

Dottie Pepper was leading, I remember. … I knew we had to shoot a pretty good score to get up by the leaders. We had a talk walking through the parking lot, just go through the locker room there and sit down a minute, catch your breath. I’ll meet you on the putting green and then we’ll go do it.